How many calories am I meant to eat?

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  • Spadesheart
    Spadesheart Posts: 463 Member
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    heybales wrote: »
    Jay9201 wrote: »
    I put 0.5 for weightloss and activity is lightly active. I have an office job but activity wise I'm moderately active. Also I don't eat back exercise calories just to keep myself in a deficit. Maybe it's my version of the app showing the lower figures?

    Incorrect thinking there in regards to the way MFP works.

    Perhaps you are thinking of prior TDEE method you used where you told it the planned workouts, and your eating goal was based on doing that increased activity that included exercise.
    So many times to create the deficit you had to do the workouts (not actually if the work was done, but many incorrectly thought that).
    In those cases the deficit is taken off TDEE that includes average weekly exercise spread out over all the days.

    MFP though is giving an eating goal based solely on daily activity with no exercise.
    But then when you do more, you eat more.
    Same deficit.

    Why would you want a bigger deficit from a workout that for best effect the body really would want no deficit?

    Perhaps you aren't using MFP as intended and are using the TDEE method.
    Considering every TDEE calc I've seen only discusses exercise, and not increased daily life - you may have selected the wrong activity level.

    Would a woman your exact same stats doing same workout with same household responsibilities, but a mail carrier on walking route all day, really have the same TDEE as you?
    The calc would assign that same figure.

    I wouldn't exactly discourage people from not counting exercise so long as their body appears to be handling it, and they are consuming a healthy amount of calories for the micro and macro-nutrient needs, so long as they don't already have a very, very low body fat. Of course, even that in moderation. If someone is doing 1200 calories in cardio everyday, that's obviously not sustainable. The person who was suggesting losing 60 pounds in 4 months above is an example of what not to do.

    Counting exercise calories is so individualized and difficult to do that, for me at least, if I tried to actually eat back exercise calories, it would have slowed my progress to a crawl. This would have invalidated a good deal of the effort. The psychological power of seeing your body change is really motivating, and if it's done in a safe, sustainable manner, I wouldn't say no.

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