confused with how much food to eat!!

lizzie093
lizzie093 Posts: 81
in Health and Weight Loss
hi guys, im really confused with how much food i should be eating...
i have left my calorie goal as MFP had it (1200 calories a day) and after i exercise should i be eating more or just my goal?

so if i eat 1200 calories, and i burn 500 calories doing exericse,
do i have to eat 1700 carlories to loose weight?
or do i continue just eating 1200 calories? and then having 500 reamining?

someone please expain to me!

Replies

  • lsapphire
    lsapphire Posts: 297 Member
    The way it was explained to me goes like this. If MFP sets your goal at 1200 and you burn 500 in exercise, you can eat back the 500 and still lose weight. I try to stay under the total of the two. OR if I want something less healthy I burn more in exercise so I don't feel like I'm cheating (as long as i stay under still) Hope this helps
  • yarwell
    yarwell Posts: 10,477 Member
    MFP calculates a food goal based on your normal lifestyle and stated weight loss rate. This is the 1200 value. It may be lower but MFP doesn't go below 1200.

    If you burn 500 calories - and the number is reliable and extra to what you would otherwise have burned - then you can eat some or all of the 500 calories and still achieve the calorie deficit you originally set.

    If you have 1200 as a goal there's a little math quirk with the site that may deprive you of some calories so I would be tempted to eat only 250 - 300 of the extra ones from exercise.
  • lizzie093
    lizzie093 Posts: 81
    So your saying to loose a little bit of weight and become fit
    i can just eat the goal food? i dont have to eat the extra of what i burnt in exercise?
  • hamr1965
    hamr1965 Posts: 1 Member
    No - if you burn 500 calories and only eat 1200 calories, your body is only going to receive 700 net calories for the day. That can trigger your body to go into it's "starvation protection" mode, where it slows your metabolism, and hangs stubbornly on to your fat, because it thinks you are starving and it is trying to keep you alive. If you make a habit of this pattern (1200 calories eaten, 500 calories burned, 700 net calories a day) you will lose weight SLOWER (or not at all), probably feel like doo-doo, and ensure that the minute you start eating more calories, the pounds will pile back on faster.

    When you started MFP - you stated how much you wanted to lose a week - let's say you chose 2 pounds a week. So MFP says eat 1200 calories a day, to lose 2 pounds a week. If you burn an additional 500 calories a day, theoretically you would lose 3 pounds a week, right?! No! You would trigger that starvation mode. Bad all the way around. Eat your exercise calories - or in your example - eat 1700 calories a day, and you will still lose 2 pounds a week, AND speed up your metabolism, AND feel better, AND be much healthier.

    Eat your exercise calories. 1700 calories total a day for you in your example.
  • karen_thinmint
    karen_thinmint Posts: 500 Member
    So your saying to loose a little bit of weight and become fit
    i can just eat the goal food? i dont have to eat the extra of what i burnt in exercise?

    If you're set to 1200 to lost X pounds per week, then you should try to net 1200 imo (eat back the cals you burned). If you're at too high of a deficit you're in a higher risk of losing lean muscle along with fat loss. so if you're not eating back being "fit" might not be in the cards, but you'll lose a bit of weight sure.

    If you eat 1200 cals then burn 500, you've now net 700 cals for the day. this leave a smaller amount of energy you've consumed to fuel your body, and your body will need to come up with the energy for the additional deficit (depending on your tdee, it's probably now at a 1000+ cal deficit for the day).

    Your body tends to burn in the following order (very simplified): it will use your proteins (in the blood), then glycogen (while stored in muscle, it's not actually muscle being burned), then fat, then actual muscle, then in an extreme situation of starvation actual organs.

    Basically why people recommend to eat it back (or try to) is so you're only going as far as to dip into the fat storage and not dip too much into muscles for energy. But depending on how much fat storage you have at 1200 or less cals/day you might lose muscle or you may not (I lost muscle netting 1200; didn't mean to, but it happened).
  • LSMoore1983
    LSMoore1983 Posts: 4
    Thank you for asking this question! I feel super productive because I've been eating 1200 and burning 500, thinking I was being healthy. I'm currently laying in bed unable top sleep because I'm STARVING. Thanks to responses I know my body is probably not just being ridicilous. I really am starving wiithout making up for calories burned. Trying to lose 10 pounds fast for a vacation March 1, but I'm just shooting myself in the foot.
  • OvenDestroyer
    OvenDestroyer Posts: 5 Member
    This post helped me a ton. Thanks all!
  • sumofallmoments
    sumofallmoments Posts: 2
    I agree. Great topic/question. I started a week ago and was set at 1200 cals/day also and I soon found out that with my body type and exercise, my body was DEMANDING more energy than I was consuming. After some research I found out that since I have a BMI of 22, am 5'8", develop muscle very quickly and seriously workout 5-6 days/week, 1200 calories net daily just didn't cut it for me. My sis told me about the TDEE value (thanks Cry!) and I calculated mine at 2258 net calories daily and then reduced that number by 30% which gave me my actual max calorie deficit for weight loss/fat loss at 1580.60 daily net calories. And let me tell you! I've adjusted my numbers today and even after my 90 min workout I have way more energy and just feel a million times better all around. What a difference figuring out my personal max caloric deficit has made to the way I plan my diet and exercise I highly recommend this to everyone! Good luck to all of you and feel free to buddy up with me on your journey as I'd love to help motivate you!! :)

    P.S. Here's the link to calculate your TDEE:
    http://www.fitnessfrog.com/calculators/tdee-calculator.html
  • Railr0aderTony
    Railr0aderTony Posts: 6,803 Member
    http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/654536-in-place-of-a-road-map-2-0-revised-7-2-12

    Dan explains it all, give this a read it will open your eyes.
  • leerob55
    leerob55 Posts: 6 Member
    I am still trying to understand ... I am down 5 lbs sense Jan 13th... I wanted to lose 1.5per week. I have kept to the program but I still must be doing something wrong as I only lost 1/2 lb today... :noway:
    I have 32.5 lbs I need to lose by May . I am eating 1220 calories a day... I am exercising 2 - 3 times a week plus waking up and down stair's all day and long walks on the weekend... What am I doing wrong?
  • Aviva92
    Aviva92 Posts: 2,333 Member
    I think you should listen to your body. If you eat healthy, high protein foods and lots of vegetables and are still hungry after exercising then eat back the exercise calories. If not, then don't. I mostly lost my weight eating around 1,200 calories whether or not I exercised. Sometimes I'd eat more if I felt like it. I never went into starvation mode. Now I need to figure out how to maintain and not lose more weight because 1,200 calories worked so well for me and I'm so used to it now.

    I don't think anyone really needs that "in place of a road map" thing if their body can tell them when they are full.
  • Aviva92
    Aviva92 Posts: 2,333 Member
    http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/654536-in-place-of-a-road-map-2-0-revised-7-2-12

    Dan explains it all, give this a read it will open your eyes.

    meh
  • jofjltncb6
    jofjltncb6 Posts: 34,415 Member
    http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/654536-in-place-of-a-road-map-2-0-revised-7-2-12

    Dan explains it all, give this a read it will open your eyes.

    meh


    Meh?

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