Should I eat exercise calories???

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  • nutmegoreo
    nutmegoreo Posts: 15,532 Member
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    I haven't read all the responses:

    http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/818082/exercise-calories-again-wtf/p1
  • Nardoned
    Nardoned Posts: 7 Member
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    To all asking, I get my calories burned during workout from my Fitbit (which has the wrist heart monitor). I used to have the polar strap and found they both ran pretty similar numbers so I just stick with my Fitbit now. Thanks to everyone for your input - I think I will try eating a portion of my exercise calories for now, and put carbs before long/hard workouts!
  • deluxmary2000
    deluxmary2000 Posts: 981 Member
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    Nardoned wrote: »
    To all asking, I get my calories burned during workout from my Fitbit (which has the wrist heart monitor). I used to have the polar strap and found they both ran pretty similar numbers so I just stick with my Fitbit now. Thanks to everyone for your input - I think I will try eating a portion of my exercise calories for now, and put carbs before long/hard workouts!

    Sounds like a good plan!
  • NorthCascades
    NorthCascades Posts: 10,968 Member
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    tennileb wrote: »
    And are you measuring your burn by your own heart rate monitor or the machine, or mfp's estimate

    For the record, there are a lot of ways to come up with a number for how many calories you've burned. You just mentioned two of them.

    (1) For walking, you can just do the math. On flat ground, take your body weight in pounds, divide by 3, and that's pretty close to how many calories you've burned. Your heart rate doesn't really offer much insight into how much energy it takes to move a certain weight a certain distance. This is how Fitbits work, a lot of them don't even have HRMs and people swear by their accuracy.

    (2) For cycling, you can use a power meter to measure your energy use, like how a scale measures your weight instead of estimating it. A direct force power meter is basically the gospel truth.

    (3) METs tables. Doing whatever exercise at whatever intensity burns X calories per hour at your weight. I don't like this approach at all because it's subjective and difficult to tell what intensity you're supposed to put down. A lot of people use this approach and do well with it.

    Etc.

    Anyway, there are 3,500 calories in a pound of fat. And it's pounds of fat we're all trying to lose. If you log the exercise you do and the food you eat, over time you'll be able to gauge the accuracy of your numbers. Because your deficit predicts how fast you should be losing weight. You have to use a moving average of your weight because you don't lose it in a clean, linear pattern, but once you have some data, it becomes pretty easy to go back and check if you want to.
  • sxb317
    sxb317 Posts: 14 Member
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    I think it depends a bit on how intense you're exercising. If you're burning 500 calories at the gym, in think you have to eat some or all of that to replenish your body. If you went for a 30 min walk, I wouldn't worry about it.
  • kittykat692014
    kittykat692014 Posts: 1 Member
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    I don't eat my exercise calories. I've worked out how to eat nutritionally dense foods within my calorie limit and so I'm not hungry for more calories. However a day a week I'll eat more than my calorie allowance by adding some extra carbs like brown rice and some chocolate. I think each person is different and if you can lose weight eating your exercise calories then go and enjoy it!
  • Christine_72
    Christine_72 Posts: 16,049 Member
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    GuitarJerry wrote: »
    I eat at maintenance and exercise is my deficit.

    There's not only one way to do it.

    Me too. But when i was eating at a calorie deficit, i ate back 50-75% of my exercise calories back (fitbit).
  • KatzeDerNacht22
    KatzeDerNacht22 Posts: 200 Member
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    I do not , but I eat wee less on days I don't weight train and more on days I do, I also care about the macros, humm so many options T_T
  • kshama2001
    kshama2001 Posts: 27,988 Member
    edited January 2017
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    nutmegoreo wrote: »
    I haven't read all the responses:

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

    You beat me to it.

    To sum, MFP uses the NEAT method, and as such the system is designed for exercise calories to be eaten back. However, many consider the burns given by MFP to be inflated and only eat a percentage, such as 50%, back.

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