What if I exercise most of my calories away?

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Say i ate my daily 1200 cals then went for a run or did my xbox kinect fitness disc and burned a good 400 cals. Then i would only have 800 calories left. Is that good or bad? What I mean is, is that how i lose the weight or is that unhealthy?

Also, what if I don't exercise at all but stay within my cal/fat/carb limits, will i still lose weight? Most days by the time I get home from work I am way too exhausted to exercise, i usually only actually try to exercise on my two days off per week.

Basically, what are the rules to MFP?

Replies

  • omma_to_3
    omma_to_3 Posts: 3,265 Member
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    The rules to MFP is that you eat back the calories you burn. MFP already has a sufficient deficit calculated in to lose weight in a safe and healthy manner. If your goal is 1200 calories a day (which many will tell you is too low, but that's your decision LOL), you should be netting that. So, if you eat 1200, burn 400 via exercise, you should eat an additional 400 calories so your net daily intake is 1200 calories.
  • orsnowboard
    orsnowboard Posts: 7 Member
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    I love this topic and am interested in the responses.
  • kasebrad
    kasebrad Posts: 61 Member
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    If your goal is 1200, you should be NETTING at 1200. If you don't exercise at all, eat 1200 calories. If you burn 400 calories with exercise, then eat 1600. If you burn 200, eat 1400. It should always balance out to about 1200.
  • Krys_140
    Krys_140 Posts: 648 Member
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    Note that people who exercise alone tend to overestimate their "burn", so I usually try to eat back a little less than I burned.

    Yesterday, I just wasn't hungry enough to eat back everything, I gave it a good shot!
  • turnercherrie
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    Your can never excerise away all you eat, and the Kcal reader on the machines in the gym are not accruate. It doesnt matter how much you excerise if you are eatting the wrong foods.

    you have to eat yourself slim and use excerise to tone and lift your mood to stop emotional eating.

    so i have never eatten all the kcals i burn at the gym, i just always allocate myself an extra 200 no matter how much i burnt. Seemed to work for me and days where i have not excerised stayed within my 1200 limit.


    you can loose weight by not excerising and just watching what you eat and what you eat counts more towwards weight loss then excerise.
    but if you want to make a life style change you need to excerise then the weight will never come back. Plus the excerise may give you more engery at the end of your day
  • neverstray
    neverstray Posts: 3,845 Member
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    it's split down the middle. do whatever you want. some days i eat all my cals back. other days i eat some of them, and other days, i eat none of them back. i don't think it matters at all.

    if you are at 1200 per day, i would argue that you should eat them back because you are under-eating already. but, that's just me. 8,000 women will jump me for saying that, but 1200 is not healthy.

    that's all.
  • blackschecter
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    Hey

    I was inspired to do this by my son who was chubby and then decided to become a weightlifter and got into it.
    Now he's ripped - got the results.

    But he says that all the diet hype is just that - hype.

    This works because it tells the truth. Calories. If I eat too much I am going to gain weight. Period.
    If I am in a slight deficit I WILL lose weight. Period.
    Basic thermodynamics - right? Makes sense to me.
    More exercise means you can eat more. Burning more calories.....
    And this plan shows me balance. If I feel crappy I see lots of sodium and carbs.
    That inspires me to make better choices tomorrow.

    I exercise moderately at best, but the best thing for me has been telling myself the truth about calories I eat.
    My goal is to lose a pound a week. If I stay on the plan I WILL lose the weight.
    I am not into rapid weight loss. I want to learn how to eat well so I just STAY fit....

    Exercise is important, but what I eat tells the real story.

    So far so good...