Average calorie intake low due to exercise

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lyns4wilson
lyns4wilson Posts: 7 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
My daily calorie intake to lose 1lb per week is 1300m. Due to the amount of exercise I am doing my fitness pal states that I am.only eating on average 970 per day which is far too low. I'm nervous about eating calories burned through exercise as they may not be accurate. I do have a fitbit linked to my fitness pal. I have got 1.5st left to lose and have been struggling this year to do it. Should I eat more and if so how much of calories burned through exercise should I eat? Feeling confused and a bit defeated after losing 3.5st fairly easily over a year.

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  • lyns4wilson
    lyns4wilson Posts: 7 Member
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    I've had the fitbit since Xmas. Wasn't exercising much at beginning of the year and ate full quota of daily calories and maintained my weight. So started exercising and im still maintaining same weight.
  • malibu927
    malibu927 Posts: 17,565 Member
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    How much have you been losing per week? If you've been struggling to lose, it sounds like you're eating more than you think.

    FWIW, I lost 60 pounds in 15 months while eating most, if not all, of my Fitbit calories back.
  • SezxyStef
    SezxyStef Posts: 15,268 Member
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    lyns4wilson wrote: »
    I've had the fitbit since Xmas. Wasn't exercising much at beginning of the year and ate full quota of daily calories and maintained my weight. So started exercising and im still maintaining same weight.

    are you using a food scale|? if not calories in is probably not correct....
  • kgirlhart
    kgirlhart Posts: 5,022 Member
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    I eat most of my fitbit adjustment. I find it to be pretty accurate. If you are nervous then just eat back a portion. I always lost faster than expected if I ate less than 70% so I would recommend eating back 75% and reevaluate I about 4 weeks and adjust as necessary.
  • lyns4wilson
    lyns4wilson Posts: 7 Member
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    This year I have maintained my weight rather than losing. I have been logging and weighing out everything over the past week to make sure I'm not missing anything. It's just knowing whether I should eat those extra exercise calories to make sure I'm not undereating. Time will tell.
  • lyns4wilson
    lyns4wilson Posts: 7 Member
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    Thank you kgirlhart. That's good to hear. Will give that a go.
  • Christine_72
    Christine_72 Posts: 16,049 Member
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    I'd start by eating back 50% of your fitbit calories. Reassess in 4-5 weeks, you might be one of the lucky ones who are able to eat all of their exercise calories back and still lose.

    Personally, I try to eat back no more than half, but there are days when I'm ravenous that i end up eating them all lol Go by your hunger, energy and weight loss.
  • Return2Fit
    Return2Fit Posts: 226 Member
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    I eat back all of my exercise calories, but I had to tweak the food intake numbers as well as exercise burn.
    Once I found my zone, all went well. It became a simple daily math equation.
    Calories eaten vs calories burned.
    I lost 110 pounds total, and my average weekly weight loss all that time was .73 pounds per week.

    Just keep running your numbers and measuring your results against the energy estimates.
    You will find your way.
    Good Luck To You
    <3
  • alexandriite
    alexandriite Posts: 9 Member
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    As you get smaller it takes longer to lose weight so try not to feel defeated about it. What I suggest if u don't do this already is change ur fitness plan, so if u mainly do cardio then start doing more weight training as weight Burns more fat than cardio, an alternative would be insanity: 60 days. This really worked for me in losing over a stone. Food wise eat more but way clean and make sure you're checking ur sugar consumption. Even eating clean certain foods can have a lot of sugar which you can keep track on through this app. A friend of mine lost 7kg by just regular exercise and cutting out as much sugar as he could. I hope this helps, if you need anymore advice please feel free to message me xx

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