Did you follow MyFitnessPal pals recommended calories?

sranney2

For all of you beautiful encouraging success stories...did you follow the recommended MFP calorie intake ? Did you eat the extra calories for exercising?

tcunbeliever

Yes, and I usually eat half of my exercise calories.

cwolfman13

sranney2 wrote: »

For all of you beautiful encouraging success stories...did you follow the recommended MFP calorie intake ? Did you eat the extra calories for exercising?

Yes and yes. Just keep in mind that entries from the database aren't gospel...calorie burns for exercise from the data base can be far from gospel. Many food entries in the database are erroneous and should be cross checked against other sources until you're comfortable...you can cross check exercise burns with other sources and formulas as well.

While it's all estimation, the trick is to be as accurate as you can be. A lot of people for whom "it just does't work" are picking crappy and/or generic entries from the database...eye balling portions...and overestimating calorie burn, often by a significant amount.

I used a HRM to help estimate calories burned from steady state cardiovascular exercise and just deducted my basal calories that I would have burned during that same time had I been doing nothing...that worked well for me. I never really attempted to estimate energy expenditure from non cardiovascular based work and just chalked it up to bonus.

Fuzzipeg

I thought if you used the calculator and put in you took exercise that credited you with those calories in advance. Now, if you do not regularly exercise then you have no allocation for any exercise you do take, log exercise and earn extra calories.

I sometimes did and others didn't.

TeaBea

Fuzzipeg wrote: »

I thought if you used the calculator and put in you took exercise that credited you with those calories in advance. Now, if you do not regularly exercise then you have no allocation for any exercise you do take, log exercise and earn extra calories.

I sometimes did and others didn't.

MFP is based on NEAT (Non-exercise activity thermogenesis) - exercise is not included. You need to log it to get extra calories. Your MFP activity level is based on what type of job you have.

If you know that your exercise will be a regular habit, and don't want to up down of rest vs. workout days then use a TDEE calculator. That includes exercise & will average your workouts thru the week.

http://scoobysworkshop.com/calorie-calculator/

PurpleSnack

Yes, give or take 100 calories or so. Sometimes I was 100 over, others 100 under. I eat the exercise calories if I was hungry or there was a particular treat I wanted, I didn't make myself eat them.

I followed calories purely as a guideline on portion control. In my diary I was often not sticking to the calories as I mostly wanted to listen to my body. But to start out I used MFP calories and it worked!

fit4itall

Yes, and I consistently ate most if not all of the exercise calories back. I'm around 36lbs down since Feb of this year, and maintaining within a 3lb range. If anything I could probably increase a bit now. It might take a little adjusting. Make sure you're as accurate as possible when selecting activity level, and I'd start off no more than 1lb/week (personally wouldn't ever go above 1.5/week) so you can more easily adjust to eating less. You can set it to 1/2 lb a week when you are within 10-15lbs of your goal.

TR0berts

Back when I was tracking, yes to both questions. Like wolfman alluded to - you may have to make adjustments here or there as you go, but things worked well for me as they were.

Spliner1969

I did at first, but after six months or so I switched to iifym.com's calculators and was happier because it allowed me to calculate my macros and adjust. MFP just wasn't giving me what I wanted for protein requirements.

kgirlhart

I followed mfp guidelines and I ate back about 75% of my exercise calories.

sijomial

sranney2 wrote: »

For all of you beautiful encouraging success stories...did you follow the recommended MFP calorie intake ? Did you eat the extra calories for exercising?

Yes & yes.
Exercise calories aren't really "extra" - they are just one of the many energy needs of your body.

JoRolleNola

I'm In the beginning yes.

nutmegoreo

Still a work in progress, but no I don't follow them anymore. I found the exercise calories too unreliable. I used my actual numbers (number of calories consumed on average and average weight loss) to determine a good number for me. It took time and patience, but it works well.

cwolfman13

Fuzzipeg wrote: »

I thought if you used the calculator and put in you took exercise that credited you with those calories in advance. Now, if you do not regularly exercise then you have no allocation for any exercise you do take, log exercise and earn extra calories.

I sometimes did and others didn't.

If you play with the app, you would have quickly noticed that your exercise goals have zero bearing on your calorie targets with MFP.

Grammytryingtogetfit

Yes, and only sometimes eat back some of the exercise calories.

daworley

tcunbeliever wrote: »

Yes, and I usually eat half of my exercise calories.

Same here and it has worked wonderfully. I have been satisfied and consistently lost weight to 40lbs down since May. I have less than 15 to go (and may or may not lose it)!

Chadxx

Actually, I don't use the app but I do basically the same thing on my own. I don't calculate exercise calories but I do eat a little more on days I work out and my pre-workout meals are a little higher carb so I do eat back some of my exercise calories.

dutchandkiwi

No to be honest,though it is a guide because it has told me my BMR. I started using it but it was not for me as I knew where my problem was (portion control)
I calculated my TDEE at goalweight and used that. Since a year I have a fitbit and my calculations and the fitbit track beautifully as does my weightloss.
I track all my food and the app has been so helpful in better understanding portion sizes and where the calories were hiding