Calorie burn CONFUSED

julestar777

Hi there, Just wondering if someone can shed some light on this topic. I hear ppl say on my news feed that they are happy as they have burned all the calories they have consumed. Does this mean if they get 1500 cals they are doing 1500 cals worth of exercise?? or is this lingo I don't know as I am new to MFP. I thought the way it worked is I get 1500 cals to eat regardless of any exercise and then if i do lots of exercise i get bonus calories, but to only eat half of these. For e.g I get 1500 cals and do 300 cals of exercise, so for that day i could eat 1750 cals and still lose. Is this correct??
Thanks in advance.

Unknown

This content has been removed.

dhimaan

I get 1500 cals to eat regardless of any exercise and then if i do lots of exercise i get bonus calories, but to only eat half of these. For e.g I get 1500 cals and do 300 cals of exercise, so for that day i could eat 1750 cals and still lose. Is this correct??

Yes people here usually eat back half their exercise calories so your math is right.

If people get an extra 1500 calories then yes they burned 1500 calories. I don't know what you can do at gym that will burn 1500 calories.

cityruss

https://myfitnesspal.desk.com/customer/portal/articles/12031-what-are-net-calories-

Liftng4Lis

Yes, MFP is designed to eat back exercise calories. MOST, will only eat a portion as the burns tend to be inflated.

hamelle2

Is this just as crazy as a 1000 calories per day??

You are "allowed" 1500 cals per day and earn 500 cals per day from exercise....and don't eat those exercise calories.
I see many people on MFP logging very large exercise calorie deficits from ALOT of daily exercise. Just very curious....

OsricTheKnight

hamelle2 wrote: »

Is this just as crazy as a 1000 calories per day??

You are "allowed" 1500 cals per day and earn 500 cals per day from exercise....and don't eat those exercise calories.
I see many people on MFP logging very large exercise calorie deficits from ALOT of daily exercise. Just very curious....

I think as was already noted that exercise calories are often overestimated. I have in the past lost weight purely through exercising by doing 2h of exercise a day and not changing my intake much, but it was just far too much work to sustain for me. I don't think it's necessary to eat any of your exercise calories back, except that if you're on a VLCD and you're exercising you'll be super hungry and more likely to completely fall off the wagon if you don't up the intake at least a little bit to accommodate your new burn level.

However I guess I can say that I don't think it's "just as crazy as 1000 calories per day". In the sense that if someone truly eats a VLCD they are far more likely to make mistakes that are bad for their overall health, but if you eat a higher diet and exercise like mad that's far more likely to be good for you. Of course you could injure yourself via exercise or have other bad effects, but you'll know when those happen and treat them - whereas if by undereating you damage your organs or have a deficiency of some kind it'll take a long time to discover that you've made a mistake.

Osric

P.S. For the record, I don't think targeting 1,000 calories on most days is unreasonable, assuming you are getting more food some other time, like on the weekend. There's a lot of hate for 1,000 calorie diets, because of the potential health risks, which ironically comes from the same people who'll tell the poster to get a food scale and measure more accurately because they're not really eating only 1,000 calories. Whether you measure it or not, if you're not really eating 1,000 calories due to cheat meals or due to measurement error, there's no reason not to target 1,000 logged and assume that really since you're eating more overall you're OK.

WBB55

julestar777 wrote: »

Hi there, Just wondering if someone can shed some light on this topic. I hear ppl say on my news feed that they are happy as they have burned all the calories they have consumed. Does this mean if they get 1500 cals they are doing 1500 cals worth of exercise?? or is this lingo I don't know as I am new to MFP. I thought the way it worked is I get 1500 cals to eat regardless of any exercise and then if i do lots of exercise i get bonus calories, but to only eat half of these. For e.g I get 1500 cals and do 300 cals of exercise, so for that day i could eat 1750 cals and still lose. Is this correct??
Thanks in advance.

What you're doing is what most experienced people here would recommend. If there's folks on your feed who are in fact eating 1200 total calories and exercising to the point where they log 1200 "exercise calories" then they are not doing their body any favors. Stick with what you're doing.

jakkrk

dhimaan wrote: »

I don't know what you can do at gym that will burn 1500 calories.

I do boxing and very high cardio fitness classes that each burn anywhere from 500-800 calories per hours (estimated of course). 2 of these in a day can easily burn 1000-1600 per day.

I look at it this way. My MFP say to eat 1200 cals/day. I try to keep my numbers green. Anywhere from 0 to 500 in the green because that will give me some room on the days I slip.

psuLemon

julestar777 wrote: »

Hi there, Just wondering if someone can shed some light on this topic. I hear ppl say on my news feed that they are happy as they have burned all the calories they have consumed. Does this mean if they get 1500 cals they are doing 1500 cals worth of exercise?? or is this lingo I don't know as I am new to MFP. I thought the way it worked is I get 1500 cals to eat regardless of any exercise and then if i do lots of exercise i get bonus calories, but to only eat half of these. For e.g I get 1500 cals and do 300 cals of exercise, so for that day i could eat 1750 cals and still lose. Is this correct??
Thanks in advance.

Since most burn numbers are complete estimates, many of us have switched over to the TDEE method, especially if you exercise regularly. So if you workout 3-4 hours a week, you can modify your account to lightly active and not eat back exercise calories and if you workout 5-6 hours a week, you change it to active. You eat the same calories daily (if you want to record exercise, you change the burn to 1 calorie) and monitor intake for 4 weeks. Then modify your calories based on the desired results. In your case, if you could eat around 1700 calories daily, if that is standard exercise

hamelle2

OsricTheKnight wrote: »

hamelle2 wrote: »

Is this just as crazy as a 1000 calories per day??

You are "allowed" 1500 cals per day and earn 500 cals per day from exercise....and don't eat those exercise calories.
I see many people on MFP logging very large exercise calorie deficits from ALOT of daily exercise. Just very curious....

I think as was already noted that exercise calories are often overestimated. I have in the past lost weight purely through exercising by doing 2h of exercise a day and not changing my intake much, but it was just far too much work to sustain for me. I don't think it's necessary to eat any of your exercise calories back, except that if you're on a VLCD and you're exercising you'll be super hungry and more likely to completely fall off the wagon if you don't up the intake at least a little bit to accommodate your new burn level.

However I guess I can say that I don't think it's "just as crazy as 1000 calories per day". In the sense that if someone truly eats a VLCD they are far more likely to make mistakes that are bad for their overall health, but if you eat a higher diet and exercise like mad that's far more likely to be good for you. Of course you could injure yourself via exercise or have other bad effects, but you'll know when those happen and treat them - whereas if by undereating you damage your organs or have a deficiency of some kind it'll take a long time to discover that you've made a mistake.

Osric

P.S. For the record, I don't think targeting 1,000 calories on most days is unreasonable, assuming you are getting more food some other time, like on the weekend. There's a lot of hate for 1,000 calorie diets, because of the potential health risks, which ironically comes from the same people who'll tell the poster to get a food scale and measure more accurately because they're not really eating only 1,000 calories. Whether you measure it or not, if you're not really eating 1,000 calories due to cheat meals or due to measurement error, there's no reason not to target 1,000 logged and assume that really since you're eating more overall you're OK.

Hi Osric. Glad you are here. I wish you would help me understand my Libra stats!

In 3 weeks my scale says I've lost 6.3 pounds.
But libra says I have lost 4.6.
Trend= 199.6
Trend=195.0
Trend= -4.6 lost.
I wish I could figure out how to show you my
Stats.
All the little dots are below the line.

OsricTheKnight

hamelle2 wrote: »

Hi Osric. Glad you are here. I wish you would help me understand my Libra stats!

I'd love too but let's take it off the OP's thread - meet over here in my (not very active/mostly empty!) data tracker's group.

This article says it'll tell you how to take a screenshot of what libra is telling you. Get a shot of the graph and of all the numbers at the bottom when you scroll down and post it in a new thread on the group.

I am just getting on my bike to head into work so it may be this evening (eastern) before I get to replying. See you there

Osric

hamelle2

I'm sorry if I intruded on your post Julestar!
I just realized that may have been rude of me.

StaciMarie1974

Your body uses energy in the form of calories to live. Calorie 'burn' comes from 3 sources:

BMR - this is what it takes to keep you alive. For your bodily functions: food digestion, heart & lungs and other organs working, maintain body temperature, etc. Its estimated based on formulas that use your height/weight/gender/age.

REgular Daily Activity - this is from moving thru your day. Its estimated by using a % of your BMR as a different size/gender has a different burn rate. If you are fairly sedentary in your daily activities, you still burn something but not as much as if you were on your feet all day. This could be anywhere from 15-20% of your BMR to 25-50% of your BMR.

MFP estimates those two burn totals based on your stats and your stated activity level. So if your BMR + Activity is expected to burn 1800 per day, and you want to lose .5 per week, MFP says 1800-250 = 1550 and tells you to eat 1550.

Then you burn additional calories thru exercise. Cardio for an extended period of time (whether its 10 minutes or 100) has you moving several major muscles groups with some degree of exertion, so it burns a higher level of calories. Depending on what you do and your weight/gender/etc. it could be 4-5 cals per minute or higher.

Don't worry too much about what people say in their feed. They might not understand what they're posting! It is useful to have an idea of how much energy your body uses so that you can know WHY you should eat at a certain level.

julestar777 wrote: »

Hi there, Just wondering if someone can shed some light on this topic. I hear ppl say on my news feed that they are happy as they have burned all the calories they have consumed. Does this mean if they get 1500 cals they are doing 1500 cals worth of exercise?? or is this lingo I don't know as I am new to MFP. I thought the way it worked is I get 1500 cals to eat regardless of any exercise and then if i do lots of exercise i get bonus calories, but to only eat half of these. For e.g I get 1500 cals and do 300 cals of exercise, so for that day i could eat 1750 cals and still lose. Is this correct??
Thanks in advance.

StaciMarie1974

Ps-if people in your feed are happy about burning enough for their food, it sounds like maybe they're eating more than they were 'allowed' and then working out extra to cover them.

julestar777

Thanks so much everyone, really great information here and you guys are knowledgeable. Thanks agAin!!