Help! When do you increase your calorie intake?

Are you suppose to eat all of your exercise calories? I was set up for 1200 calories a day and if I go under my calories when I close out I will get a note saying I need to eat more, but if I eat over 1200 calories and still have some calories left that note does not come up. Should we be eating all of our exercise calories? I notice on the days I work out and eat all the calories available I don't see a change in the scale but when I leave my exercise calories along the pounds come off. Can someone explain why?

Annaliza - I honestly don't know the answer to your question... I get confused when I start adding all the numbers in. My suggestion would be to shoot ShBoss1673 a message and ask him if he doesn't find his way to this thread. He's awesome when it comes to this stuff.

wattsam1 - In short - Yes, you should be eating all of your exercise calories. The warning that you're seeing under 1200 calories is an alarm set on the website to let you know that you are not taking in enough calories and are at risk of going into a starvation mode. In general, you should never go under 1200 calories. You can do a search on exercise calories in the message boards and you'll find lots of information... The fact is that your body needs fuel to burn fat. MFP has already calculated a deficit for calories for you - eating too much lower than that deficit could cause you to actually lose weight slower because your body will hold on to what you have.

I believe that as you document your exercise your calories will increase. At least that's what happened to me. I started with 1200 calories for a day, but then as I noted my exercising for that day, the calories went up to 1400. Just keep in mind that your body needs so many calories to run, and if you don't get enough calories your body (including your matabolism) will slow down to accomadate. try and match the recommended calories for the day!

Try eating a fraction of your exercise calories. Works for me. What that fraction that is varies based on how I feel that day - anywhere from a fourth to nearly all of them, though I generally keep it to a half or less.

That's what I've been doing and I'm starting to notice a difference. My recommended intake is 1200 and after working out I go to about 1500 but I'm always too full by the end of the day and leace the last 50-100 calories alone. I don't want to force myself to eat but if that's wrong than I will adjust.

I only wear my HRM while activly exercising and enter those calories burned into my exercise log. I don't know about your HRM and I am sure that there are people here that know more about them than I do. I have a Polar F6. When considering which to buy, one of the negatives of this one was that you cant change the battery and have to send it away for service so I don't want to wear out my battery may be one of the reasons. Just MHO but I feel that I would like to track the exercise I am making an effort to do that gets my hr up and burns calories and anything else is just a bonus. when you enter in your info into MFP it takes into account already if you have an active or sedentary lifestyle so bottom line forme is that I wouldn't add in calories burned due to normal activity.

Just my opinion, but 1200 isn't right for everyone. I could not lose weight on 1200 calories, so I had to increase to 1400-1500 net calories. I eat all my exercise calories as well.

It sounds to me like you are moderately active. The reason MFP has given you only 1200 calories to eat is because you've probably selected the option to lose 2 lbs per week, which is the maximum setting for MFP.

I am also moderately active. Some days my workouts are worth only 350 cals, others I burn 1000 cals. But regardless of whether I work out, I walk dogs five days a week, so I am on my feet. I set my profile to lose 1 lb per week, so it gives me 1380 calories, but I always eat 1400-1500. That still gives me a deficit every day, since my daily activity requires close to 1900 calories. Even though I'm set to lose 1 lb per week, there are some weeks I lose 2 lbs, others I don't lose anything. Our bodily chemistry is not just a simple equation and even if you think you're doing everything right, sometimes the results are not what we expect. And even when you think you've been a little bad about overeating, you might be surprised to find you lose a little more that week - it's a rollercoaster ride.

For me, I'd rather err on the high side of the calories because I do not want to permanently damage my metabolism. I'd rather lose slowly because my deficit is smaller than starve my body... because when I'm done losing, I don't want to be stuck with a low number of maintenance calories! Plus, I feel better when I eat enough. I don't care that my weight loss is slow... because I know I'm doing it the natural and safe way and it will be sustainable in the end.

I started my journey on Jan 11 and I've lost 26 lbs so far. That is an average of 1.5 lbs per week. Some weeks I'd lose more and others I would not lose. Now that I am within a healthy weight range, I expect to lose a lot slower because that's just how it is.

You are active, taking the stairs,etc makes you active. It's not going to give you a lot of calories more but at least it will be closer to your actual activity level. And yes, eat ALL of your exercise cals back, as much as you can. The important number is NET calories, which is calories taken in MINUS the exercise cals, so if that goes under 1200 or even close to it (for some people 1300) you can be putting your body into starvation mode.

What most people don't realize is the only people who can really play with their calories and take a huge deficit are the people that are really overweight/obese. But if you have 30 pounds or less to lose, you can't do that, you need to eat MORE. Also people don't realize you won't be losing 2 pounds a week or even 1 pound a week if you have 30 pounds to lose - that's not something your body is able to really do. Set it to .5 pound per week, and relax, and eat healthy and get active. It will come off, and the more you work out the trimmer you'll be regardless of what that evil number on the scale says.

MFP puts in an auto deficit for you to lose weight. Check your BMR on another site and see if it's roughly the same as MFPs.