Trying to get head around deficit

[heavymetalmonster]

Hi

I use MyFitnessPal and I've found it to be amazing. It says my target is 1560 calories as I'm aiming to lose 2lbs a week. I'm male, age 22, 5 foot 10 and weight 16 stone 5 pounds. 1st January 2012 I weighed 16 stone 13 pounds.

I'm just trying to get my head around the deficit. The deficit is 1000 which is fine. So when I add an exercise which say uses 100 calories, MyFitnessPal will add on an extra 100 calories to be eaten.

Basically, it's wanting me to go no lower than 1000 calorie deficit. If I exercise then I will so I need to eat to make it up right? So if I eat too much and it's showing a minus at the top I could do some exercise to help bring it down to the target?

 

[ApplySomePressure]

It shouldn't be showing a minus but for example I'm finished my diary for the day and it says 600 odd cals remaining. I don't need to eat those back but if I was feeling hungry now then I could eat some of it back. The calories I've actually eaten are above 1200 (1300) I think and I've exercised just under 600 cals.

I'm no expert by any means but I would say go with how you are feeling. If you e exercised and you feel hungry after eat some of the cals back, if you don't you don't need to!

There are far more knowledgable people than me who I'm sure will come along to help.

 

[heavymetalmonster]

It shouldn't be showing a minus but for example I'm finished my diary for the day and it says 600 odd cals remaining. I don't need to eat those back but if I was feeling hungry now then I could eat some of it back. The calories I've actually eaten are above 1200 (1300) I think and I've exercised just under 600 cals.

I'm no expert by any means but I would say go with how you are feeling. If you e exercised and you feel hungry after eat some of the cals back, if you don't you don't need to!

There are far more knowledgable people than me who I'm sure will come along to help.

Thanks for the reply.

No I don't quite mean that. I mean like say if you overeat your target and it shows like - 50 calories remaining but I'm still in a deficit by 950 so will lose some weight but not quite enough so I could exercise enough to burn 50 calories to bring it to 0. If that makes sense?

 

[ApplySomePressure]

Oh sorry didn't understand your question!

Yes that works! If you know you're going to be eating out you can do the same- exercise earlier in the day to give you extra cals to play with.

 

[Bostik]

Yep, when you add the exercise it'll add it to your goal for the day so the minus will go if you do enough