Calories and Food Inake

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oreoelle
oreoelle Posts: 17 Member
in Getting Started
I just to use MFP simply just as a food log which I have been doing for years however, I have recently gotten in to fitness and looking to tone up and I’m slightly confused with the Goal, Food, Exercise, and Net calorie count. Let’s take yesterday for example my goal is 1200 calorie. I’ve eaten over at 1472 calories for the day. I took a Zumba class and burned off 451 calories the leaves me with a Net Calorie count at 1021. My question is should my Net calories always be at 1200? Again I’m not looking for a big drop in weight my main focus is overall toning. HELP! Please!

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  • jacksonpt
    jacksonpt Posts: 10,413 Member
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    Yes, when following MFP's guidance, your net should = your daily calorie goal (so in your case, 1200). That means you'll eat a bit more on exercise days than you do on rest days.
  • lucan07
    lucan07 Posts: 509
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    MFP expects you to eat back your exercise calories they build in any deficit necessary. However depending on how accurately you calculate those calories you can have gains if your only maintaining.

    I use my known VO2max and avg HR the most accurate way I know but from results I know I am burning 10% less if the rule 3500 calories deficit equals 1lb loss.

    So yes you are supposed to eat them, I eat as many as I need I refuse to eat them just for the sake of eating them.
  • TavistockToad
    TavistockToad Posts: 35,719 Member
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    I just to use MFP simply just as a food log which I have been doing for years however, I have recently gotten in to fitness and looking to tone up and I’m slightly confused with the Goal, Food, Exercise, and Net calorie count. Let’s take yesterday for example my goal is 1200 calorie. I’ve eaten over at 1472 calories for the day. I took a Zumba class and burned off 451 calories the leaves me with a Net Calorie count at 1021. My question is should my Net calories always be at 1200? Again I’m not looking for a big drop in weight my main focus is overall toning. HELP! Please!

    if you arent trying to lose much weight, you can probably eat more than 1200 cals. set MFP to lose 0.5lb per week, and eat back exercise cals.
  • oreoelle
    oreoelle Posts: 17 Member
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    Thanks guys! I'm pretty good at measuring out my serving sizes and all that. My calorie burn may be higher for some of the Les Mills cardio classes I like to take. I don't think the MFP database is accurate for some of them. I do have my weight loss goal set to 0.5 lb and week.

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