When I log my exercise should I stay with my daily 1200 cals and not pay attention to calories out?

jasminnatale · August 2017

I'm confused. I feel like I should stay with my 1200 daily calories without the exercise calories out to loose weight. What works best for you guys?

lorrpb · August 2017

Eat back about half the exercise cals. They are usually overstated on machines and in MFP. You need to fuel those workouts, especially when eating at only 1200. What kind of exercise are you doing?

usmcmp · August 2017

You're supposed to eat at least part of the exercise calories.

MegaMooseEsq · August 2017

1200 is your net recommended calories. If you burn additional calories via exercise and "eat back" some* or all of those calories, you will still be at the same deficit as if you didn't exercise at all. But exercise needs to be properly fueled so you don't hurt yourself or get sick.

*Ideally you'd eat them all, but it's hard to judge exactly how many calories exercise burns, thus the "eat back half" standard.

kimny72 · August 2017

Mfp expects you to log your exercise and eat back those calories. So your mfp goal is 1200 + exercise, not 1200.

Rusty740 · August 2017

jasminnatale wrote: »

I'm confused. I feel like I should stay with my 1200 daily calories without the exercise calories out to loose weight. What works best for you guys?

I find it easier to stick with "the program" if I just stay to one number each day regardless of what exercise I do.

jasminnatale · August 2017

I usually do kick boxing. It's a mix of everything and kicks my butt. I usually work out in the morning and eat about and hour before. Bread or carbs, banana, and protein. Usually turkey or peanut butter. Thanks for the info guys! I'll try the half calories thing!

dahlia_coenen · August 2017

YES! Stick to the 1200 regardless of exercise. However, if you feel like you need more nutrition, fat, protein, etc., then eat up to the calories you burned extra (for that day only). The calories burned are an estimate...meaning they are not very accurate. I have only ever maintained while consuming 1200 + exercise calories. I lost weight by sticking to the calories (without extra exercise calories), and listening to my body.

janejellyroll · August 2017

Rusty740 wrote: »

jasminnatale wrote: »

I'm confused. I feel like I should stay with my 1200 daily calories without the exercise calories out to loose weight. What works best for you guys?

I find it easier to stick with "the program" if I just stay to one number each day regardless of what exercise I do.

This is fine, but most active people do better when they account for the calories burned in some way (higher daily calorie goal, for example). 1,200 is already very low and netting below 1,200 regularly is probably going to catch up with OP at some point.

lucerorojo · August 2017

I always eat back most of my calories from exercise, but I have a lot of weigh to lose (100 lbs.), and so it makes less of a difference, since it's still a big deficit from what I HAD been eating before. I've lost 13.5 in the last 8 weeks--eating back my calories (and then some occasionally)

timeisfiction · August 2017

jasminnatale wrote: »

I'm confused. I feel like I should stay with my 1200 daily calories without the exercise calories out to loose weight. What works best for you guys?

Personally, I don't eat back my burned calories. I live a pretty sedentary life outside of the gym and don't get to the gym as often as I'd like so when I do have a large calorie burn, I don't replace it. If you're always moving, you might want to.

collectingblues · August 2017

janejellyroll wrote: »

Rusty740 wrote: »

jasminnatale wrote: »

I'm confused. I feel like I should stay with my 1200 daily calories without the exercise calories out to loose weight. What works best for you guys?

I find it easier to stick with "the program" if I just stay to one number each day regardless of what exercise I do.

This is fine, but most active people do better when they account for the calories burned in some way (higher daily calorie goal, for example). 1,200 is already very low and netting below 1,200 regularly is probably going to catch up with OP at some point.

Bingo.

I'm an endurance/long distance runner. It would be absolutely ludicrous and borderline malnutrition-inducing if I stuck to a 1280 goal, and then *didn't* eat anything back on those long run days. When I plan out my meals, I know I'm going to be doing whatever exercise that day, and I know that I need to actually plan that food in, or else I'll just ... not fuel them. And that leads to an awful restrict->urge-to-binge-and -purge cycle.

Case in point: I'm planning on a 10-mile run tonight (I average about 20 miles a week, and usually do one 10, one five-mile, one 45-minute run, and one 30-minute run). Saturday was a five mile, and yesterday was a "light" day of just a barre session.

I'm cool with seeing a -330 number right now, because eight hours from now, I'll have burned about 800-900 calories. So, I'm not forcing myself to eat all of them, but I'm also not being an idiot and refusing to fuel that long run.

If I didn't plan to fuel that back, I'd be climbing the walls at the end of the night. Or, because I'm type 1 diabetic, the more likely scenario is that I'd be dealing with severe hypoglycemia and having to constantly feed that to treat it. Since you can't just, you know, generate glycogen and carbs on command.

Maybe this whole "oh, don't eat any of them back" thing works for people who just walk, or don't do anything intensive, but for anything resembling endurance exercise, it's ludicrous.

WinoGelato · August 2017

dahlia_coenen wrote: »

YES! Stick to the 1200 regardless of exercise. However, if you feel like you need more nutrition, fat, protein, etc., then eat up to the calories you burned extra (for that day only). The calories burned are an estimate...meaning they are not very accurate. I have only ever maintained while consuming 1200 + exercise calories. I lost weight by sticking to the calories (without extra exercise calories), and listening to my body.

MOST people, unless extremely petite or sedentary, can lose weight eating more than 1200 calories. Those who believe they cannot are usually not logging accurately and thus are eating more than 1200 calories.

Regardless, to the OP - the MFP system is designed to set up a calorie target for you to achieve your weight loss goals assuming you do NO exercise, your deficit is built off of your NEAT calorie estimate. When you do exercise, you are meant to eat at least a portion of those calories back. Some people find that MFP overestimates calorie burns, but for me, it was always spot on, and if you are using an activity tracker or HRM to estimate your calorie burn then most people feel confident eating back almost all of their calories.

Additionally - 1200 is often not an appropriate goal for everyone. Many people choose the most aggressive rate of loss, 2 lbs/week, which is recommended only for people with 75 or more pounds to lose. If you have less than 50 lbs to lose, a goal of 1 lb/week is more appropriate, and if you have less than 25 lbs to lose, then a goal of 0.5 lb/week is better.

VintageFeline · August 2017

MFP uses the NEAT method, your goal is BEFORE purposeful exercise assuming you've picked the right activity level (most people choose sedentary, even when they have very active jobs for example).

Now I am truly sedentary and yet have always eaten all of my exercise calories and always lose in line with my rolling deficit (I use weekly numbers).

So experiment with the accuracy of your numbers but you should absolutely be eating at least some.

When I log my exercise should I stay with my daily 1200 cals and not pay attention to calories out?

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