excersise vs caloric goal whats the deal? anyone have any an

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leslieanned
leslieanned Posts: 17
in Health and Weight Loss
confused on the whole earning extra calories for excercise thing, if i burn a lot of calories and am significantly under my caloric goal, mfp tells me my body is going to go into "starvation mode" so whats with that?? doesnt that slow my metabolic rate down? (not what i want!) how do i balance that so im burning and not starving but still losing??

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  • gothicprophet
    gothicprophet Posts: 189
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    Eat your exercise calories and don't stray under 1200 cal/day.
  • MrsRobertson1005
    MrsRobertson1005 Posts: 552 Member
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    MFP sets iit to where your net burn should be whatever your daily goal is, if you burn those you should eat them back, you don't have to eat all of them but if you're under 1200 it will slow your metabolism so make sure you are above that. I eat some back sometimes, sometimes i don't eat many back
  • jbucci1186
    jbucci1186 Posts: 440 Member
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    It's a little more complicated than that, but MFP is right. You would have to do that EVERY day for an extended period of time (I'd say 1-2 weeks) before your body will go in starvation mode. It's okay if you are under every now and then, not that I'm advocating it, but I just wanted to let you know. One day of under eating won't put you in starvation mode. Just don't make a habit out of it. You should really try to avoid going below 1200 NET calories per day though, because going into starvation mode will actually cause you to gain weight.

    MFP adds calories to your day because you're supposed to eat back what you burned through exercise so you can lose your goal per week. If you don't eat them back (or only eat some of them back) you should technically lose more weight per week than your weekly goal. I said week a lot. I don't always eat mine back (and if I do, I don't eat ALL of them back).
  • leslieanned
    leslieanned Posts: 17
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    lol yes u did! tank u for your help!:smile:
  • luvmybentley
    luvmybentley Posts: 74 Member
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    I had trouble wrapping my head around this too. None of us are starving!
    I stalled at 9 lbs lost for almost 3 weeks, and was feeling run down. Since I added some exercise calories back, I have more energy and have begun losing again. My calorie goal is set at 1200, and I was exercising 600-800 calories daily, netting only 400-600 calories, ran out of steam and hit a plateau. Now I try to net at least 1000 calories, I can't bring myself to eat back ALL of my exercise calories...but for now I seem to have found a happy place. Might have to tweak it again down the road.

    A lot of diet plans recommend learning how many calories are required to maintain your GOAL weight at your current activity level, and eating 20-30% less than that for fat loss (30% only if you have a lot to lose). I have found this to work for me. There are several BMR calculators online, I like this one:
    http://www.freedieting.com/tools/calorie_calculator.htm

    Bottom line, no one can make you eat your exercise calories, but you should listen to your body. If you are running on empty it will only slow your progress and potentially make things worse in the long run. If you are exercising effectively you will need to feed your body. It's finding the right balance for YOUR body that is the challenge.

    Hope this helps!
  • Suzannejl
    Suzannejl Posts: 212
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    Beware of MFP's exercise calories! I was eating back all of my exercise calories and plateaued for 5 weeks. MFP gave me too much credit for exercise. the numbers are generic, don't really differentiate(Sorry bad speller) between men and women.

    In order to lose 1 pound, you need to Be in a calorie deficit of 3500 calories, aka 300 cal a day for a week. I try to have a 300 cal deficit daily. Some days I'm over, some day's I'm under. But! I have finally started losing weight again! I stay around 1200 daily, some over, some under. But don't worry too much about the under. Just like the other guy said, a day here and there is just fine.

    Good luck!

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