Eat my calorie goal or shoot for a deficit?

randerson6571
randerson6571 Posts: 5 Member
edited December 23 in Health and Weight Loss
I’m curious if I should be eating my calorie goal MFP gives me or if I should make sure I have a caloric deficit at the end of each day? Should my final balance be 0 calories left? Or deficit of a few hundred to lose weight.

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  • randerson6571
    randerson6571 Posts: 5 Member
    Thank you! That was exactly what I needed to know. If the caloric deficit was built into the calorie goal or not. Thank you. I was eating I think way less than I should’ve been then. So does that mean if I burn 500 calories in a workout, I should eat those back to break even?? I haven’t been doing that.
  • randerson6571
    randerson6571 Posts: 5 Member
    apullum wrote: »
    randerson6571 wrote: »
    Thank you! That was exactly what I needed to know. If the caloric deficit was built into the calorie goal or not. Thank you. I was eating I think way less than I should’ve been then. So does that mean if I burn 500 calories in a workout, I should eat those back to break even?? I haven’t been doing that.

    You would eat back all 500 calories assuming you are confident that they’re calculated correctly. The problem is that some people find their exercise calorie estimates are not accurate, so they recommend starting by eating half your exercise calories and adjusting from there if you’re relying on exercise calorie estimates like the ones in the MFP database.

    Thank you so much!! This is what I kept getting stuck on. I think I was overeating in some instances then. Good to know this! Thank you!

  • bethjl96
    bethjl96 Posts: 18 Member
    What if your exercise calories are created by tracking on an Apple Watch? Do you think that is accurate enough or should one err on the side of caution and not eat all the calories it says?
  • jennifer_417
    jennifer_417 Posts: 12,344 Member
    Your calorie goal already has a deficit built into it. It's not necessary to go below it.
  • cwolfman13
    cwolfman13 Posts: 41,865 Member
    randerson6571 wrote: »
    I’m curious if I should be eating my calorie goal MFP gives me or if I should make sure I have a caloric deficit at the end of each day? Should my final balance be 0 calories left? Or deficit of a few hundred to lose weight.

    Your calorie target is your deficit if you selected weight loss...the calculator calculated the calories you should target for your deficit...that's why you set those goals and put in your stats and all of that.
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