Questionable Math

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c_hamm80
c_hamm80 Posts: 11
in Fitness and Exercise
Ok can someone explain this site more in-depth for me. Lets use yesterday as an example I ate 819 calories. I expended 1965 calories. The calculations are telling me I have 2346 remaining. Am I suppose to really eat that in one day and lose weight?
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Replies

  • ArchyJill
    ArchyJill Posts: 548 Member
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    Yes. Do you expect your car to travel a long distance without enough gas in the tank too?
  • bwalters82
    bwalters82 Posts: 95
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    You only ate 800 calories? As a guy, you should never go lower than 1200-1400.
  • RCMILLER2
    RCMILLER2 Posts: 38
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    That is the way this site works yes, but there is some debate on whether or no you should eat back all of your calories burned. To stay healthy though you should at minimum be eating 1200 calories a day.
  • sharidiane
    sharidiane Posts: 212 Member
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    Your diary says that you got 2500+ calories from exercise. I would LOVE to know what you are doing! I would love calorie burns like that!!!!

    Right now, at my pace, I would have to work out at FULL intensity for 4 hours to get a burn like that.
  • Calenth
    Calenth Posts: 7
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    The premise they are working on I believe is that you have your set calories to loose the weight (e.g. 1200) and then whatever you exercise off you can then eat back as well - hence your total calories allowed goes up based on the exercise.

    Some people don't eat back their exercise calories, some people only eat half, others eat all...but you need to at least eat the min calories for the day or your actually hindering your weight loss. Personally I eat back between half to all depending on how hungry I'm feeling.
  • Shanell802
    Shanell802 Posts: 37
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    You will find a lot of different answers from people on whether or not you should eat back your exercise calories. But I'll tell you one thing...you should definitely be eating more than 819 cals in a day. Go to "Search" in these topics and look up "starvation mode". Hope this helps. And welcome to MFP!
  • stanvoodoo
    stanvoodoo Posts: 1,023 Member
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    No No NO! The min for men is 1500 and if you are going to burn that many calories you need to eat more. MOre than the 1500 min!

    The body has to have fuel to burn or it burns things you don't want it to!

    Up the calories along with the Protein, Water and Fiber and you will see a huge difference!

    Best of Luck!
  • jame_104
    jame_104 Posts: 57 Member
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    My husband had the same questions when he first started this. He couldn't believe that he was suppose to eat that much. I will tell you the same thing I told him. Give it a month. If you don't see the results you want then do it your way. 50lbs later he is loving it and enjoying torturing me with all the extra calories he has after a 7 mile run :)

    Side note - If you are only eating 800 caloriesa day your body is going to get very angry with you and cause weight gain instead of loss.
  • Ilovedrinkingtea
    Ilovedrinkingtea Posts: 597 Member
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    Yes. Do you expect your car to travel a long distance without enough gas in the tank too?

    YES!!! Eat those exercise calories back or your training will suffer and so will your weight loss!!! xx
  • Rae6503
    Rae6503 Posts: 6,294 Member
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    Yes. That is how it works.

    The site sets you up with a calorie deficit. This deficit is based on your week goal. So if you want to lose a pound a week (the BEST way in my opinion) it figures out how many calories you need to live with no exercise then it subtracts 500 calories (500 x 7 days a week = 3500 calories which supposed = 1 pound).

    When you exercise you burn more than what the site originally calculated so it tells you to eat more. If you don't eat what you burn your deficit becomes larger than 500 calories.

    This might lead to "starvation" mode (although some believe that's a myth). More importantly to me anyway, is that this becomes too hard and you become less likely to stick with it. Finally if you do reach your goal this way it becomes difficult to return to normal eating which might lead to regaining the weight.
  • SHBoss1673
    SHBoss1673 Posts: 7,161 Member
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    You only ate 800 calories? As a guy, you should never go lower than 1200-1400.

    actually for a guy that number is 1600 to 1800 believe it or not. 1200 is the female micro nutrient average minimum. 1600 is the male.
  • erickirb
    erickirb Posts: 12,293 Member
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    You should be eating what MFP suggests to lose you goal amount of weight. You daily goal, plus eat back what you burned.

    How are you calculating calories burned?
    If you are not using a HRM I would suggest only eating 50-75% of them back.

    FYI: Not eating enough when you only have 20 lbs to lose will lead to a loss of a large amount of lean muscle, and less fat, than if you lost the weight slowly. Try setting your goal at 1 lb/week and eat 75% of your calories burned back.

    Remember you burn over 2000 cals/day just living (no exercise) so if you burn another 2000, you would be burning over 4000 calories that day and if your goal is 1 lb/week you only need a 500 cal deficit which means on days you burn 4000 ish you should be eating 3500ish to lose your goal amount of weight.
  • cartern1
    cartern1 Posts: 270 Member
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    you must fuel your body for exercise
  • taso42_DELETED
    taso42_DELETED Posts: 3,394 Member
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    it's very simple math. just addition and subtraction. there isn't even any long division involved.
  • beernutz
    beernutz Posts: 136
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    Eating only ~800 calories while burning off ~2000 calories per day with exercise is not sustainable imo. That sounds like some kind of forced labor diet. I am curious about what you did to burn off those ~2000 extra calories?

    What I think you want is some kind of manageable caloric deficit per day that is sustainable. If you want to lose a pound a week you'll need to have an average 500 calories/day deficit. If you try to ramp that deficit up too high as you have done yesterday, as others have pointed out your body will likely go into starvation mode and cling to its fat stores even tighter making losses harder to come by.
  • c_hamm80
    c_hamm80 Posts: 11
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    So general consensus is I should be eating 1200 a day. No problem I will do that And no I do not expect my car to run with no gas. That just seemed like a lot of calories to be eating.
  • YukonJoy
    YukonJoy Posts: 1,279 Member
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    it's very simple math. just addition and subtraction. there isn't even any long division involved.

    Hehe smartass :)
  • erickirb
    erickirb Posts: 12,293 Member
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    it's very simple math. just addition and subtraction. there isn't even any long division involved.

    What you should eat (Maintenance calories - your desired caloric deficit + exercise calories)

    OP: if your maintenance is 2000 and your goal is to lose 1 lb/week and you burn 1000 from exercise/day you should eat 2500 (2000-500+1000)
  • erickirb
    erickirb Posts: 12,293 Member
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    So general consensus is I should be eating 1200 a day. No problem I will do that And no I do not expect my car to run with no gas. That just seemed like a lot of calories to be eating.

    No, that is not correct. 1200 Net if you were a woman, but you should be eating 1500-1600 plus eat back what you burn from exercise.
  • anubis609
    anubis609 Posts: 3,966 Member
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    General consensus shows that you should be eating your exercise calories.

    OR don't eat them and find out what happens to how your body performs as the days wear on.

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