Quick Question

vanilakitten
vanilakitten Posts: 66 Member
edited October 6 in Health and Weight Loss
Hey everyone,
I'm just starting to track my calorie count as per my regular intake (1200 calories). The thing is, when I exercise, about an hour and burn about 400 calories, the app shows that I can consume more calories on that day.

How does that work?
I mean, if I can eat to make up the calories I lost during my workout, how will I be losing weight?

Replies

  • Demwitted
    Demwitted Posts: 163
    Hey everyone,
    I'm just starting to track my calorie count as per my regular intake (1200 calories). The thing is, when I exercise, about an hour and burn about 400 calories, the app shows that I can consume more calories on that day.

    How does that work?
    I mean, if I can eat to make up the calories I lost during my workout, how will I be losing weight?

    Did you tell MFP that you wanted to lose and not maintain? That is how it works. You have 1200 calories to start with. If there is physical activity that burns those calories, you get more.
  • doctor_mike
    doctor_mike Posts: 70
    You need to make sure your 1200 per day is about 500 cal below your basic metabolism rate (BMR) for you. There are several BMR calculators out on the web. The point is that if your BMR is 1800 calories per day, that means your body burns 1800 calories just to maintain life. If you only consume 1200 of the 1800, then you are 600 below your BMR, and done consistently, this should result in about a pound of weight loss per week. So, if you exercised 300 calories per day, you could easily consume those calories in food (and probably should for health reasons) and still be below you BMR. Sorry for the multi line response :)
  • vanilakitten
    vanilakitten Posts: 66 Member
    Thanks! That makes sense.
    I didn't know about the BMR. I just calculated mine online, and it's about 1450 Calories.
    So does that mean I can still consume 1200 calories a day, and on the days I work out and burn about 300-400 calories, I can consume that much in food?
    Sorry if this sounds repetitive, but I just want to make sure I'm not going wrong with the whole calorie count :)

    Thanks a lot!!
  • Dee81184
    Dee81184 Posts: 7 Member
    The reply above me is right on point with the correct response, so listen to him!!!!!!
  • Bentley2718
    Bentley2718 Posts: 1,689 Member
    Your BMR (Basal Metabolic Rate) is how many calories you would burn if you were to do nothing but lay in bed all day. In reality, I assume you get up, dress yourself, move around--all of which burns additional calories. The number of additional calories depends on how active you are. MFP allows you to set your level of activity, most of us with office jobs are sedentary, if you do something else, you may need to set it to some other activity level. You want to have a deficit from your daily caloric expenditure (BMR + calories burned by daily activites), NOT your BMR. The easiest way to do this is to tell MFP how many calories you want to lose per week. If you are very overweight, you may want to set it to 2 pounds per week. However, if you are closer to your goal weight you probably want to set it to 1. If you are very close to your goal you may even want to set it to .5 pounds per week. If you set it to 1 pound per week, MFP will set you at roughly 400 calories below your daily caloric expenditure. If you exercise, you can enter that exercise into MFP, and it will increase your daily caloric intake by the number of calories it estimates you burned. There is some disagreement about whether you should eat back exercise calories. Personally, I eat back most of my exercise calories, but not all of them, because I think MFP overestimates calories burned. If I don't eat more when I exercise, I get weak and can't keep working out regularly. Other people say you should not eat exercise callories back. In part, it depends on how much and how intensely you work out. You probably don't need to eat back a leisurely walk around the neighborhood (or mall), but if you work out more intensely, you may want to consider eating them back.
  • vashleym
    vashleym Posts: 5 Member
    Just keep in mind the concept that in order to lose weight, calories eaten must be less than calories burned. So, if one day, you are ambitious with your workout and burn 400 calories, you can then eat more that day than on a day where you only burn 200 with exercise.

    If you want to loose 1 pound each week, you do need to create a calorie deficit of 500 vs. your BMR. So, if your BMR is 1450, then you would aim for less than 950 calories a day to loose a pound a week. Your BMR sounds kind of low and taking in less than 1000 calories a day is what I'd consider unhealthy. For a 35-year old, 5'8", 145 pound woman with a sedentary lifestyle (desk job), you should use around 1,700. That puts you back at the 1200 calorie level for what you need to run your body. If you then burn 300 calories a day, feel free to enjoy a total of 1500. Just make sure the extra 300 calories are good foods that fuel your body.
  • vanilakitten
    vanilakitten Posts: 66 Member
    Got it!
    I finally understand the BMR and Calorie intake relation! It does make me feel slightly better knowing that I can eat a bit more on the days I work out.

    Thanks a lot everyone! :)
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