Calorie goal and calories burnt at gym

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3letters
3letters Posts: 7 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
Hi,

So MFP set my calorie goal at 1200 and I usually burn up to 850 calories doing cardio (running, elliptical). I am confused because after I enter my exercise calories, the app allows me to eat more (example: if I consumed all sugar goal for the day in the afternoon, after i exercise the app frees up sugar below the goal, so I can eat more sugar).

So I guess my question is, how much should my net calories be?
Do I have to eat some of the calories burnt or stick to 1200 calories of food (leaving out exercise)?

I have been searching the internet all day however I decided to make use of the app (I am new btw), and maybe hear some advice from users who have been doing this for a longer time now.

I reallyyyyyyy appreciate your help :)

Replies

  • Peeps_87
    Peeps_87 Posts: 14 Member
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    The calories part is about staying within a certain calorie deficit.

    Lets say you need to eat 1500 calories to maintain your body weight and you want to be at a 300 calorie deficit to loss weight healthily. You would have to eat 1200 calories a day. If you do heavy cardio and burn burn 500 calories, you have to eat 500 more calories to stay with your calorie deficit.

    For the sugar thing, I think it has to do with carbs but I'm not sure.
  • 3letters
    3letters Posts: 7 Member
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    Thank you for your responses, i was just concerned because after i would burn calories at the gym I really wasn't able to eat all of it back.

    As for sugar I meant, somedays before I hit the gym I might meet my macro fat target for example, and then after i go to the gym and log it on MFP I see that i have lets say 7grams more left of fat, and I just found it interesting.

    Thanks again, helped me a lot!!
  • cwolfman13
    cwolfman13 Posts: 41,868 Member
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    3letters wrote: »
    Hi,

    So MFP set my calorie goal at 1200 and I usually burn up to 850 calories doing cardio (running, elliptical). I am confused because after I enter my exercise calories, the app allows me to eat more (example: if I consumed all sugar goal for the day in the afternoon, after i exercise the app frees up sugar below the goal, so I can eat more sugar).

    So I guess my question is, how much should my net calories be?
    Do I have to eat some of the calories burnt or stick to 1200 calories of food (leaving out exercise)?

    I have been searching the internet all day however I decided to make use of the app (I am new btw), and maybe hear some advice from users who have been doing this for a longer time now.

    I reallyyyyyyy appreciate your help :)

    Your 1200 calorie target is your deficit...a rather substantial one, and it assumes ZERO exercise...it's an aggressive weight loss goal for a sedentary individual. If you're truly burning 850 calories, this would be the same as just eating 350 calories per day, and I'm not sure in what world anyone would think that to be healthy.
  • 3letters
    3letters Posts: 7 Member
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    @cwolfman13 that's why I was concerned in the first place and asked this question to have an idea on how to think of exercise and calorie intake so I dont freak out. Thanks for your response :)

    @InkAndApples thats a very nice way to think about this, didnt occur to me before to use the calories burnt for the weekend :) thank youu

    I am very active at the gym with cardio especially, and I have not used MFP before, but i did not lose any weight at all for a year now and I started getting concerned. A search on the web shows that maybe the calorie intake is higher than what I am burning, so I decided to become a user and started decreasing meal portions.

    I was just concerned about my net calories as I do not want to damage my health in any way.

    Thank you all for your responses :)
  • JeromeBarry1
    JeromeBarry1 Posts: 10,182 Member
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    @3letters, Good on your for asking. I congratulate you for "I do not want to damage my health in any way" and the action you've taken to abide by that desire.
  • 3letters
    3letters Posts: 7 Member
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    @JeromeBarry1 thank you :)
  • shnookie70
    shnookie70 Posts: 91 Member
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    InkAndApples wrote: »
    You don't have to eat all your calories on the day you "earn" them either - a lot of people find it useful to have a weekly overview - for example i'm super active during the week and lazy at the weekends but I save my exercise calories to have heavier meals on Saturday and Sunday. It works well for me.

    I eat all my exercise calories btw.

    Ohhhh, that's actually a good idea!
  • Morgaath
    Morgaath Posts: 679 Member
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    3letters wrote: »
    Thank you for your responses, i was just concerned because after i would burn calories at the gym I really wasn't able to eat all of it back.

    As for sugar I meant, somedays before I hit the gym I might meet my macro fat target for example, and then after i go to the gym and log it on MFP I see that i have lets say 7grams more left of fat, and I just found it interesting.

    Thanks again, helped me a lot!!

    It gave you an additional 850 cals, which it then spreads out according to your macro goal... 9cals for a gram of fat, 4 cals for a gram of protein or carbs.
    If you are set to 33% for each one... that is 31 grams fat, and 71g each for protein & carbs.
  • 3letters
    3letters Posts: 7 Member
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    @Morgaath Ohhh thanks a lot, I figured it would be something like this I just did not know precisely how it distributes it :)
  • Mr_Knight
    Mr_Knight Posts: 9,532 Member
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    3letters wrote: »
    I usually burn up to 850 calories doing cardio (running, elliptical).

    How are you getting this number?
  • katnadreau
    katnadreau Posts: 149 Member
    edited July 2017
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    Just to clarify real quick.... I just saw I'm 3,000 calories UNDER my weekly net goal so I could/should have an extra piece of pizza and glass of wine tonight, yea? :) I make sure my net calories for the day is a minimum of 1200, preferably 1350-1400, but I have 4 kids, and life gets busy, and sometimes I miss my snack or they really want the last piece of whatever we had at dinner, or my husband finds my hidden goody stash. So those leftover calories really add up. It honestly never occurred to me to save extra burned calories for the weekend, which I love by the way. One of my kids bakes on Sundays, and if I can dig into my extra net calories to enjoy her creations I definitely want to.
  • 3letters
    3letters Posts: 7 Member
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    @Mr_Knight If I do ecliptical-steps exercise at gym it shows i burned 850 calories, but in addition to that I also run for 30 mins or so adding 200 more calories and then just add 850 to MFP because I know that the machines might overcount the calories. I always log less calories than the gym machines actually show I burned
  • 3letters
    3letters Posts: 7 Member
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    @katnadreau yeah I always look at the net calories in daly values and never actually gave it another perspective. I hope it wooorkksssss
  • Mr_Knight
    Mr_Knight Posts: 9,532 Member
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    3letters wrote: »
    @Mr_Knight If I do ecliptical-steps exercise at gym it shows i burned 850 calories, but in addition to that I also run for 30 mins or so adding 200 more calories and then just add 850 to MFP because I know that the machines might overcount the calories. I always log less calories than the gym machines actually show I burned

    Sounds reasonable. You'll be able to tell after a few weeks of logging if it's still an overestimate (elliptical is notorious for that!)

    Good luck!

  • InkAndApples
    InkAndApples Posts: 201 Member
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    katnadreau wrote: »
    Just to clarify real quick.... I just saw I'm 3,000 calories UNDER my weekly net goal so I could/should have an extra piece of pizza and glass of wine tonight, yea? :) I make sure my net calories for the day is a minimum of 1200, preferably 1350-1400, but I have 4 kids, and life gets busy, and sometimes I miss my snack or they really want the last piece of whatever we had at dinner, or my husband finds my hidden goody stash. So those leftover calories really add up. It honestly never occurred to me to save extra burned calories for the weekend, which I love by the way. One of my kids bakes on Sundays, and if I can dig into my extra net calories to enjoy her creations I definitely want to.

    Definitely!

    My Sunday this week looks like 2300 base calories to spend plus an extra 500 or so exercise cals on top, think I'll be joining you on the wine!

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