Quick question on MFP calorie deficits

jackimartin1973
jackimartin1973 Posts: 10 Member
edited November 27 in Motivation and Support
Hi! On my profile it indicates to keep to 1200 calories a day. Then it’s synced to my fitness tracker which counts ever single step - it subtracts those out as exercise essentially giving me more of a deficit. Do I ignore the deficit there? Do I factor it in? Do you turn it off somehow on the profile- should I?

Replies

  • mamasara2
    mamasara2 Posts: 194 Member
    I've turned mine off because it's registering my phone's step monitor thingy. My pedometer doesn't sync directly.

    Some eat those calories back, some just eat a portion, and some ignore them all together. I'm not sure it's a one size fits all kind of a deal. I am usually hungry and so eat back my workout calories. The few times I wasn't hungry, I just tried to make sure Kay least hot up to my normally allotted 1200. Yesterday was an oddball and I had to work to get over 1000. Totally not the norm for me. I love food.

    Not sure if that came close to answering your question....
  • kimny72
    kimny72 Posts: 16,011 Member
    jackimartin1973 wrote: »
    Hi! On my profile it indicates to keep to 1200 calories a day. Then it’s synced to my fitness tracker which counts ever single step - it subtracts those out as exercise essentially giving me more of a deficit. Do I ignore the deficit there? Do I factor it in? Do you turn it off somehow on the profile- should I?

    MFP gives you a lower calorie goal expecting you to eat back at least some of your exercise calories. So if you said you want to lose 1 lb per week, that would happen if you ate 1200 cals and didn't exercise. So you eat 1200 cals on days you don't exercise, and more on days you do

    Calorie burn estimates can be overestimated so many start out eating back half and after a few weeks tweak it if you're losing too fast.
  • jackimartin1973
    jackimartin1973 Posts: 10 Member
    It does. I have been eating back some of them leaving some on the table. I have been getting about 600cals from my Fitbit from my everyday steps and exercise (13-14000 steps a day). I usually leave about 300-400 on the table. I have been steady and really haven’t lost anything in 3 weeks- but I am in my first three weeks since I started coming back. I am trying to figure out if I am possibly over eating, under eating or what.
  • jackimartin1973
    jackimartin1973 Posts: 10 Member
    jackimartin1973 wrote: »
    It does. I have been eating back some of them leaving some on the table. I have been getting about 600cals from my Fitbit from my everyday steps and exercise (13-14000 steps a day). I usually leave about 300-400 on the table. I have been steady and really haven’t lost anything in 3 weeks- but I am in my first three weeks since I started coming back. I am trying to figure out if I am possibly over eating, under eating or what.

    I’m going to turn off the activity and see if that changes anything. Also I am going to get a scale and a liquid measure to get more accurate serving sizes.
  • nutmegoreo
    nutmegoreo Posts: 15,532 Member
    jackimartin1973 wrote: »
    jackimartin1973 wrote: »
    It does. I have been eating back some of them leaving some on the table. I have been getting about 600cals from my Fitbit from my everyday steps and exercise (13-14000 steps a day). I usually leave about 300-400 on the table. I have been steady and really haven’t lost anything in 3 weeks- but I am in my first three weeks since I started coming back. I am trying to figure out if I am possibly over eating, under eating or what.

    I’m going to turn off the activity and see if that changes anything. Also I am going to get a scale and a liquid measure to get more accurate serving sizes.

    The accuracy is more likely your problem. Once you have the scale, I would continue with eating back about 50% of the extra calories for now and then re-evaluate in the coming weeks.
  • kimny72
    kimny72 Posts: 16,011 Member
    nutmegoreo wrote: »
    jackimartin1973 wrote: »
    jackimartin1973 wrote: »
    It does. I have been eating back some of them leaving some on the table. I have been getting about 600cals from my Fitbit from my everyday steps and exercise (13-14000 steps a day). I usually leave about 300-400 on the table. I have been steady and really haven’t lost anything in 3 weeks- but I am in my first three weeks since I started coming back. I am trying to figure out if I am possibly over eating, under eating or what.

    I’m going to turn off the activity and see if that changes anything. Also I am going to get a scale and a liquid measure to get more accurate serving sizes.

    The accuracy is more likely your problem. Once you have the scale, I would continue with eating back about 50% of the extra calories for now and then re-evaluate in the coming weeks.

    Agreed! You are already logging the bare minimum of calories. Better to tighten up your logging and make sure you are really eating the cals you think you are, than to pile one inaccuracy onto another and never really have any idea what the right calorie level is for you. As weight loss (and someday maintenance) progresses, you will need to make strategic tweaks, and that's a heck of a lot easier if you have a history of good clean data laid down.
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