confused about calories
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akayek31
Posts: 24 Member
I have a limit of 1720 a day. I work out for an hour and get anywhere between 500-900 calories. The other night it said I was not eating enough and wouldn't let me close out with 1200+ remaining after a 900 calorie workout. Am I supposed to eat all those calories on top of the 1700?
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Replies
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Eat at least half of them. MFP's plan calls for you to eat your exercise calories. Many people feel they are overstated so they eat only a portion. Eating half is a good rule for now until you determine whether not your weight loss is on target.0
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What are you doing in your "workout" to get such a high number in an hour?0
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In my experience, MFP overestimates the calories that you burn during a workout by a lot.0
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I have a limit of 1720 a day. I work out for an hour and get anywhere between 500-900 calories. The other night it said I was not eating enough and wouldn't let me close out with 1200+ remaining after a 900 calorie workout. Am I supposed to eat all those calories on top of the 1700?
What exactly did you do to burn 900 calories in a workout? My guess is that you actually didn't burn 900 calories...that's a pretty tall order for any workout and at minimum would take a couple of hours of steady work at a moderate+ pace.
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I eat all of mine back most of the time but people seem to get all worked up over them being overstated. I would like everybody to eat them all back for the first 3 weeks or so and then adjust downward. But I'm not the boss so I just recommend that people eat at least half.0
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Well last night I used the stationery bike for 45 minutes. It said 587 (put in bicycle ) just looked up stationery and it was well over 600 calories for 45 min. Other times I go on the tredmil and that was 900 cals for over 45 min with hills.cwolfman13 wrote: »I have a limit of 1720 a day. I work out for an hour and get anywhere between 500-900 calories. The other night it said I was not eating enough and wouldn't let me close out with 1200+ remaining after a 900 calorie workout. Am I supposed to eat all those calories on top of the 1700?
What exactly did you do to burn 900 calories in a workout? My guess is that you actually didn't burn 900 calories...that's a pretty tall order for any workout and at minimum would take a couple of hours of steady work at a moderate+ pace.
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Well last night I used the stationery bike for 45 minutes. It said 587 (put in bicycle ) just looked up stationery and it was well over 600 calories for 45 min. Other times I go on the tredmil and that was 900 cals for over 45 min with hills.cwolfman13 wrote: »I have a limit of 1720 a day. I work out for an hour and get anywhere between 500-900 calories. The other night it said I was not eating enough and wouldn't let me close out with 1200+ remaining after a 900 calorie workout. Am I supposed to eat all those calories on top of the 1700?
What exactly did you do to burn 900 calories in a workout? My guess is that you actually didn't burn 900 calories...that's a pretty tall order for any workout and at minimum would take a couple of hours of steady work at a moderate+ pace.
Those are substantially inflated. It's really hard to burn more than about 10 calories per minute above and beyond your basal calories. The database is notoriously inflated, and machines don't provide very good estimates either. A HRM is the most reliable for steady state cardio, but even that is an estimate and at minimum you would want to deduct your basal calories.
Nobody is burning 600 calories on a stationary bike in 45 minutes...cut that in half.0 -
cwolfman13 wrote: »
Well last night I used the stationery bike for 45 minutes. It said 587 (put in bicycle ) just looked up stationery and it was well over 600 calories for 45 min. Other times I go on the tredmil and that was 900 cals for over 45 min with hills.cwolfman13 wrote: »I have a limit of 1720 a day. I work out for an hour and get anywhere between 500-900 calories. The other night it said I was not eating enough and wouldn't let me close out with 1200+ remaining after a 900 calorie workout. Am I supposed to eat all those calories on top of the 1700?
What exactly did you do to burn 900 calories in a workout? My guess is that you actually didn't burn 900 calories...that's a pretty tall order for any workout and at minimum would take a couple of hours of steady work at a moderate+ pace.
Those are substantially inflated. It's really hard to burn more than about 10 calories per minute above and beyond your basal calories. The database is notoriously inflated, and machines don't provide very good estimates either. A HRM is the most reliable for steady state cardio, but even that is an estimate and at minimum you would want to deduct your basal calories.
Nobody is burning 600 calories on a stationary bike in 45 minutes...cut that in half.
So then if I cut that to 300 then eat 150 of those? Plus does it hurt me in my weight loss that I am leavin 200-350 a night in my 1720 allowable cals?0 -
Well last night I used the stationery bike for 45 minutes. It said 587 (put in bicycle ) just looked up stationery and it was well over 600 calories for 45 min. Other times I go on the tredmil and that was 900 cals for over 45 min with hills.cwolfman13 wrote: »I have a limit of 1720 a day. I work out for an hour and get anywhere between 500-900 calories. The other night it said I was not eating enough and wouldn't let me close out with 1200+ remaining after a 900 calorie workout. Am I supposed to eat all those calories on top of the 1700?
What exactly did you do to burn 900 calories in a workout? My guess is that you actually didn't burn 900 calories...that's a pretty tall order for any workout and at minimum would take a couple of hours of steady work at a moderate+ pace.
Those numbers are dreadfully exaggerated I believe, especially the treadmill.
Yes you should be eating back exercise calories but need to take care with the estimates.
If you manage 600/hour on an exercise bike you would need to be reasonably fit.
The treadmill numbers are frankly ludicrous - the machine is horribly wrong.0 -
Well last night I used the stationery bike for 45 minutes. It said 587 (put in bicycle ) just looked up stationery and it was well over 600 calories for 45 min. Other times I go on the tredmil and that was 900 cals for over 45 min with hills.cwolfman13 wrote: »I have a limit of 1720 a day. I work out for an hour and get anywhere between 500-900 calories. The other night it said I was not eating enough and wouldn't let me close out with 1200+ remaining after a 900 calorie workout. Am I supposed to eat all those calories on top of the 1700?
What exactly did you do to burn 900 calories in a workout? My guess is that you actually didn't burn 900 calories...that's a pretty tall order for any workout and at minimum would take a couple of hours of steady work at a moderate+ pace.
Those numbers are dreadfully exaggerated I believe, especially the treadmill.
Yes you should be eating back exercise calories but need to take care with the estimates.
If you manage 600/hour on an exercise bike you would need to be reasonably fit.
The treadmill numbers are frankly ludicrous - the machine is horribly wrong.
Its MFP that is putting these numbers in. The machine says less than 300.0 -
cwolfman13 wrote: »
Well last night I used the stationery bike for 45 minutes. It said 587 (put in bicycle ) just looked up stationery and it was well over 600 calories for 45 min. Other times I go on the tredmil and that was 900 cals for over 45 min with hills.cwolfman13 wrote: »I have a limit of 1720 a day. I work out for an hour and get anywhere between 500-900 calories. The other night it said I was not eating enough and wouldn't let me close out with 1200+ remaining after a 900 calorie workout. Am I supposed to eat all those calories on top of the 1700?
What exactly did you do to burn 900 calories in a workout? My guess is that you actually didn't burn 900 calories...that's a pretty tall order for any workout and at minimum would take a couple of hours of steady work at a moderate+ pace.
Those are substantially inflated. It's really hard to burn more than about 10 calories per minute above and beyond your basal calories. The database is notoriously inflated, and machines don't provide very good estimates either. A HRM is the most reliable for steady state cardio, but even that is an estimate and at minimum you would want to deduct your basal calories.
Nobody is burning 600 calories on a stationary bike in 45 minutes...cut that in half.
So then if I cut that to 300 then eat 150 of those? Plus does it hurt me in my weight loss that I am leavin 200-350 a night in my 1720 allowable cals?
No, eat the 300. Your calorie GOAL already includes our deficit to lose weight...you would lose weight without any exercise whatsoever if you simply ate to your goal. Exercise activity is NOT included in your activity level, thus when you perform that activity it is unaccounted for. Part of being healthy and fit is learning how to properly fuel your fitness...exercise is good for you ...but it can also be hard on the body and calories (energy) and nutrients are required for recovery and repair.
You're not trying to create a calorie deficit with MFP...it's already built in...it is meant to teach you weight control through diet and fitness for the sake of fitness. Exercise isn't about losing weight...it's about fitness. I've lost weight, maintained weight, and gained weight all the while exercising like a mad man...the difference between those three goals was simply my consumption.0 -
Well last night I used the stationery bike for 45 minutes. It said 587 (put in bicycle ) just looked up stationery and it was well over 600 calories for 45 min. Other times I go on the tredmil and that was 900 cals for over 45 min with hills.cwolfman13 wrote: »I have a limit of 1720 a day. I work out for an hour and get anywhere between 500-900 calories. The other night it said I was not eating enough and wouldn't let me close out with 1200+ remaining after a 900 calorie workout. Am I supposed to eat all those calories on top of the 1700?
What exactly did you do to burn 900 calories in a workout? My guess is that you actually didn't burn 900 calories...that's a pretty tall order for any workout and at minimum would take a couple of hours of steady work at a moderate+ pace.
Those numbers are dreadfully exaggerated I believe, especially the treadmill.
Yes you should be eating back exercise calories but need to take care with the estimates.
If you manage 600/hour on an exercise bike you would need to be reasonably fit.
The treadmill numbers are frankly ludicrous - the machine is horribly wrong.
Its MFP that is putting these numbers in. The machine says less than 300.
You can't take any database for "gospel". Databases are notoriously wrong for calorie burn. It is one of the difficulties with the MFP method...it is hard to estimate calorie burn. People end up exaggerating their burn and then on top of the underestimating their intake (they don't weigh or measure, pick erroneous entries from the food database, etc) and then claim it's not working...when in reality, what is not working is their ability to be accurate.0 -
Thanks for the help. I guess that is why I am only losing weight on the days I don't work out. I will get use to it. But my fear is gaining the weight back if I eat those exercise calories.0
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I have to say "Akayek31", the responses you received in your question were probably the nicest responses that I have seen on here (and most helpful). Usually when I read the responses most of the users responses come off like a-holes with a question like yours.
I am horrible at all the weight loss basics myself and understanding all the calorie stuff is just as confusing so it was nice to read what everyone had to say with real advice rather than jokes and knock downs.
Kudos to all of you that responded!
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The difference between my exercise bike monitor and mfp is a good couple of hundred, I adjust it to what my bike says. Like the others have said mfp does over estimate calories burned during exercise. Good luck on your journey xx0
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I assume that I'm underestimating my food and overestimating my workouts. For example, my bike tells me I'm doing 150 calories for a 40-minute rides with a heart rate in the 150s. MFP tells me it's 600. I put in the 150. I keep up with my calories during the day, but I assume I missed a candy bar or a handful of chips or something. So I try to keep my calories above a minimum of 1200 and below what MFP says I have left. You'll eventually figure out what number is right for you. That's the beauty of charting these things. You've already figured out what makes you lose and what makes you gain. Now you just have to fine tune it into a routine that works for you every day.
And don't worry if your weight doesn't go down every day. I routinely gain and lose two pounds a day. Seriously. Weigh yourself as soon as you wake up, then again after go visit the toilet, then again after breakfast. Keep weighing yourself every hour for an entire day. You'll be shocked at how much your weight rises and falls as just a normal part of being alive. It will drive you mad if you let it. Keep in mind that it's not your daily weight that matters but the overall trend as you change your lifestyle to become healthier and feel better.0 -
Thanks for the help. I guess that is why I am only losing weight on the days I don't work out. I will get use to it. But my fear is gaining the weight back if I eat those exercise calories.
Keep in mind that when you get on the scale tomorrow morning, it doesn't just reflect what you ate today. There's a cumulative effect and it happens over time. Your weight loss may have been slowed by eating excess exercise calories so far but then again maybe not. Bottom line, though, is that you need to fuel your body. @cwolfman13 said something in another thread earlier today that I will quote here:You also have to ultimately wrap your head around fitness for the sake of fitness here...no just weight loss...fitness should be done for the sake of fitness...when you wrap your head around that, fueling it makes a lot more sense than not.
I know that you want to lose weight but I would encourage you to also look at the big picture, which is overall fitness. Eating those calories will help with that.0 -
I wore a monitor for awhile (they're irritating as *%#@! in my opinion) and it was amazing that MFP estimates were nearly double my actual burn. So, for me at least, they are correct in saying to cut your exercise calories expended in half.0
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....never mind.
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