What counts as "calories out"?

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sharonrtrantham
sharonrtrantham Posts: 3 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
This questions probably been asked before, but as I'm having trouble pinpointing it I hope you don't mind my asking. I've read the posts that say weight loss is as simple as calories in, calories out, and that makes sense to me. My problem is the recommended calorie goal of, say, 2400 kcal I'm supposed to eat. On a good day, I'm burning 660 calories on a walk (I'm just starting out, so hopefully it'll get to be more the more I walk.) burning more than 2400 because that's walking over 4 times what I am now! I wish I could but right now I'm just trying to focus on getting 3 miles a day in in addition to college and spending time with my Grandma.
So is there something I'm missing here? Because I'm willing to do what it takes but I know I'm 'not supposed to' eat little enough to have more calories out then in.
Thanks for the help in advance.
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Replies

  • 3dogsrunning
    3dogsrunning Posts: 27,167 Member
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    Calories out include your BMR (basal metabolic rate) - that is what your body needs to survive, like if it were in a coma, all your daily activities, from walking to the car, brushing your teeth, sitting, and exercise.

    660 calories for a walk is a huge number. That would be a long walk. I'm not sure if I am misreading but you wouldn't burn 600 calories for a 3 mile walk. Consider for a 150 lb person a 3 mile run would be about 300 calories.
  • maidentl
    maidentl Posts: 3,203 Member
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    Your body burns calories just by being alive. Your exercise is in addition to that. :)
  • mgoddard1527
    mgoddard1527 Posts: 20 Member
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    Calories out is your TDEE or total daily energy expenditure. That is the calories your body requires to maintain all your important life functions (you burn calories even while you sleep) plus the activity you do each day. There are ways to calculate this but I would recommend you hop over to the "get started" threads on the board to read up on it and get you pointed in the right direction. Lots of good info there.

    But burning almost 700 calories in a walk seems pretty high....where are you getting that number from?

    Check out those threads.
  • ncfitbit
    ncfitbit Posts: 1,058 Member
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    I know you didn't ask about whether you should eat back your exercise calories, but I like this explanation of all the terms that are used on MFP. It can get very confusing!

    http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/818082/exercise-calories-again-wtf/p1

  • ncboiler89
    ncboiler89 Posts: 2,408 Member
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    maidentl wrote: »
    Your body burns calories just by being alive. Your exercise is in addition to that. :)

    I would say that your body burns calories just by being alive, then you burn calories doing everyday things (like things you do on your job for example; walking, typing, punching your computer), then you burn calories doing exercising (such as walking outside of normal activity, jogging, judo, bench pressing orphans).

    You want to eat less than the first two and either bank the third or eat part of it back. However keep in mind that equipment, and people, generally overestimate the calorie burn of exercising.
  • katharineshalia
    katharineshalia Posts: 243 Member
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    3dogsrunning wrote: »
    660 calories for a walk is a huge number. That would be a long walk. I'm not sure if I am misreading but you wouldn't burn 600 calories for a 3 mile walk. Consider for a 150 lb person a 3 mile run would be about 300 calories.

    This is true ^^^ I walk an hour a day = 300 burn
  • Werk2Eat
    Werk2Eat Posts: 114 Member
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    "walking" is too vague. I am currently 161lbs. I walk at an incline of lvl 8 on my treadmill at a pace of 3.5 miles and hour and burn 300 calories in under 30 minutes. I hate when people are too vague and others act like its impossible to burn that many calories in that time frame.
  • 3dogsrunning
    3dogsrunning Posts: 27,167 Member
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    Werk2Eat wrote: »
    "walking" is too vague. I am currently 161lbs. I walk at an incline of lvl 8 on my treadmill at a pace of 3.5 miles and hour and burn 300 calories in under 30 minutes. I hate when people are too vague and others act like its impossible to burn that many calories in that time frame.

    How often do people discuss walking and really mean walking on a treadmill on a steep incline without specifying?

    Are you holding handrails?
  • ncboiler89
    ncboiler89 Posts: 2,408 Member
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    Werk2Eat wrote: »
    "walking" is too vague. I am currently 161lbs. I walk at an incline of lvl 8 on my treadmill at a pace of 3.5 miles and hour and burn 300 calories in under 30 minutes. I hate when people are too vague and others act like its impossible to burn that many calories in that time frame.

    Are you going by what your equipment says?
  • Werk2Eat
    Werk2Eat Posts: 114 Member
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    3dogsrunning wrote: »

    How often do people discuss walking and really mean walking on a treadmill on a steep incline without specifying?

    Are you holding handrails?

    Hell no i removed them them the day i got my treadmill. They get in the way when im swinging my arms with 5lb weights.

  • Werk2Eat
    Werk2Eat Posts: 114 Member
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    ncboiler89 wrote: »
    Werk2Eat wrote: »
    "walking" is too vague. I am currently 161lbs. I walk at an incline of lvl 8 on my treadmill at a pace of 3.5 miles and hour and burn 300 calories in under 30 minutes. I hate when people are too vague and others act like its impossible to burn that many calories in that time frame.

    Are you going by what your equipment says?

    No i go by my heart rate monitor. It calculates lowest to highest heart rate and gives the average. I use the average which i try to keep between 165-175 and adjust/increase speed to keep above 165bpm.

  • OsricTheKnight
    OsricTheKnight Posts: 340 Member
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    You can try reading my post on how to figure out your daily energy expenditure based on your height (roughly) and use that as a starting point.

    Or you can use a fitness tracker to measure calories out and see what it says.

    Or you can use a trend chart like I explain in my post to figure out your deficit, and then adjust either your activity (calories out) or your eating (calories in - and much easier to impact) to fix your rate of loss to a speed that you find noticeable/motivating.

    Osric
  • sharonrtrantham
    sharonrtrantham Posts: 3 Member
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    Thank you all so much for the help! I had heard something once about BMR but was clueless to what it meant (I should have googled but never took the time.)
    As far as where I got my calorie burn from I use the MapMyWalk connected to this app so I don't mess up putting in the numbers. I know it's just an estimate but that's just what I was going by. I probably did burn less than that but I was just going by what the app told me. (It's usually around 2.8-3.1 miles in an hour, if that makes any more sense and is more specific?)
  • senecarr
    senecarr Posts: 5,377 Member
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    ncboiler89 wrote: »
    maidentl wrote: »
    Your body burns calories just by being alive. Your exercise is in addition to that. :)

    I would say that your body burns calories just by being alive, then you burn calories doing everyday things (like things you do on your job for example; walking, typing, punching your computer), then you burn calories doing exercising (such as walking outside of normal activity, jogging, judo, bench pressing orphans).

    You want to eat less than the first two and either bank the third or eat part of it back. However keep in mind that equipment, and people, generally overestimate the calorie burn of exercising.
    You still only doing Annies, or have you moved up to Oliver Twists yet?
  • Machka9
    Machka9 Posts: 25,192 Member
    edited September 2015
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    sharonrtrantham wrote: »
    On a good day, I'm burning 660 calories on a walk (I'm just starting out, so hopefully it'll get to be more the more I walk.)

    That's quite a walk ... a good 3 hours at a brisk pace! Every day?

    sharonrtrantham wrote: »
    Thank you all so much for the help! I had heard something once about BMR but was clueless to what it meant (I should have googled but never took the time.)
    As far as where I got my calorie burn from I use the MapMyWalk connected to this app so I don't mess up putting in the numbers. I know it's just an estimate but that's just what I was going by. I probably did burn less than that but I was just going by what the app told me. (It's usually around 2.8-3.1 miles in an hour, if that makes any more sense and is more specific?)

    Yeah ... my walks are at that same pace, and I burn about 200 cal/hour.


    Anyway, as the others have probably explained, calories burned comes from all the energy needed to keep your body alive + all the usual things you do during the day + any extra exercise.

    If MFP gave you 2400 cal as your max, you need to eat 2400 cal, but MFP presumes you're burning that through keeping your body alive + all the usual things you do during the day. Then you add your exercise, and you can eat all or some of that back. I think most of us eat about half our exercise calories back.


    Just curious, when you entered your info into MFP, and got 2400 cal ... did you set yourself as sedentary or select something else?

  • honkytonks85
    honkytonks85 Posts: 669 Member
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    Calories out are typically overestimated. 600 calories for just walking would be like a 4 hour walk, I really doubt you're burning that many calories.
  • cityruss
    cityruss Posts: 2,493 Member
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    The 'Calories Out' part of the equation is how many calories you use in any given timeframe.

    So any expenditure of energy by your body is 'Calories Out'.
  • sashayoung72
    sashayoung72 Posts: 441 Member
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    senecarr wrote: »
    ncboiler89 wrote: »
    maidentl wrote: »
    Your body burns calories just by being alive. Your exercise is in addition to that. :)

    I would say that your body burns calories just by being alive, then you burn calories doing everyday things (like things you do on your job for example; walking, typing, punching your computer), then you burn calories doing exercising (such as walking outside of normal activity, jogging, judo, bench pressing orphans).

    You want to eat less than the first two and either bank the third or eat part of it back. However keep in mind that equipment, and people, generally overestimate the calorie burn of exercising.
    You still only doing Annies, or have you moved up to Oliver Twists yet?
    It's to early in the morning, i missed that orphan reference, thanks for pointing it out lol

  • WBB55
    WBB55 Posts: 4,131 Member
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    sashayoung72 wrote: »
    senecarr wrote: »
    ncboiler89 wrote: »
    maidentl wrote: »
    Your body burns calories just by being alive. Your exercise is in addition to that. :)

    I would say that your body burns calories just by being alive, then you burn calories doing everyday things (like things you do on your job for example; walking, typing, punching your computer), then you burn calories doing exercising (such as walking outside of normal activity, jogging, judo, bench pressing orphans).

    You want to eat less than the first two and either bank the third or eat part of it back. However keep in mind that equipment, and people, generally overestimate the calorie burn of exercising.
    You still only doing Annies, or have you moved up to Oliver Twists yet?
    It's to early in the morning, i missed that orphan reference, thanks for pointing it out lol

    Benching Bruce Wayne being the ultimate goal, then?
  • cwolfman13
    cwolfman13 Posts: 41,867 Member
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    everything you do is calories out...you burn calories 24/7...burning calories is calories out. you burn a *kitten* load of calories just existing...then you burn calories doing your day to day...you even burn calories eating and digesting food...and exercise....you are constantly burning calories.

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