Am I'm doing this right?

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Set up my goals to 1 pound a week. Let Fitness pal do my goals according to weight height and exercise. FP says 1450 calories a day?? I usually burn 150 calories doing the Shread? Do I eat my calories back or does Fitness pal account for that?? Im 158 5'6 34 years old. Looking to lose 10 pounds and tone.

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  • mandy9808
    mandy9808 Posts: 19
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  • redcut
    redcut Posts: 176
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    some people say to eat your calories back some say to eat only some of them back and some say don't eat your calories back you need to find what works for you :smile:
  • mamamc03
    mamamc03 Posts: 1,067 Member
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    It's an ongoing experiment. Try not eating your cals back. If you don't see results, then try eating them.
  • jamielee0704
    jamielee0704 Posts: 9 Member
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    when you enter in your calories burned during your workout, MFP will account for that, and you'll see the number of calories you can eat go up. You want to eat these calories because its accounted for what you should eat based on no workouts in order to lose weight, but if you do workout, you'll have a bigger deficit, so you want to close that gap more. make sense?
    if you dont work out and eat 1450 a day, based on your stats, you'll lose 1lb a week.
    if you work out and burn 100 cals, now you can eat 1550 and still lose 1lb a week!
    just make sure you accurately account for all food and workouts and you'll be all set!
  • Captain_Tightpants
    Captain_Tightpants Posts: 2,215 Member
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    As you only have 10lbs to lose I would say don't eat 150 cals of exercise back.

    If you did a longer, harder workout and burned 500 cals or so, yes, definitely eat some of them back, maybe 1/2 to 2/3.

    My reasoning for this is that when you're down at those last few lbs before goal weight, accuracy becomes very critical. You're operating so close to your TDEE that the usual way things go (overestimating exercise cals and underestimating food cals) becomes a factor. Bigger folks who are losing faster can get away with innacuracies that might stall your progress totally so if I were you I would err on the side of caution.
  • mandy9808
    mandy9808 Posts: 19
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    Thanks, I was thinking that it was including my workout on the 1450 but when I put in a workout my calories go up. So 1450 must be for not working out and calories go up with a work out?
  • mandy9808
    mandy9808 Posts: 19
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    Thanks, Think I will just stick to 1450 with exercise and try not eating them back . I was not losing at all on 1200 and doing the shred. So hoping 1450 calories will start me back losing Fingers crossed!!!!!!!
  • em9371
    em9371 Posts: 1,047 Member
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    the goal MFP gives you is net so you should eat back exercise cals to hit your goal:

    Net Calories Consumed*
    Your Daily Goal 1,900 calories/ day
    Daily Calorie Deficit 460 calories
    Projected Weight Loss 0.9 lbs/ week

    * Net Calories Consumed = Total Calories Consumed - Exercise Calories Burned

    HOWEVER - as captain tight said, with not much left to lose you need to ensure your exercise cals logged and food entries are as accurate as possible, as only 250 cals error per day is 0.5lb.
    MFP entries can be high so if you eat those maybe eat back 2/3.

    Finally - with only 10lbs to lose, a 1lb / week goal is pretty high, you should really switch to 0.5. Try adding heavy weights to your exercise routine this will give you a more toned appearance by reducing fat and increasing muscle.
  • mandy9808
    mandy9808 Posts: 19
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    Thanks everybody ! Weight loss can be so confusing and hard.