earning calories

lorikim
lorikim Posts: 2
edited September 18 in Health and Weight Loss
if i am to eat 1200 cals per day to lose weight and i exercise for 30 min on the treadmill, why then do they give me an extra 250 calories to eat? does that not defeat the purpose of less calories for weight loss???

Replies

  • lorikim
    lorikim Posts: 2
    if i am to eat 1200 cals per day to lose weight and i exercise for 30 min on the treadmill, why then do they give me an extra 250 calories to eat? does that not defeat the purpose of less calories for weight loss???
  • Jillian
    Jillian Posts: 88
    I know I didn't get it either. You need to keep 1200 calories. If you go under 1200 your body will go into starvation mode and it will hold on to your fat, you will not lose. Just make sure you're getting 1200 cal, that's the hard part for me. Good Luck
  • rheston
    rheston Posts: 638
    When you set your goals it was based on just a calorie intake. For me I'm supposed to eat 1570 in order to lose 2lbs a week. When you work out you burn calories at a greater rate therefore I believe the algorithms built into the system take your work out points and add more calories to your diet to keep you on track with your weekly weight loss goals and not to "kill" yourself through starvation.

    I personally eat to my 1570 level and not to the 1940 level and I've been doing quite well keeping from being hungry and dropping the weight.

    You'll have to monitor this yourself so if you want to eat to your initial points level and not to the exercise graded level then do so but if you find yourself constantly hungry you should add a few healthy snack calories between meals (fruits or veggies) to keep your energy levels up.

    Good question and probably something the site organizer should put into the system when people first add exercise to their daily diary.
  • Families_R_Forever
    Families_R_Forever Posts: 630
    It's hard to do sometimes, but I try to eat all my earned calories as well. If I am not hungry then I won't. I do think that it is important to try. Someone else before said that if we don't our body thinks it is starving and then it clings on to the fat. I know I still loose weight when I do eat them all and I feel stronger. I think it is healthier. Heidi
  • Tartrazine
    Tartrazine Posts: 4
    Just my 2 cents.

    Like others have said when you set up you calorie intake in the beginning when you first signed up, you were given a number lets just say 2000. So basically if you sat in bed all day long, and stared at the wall you would burn 2000 calories.

    Now you picked the option to lose 1lb a week... 1lb = 3500 calories... well if ya do the math thats 500 x 7 days = 3500 calories a day... so the program would tell you to eat 1500 calories a day to lose 1lb a week.

    Now if you like most people and are doing anything extra, that burns calories. Even if your sitting infront of a computer all day long typing on myfitnesspal forms cuz your bored at work :wink: over the entire day you could burn upwards of 500 - 1000 to who knows how many.. depends on what you do that day. Anyways so you log in your exercise you have done for the day and you gain extra calories to eat because your body has used more calories that day.

    Think of it like a car. To drive from you house to work costs ya 5 gallons in gas.... Now all of a sudden you need to pick up a friend before work, or go out after work before coming home and drive an extra little bit. You need to add more gas to make it home.

    I guess what im trying to say is that those extra calories you earn you should eat. If you dont eventually you will burn out like a car would with no gas. Sure a car can run on fumes for a little bit... but not forever.

    Also if you eat those earned calories you are still going to lose that 1lb / week and its safer and healthier to lose weight slower with less chance of rebounding back over weight or breaking you good eating habbits.

    My suggestion ( if you have a sweet tooth like me ) is if you have an extra bit treat yourself to a little something like a can of coke or bowl of ice cream... mmmmmmmmmmmmm.

    Hope that helps... but will probably confuse :) haha.
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