Dieting and exercise

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Bosatch87
Bosatch87 Posts: 11 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
If I'm on a 2000 calorie diet that will allow me to lose 1 to 2 pounds a week and I'm aslo burning about 500 calories a day through exercise do I need to eat those calories back. I just want to me sure I'm not going about this the wrong way

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  • StaciMarie2020
    StaciMarie2020 Posts: 68 Member
    edited September 2019
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    It kind of depends. If the 2000 goal is what you need to average 1 pound per week, and you feel satisfied/full on that with the exercise you're doing: I'd say to not eat extra in general for exercise. But to allow yourself the room to choose on a day to day basis if you feel you need more.

    I say this because it is generally accepted to aim for a 2 pound weight weekly loss overall - and if you're eating for 1 pound loss and exercising for the other - you should be ok. As long as you pay attention to body signals. THat, and its possible that you think you're burning 500 but its actually less. We rarely burn as much as we think.

    On the other hand if 2000 is your goal for losing 2 per week, then you probably should eat some portion of exercise calories back as you're already aiming for a serious deficit before exercise.
  • Bosatch87
    Bosatch87 Posts: 11 Member
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    When I started I was 304 it said that I needed to eat around 2000 calories a day to lose 2 lbs per week but I'm also doing an hour of cycling every day about 15 miles in an hour
  • sijomial
    sijomial Posts: 19,811 Member
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    Bosatch87 wrote: »
    When I started I was 304 it said that I needed to eat around 2000 calories a day to lose 2 lbs per week but I'm also doing an hour of cycling every day about 15 miles in an hour

    Good effort - learn how to fuel your cycle rides and the sky is the limit.
    Don't learn to fuel your rides and you will hit a limit.

    Look ahead to maintenance when you get to goal weight and you have to take your exercise calories into account.
    A good skill to learn and practice now.

    BTW - there's better methods to estimate cycling calories than the MyFitnessPal database.
    Are you cycling indoors on an exercise bike or outdoors?
  • Bosatch87
    Bosatch87 Posts: 11 Member
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    Indoors on a exercise bike
  • Bosatch87
    Bosatch87 Posts: 11 Member
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    And I do a little light lifting as well
  • sijomial
    sijomial Posts: 19,811 Member
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    Bosatch87 wrote: »
    Indoors on a exercise bike

    Don't use speed related calorie estimates as they are meaningless when you aren't actually moving (no wind resistance or rolling resistance).
    If your bike displays watts then average watts per hour X 3.6 gives a very accurate net calorie estimate.

    For lifting simply log the entire duration of your workout under the Cardio section of your diary and search for "strength training" for a modest estimate.
  • lorrpb
    lorrpb Posts: 11,464 Member
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    How did you arrive at the 2000? Was this a number MFP gave you after setting up your stats and goals, or did you obtain it from another source?
    If from MPF, then as stated above you should eat back about half your exercise calories. If from another source, then it depends how that source arrived at your number because there are several methods use, some include exercise and others do not.
  • sijomial
    sijomial Posts: 19,811 Member
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    lorrpb wrote: »
    How did you arrive at the 2000? Was this a number MFP gave you after setting up your stats and goals, or did you obtain it from another source?
    If from MPF, then as stated above you should eat back about half your exercise calories. If from another source, then it depends how that source arrived at your number because there are several methods use, some include exercise and others do not.

    Not for good estimates, it would be a way to turn an accurate estimate into an inaccurate estimate.
  • Bosatch87
    Bosatch87 Posts: 11 Member
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    I got that number from MFP
  • Strudders67
    Strudders67 Posts: 980 Member
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    As said above, yes you should eat your exercise calories. How long ago did you set up on MFP / how long have you been eating around 2000 cals and doing that amount of exercise? If there's any doubt about the accuracy of cals given for your cycling, the usual suggestion on here is to eat and exercise at that level for 6 weeks and then work out how how much weight you're actually losing per week. If it's faster /slower than it should be, up your calories / adjust accordingly. It's common to over-estimate exercise calories, especially if you're using the MFP database. It's also common to underestimate what you're actually eating, unless you weigh absolutely everything that you eat / measure every liquid.
  • Bosatch87
    Bosatch87 Posts: 11 Member
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    I have been measuring everything lol
  • Bosatch87
    Bosatch87 Posts: 11 Member
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  • NovusDies
    NovusDies Posts: 8,940 Member
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    You have lost 11 pounds in 10 days. Likely much of that was water weight but you may still be losing too fast. It is really hard to know until you have more data that doesn't have water loss in it. I would follow @sijomial's advice on cycling estimates and stay really consistent in your habits for the next 21 days. At that time you can get a true rate of loss for the period between tomorrow and October 11 and see if you are losing faster or slower than expected. If you need any help with that just ask this forum.

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