We are pleased to announce that as of March 4, 2025, an updated Rich Text Editor has been introduced in the MyFitnessPal Community. To learn more about the changes, please click here. We look forward to sharing this new feature with you!

Question About Total Daily Calories

mireaux
mireaux Posts: 1
edited March 2 in Getting Started
Hi, I just started using my myfitnesspal account, and I'm really enjoying it. I am just a slight bit confused about the total net calories. After I put in exercise, my calorie limit goes down to account for the ones I burned. Should I try to eat more on these days to make up for the deficit, or should my goal be to just eat my 1500 a day and exercise on top to burn more off? I would really appreciate advice from someone who has tried it both ways and figured out what works best.

Thanks! :)

Replies

  • yarwell
    yarwell Posts: 10,477 Member
    you're supposed to hit the goal calories, which increase as you exercise. This is called "eating back" your exercise calories, or perhaps running on a treadmill to get more food like a lab rat.

    Some people eat them all, others think half is best as the calorie burn may be over-estimated, others take advantage of the extra deficit when they exercise.
  • mimieon
    mimieon Posts: 182 Member
    Note that if you use the mfp database for your exercise calories (rather than a personal heart rate monitor or something like that), the number of calories burnt is usually OVERestimated. So you may want to eat only half of those calories back.
This discussion has been closed.

Categories