Eating back calories..

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there has been a few times MFP wouldn't let me complete my log for the day bc my calories were too low. The reason was was bc I had burned off a lot from exercising. So my question is... Are you supposed to eat back the calories you burn from exercising?
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Replies

  • ambersanford204
    ambersanford204 Posts: 37 Member
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    I'm a little confused by this as well! I feel like I'm defeating the purpose if I eat back the calories I burned off. But I am new to this. I looked it up and read that you don't need to eat the calories back if you aren't trying to gain, but I think the calories that MFP gives us are our minimum for proper body function? Someone will correct me if I'm wrong on that. I did the TDEE calculator and it gave me a higher calorie intake than MFP with TDEE-20%. So now I really don't know!

    Hope someone answers that can be helpful!
  • galgenstrick
    galgenstrick Posts: 2,086 Member
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    MFP will not suggest less than 1200 calories per day for women and 1500 per day for men as suggested by the national institute for health. It will prompt you if you don't make that calorie goal. It shouldn't prompt you if you meet that goal and burn extra with exercise. For example, I've eaten about 1800 calories and burned off about 1000 hiking for a few hours. Since I still ate over 1500 it didn't prompt me, even though my net calories were only 800.

    That said, MFP gets strange bugs every time it's updated, so if you ate more than the cutoff and it prompts you, then it's probably a bug.
  • jemhh
    jemhh Posts: 14,261 Member
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    Your mfp calorie goal has your weight loss deficit calculated into it. You are supposed to eat your exercise calories. Some people feel that mfp overstates exercise calories and instead of eating them all they eat only a portion. I suggest eating at least 50% and then reevaluating after a month.
  • Cantstopmyshine1993
    Cantstopmyshine1993 Posts: 54 Member
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    MFP will not suggest less than 1200 calories per day for women and 1500 per day for men as suggested by the national institute for health. It will prompt you if you don't make that calorie goal. It shouldn't prompt you if you meet that goal and burn extra with exercise. For example, I've eaten about 1800 calories and burned off about 1000 hiking for a few hours. Since I still ate over 1500 it didn't prompt me, even though my net calories were only 800.

    That said, MFP gets strange bugs every time it's updated, so if you ate more than the cutoff and it prompts you, then it's probably a bug.




    Yes I ate over 1200 calories
  • PopeyeCT
    PopeyeCT Posts: 249 Member
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    You never have to click the "complete entry" button. You can just ignore it.

    As far as eating your exercise...you get lots of opinions. Some people feel that if your body has less than the recommended amount of calories you will go into "starvation mode" where your metabolism will slow down and you won't lose any weight. Other people call that BS and say the fewer calories the better, and more exercise is good for you.

    Personally, I think the people that talk about "starvation mode" are already pretty thin and have a different metabolism than the average overweight person that is trying to lose weight. I'm exercising and losing weight by running about 2,000 calories a day under what MFP says I can eat for the maximum weight loss. Maybe some dietitian would be upset about my glutens or some crap. But I don't care. I just want to stop being fat, and I'm making progress so screw the naysayers.
  • jemhh
    jemhh Posts: 14,261 Member
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    PopeyeCT wrote: »
    You never have to click the "complete entry" button. You can just ignore it.

    As far as eating your exercise...you get lots of opinions. Some people feel that if your body has less than the recommended amount of calories you will go into "starvation mode" where your metabolism will slow down and you won't lose any weight. Other people call that BS and say the fewer calories the better, and more exercise is good for you.

    Personally, I think the people that talk about "starvation mode" are already pretty thin and have a different metabolism than the average overweight person that is trying to lose weight. I'm exercising and losing weight by running about 2,000 calories a day under what MFP says I can eat for the maximum weight loss. Maybe some dietitian would be upset about my glutens or some crap. But I don't care. I just want to stop being fat, and I'm making progress so screw the naysayers.

    What goal did mfp give you?
  • kirkor
    kirkor Posts: 2,530 Member
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    I never input calorie burn from MFP --- too many variables.
  • PopeyeCT
    PopeyeCT Posts: 249 Member
    edited May 2015
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    jemhh wrote: »
    What goal did mfp give you?

    1490 currently. I'm cycling a lot and generally finish the day with 2000-3000 calories remaining to be eaten.

    I'm at 2505 right now.
  • jemhh
    jemhh Posts: 14,261 Member
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    My guess is that your exercise calories are overinflated.
    PopeyeCT wrote: »
    jemhh wrote: »
    What goal did mfp give you?

    1490 currently. I'm cycling a lot and generally finish the day with 2000-3000 calories remaining to be eaten.

    I'm at 2505 right now.

  • PopeyeCT
    PopeyeCT Posts: 249 Member
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    jemhh wrote: »

    My guess is that your exercise calories are overinflated.

    Maybe so. I use a Fitbit and MapMyRide so I don't know how I could be more accurate, and I'm losing around 1/2 pound a day. My legs are sore, but it's a happy sort of soreness and I'm happy and I like it.
  • jemhh
    jemhh Posts: 14,261 Member
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    PopeyeCT wrote: »
    jemhh wrote: »

    My guess is that your exercise calories are overinflated.

    Maybe so. I use a Fitbit and MapMyRide so I don't know how I could be more accurate, and I'm losing around 1/2 pound a day. My legs are sore, but it's a happy sort of soreness and I'm happy and I like it.

    How long have you been at this?
  • brianpperkins
    brianpperkins Posts: 6,124 Member
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    PopeyeCT wrote: »
    You never have to click the "complete entry" button. You can just ignore it.

    As far as eating your exercise...you get lots of opinions. Some people feel that if your body has less than the recommended amount of calories you will go into "starvation mode" where your metabolism will slow down and you won't lose any weight. Other people call that BS and say the fewer calories the better, and more exercise is good for you.

    Personally, I think the people that talk about "starvation mode" are already pretty thin and have a different metabolism than the average overweight person that is trying to lose weight. I'm exercising and losing weight by running about 2,000 calories a day under what MFP says I can eat for the maximum weight loss. Maybe some dietitian would be upset about my glutens or some crap. But I don't care. I just want to stop being fat, and I'm making progress so screw the naysayers.

    2000 calories under your MFP goal? Exactly what are you doing for exercise to generate such a deficit?
  • kzzr
    kzzr Posts: 53 Member
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    As long as you're eating at least 1200 calories a day, don't worry if it's not completing the log, it's probably a bug, it should log if you eat over 1000, anything under that and you get a warning about eating too little calories and it won't log (tried and tested). Also use a heart rate monitor for your burned calories, MFP over estimates your calories burned. If you choose to eat your calories back, do what works for you.
  • brianpperkins
    brianpperkins Posts: 6,124 Member
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    MFP will not suggest less than 1200 calories per day for women and 1500 per day for men as suggested by the national institute for health. It will prompt you if you don't make that calorie goal. It shouldn't prompt you if you meet that goal and burn extra with exercise. For example, I've eaten about 1800 calories and burned off about 1000 hiking for a few hours. Since I still ate over 1500 it didn't prompt me, even though my net calories were only 800.

    That said, MFP gets strange bugs every time it's updated, so if you ate more than the cutoff and it prompts you, then it's probably a bug.




    Yes I ate over 1200 calories

    How many calories did you net?
  • PopeyeCT
    PopeyeCT Posts: 249 Member
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    jemhh wrote: »
    How long have you been at this?

    Since mid January. I've lost 35 pounds.

    I only really started exercising a lot in the last month or so when the snow melted. I've been bicycling an hour to two hours a day. I started it to try to break through a plateau but I was really missing hamburgers and I loved it when MapMyRide gave me a thousand calories and that's two hamburgers! or three slices of pizza :)
  • brianpperkins
    brianpperkins Posts: 6,124 Member
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    MapMyRide calculated my 37 mile ride with 2200 feet of climbing at over 1000 calories more than Strava did.
  • Cantstopmyshine1993
    Cantstopmyshine1993 Posts: 54 Member
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    MFP will not suggest less than 1200 calories per day for women and 1500 per day for men as suggested by the national institute for health. It will prompt you if you don't make that calorie goal. It shouldn't prompt you if you meet that goal and burn extra with exercise. For example, I've eaten about 1800 calories and burned off about 1000 hiking for a few hours. Since I still ate over 1500 it didn't prompt me, even though my net calories were only 800.

    That said, MFP gets strange bugs every time it's updated, so if you ate more than the cutoff and it prompts you, then it's probably a bug.




    Yes I ate over 1200 calories

    How many calories did you net?


    My goal is 1,430 calories I ate 1,303 & had 398 calories burned from exercising. I was under 1000 after my burned calories so that might be why it didn't complete. But I was wondering if I should eat some back if I'm eating "too less" calories.
  • brianpperkins
    brianpperkins Posts: 6,124 Member
    Options
    MFP will not suggest less than 1200 calories per day for women and 1500 per day for men as suggested by the national institute for health. It will prompt you if you don't make that calorie goal. It shouldn't prompt you if you meet that goal and burn extra with exercise. For example, I've eaten about 1800 calories and burned off about 1000 hiking for a few hours. Since I still ate over 1500 it didn't prompt me, even though my net calories were only 800.

    That said, MFP gets strange bugs every time it's updated, so if you ate more than the cutoff and it prompts you, then it's probably a bug.




    Yes I ate over 1200 calories

    How many calories did you net?


    My goal is 1,430 calories I ate 1,303 & had 398 calories burned from exercising. I was under 1000 after my burned calories so that might be why it didn't complete. But I was wondering if I should eat some back if I'm eating "too less" calories.


    Your MFP goal is 1430 NET calories ... not total.
  • PopeyeCT
    PopeyeCT Posts: 249 Member
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    MapMyRide calculated my 37 mile ride with 2200 feet of climbing at over 1000 calories more than Strava did.

    I rode 16.02 miles today and MapMyRide gave me 1182 calories for that.

    I don't know how to compare it with Strava. I just just know I feel good and my scale says I'm losing weight. That's what matters to me.
  • Cantstopmyshine1993
    Cantstopmyshine1993 Posts: 54 Member
    Options
    MFP will not suggest less than 1200 calories per day for women and 1500 per day for men as suggested by the national institute for health. It will prompt you if you don't make that calorie goal. It shouldn't prompt you if you meet that goal and burn extra with exercise. For example, I've eaten about 1800 calories and burned off about 1000 hiking for a few hours. Since I still ate over 1500 it didn't prompt me, even though my net calories were only 800.

    That said, MFP gets strange bugs every time it's updated, so if you ate more than the cutoff and it prompts you, then it's probably a bug.




    Yes I ate over 1200 calories

    How many calories did you net?


    My goal is 1,430 calories I ate 1,303 & had 398 calories burned from exercising. I was under 1000 after my burned calories so that might be why it didn't complete. But I was wondering if I should eat some back if I'm eating "too less" calories.


    Your MFP goal is 1430 NET calories ... not total.


    607 net calories it shows on my chart for today