Do you consume all of your allotted calories?

Thank you for your response! I have been working really hard, and gaining weight. I think it is because I am not eating enough. It makes much more sense now; when I work out, I need to eat the extra calories to keep my body burning calories effectively.

Most excellent reference.

I am set on 1200 a day and I always go over and eat my exercise calories! 1200 cals isn't much.

I eat around 1200-1300 and exercise to burn nearly 500+ a day. And no I don't eat them back.

Why you ask? Cause I only eat until I'm full. If I'm full with 600 calories then damit I ain't eating anymore

I think that it is important to remember that when you setup your account you established a "goal" of losing 1 or 2 pounds a week. The calories that you are given is already taking that 1 or 2 pound goal into account. So if say for instance MFP recommends eating 1200 calories a day then you should over time by eating those 1200 lose your goal weight.

I DO NOT recommend eating significantly less or more than what MFP recommends because if you eat more you won't lose the weight you had hoped to lose and if you eat less then you may put your body into starvation mode which will make losing weight MUCH harder and at worst you may damage your health by not getting sufficient nutrition.

not to be a post thief but I was wondering.... so many people are split about weather to eat their exercise calories back or not. For those people who do eat them back how many extra calories are you burning a day with exercise? 500 - 1000? For those of you who don't eat them back or only eat some back, are you burning about this many calories or you burning less? Just a thought.......

I have been eating close to my calorie goal, although I try to stay a little bit under to account for inaccuracies in the calorie counts in my food diary. I exercise 3 - 4 times a week, and generally burn 600 - 1,000 calories each time. So far I have been eating back about 25 - 40% of those exercise calories, and it has worked for me. Lately though it seems like my weekly weight loss is slowing down, so I am going to start eating more of those exercise calories to see if it kicks up my metabolism again.

It seems no matter how much I read up on this it is still an individual thing - what works for one does not work for all. :grumble:

I beg the differ.. you most certainly can adjust all of your settings on here..

From Calories - Carbs-Fat- Cholestrol ect...

For those who don't know that you CAN adjust your Goals like, allowed cals, fat, carbs, cholesterol, sugar ... Go to MY HOME> GOALS> CHANGE GOALS. When you pull this page up it will allow you to put in your desired numbers for each catagory.

Depends on the day. Sometimes I'm super close to going over, and then I have days like yesterday where I am under by about 300+.

I usually come close to my allotted 1200 calories....Sometimes I will eat back some of my exercise calories, but never all of them.

It is important that you are nourishing your body every two to three hours (all hours that you are awake) with balanced, delicious meals and snacks.The idea is that by having small, frequent meals, your body never has the chance to go into starvation mode and your body's metabolism kick into overdrive. You must balance all meal with protien, carbs, fats, & lots of water. Maintain small portion size and balance this out with regular exercise. If you do this then calorie counting is not as big an issue. Your healthy food choices will limit your calorie intake and your exercise will burn excess calories.

In the end, most days MFP will show that you still have not reached your daily calorie goal and that is ok because you know that you have eaten all of your required nutritients. Your body is actually burning some of the excess energy (fat) that it has stored. This is what you are trying to achieve.

I try to, some days it's more difficult to do so, other days (like yesterday) I can go over easily. 100% whole wheat toast with peanut butter and whole, natural almonds are my go-to snacks when I need to bump up my calorie intake for the day.

Yes...I am always mystified by people who find it hard to eat 1200, 1500, even 2000 calories. I eat all my exercise calories back and I still want more. 1200 is nothing!

Echo that!

I've lost 194lbs in 2 years...I've done this by eating in a calorie range not by limiting my calories to a specific number. I don't use the excersice calorie plan on MFP per se. Since I started this well before I joined MFP, I've simply stuck with what worked. I adjusted my macros to be a 40/30/30 balance and I eat between 1200-1600 calories every day. I burn bewteen 1000-1500 calories a day. I know I would not have lost the weight if I had a higher calorie count that eating all my exercise calories would allow but I also know that 1200 is not enough for the amount of calories I'm burning. I try and choose whole/real foods and prepare them myself and limit the over processed/high sodium/filler loaded low cal stuff out there. Fresh veggies, fruits lean meats, low sodium frozen and canned items (like tomatoes and beans for chili's), nuts, dried fruits, etc are what I eat for the most part. I throw in a proten bar or oatmeal at times as well.

I really recommend finding a range and adapting your foods to how you will eat forever with simply portion control. Don't over think food (or under think like we all did to gain). Find a way to adapt to livable, real life habit so once you hit maintance you simply adjust your portions up slightly of the same foods you have been eating to lose.

I don't eat them all during the week, but I tend to make up for it by drinking a fair few of them at the weekend.

Hah this definitely is the same for me.

I normally have no problems eating 1200 calories. You shouldn't eat less than that because your body will go into starvation mode and you will stop losing weight. Focus on eating healthy calories like almond butter, quinoa, sweet potatoes, chickpeas, other beans, etc. I try to stay under my calorie goal because when I drink (I'm a senior in college), it's a lot of calories, so it's better for me to stay under to actually lose weight.

When I workout I typically burn 300-450 calories.

Losing weight is a slow process. It's dangerous to lose more than 2 lbs per week, unless maybe you've just started dieting and you have a lot of water weight that's lost from big changes in diet/exercise. One pound is 3500 calories, so to lose a pound, you have to have a deficit of 3500 calories at the end of the week.

Your goal calories - your exercise calories - your resting calorie burn = -500 per day,
totaling -3500 in a week. This will lose you one pound.

the more muscle you have the more calories you burn at rest!! I highly recommend getting up to the full amount of calories every day, myfitnesspal knows what they are talking about.

Feel free to check out my food diary to see how I manage to use all my calories every day. Some days aren't so good, like yesterday when I had a slice of pizza hah! Still was under my cals but not in a healthy way! But most days I try to stay healthy all day and stay around my calorie goal.

What? Did we suddenly forget how to eat?:laugh:
Just eat.
If you are like me, you did not get fat not knowing how to eat.
So, yes, eat your calories.
MFP calculates our total daily calorie intake WITHOUT exercise to lose 1 pound or so per week.
And after we log exercises, our daily calorie limit increases.
Why?
Because MFP telling us to eat our exercise calories in addition to our daily calorie goals.
Eating a McD cheeseburger is better than not eating to goal, because you will stifle progress not eating enough.
Large deficits are unhealthy, because while you will lose weight, what's the quality of the weight loss?
In many cases you'll lose lean body mass - MUSCLE - which LOWERS your metabolic rate, making weight loss harder.
These crash diets work well for a season -- and sure enough, the pounds melt away. But when you eat so
few calories, you train your metabolism to slow down. Once the diet is over, you have a body that burns calories
more slowly -- and you gain weight.:noway:
Be smart.
Exercise well both cardio and resistance, and eat back the calories.
The exercise will RAISE your metabolism and burn more fat at rest.

good post

If you do a lot of exercise you have to make sure you eat enough back so that you are not below 1200 net / more than 1000 day deficit as going too low is not a healthy way to lose.

i eat to mine most days, if i am over a little / under a little i dont worry too much as it usually balances out over the week.