Eating your exercise calories

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Stamping74
Stamping74 Posts: 3
edited November 2023 in Getting Started
I actually have two questions.
1. Is it not okay to be under your calorie goal?
2. Should you eat your exercise calories?

I am on a 1200 calorie count, but exercise about an hour each day, giving me 350-700 more calories a day depending on the exercise. Should I be eating these calories back?

Replies

  • joshdann
    joshdann Posts: 618 Member
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    first, why are you on a 1200 calorie count? If it's based off of some online calculator, stop right there. Those, as well as the "how much extra food did I earn" counts are inherently inaccurate. Eat if you're hungry, and eat well. If you want to lose weight, you need to be burning more calories than you are eating. You just need to figure out through experimentation and listening to your body, where that actual point is.

    Bottom line: if you want to lose weight, you need a deficit. It's up to you (again, not an online calculator) to determine what constitutes a proper deficit for you.
  • Stamping74
    Stamping74 Posts: 3
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    I am eating 1200 calories because that is what this program says I need to be eating to lose 2 pounds a week. Then I exercise everyday "earning" me another 3-7 hundred calories that adds to my calorie bank. So I am basically eating 1600 ish, while exercising 400 ish off.
  • cwolfman13
    cwolfman13 Posts: 41,876 Member
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    1) Look up the word GOAL

    2) Yes...with MFP you NET to your calorie GOAL. Your calorie GOAL has a huge deficit from maintenance already built in...it is designed so that you don't have to exercise at all to create an energy deficit...you just eat to your GOAL. Your deficit calorie GOAL is NET of exercise. Do not confuse MFP with other calorie counting methods that already assume exercise as a part of your daily activity and/or programs that would have you create an energy deficit with exercise. All of these tools function differently. MFP is really simple...you set your GOAL and eat to your GOAL...it does the math for you.

    One caveat would be that it can be difficult to accurately estimate caloric output through exercise. I ate back roughly 50%-70% of my burn. If I was getting my burn from my HRM and it was an easily measurable aerobic event like running I would eat back to the high end...if I was getting an estimate from a database I was usually closer to 50% - 60%.
  • Stamping74
    Stamping74 Posts: 3
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    Thanks wolfman. I have been "eating" my exercise calories everyday, but wanted to make sure that most people did this. It is nice that the program gives you more of the calories you need after exercise, but I agree that the database doesn't always give a good indicator of the actual calories burned. I actually have a heart rate monitor on order, so hopefully next week I will have a good idea how many calories I am really burning.
  • joshdann
    joshdann Posts: 618 Member
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    I am eating 1200 calories because that is what this program says I need to be eating to lose 2 pounds a week. Then I exercise everyday "earning" me another 3-7 hundred calories that adds to my calorie bank. So I am basically eating 1600 ish, while exercising 400 ish off.
    just understand that this program cannot set your goal for you. It does not and can not know what your *actual* metabolic rates are. Use it as a starting point and if the weight is not coming off, reduce your intake a bit until it is.
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