Is calorie deficit included?

Yes, the deficit is included. You should be eating your full 1640 goal, plus about half of your exercise calories. Going under your goal isn't going to do you any favors in the long run.

tecnically, yes.

however, calorie burns are all an estimate. it is not an exact science. For that reason, most will eat back about half those calories, and watch and see what their weight does for a few weeks. If your loss is less than expected, eat back fewer. If your loss is more than expected, eat back a bit more.

beckymidders wrote: »

Hi, just a quick and simple question.

Is my calorie deficit included in the total calories that are shown in this photo?



Basically, should I have eaten an extra 500 calories last night or was I in a deficit?

All I can tell you is I gained weight eating back all my exercise calories.

riffraff2112 wrote: »

If your suggested goal is 1640, you try to eat 1640. Whatever you earn from exercise you can do what you want with (eat it all back, eat back some of it)

You don't know how heavy TO is and whether TO is a he or she. Not eating exercise calories basically has the same effect as taking those calories off the daily goal. Thus to would not eat 1640 calories, but 1389. This could be severely undereating. Exercise calories are to be eaten back in MFP.

However, exercise calories can be off by a lot. Thus eating half of them back might be a good start.

Thoin wrote: »

sijomial wrote: »

Thoin wrote: »

beckymidders wrote: »

Hi, just a quick and simple question.

Is my calorie deficit included in the total calories that are shown in this photo?



Basically, should I have eaten an extra 500 calories last night or was I in a deficit?

All I can tell you is I gained weight eating back all my exercise calories.

Doubt it was just the exercise calories you were estimating badly then!
Think how far off they would have to be to not only completely wipe out your chosen deficit but put you into a significant surplus.

I mean, you know you can be in a surplus with 1 calorie? I know what I was doing now. My exercise didn't equal what I burnt. So if one eats their calories, say it 2000 a day, then add the exercise on top of that one will be in surplus pretty easily if the exercise amount is wrong.

The issue there isn't that eating back your exercise calories causes you to gain weight, the issue is that overestimating your calorie usage (for any activity, including exercise) will impact your results. The takeaway isn't that people should ignore their exercise calories, the takeaway is that people should learn how to accurately estimate the calories they're burning through activity (including comparing your results to your expected results and making adjustments as needed).

"You should eat back your exercise calories" doesn't mean "you should eat back what you assume your exercise calories are even if you're overestimating them."

Thoin wrote: »

sijomial wrote: »

Thoin wrote: »

beckymidders wrote: »

Hi, just a quick and simple question.

Is my calorie deficit included in the total calories that are shown in this photo?



Basically, should I have eaten an extra 500 calories last night or was I in a deficit?

All I can tell you is I gained weight eating back all my exercise calories.

Doubt it was just the exercise calories you were estimating badly then!
Think how far off they would have to be to not only completely wipe out your chosen deficit but put you into a significant surplus.

I mean, you know you can be in a surplus with 1 calorie? I know what I was doing now. My exercise didn't equal what I burnt. So if one eats their calories, say it 2000 a day, then add the exercise on top of that one will be in surplus pretty easily if the exercise amount is wrong.

1 calorie over wasn't going to cause weight gain you'd see.

100 cal over maintenance would have taken 35 days to slowly gain 1 lb of fat - if you could really be that consistent eating over maintenance and see through water weight fluctuations while doing workouts.

To your point - you are saying your exercise calorie burn was bigger than your deficit, and then by an amount that added so much surplus you gained fat weight?

So let's say 1500 was base eating goal, with 500 cal deficit from non-exercise maintenance level.
Your exercise was say 1000 calories of reported burn, but it only burned 250 cal in reality.
And that would mean you had a 250 cal surplus, and would gain 1 lb every 2 weeks.
And that would mean an exercise burn inflated 4 x reality.

Is that type of thing you are thinking happened?

Thoin wrote: »

janejellyroll wrote: »

Thoin wrote: »

sijomial wrote: »

Thoin wrote: »

beckymidders wrote: »

Hi, just a quick and simple question.

Is my calorie deficit included in the total calories that are shown in this photo?



Basically, should I have eaten an extra 500 calories last night or was I in a deficit?

All I can tell you is I gained weight eating back all my exercise calories.

Doubt it was just the exercise calories you were estimating badly then!
Think how far off they would have to be to not only completely wipe out your chosen deficit but put you into a significant surplus.

I mean, you know you can be in a surplus with 1 calorie? I know what I was doing now. My exercise didn't equal what I burnt. So if one eats their calories, say it 2000 a day, then add the exercise on top of that one will be in surplus pretty easily if the exercise amount is wrong.

The issue there isn't that eating back your exercise calories causes you to gain weight, the issue is that overestimating your calorie usage (for any activity, including exercise) will impact your results. The takeaway isn't that people should ignore their exercise calories, the takeaway is that people should learn how to accurately estimate the calories they're burning through activity (including comparing your results to your expected results and making adjustments as needed).

"You should eat back your exercise calories" doesn't mean "you should eat back what you assume your exercise calories are even if you're overestimating them."

I know, that's why I said ALL my exercise calories. Long story short: I was overestimating the calories burnt from walking. Since it was only around 100 calories (for me) I just ignored it and was fine.

You weren't eating your exercise calories, you were eating an over-estimate of your exercise calories.

When people here recommend that people eat their exercise calories, what's being recommended is consuming an accurate estimation of exercise calories -- not more than they're actually burning through exercise. Some people might have to do a little more work to determine what that accurate estimation is, but absolutely nobody is recommending that people over-estimate their calorie burn and then eat back all those calories.