Calories gained from exercise

I think I am correct to say that MFP gives you a calorie goal that has a 500 cal deficient built in, so you are expected to eat back at least some (not necessarily all esp if you use the calorie setting in the database for exercises bc they overestimate) or else your intake could be really low.

you should eat back 50%-75% of your exercise cals especially as you are already on the lowest cals that you can be on.

I tend to save mine so I can go out to dinner once a week so you don't have to eat them on the same day I look at my weekly totals and that seems to work for me.

Don't eat back calories.

If MFP says you burn .... EXAMPLE: 90 calories from walking 25 minutes, it's more than likely incorrect.


Just stick with a caloric deficit, and incorporate a "re-feed" day, (if you've been cutting for a while) on the weekend, where you eat calories at maintenance level with a higher carb intake for that day ONLY.

As long as you have distance and time to establish pace, the estimate for walking is fairly accurate. The energy requirements for walking and running are well researched and are relatively easy to predict.

Also, OP is very young, does not appear to have much weight to lose and is at 1200 calories a day. It is highly unlikely she needs those few calories.

Yes, OP, the way MFP is designed to work, you are supposed to log it and eat those calories back. If you want, you can eat a portion of them back, particularly for things that are much harder to estimate calorie burns for, like your kettlebells. Since you are at the very low end of calorie intake, you really should be looking at eating them back.

Also, if you chose 2lbs a week as a weight loss goal, keep in mind for some that is not an appropriate goal. 2lbs a week is for someone looking to lose more than 75lbs.

You may want to check out this link, it is full of helpful information
http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/1080242-a-guide-to-get-you-started-on-your-path-to-sexypants

If you're on 1200 you're already on a massive deficit.

If you were eating more calories I'd say don't worry too much about your exercise calories but you're already at the bare minimum...

Let's say your maintenance is 1800 cals a day (bearing in mind the typical figure given for women is 2000), your weekly calories would be 12,600. You're only taking on 8,400, that's more than a 4000 calorie deficit and you /will/ lose weight. But the weight you lose will be muscle, fat, and any other lean body mass you have spare.

I implore you to eat back your exercise calories and consider doing some research into TDEE and safe, steady healthy changes rather than an unsustainable crash loss..

I'm trying to lose around 4 stone which is 56lbs (down by 10lbs already)

Given that you have a fair way to go you can afford a reasonably aggressive defecit, however the general medical consensus appears to be that about 1200 - 1400 is the minium calorie intake for a woman to maintain general health. The actual figure varies in different georaphies, but none go any lower than 1200.

The principle there is that below that the body ends up cannibalising itself over the long term, essentially leading to the classic symptoms of eating disorders; poor quality tissue growth, anemia etc.

I have a dog so I take him for a light walk/jog for around 90 minutes per day. I'm also doing squats with some light kettlebells and ab crunches, this is just to get me started and keep active. I feel like this is helping me along with my journey.

So walking for 90 minutes is going to be consuming in the order of 300-400 calories. Given that your goal is already 1200, that would place you well below the minimum for maintenance of your health. Equally as a basis for progress you'll find as your fitness improves you'll need to do more training to progress, which will lead to higher calorie expenditures.

I see a lot of my friends on here exercise and then 'eat back' the calories lost,

That is how the MFP model works. Givne that your goal is 1200 calories already you don't have any scope for flexibility.

You then need to question how you're assessing your calorie expenditure, different methods have different levelsof accuracy. For something like walking, it's reasonably accurate, for resistance training it's difficult to know as there are so many variables. Personally when I'm doing CV work; running, cyling, rowing etc I'll use Runkeeper estimations and transfer them to MFP.

Given that it's all a question of approximations some people only eat back a proportion of their exercise calories. Personally after a big session when I'll burn 1000-1500 calories I rarely manage to account for that afterwards. As far as time is concerned, load up earlier in the day, the main thing is that you end the day on goal, or thereabouts. You don't need to wait until afterwards.

I think MFP needs to update the app to explain this further because this question is asked a lot.