I'm still confused about eating all the calories

This one throws me off too, I thought the whole point of excercising was to burn more calories.

That's what I thought, but think about it this way, let's say you put 1 gallon of gas in your car, and that will get you 5 miles. Are you going to try and go 10 miles on that 1 gallon of gas? There's no way to go that far without the proper fuel. Your body is the same way. It needs the fuel to burn to keep it going. When you stop giving it the fuel it needs, it starts holding on to every calorie incase you try to go ten miles on only 1 gallon of gas.

So you don't lose the weight. Yes, eventually you would, but unless you are on a island with no real food around, your body will eventually overpower your will and make you want to eat! Plus, this is always the problem, the majority of people who don't eat anough calories, eventually put the weight back on, plus more. because you are not learning how to eat and how much to eat.

You should also read the newbie posts from Banks...I will try and find them.

When you set up your goals, MFP calculates your caloric intake for you. If you want to lose 1lb a week, then it gives you a deficit of 500 calories a day. 2 lbs a week is 1,000 cals a day. This is based on what your body burns during the day from normal daily activity (work, housecleaning, chasing kids, etc.) When you throw exercise into that and burn extra calories, you are creating a larger deficit of calories burned verses calories taken in. So, in order to maintain the deficit of 500 - 1000 calories a day, you get to eat what you burned.

So, if based on daily activity (without exercise) your body burns 2100 calories and you want to lose 1 pound a week, MFP will set your daily intake calories at 1600. If you burn 400 calories exercising, you get to eat those 400 to keep your deficit at 500, otherwise your deficit will be 900. Which may or may not be what your body wants or needs, depending on amount of weight to lose.

Viviakay's post is also very helpful, as well as some of Banks' old posts....

Hope this helps too! :flowerforyou:

So you're really suppose to eat all the calories for the day? Meaning your regular amount plus what you earn from exersing?

That seems like it defeats the purpose of exercising. Because isn't the only way to lose weight is to take in less than you put out?

So I'm confused. :ohwell:

thats the same way i feel. so if im suppose to eat 1200 and then i exercise for an hour and burn 600 calories. am i really suppose to eat 1800 calories a day??? that seems like a lot of calories when you're trying to lose weight.