13 millionth post about deficit etc. Humor me...

The MFP already figures in a deficit from what your body needs when you're totally at rest for a whole day, i.e. the 2000 cals for example. SO if it says to eat 1300 cals, its telling you that you're eating 500+ LESS than what you would need to JUST maintain. SO by exercising you're burning excess of the already reduced calories, so by eating some of that back, you're bringing your net closer to the deficit. IF YOU GO UNDER NET BY TOO FAR TOO MANY DAYS IN A ROW, you'll stall your metabolism and it will convert EVERYTHING you eat into "stored energy" ie fat, because it thinks theres a famine. So eat back at least 50% of your exercise cals a day to see if that helps, and do it for a solid week to test it out. Hope this helps.

Yup, you're likely not losing because you're not eating enough. MFP builds in your calorie deficit for you -- when you entered your settings, it set your goal based upon a projected number with your TDEE (how many calories your burn on a normal day WITHOUT exercise) MINUS 500 calories.

So if you don't eat back the exercise calories, your deficit is too large.

OK, here's the math.

1232 calories eaten + 492 burned = 1724. THIS is the number you should hit.

Right now, you're only eating this: 1232 MINUS 492 = 740. THIS is not enough for your body to function on a daily basis. Not even close!

So, eat your exercise calories back. I don't know what your current goal is, but I suspect it's higher than 1232.

Rule of thumb: Eat until the green number on your homepage is as close to zero as you can get it. That's all there is to it.

Hopefully someone can come behind me and make sure I explained this correctly.

thanks Angelica!

I'm going to humor you and eat my exercise calories back for a month and let you all know how it turns out. So is it that easy? Never go under 1200 calories and eat back exercise calories? Or, is it that magic 10 x's your weight? Help please, I'm not losing weight either.

Well, you burn a certain amount of calories just existing (for breathing, organ function, etc). That's your BMR, or basal metabolic rate. Then, you add daily activity such as cooking dinner, brushing your teeth, watching tv, what you do for work, etc. Those two numbers together are your maintenance calories (note that this assumes no purposeful exercise - you can see this number under Goals, at the top right.)

Say your maintenance calories are 2000. MFP will create a built in deficit, based on your loss per week goal. Say that goal is 1 lb per week. So MFP will deduct 500 cals per day for 1 lb loss per week (approximately.) So you eat 1500 cals to lose 1 lb per week.

If you exercise on top of that, you will be burning more calories than have been accounted for. This will make your deficit larger. Too large of a deficit will cause the body to decrease metabolism (the rate at which you use energy) and then start burning lean body mass (muscle, mostly.) This will further decrease metabolism.

So MFP adds calories for exercise to maintain the built in deficit, and keep the deficit from being too large. Hope that helps.

These may help, as well:

http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/186814-some-mfp-basics

http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/230930-starvation-mode-how-it-works

http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/61706-guide-to-calorie-deficits

http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/10589-for-those-confused-or-questioning-eating-your-exercise-calo

i would recommend you leave your exercise for a couple of weeks and try consuming 1200-1400 calories in your diet. observe the results and then let us know plz

. IF YOU GO UNDER NET BY TOO FAR TOO MANY DAYS IN A ROW, you'll stall your metabolism and it will convert EVERYTHING you eat into "stored energy" ie fat, because it thinks theres a famine.

lol..so not true.

if you eat a calorie deficit you'll lose weight. your body wont and cant store fat at a deficit. seriously..hello it needs whatever you intake to function, if you intake less than your maintenance then it'll burn fat and some muscle for energy to function.

i love all the bro science on this site and uneducated crap. people just post whatever they've heard from countless others.and dont bother to research on their own

i try not to eat over 800 calories a day and i still loose wieght

. IF YOU GO UNDER NET BY TOO FAR TOO MANY DAYS IN A ROW, you'll stall your metabolism and it will convert EVERYTHING you eat into "stored energy" ie fat, because it thinks theres a famine.

lol..so not true.

if you eat a calorie deficit you'll lose weight. your body wont and cant store fat at a deficit. seriously..hello it needs whatever you intake to function, if you intake less than your maintenance then it'll burn fat and some muscle for energy to function.

i love all the bro science on this site and uneducated crap. people just post whatever they've heard from countless others.and dont bother to research on their own

The point being, that when deficit is too large, the body will adjust "maintenance" by decreasing RMR and loss of muscle...so that what would have been a deficit before is no longer. So you think you're at a deficit, but since your maintenance calories have decreased, you are eating at maintenance.

A plenty of us do research. And the peer-reviewed research backs this up.

. IF YOU GO UNDER NET BY TOO FAR TOO MANY DAYS IN A ROW, you'll stall your metabolism and it will convert EVERYTHING you eat into "stored energy" ie fat, because it thinks theres a famine.

lol..so not true.

if you eat a calorie deficit you'll lose weight. your body wont and cant store fat at a deficit. seriously..hello it needs whatever you intake to function, if you intake less than your maintenance then it'll burn fat and some muscle for energy to function.

i love all the bro science on this site and uneducated crap. people just post whatever they've heard from countless others.and dont bother to research on their own

The point being, that when deficit is too large, the body will adjust "maintenance" by decreasing RMR and loss of muscle...so that what would have been a deficit before is no longer. So you think you're at a deficit, but since your maintenance calories have decreased, you are eating at maintenance.

A plenty of us do research. And the peer-reviewed research backs this up.

This. Eating your exercise calories works. Ladyhawk knows what she's talking about.