Confused About 'Remaining Calories'

If it was a once in a while thing that you are that far below your goal, then it should be fine. Otherwise, you should try to get it as close to that net of 1200 as you can. If you are not using a heartrate monitor, then you should try to eat back 1/2 your exercise calories to account for miscalculations. That would give you 782 calories (325+457) to eat tonight.

Add a tablespoon of olive oil to your cooking or a couple of handful of nuts to get your net up.

You are supposed to eat your exercise calories back. I don't eat them all back because MFP overestimates how much I burn at workouts. So unless you have a heart rate monitor and know exactly how many calories you burned, I don't think you should be eating back all of the calories MFP says your burned. Since I don't have a HRM, I eat back 1/3 to 1/2 of the exercise calories MFP says.

I ma not sure of technicalities or actually what a dr or health person would say, but i eat what i can. i think that you should be eating more than 1200 cals as a young active male that does not have a huge amount to lose. i also have a 1200 cal goal and after excercise have 1400 to eat, but this is not daily. for me i have been successful doing my best to eat close to what it says daily but if it is that much over you will not make it. i do think that if you do this too often you will kick into starvation mode and it will be bad. on days you know you are going to do that much excercise make sure you eat more in the morning to compensate. those are my thoughts and what seems to be making me successful!! good luck with your goal:happy:

I was hoping somebody could explain to me how to better understand my 'remaining calories' for the day.

For example of what I'm confused about:
My daily calorie allowance is 1,200 calories to lose 2 pounds per week. I've so far in my day eaten 875 calories (leaving 325 to go, which is doable for me, considering I've only got dinner to worry about.) However, once I log in my 70 minutes of jogging this morning (which burned 914 calories), my "Remaining Calories" jumps all the way back up to 1,239! I'm at -39 Net Calories so far today: It's 1:30 PM and I likely won't be hungry until dinner time tonight.

My question is this: MFP really can't be suggesting that I am supposed to go out and try to eat 1,239 calories before the day is over, can they? While I THINK I understand the point of what they're saying, I'm not hungry at this point and I feel good enough to only eat my remaining 325 for the day, which would make my net calories at bedtime tonight a mere 286. Which, I recognize is very low.

Is it at all dangerous or bad for me to simply not log my exercise in? I feel as though going out and trying to eat 1,200 calories is going to be quite difficult for me at this point. Does "starvation mode" kick in even though I have technically still eaten my 1,200 calories or do you think I ought to go and try to eat my numbers back to an even 0 remaining calories?

Thank you for your help.

BTW, in case it matters: 24 year old male. 5'10", 172 pounds. Goal of 160.

If you are only aiming to lose 12 pounds, then you should absolutely not be set to lose 2 pds per week. You sould be set to lose a half a pound per week unless you enjoy losing muscle mass.

Here's the basic concept of MFP: it's set up to give you a calorie goal that will result in weight loss whether or not you exercise and it wants your calorie deficit to be consistent from day to day. In order to keep your deficit consistent, it will add exercise calories logged back to your daily calorie goal. So yes, you are encouraged to eat your exercise calories.

I agree that it's rather difficult to do that if you haven't been planning for that exercise througout the day. If you have a pretty good idea of what your workout is going to be on any given day, log it before you do it so that you can spread the extra calories across the entire day instead of trying to eat them all for dinner.

1200 calories a day for a guy sounds really low!?! Especially at your age and weight. You should still log your exercsise so you can keep track of it. Don't worry about "starvation mode", people tend to use it as a crutch when in all actuality (while it does exist) it was a study that was done in the 70's and the men in the study ate basically nothing and didn't enter into starvation mode for months. Also, you wouldn't have to worry about starvation mode as long as your daily total calories is atleast 1200.

To create the net, nutritionally you probably should have eaten those calories earlier in the day or right after your workout. After your HR goes down to normal, you should have 325 to go because your body would have burnt the 914 this morning, while you were working out. I don't agree with MFP's idea of eating back exercise calories after you workout because your body isn't burning those calories anymore. It gives you the 914 extra calories, but my PT mentioned that if someone knows supposedly that they're going to burn 500 calories, they should eat something around that figure right before they workout to fuel the workout, rather than eat them back after and have them just sit there in their body not being used.

1200 calories a day for a guy sounds really low!?! Especially at your age and weight. You should still log your exercsise so you can keep track of it. Don't worry about "starvation mode", people tend to use it as a crutch when in all actuality (while it does exist) it was a study that was done in the 70's and the men in the study ate basically nothing and didn't enter into starvation mode for months. Also, you wouldn't have to worry about starvation mode as long as your daily total calories is atleast 1200.

You're a bit misguided. The less you have to lose, the more you *should* be concerned about screwing up your metabolism by eating too little. With fewer fat reserves, the body simply cannot handle a high deficit. With only 12 pounds to lose, the OP needs to up his calorie intake and only aim for 1/2 to 1 lbs loss per week at the most.

1200 is NOT a hard and fast "line" for everyone. It could very well mess up the OP's metabolism if he sticks to 1200/day, especially if he doesn't eat back exercise calories. Read this: http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/230930-starvation-mode-how-it-works
Most men definitely need more than 1200 calories/day.

I said he should be eating more than 1200 calories a day and I didn't say he shouldn't be worried about messing up his metabolism I said that he shouldn't be worried about going into starvation mode because being way under your calorie goal for one day isn't going to send you into starvation mode or mess with your metabolism.

1200 calories a day for a guy sounds really low!?! Especially at your age and weight. You should still log your exercsise so you can keep track of it. Don't worry about "starvation mode", people tend to use it as a crutch when in all actuality (while it does exist) it was a study that was done in the 70's and the men in the study ate basically nothing and didn't enter into starvation mode for months. Also, you wouldn't have to worry about starvation mode as long as your daily total calories is atleast 1200.

You're a bit misguided. The less you have to lose, the more you *should* be concerned about screwing up your metabolism by eating too little. With fewer fat reserves, the body simply cannot handle a high deficit. With only 12 pounds to lose, the OP needs to up his calorie intake and only aim for 1/2 to 1 lbs loss per week at the most.

1200 is NOT a hard and fast "line" for everyone. It could very well mess up the OP's metabolism if he sticks to 1200/day, especially if he doesn't eat back exercise calories. Read this: http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/230930-starvation-mode-how-it-works
Most men definitely need more than 1200 calories/day.

I said he should be eating more than 1200 calories a day and I didn't say he shouldn't be worried about messing up his metabolism I said that he shouldn't be worried about going into starvation mode because being way under your calorie goal for one day isn't going to send you into starvation mode or mess with your metabolism.

Starvation mode = messing up your metabolism. I personally try to avoid the "starvation mode" title because it's misleading.

You said "Also, you wouldn't have to worry about starvation mode as long as your daily total calorie is at least 1200" and I was trying to emphasize that this is not likely to be correct for the OP - he could very easily enter starvation mode by eating 1200 calories (even 1200 net calories) on a daily basis over a period of time.

No, it won't happen overnight, but based on the OP's post, this isn't a "once in a while" issue - he's trying to figure out how much he should be eating on a regular basis. Starvation mode (or lowered metabolism or whatever you want to call it) it will happen eventually if he's not eating enough, especially if he's not eating back exercise calories (but it could even happen if he is, because 1200 net is not really enough for most guys).

Hence why I said 1200 calories is low for a guy. Also, from his post he's looking for the amount of calories he should be eating to lose the 12 lbs not what he should be eating on regular basis after he reaches his goal weight so he does need to create a deficit and unless it is taking him 6 months or more to lose 12 lbs and eating 1500 calories or less then he does NOT have to worry about starvation mode. NOT to mention his main concern was really if he had to eat back all the calories he burned which someone answered appropriately with "put your exercise in in the morning so you can spread your calories out through the day." He asked "Does "starvation mode" kick in even though I have technically still eaten my 1,200 calories" meaning he wanted to know if he was going to go into starvation mode that day. Which I correctly answered with a "no"

And just FYI since you apparently don't really know what your talking about "Starvation mode is a state in which the body is responding to prolonged periods of low caloric intake levels. During short periods of caloric abstinence, the human body will burn primarily free fatty acids from body fat stores. After prolonged periods of starvation the body has depleted its body fat and begins to burn lean tissue and muscle as a fuel source." NOTICE IT SAYS PROLONGED WHICH IS NOT WHAT THE OP WAS ASKING IN THIS QUESTION unless he thinks it's going to take him months to lose the weight (and I don't think he does, shhhh)

Ordinarily, the body responds to reduced caloric intake by burning fat reserves first, and only consumes muscle and other tissues when those reserves are exhausted. Specifically, the body burns fat after first exhausting the contents of the digestive tract along with glycogen reserves stored in muscle and liver cells. After prolonged periods of starvation, the body will utilize the proteins within muscle tissue as a fuel source. People who practice fasting on a regular basis, such as those adhering to caloric restricted diets, can prime their bodies to abstain from food without burning lean tissue. Resistance training (such as weight lifting) can also prevent the loss of muscle mass while a person is caloric restricted." Which assuming the OP is weight lifting (and my sources say yes he is) then again while he is trying to lose that 12 lbs then he does not have to worry about going into starvation mode unless it is taking him MONTHS to lose that weight and EVEN then as long as he is lifting it will still mostly come from fat stores.

"Many fear that going into starvation mode will drastically reduce their metabolic rate and cause them to hoard calories and gain weight instead of losing.

This is not borne out by the infamous Minnesota Semistarvation Study (1950), 36 young, healthy, psychologically normal men while restricting their caloric intake for 6 months. Their calories were restricted in various phases, but the least amount of calories they were allowed was 50% of the "normal" maintenance calories. Notice, this was dubbed a "semi" starvation diet.

Yes, their metabolic rates were significantly lowered -- to something like 40% below baseline. Yet at no point did the men stop losing fat until they hit 5% body fat at the end of the study."

"In general, it's true that metabolic rate tends to drop more with more excessive caloric deficits (and this is true whether the effect is from eating less or exercising more); as well, people vary in how hard or fast their bodies shut down. Women's bodies tend to shut down harder and faster. So again, and pay attention this time, he has to be eating under 750 calories for a LONG period of time before he has to worry about messing up his metabolism and I don't think he was planning on doing that (hence the reason he asked this question)

In no study has the drop in metabolic rate been sufficient to completely offset the caloric deficit. That is, say that cutting your calories by 50% per day leads to a reduction in the metabolic rate of 10%. Starvation mode you say. Well, yes. But you still have a 40% daily deficit.

TheMinnesota men still continuing to lose fat even though their metabolic rates had dropped to 40% below baseline. No study where people were put on strictly controlled diets failed to acknowledge weight or fat loss."

So, in summation, I don't believe he was asking what he should eat everyday for the rest of his life he was simply questioning whether or not he is expected to eat almost 1300 calories for dinner (which the answer was no, he should spread it out) and if he had to worry about starvation mode (which again the answer was no because it takes months to enter starvation mode or mess with your metabolism). Now I understand people like you have to have the last word but you can chalk this one up to a loss and your welcome for the information.