Doing great losing weight but on hard exercise days...

jpc763
jpc763 Posts: 24 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
I have been on a Keto diet for about 4 months and have had great results. I have lost 43 lbs and have increased my fitness dramatically. I have always been active but as I gained weight, I had a harder time doing the various activities I like to do.

So now that I am thinner and have lots more energy, I am more active and some days, I am close to a deficit with calories. Today is an example.

So far today, I have consumed 1140 calories between breakfast and lunch. My daily total is 2250 and I usually leave 1000 calories for dinner and a snack while watching TV.

I also went out on a hard bike ride where my HR monitor logged 999 calories burned. That coupled with a daily walk this morning has be at 1120 calories burned.

When I have these hard workout days, should I be adding more calories for the day? I have 100 cal packages of nuts at my desk at work that I can snack on.

Just checking in.

Replies

  • SueInAz
    SueInAz Posts: 6,592 Member
    edited September 2016
    Yes, you should. MFP is set up so that you can lose weight without exercise. Not everyone can exercise, after all. So, you already have the deficit needed to lose weight at the rate you specified in your goals (.5 to 2 pounds per week) built into your calorie goal for each day. When you exercise and enter it into MFP, MFP gives you more calories to eat because eating them maintains the deficit needed to meet your goal.

    If you have a lot of weight to lose, you may find that you don't need to eat all of the extra calories because you'd have more calories available to eat anyway but you should be trying to net at least 1500 calories every day (calories eaten - calories burned in exercise = net calories). As you continue to lose weight, and therefore have a lower calorie goal, you will probably find you need to eat more of your exercise calories, and that's normal.
  • kshama2001
    kshama2001 Posts: 28,052 Member
    Yes, as explained above, MFP was designed for you to eat back exercise calories. However, many consider the burns given by MFP to be inflated and only eat a percentage, such as 50%, back.

    http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/818082/exercise-calories-again-wtf/p1
  • jpc763
    jpc763 Posts: 24 Member
    Thanks for the replies. I want to continue to lose weight but I also don't want to starve my body when I am working it hard. I will look to eat more than my 2250 today to make sure I have at lease 1200 calories eaten after all exercise.

    John
  • misskarne
    misskarne Posts: 1,765 Member
    Um, John, if you're a man, you should be eating minimum 1500. 1200 is the minimum for women.
  • SueInAz
    SueInAz Posts: 6,592 Member
    misskarne wrote: »
    Um, John, if you're a man, you should be eating minimum 1500. 1200 is the minimum for women.
    I edited my post when I saw that. :neutral:
  • jpc763
    jpc763 Posts: 24 Member
    edited September 2016
    Got it! Thanks!

    So how bad is it if I do not get the 1500 net calories? It cannot be that bad given that people have "fasting" days.

    Thanks for the input. John

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