Working Out = Extra Calories?

itisjessdarling
itisjessdarling Posts: 46 Member
edited September 29 in Fitness and Exercise
My calorie goal is 1200 a day, but when I work out and add it to mfp it adds extra calories to my daily total. So should I only be eating the 1200 calories and stop logging my workouts or do I really need to eat the extra calories that it adds to my daily total?

Replies

  • kerenjackson06
    kerenjackson06 Posts: 8 Member
    I just read a feed about this today! You are supposed to make up at least some of those calories; otherwise, your body could go into starvation mode. You should focus more on your net calories at the end of the day.
  • melizerd
    melizerd Posts: 870 Member
    Yes you need to eat them, you should be shooting to NET 1200 calories a day. I'm sure someone will post the link to the MANY threads about why it's important to eat back some or all of your exercise calories.
  • BabyDuchess
    BabyDuchess Posts: 353 Member
    I eat 1/2 to 3/4 of mine to make sure I keep my body fueled and not plateau, which I haven't done yet.... :flowerforyou:
  • anubis609
    anubis609 Posts: 3,966 Member
    To answer your title: Yes. You get to eat moar phood.
  • melibea
    melibea Posts: 228
    You really need to eat them back. I only eat back from 1/3 to 1/2 of the calories MFP says I burned because it overestimates how many calories I burn and I don't have a heart rate monitor to know exactly how many calories I really burned. So if you have a HRM and you know how much you burned, then go ahead and eat that back.
  • fehz
    fehz Posts: 1 Member
    Eat! Exercising requires your body to burn more calories - you want to NET 1200 calories (So 1200 calories without exercise, but say 1400 calories if you burned 200 calories during exercise still evens you out to 1200). I honestly don't think their measure of calories burned is accurate though so I usually change the calories part to about 75% of what they list just to play it safe.
  • AnnaValek
    AnnaValek Posts: 129 Member
    More exercise means that you need a higher calorie intake because of the demand of the physical activity. The base line of calories is more or less for someone who leads a fairly sedentary lifestyle. If you work out a lot, but eat too little, then your body will freak and you might cease to lose weight. You'll begin to feel tired and sore. So, match all exercise routines with a small following snack to gain back some of the good nutrients you may have burned during a rigorous workout.
  • itisjessdarling
    itisjessdarling Posts: 46 Member
    Thanks everyone! Your responses really help me out. :)
  • SwippleCita
    SwippleCita Posts: 9
    I'm very new to dieting and exercising. I see everyone writing to eat the workout calories, I work long hours on 4 days of the week. I leave at 6am and return home at 9ish, so I do the 30 day shred for 20 min, is it bad for me to do that since I will go to bed with extra calories.
  • Chiqui74
    Chiqui74 Posts: 72 Member
    You don't HAVE to eat them but eating them won't stop you from losing weight. You should not force-feed yourself just to reach a calorie number. Eat if you are hungry, don't eat if you are not. I'm referring to the calorie surplus that comes from exercise. Unless you are exercise a great deal, you don't need to eat all the calories you burn.
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