calorie intake

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mitsy5
mitsy5 Posts: 2
in Introduce Yourself
i have just started and was wondering if i should reach my calorie goal or is it ok to be under the daily calorie amount? yesterday i ate just under 1200 calories but should eat 1580, thanks

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  • Cara3023
    Cara3023 Posts: 14
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    I am new too (a returning customer!)... and wondering the same really... i am 465 under cal target today!
  • btterry
    btterry Posts: 21
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    I think they say 1200 is the minimum to be able to get all your nutrients
  • MaximalLife
    MaximalLife Posts: 2,447 Member
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    i have just started and was wondering if i should reach my calorie goal or is it ok to be under the daily calorie amount? yesterday i ate just under 1200 calories but should eat 1580, thanks
    No, eat all your calories, including all your exercise 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.
    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.
    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.
  • TMcBooty
    TMcBooty Posts: 780 Member
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    EAT ALL YOUR CALORIES!
  • Twins2007
    Twins2007 Posts: 236 Member
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    Eat all your calories...

    For exercise calories, I am now leaving 25% not eaten as my scale stalled for months and months...I think maybe i was overestimating my calories burned...

    Good luck!
  • Rayman233
    Rayman233 Posts: 51 Member
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    Eat-em all ! It works.
  • hottottie11
    hottottie11 Posts: 907 Member
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    Don't trade one bad habit (overeating) for another (undereating). Eat all the calories allotted to you. You will minimize the chances for weight loss stalls due to muscle loss and decreased metabolism.
  • tinacc1
    tinacc1 Posts: 57 Member
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    It's really difficult to eat all my calories! I am trying to cast off 44 years of "Eat less to lose weight". I know I worked my butt off (no pun intended) last week with at least 1 hour of hard exercise each day, plus, I was under my calories every day, except 1, I think I broke even, and I was 'up' 1.6 lbs at weigh-in last night... Gonna eat my face off this week to get to 1200 calories each day, and see where that takes me for next Tuesday's weigh-in.

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