Advice please, Use exercise calories or no?

RocknRollNurse36

I was just wondering if I may get some advice on if me NOT using my exercise calories will hurt my weight loss or health in the long run?? in 3 weeks I am down 12 pounds I am on 1536 calories and on most days it is all I can do to reach that amount. When exercise calories are added I usually end up with anywhere between 300 and 700 extra calories a day. I am 5'6 248 as of this morning, if that makes a difference.. Thank you in advance for your honest opinions..

999tigger

Id say you will be fine and at least you are eating a healthy amount from the start.
The exercise calories on MFP tend to be over generous or people overestimate the effort they put in. Plenty of people do not eat back or eat 50%. Its always an option for you to eat them back though if you feel hungry.

Just try and maintain eating a healthy diet and making sure you are sufficiently nourished before and after your workout.

RocknRollNurse36

Thank you very much, appreciate your advice

I have been satisfied and not been hungry, but good to know that if needed they are there.. Have a blessed day and thanks again.. Sherry

cw106

999tigger wrote: »

Id say you will be fine and at least you are eating a healthy amount from the start.
The exercise calories on MFP tend to be over generous or people overestimate the effort they put in. Plenty of people do not eat back or eat 50%. Its always an option for you to eat them back though if you feel hungry.

Just try and maintain eating a healthy diet and making sure you are sufficiently nourished before and after your workout.

excellent advice.
at 260 you will drop a lot quite quickly.
as your weight decreases in 10 lb increments.mfp reduces your daily calorie goal.
i started at 235 llbs and 1640 daily cals.
at 195 lbs that reduced to 1380! way too low for me,so i now eat back max 25% exercise cals.
you will also lose muscle with the fat,so start core/ strength training asap.
rest days are crucial too.
i learned the above the hard way as i was over- enthused with xs cardio that has vastly reduced by strength/ performance.
- good luck

999tigger

CW im aware of the calories falling, im on 1560 and no doubt MFP would probably redyce it down to yours, but I exercise a reasinable amount, so I uess ill be exercising more to maintain my eating allowance. 200 calories is a lot, but its about 20 mins cardio or a 45 minute walk. I exercise 2 days on and 1 day rest or gentle cardio.

I am also aware of listening to my body and using common sense at the gym. You can tell when you arent up to it and that flags up me looking ro undestand why , which might be rest. I do my strength before cardio because keeping form matters more.

I use my exercise calories as a reserve buffer, but generally try and stick to the diet allowance.

Liftng4Lis

Do it until you drop some weight and your calories adjust. When they get low enough, that you're hungry, then start to eat some of them back.

ana3067

At your weight, 1500 cals is not enough. Recalculate your energy needs from a proper calculator like exrx.net or health-calc.com and subtract 20% (max 30%) from the numbers it gives you. calculate your energy needs without including exercise so you can get your NEAT estimate (which is what MFP does). Then I would recommend being 100% honest with yourself and your exercise activity, log the exercise, eat all the calories back. If after a month you're less than 4lbs down, lower your net cals or only eat back 50-75% of the exercise cals. Monitor for a month, lower net cals again if not reaching at least 4lbs a month lost.

It's better to lose on as many calories as possible than to aim too high and be stuck eating almost nothing near the end. MFP is a poor calculator for NEAT needs because it just arbitrarily removes 500 cals for a lb (why would almost EVERYONE wind up at 1200 calories once they choose 2lbs/week?), many people undereat NEAT needs while also not eating back exercise calories.

I just did a rough NEAT estimate with health-calc.com, assuming 8hrs sleep and 1hr standing/walking (which most people will do just from cooking and showering and walking to/from places). The calculator estimated ~2700 to maintain. For 1lb/week you could eat about 2250 cals, or for 1.5lb/week it estimates about 2000. This is NEAT, without exercise.

For exrx.net, which estimates lower, it estimated 2500 for maintenance, 2050 for 1lb/week, and about 1790 for 1.5lb/week. Again, without including exercise.

I would personally recommend doing your own calculations and then choosing the highest number of the two calculators, and then use this to estimate how many calories you could eat to lose ~1lb or ~1.5lbs a week:
health-calc.com/diet/weight-loss-calculator

Then set that number as your goal, log and eat back exercise calories, and monitor for a month or two. If you are not losing to your goal (and I'd say look at the monthly average more so than weekly averages), then drop the exercise calorie consumption to 75% or 50%, monitor, and if that still doesn't get you where you need to be, then lower NEAT intake by 100 cals.

Recalculate every 10lbs lost.

lemurcat12

Liftng4Lis wrote: »

Do it until you drop some weight and your calories adjust. When they get low enough, that you're hungry, then start to eat some of them back.

This.

I ate my exercise calories from the start, but I also started with a more aggressive goal, so it was a trade off. IMO, if you are eating a reasonable amount, feel good, and aren't losing an unreasonable amount (you lose more at the beginning and should stabilize at more like 2 lbs/week or so), it's probably fine. If you start doing more intense exercise you may need to up the calories to feel like you are making progress in your fitness goals, and just don't be afraid to do that either.

RocknRollNurse36

Thank you all so much, and Ana thanks for the calculator link, I appreciate everyone's advice and I will use it I have noticed that I lose more when eating more than the past couple weeks.. Thanks again

ana3067

Hopefully the advice everyone gave will do you well, and definitely remember that food is GOOD lol. No need to starve yourself to lose weight; everyone assumes it's either you need to starve yourself or you need to do 20 hours of cardio every week... or worse, both! Reasonable goals will yield reasonable results, but will also yield a much better dieting experience both mentally and physically.

RocknRollNurse36

I agree Ana, I know food is good and have been using all but close to 100 of my daily calories and none of my exercise calories on most days, I just did not want it to cause issues if I did not use my exercise calories and I was not sure on this that is why I asked the advice of everyone. Been making sure to get my lean proteins, dairy fruit and veggies in and I have been making sure to get all my nutrients and vitamins as well as staying hydrated.. thank you again for your help

FitOldMomma

I finally found the best thing for me was to set my activity level at 'active' on the goal setting page. That gives me 1950 calories per day and I don't 'eat back' any exercise calories. I swim 4x's a week for 2 hours which burns quite a few calories. On swim days I was allotted almost 1100 extra calories! My reason for doing this is that I wanted the same daily calorie allotment so I could more easily plan food menus. Other than the swimming, I'm not very active- so the averaging works out pretty well.
I started at almost 296.5 and I'm down to 237. So, this is working for me as long as I get in all my swimming for the week.

ana3067

oldmomma wrote: »

I finally found the best thing for me was to set my activity level at 'active' on the goal setting page. That gives me 1950 calories per day and I don't 'eat back' any exercise calories. I swim 4x's a week for 2 hours which burns quite a few calories. On swim days I was allotted almost 1100 extra calories! My reason for doing this is that I wanted the same daily calorie allotment so I could more easily plan food menus. Other than the swimming, I'm not very active- so the averaging works out pretty well.
I started at almost 296.5 and I'm down to 237. So, this is working for me as long as I get in all my swimming for the week.

This is basically TDEE method, which I used to do. I do agree it's convenient@ but I'm not consistent with exercise hence switching to NEAT method. So for OP, if you are consistent with exercise you could always try setting your activity level to match your TOTAL activity level. I find that using the activity levels are more accurate for TDEE than using them for NEAT intake (I calculate my intake from separate calculators). That way you can average out exercise calories for every day and just eat until you hit or are close to hitting your daily goal.

MKEgal

My doctor (head of the weight-loss program at the hospital) & dietician both say not to eat back exercise calories.
Ignore "net".
Most people underestimate what they eat, most machines (including MFP) overestimate calories burned.
If there's an evening when you're really hungry, have 1/3 to maybe 1/2 of your exercise cal for that day as a snack.

Exercise is a help toward maintaining weight, but not so much at losing weight.

"Most weight loss occurs because of decreased caloric intake.
However, evidence shows the only way to maintain weight loss is to be engaged in regular physical activity."
http://www.cdc.gov/healthyweight/physical_activity/index.html

MKEgal

RocknRollNurse36 wrote:

I am on 1536 calories and on most days it is all I can do to reach that amount. When exercise calories are added I usually end up with anywhere between 300 and 700 extra calories a day. I am 5'6 248

Going by BMI, you should be 115 - 150 lb.
http://www.shapeup.org/bmi/bmi6.pdf
So you're currently on track to get to 150 by eating 1500 cal.

Or looking at it the other way, you'd have to eat about 2500 to maintain your current weight. Subtract 1000 from that to lose 2 lb per week and you're at 1500 again.
As you hit a plateau, nudge the calories down by about 50 & give it a week or so to see that you start losing again.
Don't go below 1200.

Both of those are methods used by my doctor & dietician. Starting out very heavy, most people use the second method, until it meets up with the first.

MKEgal

Here's a post I did about setting goals, including weight, calories, and macronutrient %.
http://www.myfitnesspal.com/blog/MKEgal/view/2014-06-08-setting-goals-667045

And here's the all-time most useful & referenced post on MFP:
http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/1080242/a-guide-to-get-you-started-on-your-path-to-sexypants

heybales

Have you played out the end game yet of calorie allowance?
Like if already eating at 1536 and losing whatever you are losing, but that means doing the amount of exercise you are doing, all causes that to happen.

But as you have expressed you are aware, that eating goal goes down as you lose more. How low can you go?

What happens when you are 75 lbs lighter? You will burn less at exercise, and the amount you can increase the intensity rarely compensates for moving around less mass.

Really, Change current weight to 75 lbs lighter and view the goal, and think of doing more than what you currently do to keep losing weight.

Starting at minimum will eventually give minimum results. Glad it seems you are doing strength training at least.

As to advice that Dr or dieticians don't follow a "net" calorie goal - they also don't do the whole method like MFP does. They start out with an average daily burn with all planned exercise and then find an eating goal - so you better do it.
- MFP assumes none done until actually done.
So of course those apples don't look like those oranges - but if someone isn't aware the baskets were labeled differently, of course they wouldn't get that.

Different ways to get to same numbers usually.

ana3067

MKEgal wrote: »

RocknRollNurse36 wrote:

I am on 1536 calories and on most days it is all I can do to reach that amount. When exercise calories are added I usually end up with anywhere between 300 and 700 extra calories a day. I am 5'6 248

Going by BMI, you should be 115 - 150 lb.
http://www.shapeup.org/bmi/bmi6.pdf
So you're currently on track to get to 150 by eating 1500 cal.

Or looking at it the other way, you'd have to eat about 2500 to maintain your current weight. Subtract 1000 from that to lose 2 lb per week and you're at 1500 again.
As you hit a plateau, nudge the calories down by about 50 & give it a week or so to see that you start losing again.
Don't go below 1200.

Both of those are methods used by my doctor & dietician. Starting out very heavy, most people use the second method, until it meets up with the first.

Actually at 250lbs OP might actually maintain on only 2200. Or on 3200. Because overall activity level determines calorie burn/maintenance. Calorie maintenance =/= your weight in lbs.

So basically, you really need to stop telling people that if their goal is to be 110lbs they need to eat 1100 calories, and that if they weigh 130lbs their maintenance is 1300 calories. These are all incorrect.

And because OP is using NEAT (non-exercise activity thermogenesis) she needs to log and eat back exercise calorie in order to maintain a sustainable, healthy, non-damaging deficit. If she were to be using TDEE (total daily energy expenditure) then her calculations (which would NOT be her body weight as a calorie goal or her desired body weight as a calorie goal) then she would already be including exercise into her calorie count, thus would not need to eat back exercise calories.

Please clear up your understanding of NEAT versus TDEE before you continue telling people who are using NEAT method that they do not need to eat back exercise cals. And stop peddling this whole "eat your goal weight in lbs as your calorie goal in order to lose weight" and "your current weight in lbs is equivalent to your maintenance needs." I'm 166lbs, my NEAT maintenance is ~2300-2400. Even when I calculate using too-low settings, my NEAT comes in around 2000 anyways. Not 1660.

ana3067

MrM27 wrote: »

ana3067 wrote: »

MKEgal wrote: »

RocknRollNurse36 wrote:

I am on 1536 calories and on most days it is all I can do to reach that amount. When exercise calories are added I usually end up with anywhere between 300 and 700 extra calories a day. I am 5'6 248

Going by BMI, you should be 115 - 150 lb.
http://www.shapeup.org/bmi/bmi6.pdf
So you're currently on track to get to 150 by eating 1500 cal.

Or looking at it the other way, you'd have to eat about 2500 to maintain your current weight. Subtract 1000 from that to lose 2 lb per week and you're at 1500 again.
As you hit a plateau, nudge the calories down by about 50 & give it a week or so to see that you start losing again.
Don't go below 1200.

Both of those are methods used by my doctor & dietician. Starting out very heavy, most people use the second method, until it meets up with the first.

Actually at 250lbs OP might actually maintain on only 2200. Or on 3200. Because overall activity level determines calorie burn/maintenance. Calorie maintenance =/= your weight in lbs.

So basically, you really need to stop telling people that if their goal is to be 110lbs they need to eat 1100 calories, and that if they weigh 130lbs their maintenance is 1300 calories. These are all incorrect.

And because OP is using NEAT (non-exercise activity thermogenesis) she needs to log and eat back exercise calorie in order to maintain a sustainable, healthy, non-damaging deficit. If she were to be using TDEE (total daily energy expenditure) then her calculations (which would NOT be her body weight as a calorie goal or her desired body weight as a calorie goal) then she would already be including exercise into her calorie count, thus would not need to eat back exercise calories.

Please clear up your understanding of NEAT versus TDEE before you continue telling people who are using NEAT method that they do not need to eat back exercise cals. And stop peddling this whole "eat your goal weight in lbs as your calorie goal in order to lose weight" and "your current weight in lbs is equivalent to your maintenance needs." I'm 166lbs, my NEAT maintenance is ~2300-2400. Even when I calculate using too-low settings, my NEAT comes in around 2000 anyways. Not 1660.

Have to agree with that^^

Like if my goal is to be 98lbs I should eat 980 calories? come on, what is this witch craft?
Although my goal would never be to reach 98 lbs lol.

heybales

^^^ So that would imply when at 10 lbs over goal weight, I should have been eating about 400 less than I was on rest days? Of course, that method mentioned takes in to account no exercise, so my weekly avg TDEE of 3500 would have done something interesting to my body eating at 1650. I think I would have been sleeping a whole lot more and mostly missing my workouts, likely lowering my TDEE to a point where 1650 wasn't that far off. shudder.