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Am I the only one that doesn't log exercise/activity routines?

dickie150692
dickie150692 Posts: 15 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
Am I the only one that doesn't log exercise/activity routines into MyFitnessPal? I've got my goals set to lightly active everyday although I'm at the gym 5 days a week for 2hr, and work nights 4 days a week approx. Don't know if my settings are right or if I'm calculating wrong.

So far I've been losing 3-5lbs a week, approximately.
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Replies

  • kshama2001
    kshama2001 Posts: 28,053 Member
    For how long have you been losing 3-5lbs a week? It's not unusual to lose that much the first week or two, but if you are still losing that much you should eat more, cuz you're losing more than fat - you're losing the hard-to-replace lean muscle mass as well.

    If you'd rather use the TDEE method to determine your calories, say so and someone will be along to post a link for that calculator.
  • rsclause
    rsclause Posts: 3,103 Member
    I have Runtastic and it auto logs into MFP when I run. My Fit Bit does the same for activity. When I was logging calories I needed it to add back some of my workout calories. At the time I was running 30 miles a week, weight lifting every other day, and doing a plank workout daily. It also made room for beer!
  • Nicklebee93
    Nicklebee93 Posts: 316 Member
    edited April 2016
    Abs are made in the kitchen, not the gym. I log but i pay no attention to the "net" calories i gain back. Its more for me to keep in the habit of exercising/logging food.

  • DananaNanas
    DananaNanas Posts: 665 Member
    I don't log my activity. I don't eat the calories back and it frustrates me to try to log every little thing I do in my workouts so I skip logging all together!
  • karoline1193
    karoline1193 Posts: 8 Member
    I don't log that here either. I use my fitbit, but I don't sync the two. I want to lose weight, but I also want to keep within a healthy calorie range, so I don't eat my calories back. Having my exercises logged here just messes with that somehow..
  • ryry_
    ryry_ Posts: 4,966 Member
    dickie150692 wrote: »
    Am I the only one that doesn't log exercise/activity routines into MyFitnessPal? I've got my goals set to lightly active everyday although I'm at the gym 5 days a week for 2hr, and work nights 4 days a week approx. Don't know if my settings are right or if I'm calculating wrong.

    So far I've been losing 3-5lbs a week, approximately.

    I've gone back and forth. I'm currently logging but I've also just eaten a set level.

    However, if you keep eating at this level and losing 3-5 lbs you are going to start feeling very rundown at some point. How much weight do you have to lose? How many calories are you eating per day?
  • lgregory6540
    lgregory6540 Posts: 63 Member
    I find the calories burned from exercise so inaccurate I find it easier not to log so I am not tempted to eat them back, especially if it's given me more than I actually burned. If I find I do a lot of excercise on a day I will enter in a brisk walk or something as sometimes I need a few extra calories in my bank but always chose something that was half the time I did and at a lower effort level.
  • frantzcr
    frantzcr Posts: 129 Member
    I log the cardio (treadmill, biking, ect). Anything with a machine where I can try to get a somewhat accurate reading of calories burned. I rarely log anything I do off of a machine because I find it hard to be accurate. If I had a Fitbit or something comparable I would use that calorie burned and minus 500cal to have a deficit. But since I don't, and I don't want to over estimate calories burned, I limit the exercises I log.
  • scolaris
    scolaris Posts: 2,145 Member
    Yeah, people love this idea that they're just fat shredding machines. Sorry buttercup, you can only metabolize so much stored fat at a time & your body is perfectly willing to shuttlecock perfectly good lean muscle under the stress of steep deficits. What's best is to find the right deficit for steadily maximizing fat loss without sacrificing muscle unnecessarily. And to do that you need a sense of your actual TDEE. What has worked best for me is to use a Fitbit HR. I set my activity level to sedentary so that on days I'm trapped in a car or on a plane I know how low I should eat. Then it gives me credit for all my daily activities that show up generically as steps with a heart rate attached. That means things like walks, runs, hikes, Zumba class, etc all get reflected and the calorie burn matches their true 'intensity' based on my heart rate throughout. Interestingly enough, my Fitbit doesn't recognize my yoga classes or weight training sessions as workouts. My heart rate just doesn't rise enough. So I don't log them either. I'm sure I burn a few extra calories but I just let that ride as insurance against logging errors on the intake side. Finding a sort of deficit sweet spot is worthwhile. Really really huge deficits have other unintended consequences that aren't pretty.
  • Francl27
    Francl27 Posts: 26,371 Member
    Maybe, just maybe, losing weight at such an unhealthy rate is not something to brag about.

    Good luck building back the muscle mass you've lost along the way though.
  • kshama2001
    kshama2001 Posts: 28,053 Member
    My fitbit walking calories are far less generous than those I receive from MFP, so I trust them.
  • kimny72
    kimny72 Posts: 16,013 Member
    edited April 2016
    Sometimes the first week or two you can lose extra due to shedding water. But after that, unless you are obese (like more than 75 lbs to lose, at least) if you are losing more than a lb or 2 per week, you are losing a lot of muscle along with your fat. Eat more.

    MFP is designed for you to eat back some of your exercise calories. The deficit you need to lose at the rate you chose is already built into your calorie goal. So if you don't eat back at least some of your exercise calories, you are eating too little and sacrificing muscle mass for faster weight loss. And it's a lot harder to build muscle after the fact than it is to hold onto it in the first place by losing at a more moderate rate.
  • kissedbythesunshine
    kissedbythesunshine Posts: 416 Member
    I have stopped logging mine so I won't be tempted to eat them back. I know that's how the program is designed to work but I just don't want to see them. If I go over a few I go over.
  • Bluepegasus
    Bluepegasus Posts: 333 Member
    The only thing I log is my running which is done automatically from MapMyRun. I don't log my Kettlebell workouts. I don't eat back my exercise calories to allow for the fact I'm not super strict with weighing my food, I guess at it.
  • NadiaMayl
    NadiaMayl Posts: 496 Member

    kshama2001 wrote: »
    For how long have you been losing 3-5lbs a week? It's not unusual to lose that much the first week or two, but if you are still losing that much you should eat more, cuz you're losing more than fat - you're losing the hard-to-replace lean muscle mass as well.

    If you'd rather use the TDEE method to determine your calories, say so and someone will be along to post a link for that calculator.

    What's TDEE???

  • kthompson601
    kthompson601 Posts: 174 Member
    I don't get very specific. If I do 10 minutes of rowing for a warm up, 20 minutes of leg-centered weight-lifting, and then a 45 minute HIIT jog, I just select "jogging" in MFP and group all calories burned under that one entry. I don't have the time or interest to get very specific. (I wear a heart rate monitor to get my calorie estimate.)
  • lauraesh0384
    lauraesh0384 Posts: 463 Member
    I don't log my exercise calories because quite frankly I have no idea how many calories I am burning exactly. My pedometer gives me a number but I don't believe it. At 5'6" 175 lbs, I highly doubt I burned 1k calories walking 9 miles lol. I'm going to get a chest strap HRM soon and I'll probably log it then. I've also never been one to eat back exercise calories. I just want a HRM for curiosity on how many calories my work outs are approximately burning, especially the more intense ones.
  • cwolfman13
    cwolfman13 Posts: 41,865 Member
    NadiaMayl wrote: »
    kshama2001 wrote: »
    For how long have you been losing 3-5lbs a week? It's not unusual to lose that much the first week or two, but if you are still losing that much you should eat more, cuz you're losing more than fat - you're losing the hard-to-replace lean muscle mass as well.

    If you'd rather use the TDEE method to determine your calories, say so and someone will be along to post a link for that calculator.

    What's TDEE???

    Total Daily Energy Expenditure. With the TDEE method, you include all activity in your activity level, including exercise so that your calorie targets will include an estimate of all of that activity whereas MFP uses the NEAT method (Non Exercise Activity Thermogenesis) whereby exercise is not accounted for in your activity level and thus you log it when you've done it to account for it and get additional calories.
  • 2snakeswoman
    2snakeswoman Posts: 655 Member
    Occasionally I have, but in general, I don't log activity. It's easier to keep track of calories without the rise and fall of adding exercise to the equation.
  • dickie150692
    dickie150692 Posts: 15 Member
    Francl27 wrote: »
    Maybe, just maybe, losing weight at such an unhealthy rate is not something to brag about.

    Good luck building back the muscle mass you've lost along the way though.

    Nobody asked if I were bragging. I don't think it's healthy that's why I were asking in the first place. This is like the 4th time I've ever dieted but I don't remember it ever coming off that fast. Maybe I need to set my profile to "active" maybe? It used to be like 7lbs first week then started slowing down over time.

    To be honest it's started to slow right down now to about 3lbs a week.

    I started at 18st, but I'm now currently 15st 7lbs. I started at the start of February.

    Thank you for the feedback. :)

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