How many calories?

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Raine1201
Raine1201 Posts: 7 Member
in Introduce Yourself
In my settings I put in I want to lose 1.5 pounds a wk...giving me 1370 calories a day. If I work out and burn say 200, should I be eating 200 calories more that day? Or ending my day with 200 left...
I've been getting headaches and I'm wondering if I'm not eating enough.

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  • arditarose
    arditarose Posts: 15,573 Member
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    You can eat back calories you burn from exercising. MFP inflates the calories burned, so many people do not eat them all back, but some.
  • pittsburgh412
    pittsburgh412 Posts: 31 Member
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    Do not eat any more calories than 1370 it is good to burn those calories. That is why I never really logged my excersize on here because then I was tempted to eat the calories I burned off !
  • arditarose
    arditarose Posts: 15,573 Member
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    pittsburgh412 wrote: »
    Do not eat any more calories than 1370 it is good to burn those calories. That is why I never really logged my excersize on here because then I was tempted to eat the calories I burned off !

    No.

    MFP uses the NEAT method. It gives you a calorie deficit based on your daily activity level, without any added exercise. If you do exercise, you should eat back calories.

  • malibu927
    malibu927 Posts: 17,565 Member
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    pittsburgh412 wrote: »
    Do not eat any more calories than 1370 it is good to burn those calories. That is why I never really logged my excersize on here because then I was tempted to eat the calories I burned off !

    You're actually expected to eat them back. Not eating your calories can hinder your performance by having too large of a deficit.
  • 530roman
    530roman Posts: 1,819 Member
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    Eat them back if the burn is logged accurately. The more you burn, the more you earn. It's kind of a nice incentive to get some exercise in.
    Like @arditarose‌ said, MFP can be way off on calories burned so people are hesitant to eat them back. Depending on what kind of exercise you're doing, maybe invest in a HRM that will give you an idea of calories being burned. I've read that steady-state cardio is accurately measured using a heart-rate monitor. If you're walking, jogging, elliptical-ing (if that's a word), or some kind of other steady cardio, try to find you one and get an idea of what you're burning and what you could eat back.
  • mangrothian
    mangrothian Posts: 1,351 Member
    edited February 2015
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    cartersma1121 wrote: »
    In my settings I put in I want to lose 1.5 pounds a wk...giving me 1370 calories a day. If I work out and burn say 200, should I be eating 200 calories more that day? Or ending my day with 200 left...
    I've been getting headaches and I'm wondering if I'm not eating enough.

    It's your decision whether you eat back the exercise calories or not; everyone on MFP seems to have a different opinion on this. If you're getting headaches and think that it might be the cause, there's a couple of things you can do:

    1. Up your water intake. If you're exercising, you're sweating. Sweating = drink more water. You might find that's all you need. ETA: dehydration can cause headaches, which is why I suggested this first.
    2. Eat back half of your exercise calories for a couple of days and see if it makes a difference.
    3. Eat them all back. Just bear in mind that if you're using MFP to calculate your exercise calories, it tends to overestimate the burn amount, and you may see that your weight will drop a little more slowly.

    If any of those steps work, success! If not, go and speak to your GP. Chronic headaches are not something anyone should have to live with.

    ETA: I personally eat back some of my exercise calories, but not all. If I'm hungry, I'll eat more of them back. If I'm not, then I don't.
  • Raine1201
    Raine1201 Posts: 7 Member
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    I do have a polar hrm. So my calorie burn is pretty accurate. Thanks for the info.
    I think I found the reason for my headaches!!
  • arditarose
    arditarose Posts: 15,573 Member
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    cartersma1121 wrote: »
    I do have a polar hrm. So my calorie burn is pretty accurate. Thanks for the info.
    I think I found the reason for my headaches!!

    Ya. Eat!
  • juliet3455
    juliet3455 Posts: 3,015 Member
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    @ arditarose and @ mangrothian nailed it.

    I call it the Human Science Experiment. Try eating back 75% of your calories and see the results and how you feel over 1-2 months. Reduce to 50% and repeat. If you feel horrible at 50 and great at 75 pick a number between the two and repeat the experiment.

    From my personal experience I found It was important to do this over a longer time frame ( months versus days) to help average out the little bumps in the road of life and it gave me a better feel for what I needed to do.

    .
    arditarose wrote: »
    You can eat back calories you burn from exercising. MFP inflates the calories burned, so many people do not eat them all back, but some.
    mangrothian wrote: »
    It's your decision whether you eat back the exercise calories or not; everyone on MFP seems to have a different opinion on this.

    1. Up your water intake. ETA: dehydration can cause headaches
    2. Eat back half of your exercise calories for a couple of days and see if it makes a difference.
    3. Eat them all back. Just bear in mind that if you're using MFP to calculate your exercise calories, it tends to overestimate the burn amount, and you may see that your weight will drop a little more slowly.

    If any of those steps work, success! If not, go and speak to your GP.

    ETA: I personally eat back some of my exercise calories, but not all. If I'm hungry, I'll eat more of them back. If I'm not, then I don't.

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