Do you eat your exercise calories?

SCoil123

I eat most or all of mine back

oocdc2

I eat about 75% back, plus I weigh myself/size check weekly to ensure my weight isn't creeping up.

kshama2001

+2 to the people saying that MFP is designed so that you're intended to eat back the exercise calories, for the reasons covered above.

beaglebrandon

NorthCascades wrote: »

beaglebrandon wrote: »

I use my exercise calories as a buffer in case I log anything wrong or the packages are off.

For example, I eat a Jimmy Dean breakfast sandwich every morning. It says 300 calories. It might actually be 350 or 400. I don't weigh it, I just trust the number on the package.

Or, it could be 275 calories.

Weighting it would make more sense than ignoring a completely unrelated type of calorie.

How do you weigh it? Do I take the ingredients apart and weigh each ingredient separately and then put them back together?

leanjogreen18

I'm just walking right now and I have plenty of stored fat to fuel me so I don't eat them back right now. I do use them for when I go slightly over my daily calorie intake or because I don't weigh anything I use them for any underestimates I may make.

I will reevalute should I begin to feel tired or have less energy. So far so good on 1200 calorie intake.

nowine4me

bethannien wrote: »

It depends on how you calculate your calorie goal. Did you factor in your activity level when you set yourself up or did you choose the sedentary option? Did you calculate your TDEE and factor in regular activity?

If you do choose to eat them back, bear in mind that MFP gives very generous calorie burns so most people recommend eating back only 50-75%.

Does anyone know how the NEAT formula is calculated for MFP? I'm curious to know my deficit is before factoring in exercise calories.

LivingtheLeanDream

nowine4me wrote: »

bethannien wrote: »

It depends on how you calculate your calorie goal. Did you factor in your activity level when you set yourself up or did you choose the sedentary option? Did you calculate your TDEE and factor in regular activity?

If you do choose to eat them back, bear in mind that MFP gives very generous calorie burns so most people recommend eating back only 50-75%.

Does anyone know how the NEAT formula is calculated for MFP? I'm curious to know my deficit is before factoring in exercise calories.

MFP calculates NEAT based on the stats you put in ie your height, weight, age so it's basically an average NEAT.

AnnPT77

nowine4me wrote: »

bethannien wrote: »

It depends on how you calculate your calorie goal. Did you factor in your activity level when you set yourself up or did you choose the sedentary option? Did you calculate your TDEE and factor in regular activity?

If you do choose to eat them back, bear in mind that MFP gives very generous calorie burns so most people recommend eating back only 50-75%.

Does anyone know how the NEAT formula is calculated for MFP? I'm curious to know my deficit is before factoring in exercise calories.

I'm confused: MFP's deficit, embodied in your net calorie goal, is a "before exercise" number. If you change your MFP profile to a goal of "maintain", it will give you its NEAT calorie goal estimate for your specified non-exercise activity level (sedentary, lightly active, etc.). Then, when you change back to your loss target - lose a pound a week or whatever - you'll see what deficit from your maintenance NEAT you're getting.

It would just be adding your daily loss rate calories to your MFP calorie goal (MFP daily goal + 500 calories for a pound of weight loss weekly, for example), except that it won't give a woman a goal below 1200.

Or am I missing something in your question?

NorthCascades

beaglebrandon wrote: »

NorthCascades wrote: »

beaglebrandon wrote: »

I use my exercise calories as a buffer in case I log anything wrong or the packages are off.

For example, I eat a Jimmy Dean breakfast sandwich every morning. It says 300 calories. It might actually be 350 or 400. I don't weigh it, I just trust the number on the package.

Or, it could be 275 calories.

Weighting it would make more sense than ignoring a completely unrelated type of calorie.

How do you weigh it? Do I take the ingredients apart and weigh each ingredient separately and then put them back together?

If I wanted to weight it, here's what I'd probably do.

Note the # of grams and kCals on the package. Find the actual # of grams - in the whole thing. Now adjust the kCals based on how much over or under it is.

You're right, it would be even more precise to take the whole thing apart and weigh each part individually because the mayo is obviously a lot more calories than the lettuce. If you're 3 stubborn pounds away from your goal, that kind of precision might be necessary. For most of us, the number on the package is probably close enough. If you're ignoring exercise calories completely, this level of detail isn't going to be helpful at all.

My point was: it's true, the package isn't always spot on, but does it make sense to assume it can only ever be over?

Seffell

I eat them. You are supposed to eat them in MFP. Here is the article in the help section explaining it:
https://myfitnesspal.desk.com/customer/en/portal/articles/12031-what-are-net-calories-

Quote: "you earn more calories to eat by exercising"

kgirlhart

cgreen120288 wrote: »

I don't eat them back. I sit at same calories regardless of training day or rest day. Which means that the harder I train, the greater the deficit

If you used mfp to get your goal then that is not necessarily a good thing to do. You need to be fueling your workouts. If you create too big a deficit then you aren't really getting the nutrition you need.