Did you follow MyFitnessPal pals recommended calories?

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sranney2
sranney2 Posts: 24 Member
in Success Stories
For all of you beautiful encouraging success stories...did you follow the recommended MFP calorie intake ? Did you eat the extra calories for exercising?

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  • tcunbeliever
    tcunbeliever Posts: 8,219 Member
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    Yes, and I usually eat half of my exercise calories.
  • Fuzzipeg
    Fuzzipeg Posts: 2,298 Member
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    I thought if you used the calculator and put in you took exercise that credited you with those calories in advance. Now, if you do not regularly exercise then you have no allocation for any exercise you do take, log exercise and earn extra calories.

    I sometimes did and others didn't.
  • TeaBea
    TeaBea Posts: 14,517 Member
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    Fuzzipeg wrote: »
    I thought if you used the calculator and put in you took exercise that credited you with those calories in advance. Now, if you do not regularly exercise then you have no allocation for any exercise you do take, log exercise and earn extra calories.

    I sometimes did and others didn't.

    MFP is based on NEAT (Non-exercise activity thermogenesis) - exercise is not included. You need to log it to get extra calories. Your MFP activity level is based on what type of job you have.

    If you know that your exercise will be a regular habit, and don't want to up down of rest vs. workout days then use a TDEE calculator. That includes exercise & will average your workouts thru the week.

    http://scoobysworkshop.com/calorie-calculator/
  • PurpleSnack
    PurpleSnack Posts: 22 Member
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    Yes, give or take 100 calories or so. Sometimes I was 100 over, others 100 under. I eat the exercise calories if I was hungry or there was a particular treat I wanted, I didn't make myself eat them.

    I followed calories purely as a guideline on portion control. In my diary I was often not sticking to the calories as I mostly wanted to listen to my body. But to start out I used MFP calories and it worked!
  • fit4itall
    fit4itall Posts: 101 Member
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    Yes, and I consistently ate most if not all of the exercise calories back. I'm around 36lbs down since Feb of this year, and maintaining within a 3lb range. If anything I could probably increase a bit now. It might take a little adjusting. Make sure you're as accurate as possible when selecting activity level, and I'd start off no more than 1lb/week (personally wouldn't ever go above 1.5/week) so you can more easily adjust to eating less. You can set it to 1/2 lb a week when you are within 10-15lbs of your goal.
  • TR0berts
    TR0berts Posts: 7,739 Member
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    Back when I was tracking, yes to both questions. Like wolfman alluded to - you may have to make adjustments here or there as you go, but things worked well for me as they were.
  • Spliner1969
    Spliner1969 Posts: 3,233 Member
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    I did at first, but after six months or so I switched to iifym.com's calculators and was happier because it allowed me to calculate my macros and adjust. MFP just wasn't giving me what I wanted for protein requirements.
  • kgirlhart
    kgirlhart Posts: 4,989 Member
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    I followed mfp guidelines and I ate back about 75% of my exercise calories.
  • sijomial
    sijomial Posts: 19,811 Member
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    sranney2 wrote: »
    For all of you beautiful encouraging success stories...did you follow the recommended MFP calorie intake ? Did you eat the extra calories for exercising?

    Yes & yes.
    Exercise calories aren't really "extra" - they are just one of the many energy needs of your body.
  • JoRolleNola
    JoRolleNola Posts: 152 Member
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    I'm In the beginning yes.
  • nutmegoreo
    nutmegoreo Posts: 15,532 Member
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    Still a work in progress, but no I don't follow them anymore. I found the exercise calories too unreliable. I used my actual numbers (number of calories consumed on average and average weight loss) to determine a good number for me. It took time and patience, but it works well.
  • cwolfman13
    cwolfman13 Posts: 41,874 Member
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    Fuzzipeg wrote: »
    I thought if you used the calculator and put in you took exercise that credited you with those calories in advance. Now, if you do not regularly exercise then you have no allocation for any exercise you do take, log exercise and earn extra calories.

    I sometimes did and others didn't.

    If you play with the app, you would have quickly noticed that your exercise goals have zero bearing on your calorie targets with MFP.
  • Grammytryingtogetfit
    Grammytryingtogetfit Posts: 672 Member
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    Yes, and only sometimes eat back some of the exercise calories.
  • daworley
    daworley Posts: 238 Member
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    tcunbeliever wrote: »
    Yes, and I usually eat half of my exercise calories.

    Same here and it has worked wonderfully. I have been satisfied and consistently lost weight to 40lbs down since May. I have less than 15 to go (and may or may not lose it)!
  • Chadxx
    Chadxx Posts: 1,199 Member
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    Actually, I don't use the app but I do basically the same thing on my own. I don't calculate exercise calories but I do eat a little more on days I work out and my pre-workout meals are a little higher carb so I do eat back some of my exercise calories.
  • dutchandkiwi
    dutchandkiwi Posts: 1,389 Member
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    No to be honest,though it is a guide because it has told me my BMR. I started using it but it was not for me as I knew where my problem was (portion control)
    I calculated my TDEE at goalweight and used that. Since a year I have a fitbit and my calculations and the fitbit track beautifully as does my weightloss.
    I track all my food and the app has been so helpful in better understanding portion sizes and where the calories were hiding

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