Someone explain this to me.

You are supposed to eat back your exercise calories

I was tinkering with the setting on here, and now I am really confused...If i set my goals with no workouts and 1 pound a week OR with 7 days x 30 mins a day, i get same amount of calories....someone please explain this to me. LOL

I'm not sure if this is a serious Q judging by the LOL at the end, but will answer anyway just in case.

MFP ignore your exercise until you actually do it.

It sets it's goal without any exercise burn, so you get a 500/750/1000 defict from your non-exercise daily calorie requirements based on your day job. Then when you burn extra calories you get to eat those back so that you keep the same deficit.

i.e Daily activity = 2000 cals.
you set 1lb per week loss, so deficit is 500 cals
Calorie allowance = 2000 - 500 = 1500

if you exercise and burn 500 calories, your daily activity calories are now 2500, so to maintain the 500 defict you selected, you now eat 2000 calories.

Have a read of the stickied threads above for a better explanation.

Here we go again!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I was tinkering with the setting on here, and now I am really confused...If i set my goals with no workouts and 1 pound a week OR with 7 days x 30 mins a day, i get same amount of calories....someone please explain this to me. LOL

I'm not sure if this is a serious Q judging by the LOL at the end, but will answer anyway just in case.

MFP ignore your exercise until you actually do it.

It sets it's goal without any exercise burn, so you get a 500/750/1000 defict from your non-exercise daily calorie requirements based on your day job. Then when you burn extra calories you get to eat those back so that you keep the same deficit.

i.e Daily activity = 2000 cals.
you set 1lb per week loss, so deficit is 500 cals
Calorie allowance = 2000 - 500 = 1500

if you exercise and burn 500 calories, your daily activity calories are now 2500, so to maintain the 500 defict you selected, you now eat 2000 calories.

Have a read of the stickied threads above for a better explanation.

The only time when this dosn't hold true in part is if you are 300lbs +..a large deficit won't do you any harm. but the mantra is to eat back your exercise calories. Exactly how many is fiercely debated...I used to be of the mind never to touch my exercise calories with a ten foot stick, I worked my buns off for them, but trust me..your body needs fuel, ESPECIALLY if you exercise rigorously and constantly. for the once a weekers, you could probably get by not eating your exercise calories.

What is the point in working out to just eat back what you worked off????

It means you get to eat cake!

No, you'll be eating a smaller number of calories than you would have as a heavier person.

MPF does not take into account planned exercise, only exercise that you actualy do.

As an example say MFP gives you 1450 calories to lose 1 lb/week, and you plan on exercising 5x/week for an average of 400 cals per workout. well MFP will tell you to eat 1450 on the days you don't workout and 1850 on the days you do whereas a "professional" may tell you to eat 1700 everyday regardless if you workout.

So for the week MFP will have you eat 12,150 (1450*2+1850*5) whereas doing it the other way will have you eat 11,900 (1700*7) almost the same number of cals for the week (250 dif). The issue in not following MFP is if you don't workout the full 5 days or burn more or less than planned. If that is the case you may lose more or less than your goal, whereas MFP will have you lose your goal amount regardless how much you actually workout.

What many MFPers do is take the low 1450 and not eat back exercise calories which is wrong, if you are not eating them back then your daily activity level should reflect the higher burn with would be covered in the 1700/day above.

If you want your caloric goal to include planned exercise, change your activity level to active or very active and don't eat back cals burned.

So here I have another question....Say I started working out regularly, get down to my goal weight and stop working out. Won't I gain the weight right back unless I always workout??

Like someone else has said, it depends on what you eat.

But why would you do that? Keep working out!

Why would you stop exercising when you get to goal?

Because I HATE exercising.
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You can lose weight without exercise, just follow MFP's intake. You may lose weight without it, but you will never be healthy without exercise. I suggest finding something active that you do enjoy, it doesn't have to be a gym workout.

Exercise has nothing to do with weight loss.

Weight loss is all about diet.

Exercise is for fitness and health.

They are two different things.

Exercise has nothing to do with weight loss.

Weight loss is all about diet.

Exercise is for fitness and health.

They are two different things.

THANK YOU THANK YOU!! This is exactly what i thought.

No no no. Please don't believe the quote above yours. Please, it's completely not based on any truth whatsoever and is way out there. Exercise is absolutely about weight loss and about fitness and health. Diet alone cannot bring you results that you can sustain because a) you need to BURN calories, not just take in less, and also, if you only diet, you are guaranteed to burn off more musle than you would have to if you were to continuously work out your muscles, by tearing and rebulilding them.

Exercise has nothing to do with weight loss.

Weight loss is all about diet.

Exercise is for fitness and health.

They are two different things.

THANK YOU THANK YOU!! This is exactly what i thought.

No no no. Please don't believe the quote above yours. Please, it's completely not based on any truth whatsoever and is way out there. Exercise is absolutely about weight loss and about fitness and health. Diet alone cannot bring you results that you can sustain because a) you need to BURN calories, not just take in less, and also, if you only diet, you are guaranteed to burn off more musle than you would have to if you were to continuously work out your muscles, by tearing and rebulilding them.

Actually they were right.

Weight loss comes due to a caloric deficit, you can achieve this said deficit from diet alone, of if you like eating more from diet and exercise. The benefits of exercise are far more then weight loss as you can do that from diet alone, but you cannot get fit from diet alone.

Agreed. So, not weight loss is all about diet, but diet is all about weight loss. They are two very different things.

Exercise has nothing to do with weight loss.

Weight loss is all about diet.

Exercise is for fitness and health.

They are two different things.

THANK YOU THANK YOU!! This is exactly what i thought.

No no no. Please don't believe the quote above yours. Please, it's completely not based on any truth whatsoever and is way out there. Exercise is absolutely about weight loss and about fitness and health. Diet alone cannot bring you results that you can sustain because a) you need to BURN calories, not just take in less, and also, if you only diet, you are guaranteed to burn off more musle than you would have to if you were to continuously work out your muscles, by tearing and rebulilding them.

Actually they were right.

Weight loss comes due to a caloric deficit, you can achieve this said deficit from diet alone, of if you like eating more from diet and exercise. The benefits of exercise are far more then weight loss as you can do that from diet alone, but you cannot get fit from diet alone.

Agreed. So, not weight loss is all about diet, but diet is all about weight loss. They are two very different things.

No, weight loss is all about diet, exercise is all about fitness. You can lose weight perfectly fine without gaining fitness, and you can gain fitness perfectly fine without losing weight. They are two completely different activities, one has nothing to do with the other.

Weight loss and body composition are two completely different things, and are totally unrelated. You don't NEED to lose weight to get fit, and you also don't NEED to get fit to lose weight. Everyone has their own specific goal in mind.

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