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Need advice about caloric intake

venee2003
venee2003 Posts: 2 Member
edited December 2024 in Getting Started
I just recently started using MyFitnessPal to track calories and exercise and help me lose weight. I am allowed roughly 1200 calories per day, but I am confused about what my caloric intake should be on days that I workout. For example, on cardio days I may burn between 400-500 calories which gives me a net intake of 700-800 calories. This seems like too little so, should I be eating enough to make up those calories to give me a net intake of 0 calories? It is important to note that a 1200 calorie diet is probably about 300-400 fewer calories per day than my normal intake so even if I didn't workout I would probably still lose some weight. This is only week 2 for me. Any advice??

Replies

  • spring913
    spring913 Posts: 158 Member
    Most people will say eat 50-75% of your exercise calories to account for MFP over estimating your burn. You have to fuel your workouts. Its has been working for me, I'm consistently loosing eating back the calories I burn. 700-800 net calories a day is dangerous. Aren't you hungry?

    You want your net calories to be 1200 not 0. So it'll look like this 1200 (allotted cals) + 1600 (calories consumed) - 400 (exercise) = 1200 Net
  • venee2003
    venee2003 Posts: 2 Member
    Thank you spring913.

    I have been eating back my calories, too, but my husband (who is not a nutrition expert) and I were debating the correct way to interpret the tool. He said I should not eat the extra calories but I was afraid that too few calories would actually hinder my weight loss goals.

    It is only week 2 of my journey, and I have decided not to weigh myself until week 5 so I have no idea if I am losing. I just wanted some feedback about how others are using the tool. Congratulations on your weight loss and thanks, again, for your response.
  • spring913
    spring913 Posts: 158 Member
    :smile: Your husband is wrong. lol There are different methods, but MFP is specifically designed to allow people to loose weight without exercise. Therefore, eating back your exercise calories is correct, and will keep you in a healthy deficit.

    Good Luck to you, and keep doing what your doing. That 5 week weigh in will be amazing!!
  • gr8t2sk8
    gr8t2sk8 Posts: 11 Member
    So the rule of thumb in weight loss is this: if you want to lose about 1 pound a week you need about a 500 calorie deficit. That's for your average height 2000 calorie per day person. More than 1 calorie per week is sorta frowned on as unhealthy in that it's difficult to stick with the restrictions and contributes to yoyo weight loss. So, in short, if you're not working out, then around 1500 calories per day and if you burn say 200 on a workout then around 1700 calories is a "healthy" goal. That being said, there's more than counting calories. There's Macros. It's the big picture of your nutrients. Your carb, fat, protein intake ratios. Those are soooooo important. You can technically lose weight on pizza alone given you cut calories down to a small amount but you're not giving your body the building blocks you need.
  • CharlieBeansmomTracey
    CharlieBeansmomTracey Posts: 7,682 Member
    edited July 2016
    gr8t2sk8 wrote: »
    So the rule of thumb in weight loss is this: if you want to lose about 1 pound a week you need about a 500 calorie deficit. That's for your average height 2000 calorie per day person. More than 1 calorie per week is sorta frowned on as unhealthy in that it's difficult to stick with the restrictions and contributes to yoyo weight loss. So, in short, if you're not working out, then around 1500 calories per day and if you burn say 200 on a workout then around 1700 calories is a "healthy" goal. That being said, there's more than counting calories. There's Macros. It's the big picture of your nutrients. Your carb, fat, protein intake ratios. Those are soooooo important. You can technically lose weight on pizza alone given you cut calories down to a small amount but you're not giving your body the building blocks you need.

    more than 1lb a week loss is not frowned upon if you have a lot of weight to lose. also the 2000 calories is not for everyone. macros are important for nutrition but for weight loss its all about calories. so even if you were to be lower or higher in some macros but still at or a little under your calories you will be ok. if you have more than 75lbs to lose you can lose 1.5 lbs a week,100 or more 2 lbs a week is safe for awhile. if you have less than say 25 lbs to lose then 0.5 lbs a week is best.
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