MFP help

[Sunshineloveslamp]

I'm not really sure I'm understanding it

So my goal is 1200 calories per day (lose 2lbs per week average)
I normally consume about that if I'm eating healthily (smoothie for breakfast, omelette for lunch, fish and veg for dinner, or similar meals)

But if I do say 500 calories worth of exercise (shred, walking) then it says I'm not consuming enough calories
Is that right? Surely I shouldn't be eating more(apart from healthy snacks)
I have about a stone to lose but also trying to tone up the wobble

[ItsAllGoingToBeFine]

1200 sounds very low

But

Your target calories is your target total so if you do 500 cals of exercise you should eat in total 1700 calories.

[KatoPotato]

I never eat my excercise calories, as I find mfp can wildly get the count wrong! I'm also on 1200 per day and have lost 64lbs so far.

add me katoabes if you like!

[BoulevardOfBrokenSleep]

Yes, your 1200 are how many you'd eat if you did no exercise that day.

If you do exercise, you get 'credited' for that, so on a day you did 500 cal exercise, you'd eat 1700 calories.

[ItsAllGoingToBeFine]

Also read this:
www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/975025-in-place-of-a-road-map-short-n-sweet
Its not as complicated as it looks and it will allow you to check your calorie target (using basal metabolic rate and total daily energy expenditure)

[BoulevardOfBrokenSleep]

Yeah, you do have to check the calories it credits you for exercise, eg my karate lesson comes up as 600 calories, when actually a lot of it is spent watching the instructor, before I get to ineptly copy him
So I put it as 'moderate aerobics' or something for 300.

But the Shred is pretty hardcore isn't it? Wouldn't be surprised if that was 400ish cals.

[Sunshineloveslamp]

Thanks everyone, sounds so simple once explained
itsallgoingtobefine did the calculation and it came up with slightly over 2000 cals so if I need to lose weight what should I be aiming to consume
Btw the food I'm eating currently satisfies me, if I get hungry I have an oatcake or some fruit etc I will also be having a cheat day so still get to have some treats

[Sunshineloveslamp]

boulevard I log it as circuit training and it gives 219 calories but I'm only at intermediate level, I do some of the harder moves but mostly follow the exercises for beginners

[Legionofboom]

I think this is a little bit of trial and error to see what you need. As long as you always eat a minimum of 1200 cals per day then I would see how many of your exercise calories you need to 'eat back' to keep feeling alert and have enough energy to do the workout. You may find that after a week or two you need to up your daily calories a bit.

I prefer to have some days where I eat more, others less rather than a standard amount each day but you need to learn what works best for you.

As others have said MFP can be rather enthusiastic about calories burned during exercise so I never eat more than half of what it says I have burned.

IME the fitter you get the more you need to 'eat back' the exercise calories that you burn. This may be because it takes more calories to maintain muscle than fat.

[FruitBasedDrinkForALady]

I use MFP and have a 1200cal limit day, lost 43lbs since last August. You will get the warning if you fail to log 1200 cals regardless of your exercise. I think 1200 cals is the absolute minimum recommeded. When I do the Shred or bootcamp I log it as circuit training and it seems fairly accurate although I don't count the cool down time, and the running calorie burn tallies to within 10cals of my RunKeeper app.

[clpsmum]

Please all feel free to add me my name is clpsmum I've only started using mfp today and so far have no friends!!

[Sparklemummyx0x0x]

Yep you are supposed to eat your exercise calories though I hardly do. 1200 cals is the minimum anyone should intake a day so won't reduce by any more