Calories burned

Vicw24
Vicw24 Posts: 8
in Health and Weight Loss
I would like some advice and help please in regards to eating back calories burned.
My prime goals are to lose 20kg and get fit to run a half marathon next year.

I currently eat 1550 calories a day.
I run/walk interval train 3 times a week and bike once a week. Do/should I be eating back the 400-500 calories I am burning through exercise or should I just leave them??

I am trying to increase the protein in my diet as much as I can and I am loving my runs.

Any advice greatly recieved.

Thanks

Replies

  • vorgas
    vorgas Posts: 741 Member
    If you have MFP set to lose X number of pounds a week, then yes you should eat them back. If you have MFP set to lose 0 lbs a weeks, then no, don't eat them back.

    FWIW, my preferred method for a long time was to set MFP to 0 and not eat back exercise calories. I basically just logged them as 1 calorie burned per exercise. This maximizes what MFP is good at (tracking calories consumed) and minimizes what it's not good at (tracking calories burned).
  • achaye
    achaye Posts: 3
    my opinion is that if your doing cardio to be in a caloric deficit it defeats the purpose to eat them back.

    good luck on the marathon!!
  • haymancm
    haymancm Posts: 280 Member
    I'm 5'7", 174, & have a goal to eat protein 1/2 my body weight in grams & saw that this is best according to what I've read. Contrary to what others believe, I've adjusted my starting calories under 1200 so that it matches a 2 lbs/week loss. I've played with the numbers the last few months & found that as long as I eat my calories burned back, I'm losing. I eat roughly 1500/day, but I burn more than 700 cals on average/day. So, the more I burn, the more I get to eat on average/week. I found that if I had my starting calories @ 2 lbs/week but had starting calories @ 1200, I was only losing 1 lbs/week. My advice to you is play with the numbers to get the results you want, everyone is different. I weigh myself daily just to make sure I'm on track.

    Add me if you'd like. :)

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