Calories eaten and calories burned.

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lander2370
lander2370 Posts: 1
in Introduce Yourself
My question is: If I am on a 1200 calorie diet and add my exercise calories, should I re-adjust my calorie food goal for the day? My app readjusts this and I wasn't sure.

1200 goal per day
250 burned on the treadmill

Should I eat the 1450 or just the 1200. The way the app reads, you should have more food to eat in a day. Please advise

Replies

  • NurseRoxy2014
    NurseRoxy2014 Posts: 1
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    I need help with this too. I got a Garmin fit bracelet for Christmas and I've been trying to walk 10,000 steps a day. It shows I burn around 1500 calories this way.....and my diet shows I burn 1200 if I do nothing all day.....sooo....do I add the two together to get true calories burned? If so should I be losing more weight? I'm very happy the two apps work together, just wish it was clearer.

    Did you ever get an answer on your question?
  • queenliz99
    queenliz99 Posts: 15,317 Member
    edited January 2015
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    Yes, you need to eat those calories back. Some only eat 50 to 75% of those calories back because treadmills and MFP can over estimate calories burned.
  • KKJackson91
    KKJackson91 Posts: 69 Member
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    Most days I don't eat back my exercise calories because I feel eating them back defeats the purpose of working out. I will only eat back my exercise cals if I feel the need to eat a couple of cookies or something which is very seldom. Maybe I'm wrong, but everyone is different and it works for me. I still lose super slow, about 2 lbs a week.
  • diannethegeek
    diannethegeek Posts: 14,776 Member
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    http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/818082/exercise-calories-again-wtf
  • grantwashere
    grantwashere Posts: 171 Member
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    I do both because of the overestimation potential.

    As far as 2lbs/wk being a slow loss. I totally disagree with that. That's an excellent loss. The goofy TV shows like Biggest Loser have spun a lot of false expectations. Their show airs weekly but those losses you see are not 7-day losses. It is normal to see big losses the first few weeks you begin moving more and eating less but it will then taper off. Once you get past that point, 2lbs/wk is VERY successful. Remember that losing weight is NOT linear. It fluctuates quite a bit and this fluctuation causes a lot of people to quit. I weigh every day and log it in TrendWeight.com. As long as I have four green arrows, I'm doing things right. If I get a red arrow, I make adjustments until I begin trending on the right track again.

  • dorkyfaery
    dorkyfaery Posts: 255 Member
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    If you have your calories set to 1200 I would suggest eating back your exercise. It will help you not feel so deprived. It's generally not recommended to net less than 1200 calories/day, though this will depend on your age/height/weight. You can play around with this and make adjustments every few weeks if things are not progressing as you would like.

    As for rate of loss, 2 pounds per week is not exactly "super slow", it's at the high end of what's considered a safe rate of weight loss. There's nothing wrong with losing weight a little slower if it helps you adhere to your plan and incorporate new healthy habits into your life.
  • Sabrina809
    Sabrina809 Posts: 2 Member
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    I am new to this and really curious about that also.
  • ransaka
    ransaka Posts: 135 Member
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    diannethegeek wrote: »
    http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/818082/exercise-calories-again-wtf

    This is the best thread on MFP about it.
    grantwashere wrote: »
    I do both because of the overestimation potential.

    As far as 2lbs/wk being a slow loss. I totally disagree with that. That's an excellent loss.

    This is also very much the truth. :)
  • animatorswearbras
    animatorswearbras Posts: 1,001 Member
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    Yes you should eat those calories back especially if you're only on 1200 cals, as a rule of thumb I rarely go below my BMR of 1450 Net cals across the week (eaten cals minus exercise) otherwise I feel like my body won't maintain muscle as that's the cals my body needs to generally function if I was in a coma, plus I feel ready to crack after a week on 1200 cals ;P

    However 1500 calories for 10,000 steps seems very high if you were to add it to the 1200, what I would do is use your Garmin to monitor you're getting your steps and how active you are, then double check it against myfitnesspal exercise cals to get a better idea.

    If you're getting those 10000 steps just doing your day job (I'm guessing nurse) maybe switch your activity level to moderately active rather than sedentary. If you're having to go out and do extra walks to get those steps however just put the length of extra time you spent walking in your exercise diary.

    For example I am trying to get 10000 steps a day in around my sedentary desk job, the extra 1 hour of walking I do to achieve this only gives me an extra 200cals a day. (that's why I thought 1500cals extra seemed high although I have no idea what your stats are so as I said check it with the MFP diary)

    hope that helps :)

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