Help! Calories consumed vs calories burned.

[newoutlookonlife 46]

I have been tracking every day using MFP. I have increased my exercise levels a lot and I am not sure how to or if I should even be adjusting my intake at all according to my work outs. HELP!! Today After inputting everything into MFP I consumed 808 calories and I burned 798. Can anyone give me any suggestions or pointers as to what the proper thing to do here is. Do you still stick to the original 800 consumed and ignore the calories burned? Do you need some extra fuel either pre or post exercise and if so what kind and amount? I am 4 months post sleeve. Thanks

[ISleevedIt 379]

Wow, 72 lbs down! That's great! Congrats!

I'm not as far out as you, but I take in around 700-1000 calories a day and I usually drink about 12 cups of Water a day...at least 8 a day. My hubby got me the fitbit. So I use it to track my walking and calories intake/outtake. I have it set my goal to burn 2000 calories a day, which I do through walking. I break up my walking but I try to get in at least 12,000 steps a day. Usually it's a couple thousand higher. Occasionally, I take a longer walk and my hit around 20,000 steps. Then I do randomly give myself a day off that I don't exercise...like this month so far I've missed one day and only got in a little over 8,000 steps for the day. For food, I am eating mostly Proteins...cottage cheese, premier Protein shake (one per day), turkey pepperoni, lean meats, bean Soup, other cheeses, and nuts. I do occasionally go off and have a piece of candy or a cookie....it's nothing like in the past where I practically eat the whole package at a sitting.

I hope this helps.

[yazzy 105]

WOW. You both are doing great . I have to get my exercise in (walking more). I did start last week but the past couple of days I slacked off.. I was busy or the weather was bad. How do you burn off 2000 calories in walking wow... how many miles is 12,000 steps??? I am 4 weeks post op

[tommyd 125]

I some times burn more calories than I consume, I am at goal and still losing so I have up my carbs in the last two weeks . i would not increase anything unless you are having problems.i never increase calories based on what mfp says. I base it strictly on how I feel. Congrats on your hard work paying off!! Sorry the spreadsheet would not paste here correctly.

[karenb4729 309]

I do quite of bit of exercising too and I keep my calorie level pretty consistent at 600 to 700 per day. What are you using to track the calories burned? My Fitness Pal is really high and not accurate because it doesn't take into account your body weight or age. Get a heart rate monitor if you want to accurately check the calories burned. Example, 1 hr on the elliptical on MFP has a burn of 576 but with a heart rate monitor, age and weight taken into consideration the actual burn is more like 409. Hope that makes sense. Forgot to add that I don't eat back my calories burned.

[TES 858]

I don't like how MFP adjusts your daily calorie target when you exercise, so it shows you have a calorie (and Protein, carb etc) deficit for the day when you input exercise. So I changed the formula for all of the my exercises so it says I burned 1 calorie (from 50 minutes of Water aerobics or 1 hour of walking!). But then I can see what my calorie targets really are without it automatically adjusting when I input the exercise. Otherwise, I love MFP. I used to use another app and they had a lot fewer foods in their database, so I was always adding in new ones.

[newoutlookonlife 46]

Thanks for all the input!!

I was using MFP to track the calories burned, I knew it wouldn't be totally accurate but at least I have an idea. I usually shoot for the lower range of numbers when choosing my exercise. I will have to look into a heart rate tracker. I have seen fit it n here quite a bit, does it work well? Are there another's you guys can suggest?

I just wanted to make sure I wasn't totally screwing things up. My weight loss has slowed but it has been amazing! That is why I have bumped up my exercise, that and now I can tolerate it without wanting to lay down and die

I have always kept my carbs around 40 a day. With increasing my exercise I thought maybe it wouldn't hurt to to add an additional 20 carbs. For example yesterday morning I had a shake prior to my work out at 9 am. I used a full glass of 1% milk, one scoop of Protein powder and one Greek yogurt which equalled 52 grams of Protein, 35 carbs and 380 calories. By the end of the day I was at a total of 60 carbs but did not go over my 800 cal goal. I don't want to make a habit of it if its not a good thing to start but by supper I felt like I needed more carbs. I have tried to use only a half a glass of milk or just straight Water with my protein mix but then I find it really unappealing and don't end up drinking it. I will figure this all out at some point.

[newoutlookonlife 46]

I don't like how MFP adjusts your daily calorie target when you exercise' date=' so it shows you have a calorie (and Protein, carb etc) deficit for the day when you input exercise. So I changed the formula for all of the my exercises so it says I burned 1 calorie (from 50 minutes of Water aerobics or 1 hour of walking!). But then I can see what my calorie targets really are without it automatically adjusting when I input the exercise. Otherwise, I love MFP. I used to use another app and they had a lot fewer foods in their database, so I was always adding in new ones.[/quote']

That's the part that has been really confusing me and I have been trying to ignore it. I haven't been been to figure out hot to change the formula but perhaps if I signed in on my PC rather than iPad or cell I could find those option. I just toiled it kinda plays mind gamed with me when I see those deficits etc thinking I should be eating more... Thanks for the insight

[Taradawn15 148]

I was just at the nutritionist last week and asked her that same question. She told me to stick with 800 calorie a day goal. She did suggest for me to have a Gatorade at the gym, which is hard for me because I do a low carb/sugar eating plan but because that I need the extra carbs she said during workouts. I hope that helps, I was super concerned myself before I saw her last week because sometimes my calorie intake was actually less than what I burned so I was in the negative at the end of the day. She told me for now not to worry. Good luck

[M2G 1,836]

I typically don't eat back the calories I've burned through exercise. I'm 2.5 years out, and usually eat around 1,200 calories a day. Depending on what exercise I do I burn between 200-800 calories a day.

[mark! 449]

I gotta eat some calories back. At the end of the day I burn anywhere from 2000-3000 calories tracked by fitbit for a while, and now with my body media. If I don't, my weight loss slows dramatically, but if I eat some of those calories back it starts right on moving again.