Daily Calorie Intake

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teresa4719
teresa4719 Posts: 4
in Introduce Yourself
If my app says eat 1200 calories a day and I exercise and burn 300 calories. Do I just eat 1200 calories? Or do I eat 900 calories and have the 300 burned to total 1200? I'm so confused..

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  • dianneaguilar466
    dianneaguilar466 Posts: 1
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    You eat 1200 calories!
  • jasonmh630
    jasonmh630 Posts: 2,850 Member
    edited January 2015
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    The 1200 is your NET calories... That means what you would eat AFTER exercising. For example:

    1200 cals + 300 burned = 1500 total calories eaten that day, so that your 1200 NET calorie goal is met.
  • Metazoick
    Metazoick Posts: 96 Member
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    It depends which app, and how they're counting the calories. Some include an estimation of what you'll burn off working out already, in which case you just eat what they give you, and some just estimate what you need without factoring working out in, in which case you need to eat it back.
    I believe that MFP does the latter, so you need to eat the calories you burn off back. This doesnt work by 900 + 300 = 1200: that would actually mean you only had 600 net calories that day. What you should do is eat the 1200 every day (minimum, you shouldnt go under that number), and then if you burn off 300 calories you eat an extra 300 calories of food.
    It should be worth noting a lot of estimated burnt calories are pretty high, so if eating them all back results in no weight loss after a couple of weeks, try only eating half of them back.
  • JenM76
    JenM76 Posts: 38 Member
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    You eat the 1200 calories. Then, whatever you burn you burn. You don't have to eat back the calories you burn.
  • caramac1990
    caramac1990 Posts: 1
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    You can eat up to 1500 calories, 1200 is what you would eat if you did no exercise. If you consistently eat too low calories while exercising it will slow down your metabolism and make you feel rubbish!
  • MSlaterSr
    MSlaterSr Posts: 9 Member
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    Watch the Big Green number that is the remaining calories you are allowed to eat if you are logging calorie intake and exercise correctly. If you start with 1200 and you exercise and burn 200 your remaining calories allowed increases to 1400. If you eat 200 calories your remaining calories allowed decreases by 200. Just watch that number when it turns red you ate too much.
  • Jennifer_Lynn_1982
    Jennifer_Lynn_1982 Posts: 567 Member
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    What Jason said....I usually only eat 1/2 my calories back because I'm not sure if the calories burned is accurate so I like to play it a bit safe but in general, yes Jason is 100% right!
  • jasonmh630
    jasonmh630 Posts: 2,850 Member
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    JenM76 wrote: »
    You eat the 1200 calories. Then, whatever you burn you burn. You don't have to eat back the calories you burn.

    You don't HAVE to, no... But that 1200 number is your net goal, which is the number it should be at the end of the day. If she did not eat exercise calories back, her net would 900 total calories eaten for the day... which is below the recommended minimum calories for any particular day.
  • WatchJoshLift
    WatchJoshLift Posts: 520 Member
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    caramac1990 wrote: »
    You can eat up to 1500 calories, 1200 is what you would eat if you did no exercise. If you consistently eat too low calories while exercising it will slow down your metabolism and make you feel rubbish!

    It may make you feel rubbish, but slow your metabolism it will not. That's broscience. :smiley:
  • jasonmh630
    jasonmh630 Posts: 2,850 Member
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    Jennifer_Lynn_1982 wrote: »
    What Jason said....I usually only eat 1/2 my calories back because I'm not sure if the calories burned is accurate so I like to play it a bit safe but in general, yes Jason is 100% right!

    Exactly... Be wary of logging your exercise on here. It tends to be inaccurate.
  • mrsrugie
    mrsrugie Posts: 3 Member
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    It's mentally pretty challenging to have exercise calories subtracted because my hungry brain says "I can eat more!". Plus, if those calories are taken off your daily goals, wouldn't the tracker say you're eating too few calories?

    Suggestion: This is such a great food tracker. Could you add an option to track my workouts separately, without those calories being subtracted from my daily goal? It would be great to see, over time, how my workouts have progressed.

    I have been tracking with MFP for 505 days in a row. My weight is down almost 30 pounds! I also love the create recipe feature so I can upload my favorites.
  • Kerriperkins
    Kerriperkins Posts: 35 Member
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    Here's the truth. If you are not weighing every piece of food that goes into your mouth and actually tracking your calorie burn by a heart rate monitor. Then don't eat back your calories. You will always under estimate your intake and over estimate how hard you worked. The best thing you can do is buy a food scale and make sure you eat your 1200 calories everyday.

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