How much to eat?

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macclone
macclone Posts: 85 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
Based on my goals, MFP says daily calories is 2000. I work out and burn 500 calories. Should I be eating 2500 for weight loss or 1500 for a 1000 cal. Deficit?
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  • skymningen
    skymningen Posts: 532 Member
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    If you gave weight loss as your goal, you should eat the 2000 cals, as they have been calculated for our deficit. If you work out and burn 500 calories, you should log the workout. MFP will ask you to eat the calories back. Some people, especially if they are not in a very large deficit anyway do not eat them back or only half of them. That is something you can find out if it works for you.
  • malibu927
    malibu927 Posts: 17,565 Member
    edited August 2017
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    If you set MFP to lose a pound a week, you should ideally be eating the 2500, as you then would have burned 3000 for the entire day. But as many people find that the calorie burn estimates are overstated, they will only eat back 50-75% of their exercise calories.

    You can certainly not eat them back and go for the higher deficit, but it can be damaging in the long run by causing a greater amount of muscle loss.
  • MichelleSilverleaf
    MichelleSilverleaf Posts: 2,028 Member
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    Depends on what your weekly loss is set to. I believe it's 500/day for a 1lb loss, 1000 for 2lbs but I could be wrong. MFP already factors in a deficit, so you can or not eat all 2000 cal, and it's generally recommended to eat back roughly a portion of your exercise calories to account for any potential over-estimations.
  • macclone
    macclone Posts: 85 Member
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    Now I have to figure out how to actually eat that many calories.
  • natasor1
    natasor1 Posts: 271 Member
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    Unfortunately, from all cals we consume a day only 10% burned by our motions, 70% is birned by our body living functions and 20% are by digestion. Realy, you overestimate your workout calorage
  • macclone
    macclone Posts: 85 Member
    edited August 2017
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    So you are saying that when I burn 750 calories working out I shouldn't count them in my daily formula? My Apple Watch is pretty accurate.
  • MichelleSilverleaf
    MichelleSilverleaf Posts: 2,028 Member
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    Intentional exercise calories are always extra, so when you enter your exercise in that part of your diary you'll notice that your daily calorie total on your food diary goes up. The reason people recommend you only eat back a portion of those calories is that unless you're using a heart monitor odds are that those calories are being over-estimated. So you only eat some to account for that.
  • macclone
    macclone Posts: 85 Member
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    natasor1 wrote: »
    No, No, No!!! In reality u may burn only 75cal s. (it also depends very much from your frame, high and weight). Recent study shows that to burn slice of bread (80cal) u have to clime on 22nd floor. Our bodies are so efficient in saving energy. Be prepared, that many commercial devices are only painting nice pictures for not proffecional people to make them to love and buy those devices. Also be prepared not to take on consideration all burn calories. Just stop counting them.

    Can you provide a link to the article?
  • macclone
    macclone Posts: 85 Member
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    Thanks Jane. It made sense that if I go to the gym for two hours and row, cycle, and elliptical plus weight training and stretching I should enter some of it into MFP.
  • ladyhusker39
    ladyhusker39 Posts: 1,406 Member
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    macclone wrote: »
    Thanks Jane. It made sense that if I go to the gym for two hours and row, cycle, and elliptical plus weight training and stretching I should enter some of it into MFP.

    You should enter all of your exercise into MFP. I don't use an Apple Watch, but I sync my Fitbit to MFP and it does all of the adjustments for me. Throughout the day it will update my calorie allowance based on my activity. I find it to be very accurate. When I follow what it tells me, I get the results I'd expect based on the goals I give MFP.
  • WinoGelato
    WinoGelato Posts: 13,454 Member
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    As mentioned by others - MFP is set up to provide you a NEAT (non exercise activity thermogenesis) calorie goal which factors in a deficit based on the rate of loss you entered when you set up your profile and your goals. Because MFP asks you about activity level for work, but does not include exercise in that - if you do work out, the MFP method would suggest you should eat back those exercise calories in order to prevent having too large of a deficit. Adverse effects from aggressive deficits include fatigue, lack of sustainability, difficulty getting proper nutrition, loss of lean body mass, etc. People usually suggest that you start by eating back maybe 50% of the exercise calorie estimate until you determine if those estimates (whether provided by MFP, or an activity tracker, or a HRM) are accurate for you.

    Personally, I always ate back 100% of my exercise calories when I was estimating using MFP database and now that I have a FitBit. This did not derail my progress, I reached my weight loss goal in the time I wanted and am maintaining successfully for several years now.

    The best approach is to be consistent, and monitor and adjust based on your own personal results. If after 6-8 weeks you find you are losing faster than desired, then consider eating back more of the calories. If slower, consider eating back less and/or make sure your logging is accurate (usually the too biggest culprits for not losing at the desired pace are underestimating CI and overestimating CO).

    Good luck.
  • cerise_noir
    cerise_noir Posts: 5,468 Member
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    janejellyroll wrote: »
    natasor1 wrote: »
    No, No, No!!! In reality u may burn only 75cal s. (it also depends very much from your frame, high and weight). Recent study shows that to burn slice of bread (80cal) u have to clime on 22nd floor. Our bodies are so efficient in saving energy. Be prepared, that many commercial devices are only painting nice pictures for not proffecional people to make them to love and buy those devices. Also be prepared not to take on consideration all burn calories. Just stop counting them.

    MFP's calorie goals do not include the calories burn through intentional exercise. If your calorie goal comes from this tool, it's important to consider the calories burnt during exercise to avoid creating too large of a deficit.

    It seems like you may not understand this, so it might be better to learn more about MFP before giving newer users advice.
    +1
  • macclone
    macclone Posts: 85 Member
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    My Russian is a little rusty at the moment.
  • mlsh1969
    mlsh1969 Posts: 138 Member
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    macclone wrote: »
    Now I have to figure out how to actually eat that many calories.

    Good luck, l do not have that problem lol
  • macclone
    macclone Posts: 85 Member
    edited August 2017
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    Today, I forced my self to consume 1337 calories, 1471 and 1378 the prior two days. I work out between 1.5 and 2 hours doing cardio and lifting. It is leaving me at least 600 calories under my max.

    For context, I am 56 year old male. 5'9" and 200 lbs. Goal is 175.
    tips?
  • PAV8888
    PAV8888 Posts: 13,721 Member
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    macclone wrote: »
    Today, I forced my self to consume 1337 calories, 1471 and 1378 the prior two days. I work out between 1.5 and 2 hours doing cardio and lifting. It is leaving me at least 600 calories under my max.
    For context, I am 56 year old male. 5'9" and 200 lbs. Goal is 175.
    tips?

    By BMI you're overweight; but you're certainly not obese. As such a deficit of no more than 20% of your total caloric expenditure for the day would be appropriate.

    Since logging is not always accurate and since every person is not necessarily tracking straight down the middle of a standard curve, it is appropriate to compare paper deficits to actual results after a few weeks and adjust as necessary.

    A trending weight app or web site is a very useful tool for people to be able to gauge their actual weight level change over time.
  • smh_cliff
    smh_cliff Posts: 146 Member
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    If you are finding it difficult to eat your calories, could it be that you have gone in to "diet mode"? With the greatest respect, none of us would need to use MFP to lose weight if we hadn't been easily eating too many calories before!
    I've done it myself, decided to lose weight and lived on salads and stir fry for a while - would have been way under my calorie goal had I been counting and wasn't sustainable as it was so dull as much as anything else. This time I'm eating what I usually would most of the time at home, just less of it with some healthier snack choices in the house.
    Apologies if I'm off the mark, it's just what comes to mind when anyone says they find it hard to eat enough.

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