Why even bother coming here?

There's no reason to eat your exercise calories. 1200 is the minimum amount allowable, and I'm on a 1500 cal, but I'm NOT eating my exercise calories. Love that site but the fact that they add your exercise calories so you can eat more is just absurd.

Absurd? It's absurd to keep your calorie deficit constant and refuel your body when working out?

That's like saying "I love to take road trips in my car, but having to put gas in the tank is absurd!"

Hi, just wanted to thank you for posting this question. I am new and didn't know what you guys were talking about, so thank you for everyone that replied to this question. I had no idea that you needed to eat the calories you burned when exercised, I just assumed you had a wonderful day if you were below what you were suppose to have...just thought it meant you would lose quicker. So thank you for the education!

Cheers,
Jo

....

:laugh: :laugh:

There's no reason to eat your exercise calories. 1200 is the minimum amount allowable, and I'm on a 1500 cal, but I'm NOT eating my exercise calories. Love that site but the fact that they add your exercise calories so you can eat more is just absurd.

Absurd? It's absurd to keep your calorie deficit constant and refuel your body when working out?

That's like saying "I love to take road trips in my car, but having to put gas in the tank is absurd!"

Your car doesn't go into its FAT reserves if there's a deficit. But you should.

That's why the site factors in a calorie deficit in the first place (see the original post, and hundreds of other posts on this site, with new ones posted several times a day). If you exercise and don't eat, you're increasing that deficit. If you've got a whole lot of weight to lose, this might be ok, but if you keep doing that for long enough, you will slow your metabolism and burn muscle, and possibly worse.

As long as you don't eat less than 1200 cal a day and you're in a 40% protein, 40% carbs and 20% fat or very close to that, you're not eating into muscle. Exercise calories should be an extra deficit, that's the whole point of doing exercising in the first place.

OK, have fun Good luck.

The 1200 cal per day is net. If you exercise your net will be lower.

An alternate way to do things is to set the site to maintain weight (it will give you your mainanence cal) and then get your deficit from exercise. But if you have the site set to weight loss mode and you're not eating back at least some of what you burn you create too large a deficit and its unsustainable. Its just science and math. I hope you don't have to learn this the hard way.

Here are some of the old topics discussing this:

http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/61706-guide-to-calorie-deficits
http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/173853-an-objective-look-at-eating-exercise-calories
http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/10589-for-those-confused-or-questioning-eating-your-exercise-calo
http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/153704-myth-or-fact-simple-math-3500-calories-one-pound-eat

That's very true. I wasn't sure either. It took me a few times of telling it to myself to figure it out. lol.

Thanks Azuleelen, a great example of the OP's point :happy:

my thoughts exactly!

Im a newbie, but I understand what you are saying. I think that this site will indeed help me. For those who have just started, they shouldn't be worried so much on numbers rather than actual physical difference, and stamina. Also, are those newbs even working out? I doubt it.

Exercise calories should be an extra deficit, that's the whole point of exercising in the first place.

Maybe if you are eating maintenance calories.




Anyway, to add my own thoughts to the OP's topic, sometimes I wonder what people are thinking when they say, "Does this work?" "Is this program going to help me lose weight?" Etc.

I don't understand why it's like a mystery. Counting calories, eating healthy, and exercising is not a myth or propaganda. It's the good ol' fashioned way to either lose weight or maintain a healthy weight.

But then I can't blame them...some people, "newbies", may not have any knowledge about these things. It's something that I love reading about and following, but not everyone is that way. I've had a healthy diet and exercised for years. It really is my "lifestyle". So I have to keep myself from thinking, "WHY IS THIS SO HARD TO UNDERSTAND?!" when people post those topics. But I agree with the OP about the bashing, why participate if you don't "believe" in the program?

I will say personally that I am close to goal weight and it is extremely difficult to lose weight at this point. I'm with the other person: 800, 1200, or 1600 calories....I'm not really gaining or losing at this point.

They can keep eating 800 calories and burning 1000 calories a day and not lose a pound after the first 2 weeks, or they can do it the right way and stop complaining. Honestly the people who ask WHY and don't listen to a thing you say and don't take your advice are hopeless. However there are people who just don't know any better when they come here after having been under the false assumption that the less you eat, the more you lose. It's a common misconception that is hard for people to understand. I think the only thing you can do is keep telling them over and over again HOW this work and it is up to them if they feel like listening to you.

There's no reason to eat your exercise calories. 1200 is the minimum amount allowable, and I'm on a 1500 cal, but I'm NOT eating my exercise calories. Love that site but the fact that they add your exercise calories so you can eat more is just absurd.

You joined April 2011?
So you've been on this site a maximum of... 12 days? (Unless you switched accounts).

MFP already creates a deficit. Go lower than deficit, and you're not getting enough to survive.
Not getting enough food to survive = bad.

I don't get some people. MFP has a way of doing things like creating a deficit for you so you lose just by sticking to the calories given. When someone asks for advice about should I eat my exercise calories or should I keep eating below 1200 calories most people chime in (myself included) about how MFP works and why it works. Then come the people that totally doubt MFP and say that it is wrong, it doesn't work for me, there is no proof...etc...Ok they are entitled to their opinions but the site is MFP so why join and be apart of a site you don't agree with? I hate to see the newbies think that it is safe to eat 800 calories and from what I read so does MFP so why is it ok to put down a site that you are on and using?

I just don't get it.

I totally agree with MFP's calories and such...but I do think the protein and fiber are set low....at least for me. So I use it has a count and dont really pay attention to going over...

but i do understand where youre coming from. )

I agree with you on that too. I changed my levels to what fits me AFTER I discovered what works for me.

There's no reason to eat your exercise calories. 1200 is the minimum amount allowable, and I'm on a 1500 cal, but I'm NOT eating my exercise calories. Love that site but the fact that they add your exercise calories so you can eat more is just absurd.

Absurd? It's absurd to keep your calorie deficit constant and refuel your body when working out?

That's like saying "I love to take road trips in my car, but having to put gas in the tank is absurd!"

Your car doesn't go into its FAT reserves if there's a deficit. But you should.

That's why the site factors in a calorie deficit in the first place (see the original post, and hundreds of other posts on this site, with new ones posted several times a day). If you exercise and don't eat, you're increasing that deficit. If you've got a whole lot of weight to lose, this might be ok, but if you keep doing that for long enough, you will slow your metabolism and burn muscle, and possibly worse.

As long as you don't eat less than 1200 cal a day and you're in a 40% protein, 40% carbs and 20% fat or very close to that, you're not eating into muscle. Exercise calories should be an extra deficit, that's the whole point of exercising in the first place.

If you take in 1200 calories a day and you burn 500 with exercise and don't eat them back, you are really only getting 700 calories a day.

1200-500=700

PLZL3ARN2MATH.

thank you for saying it! Calories and exercise....simple math. If you are trying to lose 2 pounds a week and MFP says to eat 1200 a day that is based upon just your daily living...not any exercise you do above your job, childcare, etc. THEREFORE... when you exercise you are going to need to eat MORE cals to maintain a healthy balance....

i dont know if im explaining that right....hopefully that made sense like it did in my head!! :glasses:

I don't really get why everyone is so concerned with what other people are doing.

It would be incredibly rude to go up to an overweight person in a McDonald's and say, you really think you need that Big Mac?

And yet that's essentially what people are doing here when they offer unsolicited advice or criticism to another person about their eating habits.

If someone wants advice, they'll ask for it, otherwise, just let people be... my two cents.

Except that that person is in McDonalds, and we're on MFP actively trying to educate ourselves on healthy weight loss.
I mean, people can do whatever they want (yay freedom!), but if they're new and completely disagree with the system they're using, then why use it in the first place?

I don't really get why everyone is so concerned with what other people are doing.

It would be incredibly rude to go up to an overweight person in a McDonald's and say, you really think you need that Big Mac?

And yet that's essentially what people are doing here when they offer unsolicited advice or criticism to another person about their eating habits.

If someone wants advice, they'll ask for it, otherwise, just let people be... my two cents.

Except that that person is in McDonalds, and we're on MFP actively trying to educate ourselves on healthy weight loss.
I mean, people can do whatever they want (yay freedom!), but if they're new and completely disagree with the system they're using, then why use it in the first place?

Exactly. This site is designed to work a certain way, i.e., to help a person maintain a steady calorie deficit or surplus over a length of time in order to lose or gain weight.

It would be silly to walk into McDonalds and try to talk everybody there into eating organic tofu, tempeh, and sprouts instead of big macs. It would be silly to walk into a catholic church and try to convince everyone there to be mormon. It would be silly to go to an AA meeting and try start offering people beer and vodka.

Similarly, it's completely absurd when the people who either "don't get" or don't believe in how MFP works start trying to discredit the whole thing. Why are they even here? It's confusing for the newcomers and annoying for the veterans.

There are other reasons to be here than weight gain, loss, or plain healthy eating.
For some people, a net of -200 or so might be a vast improvement.