if i excercise doe that mean i should eat more?

missgstar26
missgstar26 Posts: 1 Member
edited September 27 in Fitness and Exercise
When i put an exercise into my daily plan it tells me that i have earned x number of calories. If i stick to the original number (APPROX 1200 CALS), it says that i haven't eaten enough.

I'm confused?!?!?

Replies

  • heathersmilez
    heathersmilez Posts: 2,579 Member
    Yes.

    http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/10589-for-those-confused-or-questioning-eating-your-exercise-calo
  • ProTFitness
    ProTFitness Posts: 1,379 Member
    it is a balance. It depends on what your eating and how offten. You may need to eat a little more but if your trying to loose weight threre is a balance
  • bestdaysahead
    bestdaysahead Posts: 90 Member
    But why should you eat more? Isn't the whole idea to loose weight?
  • Beebs33
    Beebs33 Posts: 262
    I would not let your net calories get below 1200. At first you will lose weight but then plateau and your body isn't getting the nutrients it needs. I can't normally eat back all my exercise calories but it's good to try to at least eat back up to 1200 net calories. Many peopel find success by eating back their exercise calories.
  • jbconnelly
    jbconnelly Posts: 170 Member
    They say you should. They think you will lose muscle if you don't eat your exercise calories back. My best friend is an athletic trainer and he said the same thing I've been saying on here. Eat when your hungry. I'm supposed to eat 1480 per day. I burned almost 700 calories on Saturday and by 7pm I had eaten about 1200-1300, there is no way I am putting 700 calories in my body just because the plan says too. It makes no sense. Just eat when your body twlls you too, healthy food that is.
  • darling_nickie
    darling_nickie Posts: 117 Member
    The idea is to lose weight/fat but not starve your body and lose muscle. When I exercise I try and make sure but my is at or around 1200. Some days its a little higher. Which means if I ate my full 1500 cals but I worked off 500 then I eat a 200 calorie snack. This site already accounts for a deficit so you should lose weight even if you eat back those exercise cals.
  • _scatterbrain
    _scatterbrain Posts: 1
    I'm guessing because when you sign up and give your height/weight/sex/amount of daily activity etc it calculates how many calories you should eat to lose weight anyway... any exercise you do is extra. Also it says if you don't use your allocated calories up then you can slow down your metabolism and find it harder to lose weight.
  • anneid
    anneid Posts: 8
    I really think you need to eat the extra calories in order to lose. I have a hard time on some days when I have earned lost of calories from doing both cardio and strength training, but I am a plateau and in order to get through it, I have to eat losts more. Some days it is really hard to really eat that much food.
  • kimmerroze
    kimmerroze Posts: 1,330 Member
    MFP takes your maintainence which I am guessings is somewhere between 1800-2000 calories a day, it subtracts 500 calories a day per pound you want to lose. 500 x 7=3500 calorie deficit, this is equal to 1 pound lost per week.

    If you set your goals to lose 2 pounds per week that should then increase your deficit to 1000 calories below your maintainence per day 1000x7(days a week)= 7000 calories lost per week which equals 2 pounds,

    MFP wont let your calories go below 1200 because this is harmful and can cause your body to slow down to preserve your calories, so that it doesn't "starve." EVEN if 1000 calories less per day puts you below the 1200 calories recommeneded it WILL NOT let you go below that unless you adjust it yourself, which we dont' recommend you do./

    SOOOO

    If your goals are set at 1200 calories a day (or two pounds lost per day) and you exercise burning 500 more calories you are now eating anywhere from 700-1200 calories less than maintainence. which is okay, as long as your maintainence is higher and doesn't allow you to drop below 1200, which in your case it probably will, so MFP adds those calories back to your daily totals so that your body doesn't drop below

    1200 calories "NET" (another vocab word)

    It is okay to eat these calories back because you are only eating 1200 calories which is already below maintainece. so it would look like this

    1800 calories -your maintainence
    -600 -your deficit to lose weight
    ____
    1200 -calories allowed to eat per day. this is without working out


    WITH WORKING OUT

    1800 -your maintainence calories
    -600 -your deficit to lose weight
    -500 -calories burned during work out
    ________
    700 calories -your net calories (this should be at 1200) so mfp adds those calories back in
    +500 -extra calories burned from working out
    _________
    1200- your net calories. which as you can see is still 600 caloires below your maintainence which will allow you to lose anywhere from 1 pound (numerically) to 2 pounds, because of your exercise and nutrition.


    I hope this helps.
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