Tracking calories??

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mom22kiddos
mom22kiddos Posts: 40 Member
in Food and Nutrition
I know this has been dicussed quite a bit on here and I never paid attention :ohwell: ..I am trying to figure out why when I enter in my excercise and calories burned it adds those calories to my alloted calories. I was always under the understanding that to loose weight you need to burn more calories then you eat so I dont understand how eating all the calories you burned is going to allow you to loose weight? Please someone help me understand this?? Thank you!

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  • Mindful_Trent
    Mindful_Trent Posts: 3,954 Member
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    The "Daily net calorie goal: " that MFP gives you INCLUDES a calorie deficit already built in. It's not safe to lose too much weight too soon, so you should try and get your final +/- as close to zero as possible. When this is the case, you should lose the weekly weight loss you set as your goal. (.5, 1, 1.5, 2 - I think those are the choices).

    There's some debate about eating exercise calories or not - for me I find I lose weight just fine when I eat most of my exercise calories - and it makes sense to me because your body needs more fuel if you're working harder. That said, if you chose not to eat your exercise calories you still need to eat the minimim "Daily net calorie goal" that MFP has set for you. (If that's the case then your leftover calories will be equal to your exercise calories.)
  • tracey7
    tracey7 Posts: 7
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    When I eat all my exercise calories, I don't lose weight. SO I think you need to have some sort of deficit(every other program believes this to be true too)...I try to have at least 200 calories left for each day, and I am losing weight. I know that MFP talks about metobolic rate etc. but to be honest I think its BS. You do have to burn more than you eat.
  • Mindful_Trent
    Mindful_Trent Posts: 3,954 Member
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    When I eat all my exercise calories, I don't lose weight. SO I think you need to have some sort of deficit(every other program believes this to be true too)...I try to have at least 200 calories left for each day, and I am losing weight. I know that MFP talks about metobolic rate etc. but to be honest I think its BS. You do have to burn more than you eat.

    The thing is, is even if you eat all your exercise calories (as long as you don't go over) you will still have a deficit. MFP builds the deficit in. For example - I'm supposed to eat 1200 cal/day (That's my Daily net calorie goal) - This doesn't include any exercise. This will let me lose 1.8 lbs a week. If I workout, I earn extra calories - as long as I don't eat more than what I earn, I will still have a deficit that allows me to lose 1.8 lbs a week. If I don't eat my exercise calories, then I should lose more than what I picked as my goal when I setup my account.
  • tiffanygil
    tiffanygil Posts: 478 Member
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    i think it depends on your body. If i eat too little cals (less than the 1200) I dont loose wt but if I eat my burned cals I don't loose wt. All people are different so you have to find your cal count that is good for you. Mine is around 1230 a day.
  • marilla
    marilla Posts: 221 Member
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    I hope I can get mine figured out soon. I can't seem to get it right.
  • mom22kiddos
    mom22kiddos Posts: 40 Member
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    Thanks for all your input. I understand what they are doing now but I still think I am not going to eat my burned calories. I just dont think I could go to the gym and burn 1,000 and then come home and eat the 1,000 back. It is to much hard work to work off those calories. Hopefully I can find what is going to work for me and start back on track to loosing this weight. Thanks again!!

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