% of cal burned from excercise to cal ate??

If you're eating at the amount mfp set for you then you don't need to burn any of those calories. Anything you do burn on top of that is a bonus. So if mfp has set you 1500 calories then you can eat all of those and when you burn 300 you can eat another 150 (or whatever works for you but most people aim to eat back half the calories they burned)

tpyott1 wrote: »

My question is approx what % is best when compAring calories burned from excercise to the amount of calories we eat daily. For example right now I am dieting and eating approx 1500 calories daily. I usually walk an hr every day and burn around 300 calories. That would be 20% of my daily intake I burn by excercise. What is the ideal number to shoot for? I heard someone say they did 50% and for me that would be burning almost 800 cal and leave me with just 700 calories for my body to live off of and I know that low of calories isn't a good idea and probably dangerous in the long run. Any info would help thanks everyone!!

I think you have the math a little wrong. If MFP gives you 1500 cals then that is the amount you should eat for your desired loss (I set mine to 1lb a week)

If you exercise and 'earn' 300 calories its up to you if you want to eat all, none or some of them. Most people choose to eat around 50% as that is using the exercise to increase the deficit whilst still eating something to fuel the exercise. Also, because its notoriously inaccurate.

I personally swing from eating none to all depending on how hungry I am. (It's rarely none!)

I have never worried about that type of %s. What I do and what I recommend to people is to eat at a calorie level that allows you to make good progress towards your goal. If you are trying to lose weight, eat so you drop 1-2 lbs/week. This assumes an average calorie burn from you getting in all of your workouts. This will be different for everyone, so you'll have to do some trial and error to figure it out. Stick with your ~1500 cal/day. Hit this goal, along with your macros and getting in your workouts, for 2 weeks. If you lose 1-2 lbs, you're good to go. If you lose too much, increase your intake and repeat. If you don't lose enough, reduce your intake a bit and repeat. After a few weeks, you'll figure out what works for you in your situation.

If you are just walking, you might want to add in some more intense forms of exercise. Doing that type of low intensity steady state cardio has been shown by research to not be very effective at reducing body fat levels. Weight lifting and high intensity intervals is a great form of exercise for that.