Calorie counting help??

Options
rjackhernandez
rjackhernandez Posts: 1 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
Hey guys! I'm fairly new to the whole weight loss deal and I need a little guidance. I know the basics of calorie counting​ and working out but I'm at a stump. I need 2600 calorie to maintain my current weight and I need 1600 to lose 2 pounds a week. What I'm confused about is if I burn 500 calories a day on top of only eating 1600 would that be bad for my body? Or would I need to eat 2100 calories and then burn 500? What I heard is if one starves themselves alot the body starts to lose muscle instead if fat. Any help would be greatly appreciated!!

Replies

  • tgcake
    tgcake Posts: 59 Member
    Options
    Burning 500 calories on a 1,600 calorie plan would mean you're at 1,100 calories a day. 1,200 is the lowest safe amount. Most people tend to eat back about half their exercise calories. You can eat back all if you like but that might inadvertently put you over 1,600 calories as calorie output through exercise and the like tends to be overestimated most of the time (e.g. gym machines, MFP's calorie estimates, etc.).
  • Tacklewasher
    Tacklewasher Posts: 7,122 Member
    Options
    Yes, if you already have a deficit of 1000 cals before exercising, you don't want to go beyond that. I'm guessing we are close to the same size & activity level (250, 6' sedentary) as I'm at 1550 to lose 2 lbs per week. I try to exercise so that I have enough calories to actually eat 2000. Seems to be my happy place as far as food goes.

    The energy for the exercise has to come from somewhere, and if you are already under by 1000, then a lot more of it will come from muscle than fat. Between that and some stuff I've read on the risk of gallstones from too fast weight loss means I don't want my daily deficit to be mush more than 1000.

    Now the issue is how do you know if you burned 500 cals with your exercise. Depending on what you are doing and how you get to that number, it could be over estimated. Both from what the machines tell you and what the MFP exercise database tells you. So you will see advice here to only eat back 50-75% of your exercise calories, and that is a good starting place. Once you have a bit of time under your belt, and see what your trending eight loss is, you can adjust the % until you get it close. I have a wrist HRM that seems pretty close so I do eat all of mine back, up to the 2000 cals. Then I eat maybe 1/2 back over that.

    Short answer. Eat 3/4 of the exercise calories.

Categories