Eat more calories if excercising?

jjmooss · February 2020

Hi. I’m new to this community. I apologize if this question has already been answered somewhere. I’m on a 1200 calories limit. Wondering if you normally eat the calories you burn as part of a work out for the day? Thanks

darrian_h · February 2020

It depends on how hard and long your workouts are. If it's moderate intensity for 1hr or less, I wouldn't change my diet. Especially if your goal is to lose weight. You need to be in a calorie deficit to lose weight. And ALWAYS eat properly (30g protein, 10g+ carbs) DIRECTLY AFTER WORKOUTS.

Courtscan2 · February 2020

Yes, absolutely eat your exercise calories on top of your base limit. That is how MFP is designed to be used. 1200 is very low, and definitely not suitable if you are at all active (which you will be if you are exercising) unless you are extremely small and elderly to begin with. If you are eating too little you risk all sorts of health issues, as well as the risk of bingeing after a few days, as you will be ravenously hungry. There are many, many posts around about this. If you are just getting started, perhaps start here

https://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/1080242/a-guide-to-get-you-started-on-your-path-to-sexypants/p1

Also....timing of when you eat is meaningless for weight loss purposes. Even if you are a competitive bodybuilder, you have a few hours to refuel....the "right away" thing is total bro science, and has been disproven by actual science.

MikePTY · February 2020

darrian_h wrote: »

It depends on how hard and long your workouts are. If it's moderate intensity for 1hr or less, I wouldn't change my diet. Especially if your goal is to lose weight. You need to be in a calorie deficit to lose weight. And ALWAYS eat properly (30g protein, 10g+ carbs) DIRECTLY AFTER WORKOUTS.

This is wrong on both counts. The MFP goal does not take exercise into account. If you exercise, you are supposed to eat more. Especially if someone is only eating 1200 normally, not eating their exercise calories back could have negative consequences.

The other wrong thing is about meal timing. It's largely irrelevant and you don't need to eat immediately after an exercise. You need to eat enough to properly fuel you and repair your muscles, but there is no reason it needs to be within a certain window of exercise.

hlr1987 · February 2020

Eat back something, for any exercise that is outside of normal living ie. Don't log that you burned x number of calories walking from the bus stop to work if that's a general part of your day and you would be doing it normally . Mfp isn't set to mbr calories, so there is an assumption in there that you are moving and not in bed all day but it hasn't added in specific additional exercise. Eat it back.

sijomial · February 2020

Your 1200 goal is only for a day you don't do any purposeful exercise, that's how this site works and how your goal was calculated ignoring the exercise aspect of your body's calorie needs.

Beside exercise calories taste the best.

nighthawk584 · February 2020

sijomial wrote: »

Your 1200 goal is only for a day you don't do any purposeful exercise, that's how this site works and how your goal was calculated ignoring the exercise aspect of your body's calorie needs.

Beside exercise calories taste the best.

I eat back every single delicious exercise calorie.

Eat more calories if excercising?

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