Do you eat your exercise calories ??
keen78
Posts: 2 Member
Im not sure if you should eat your exercise calories???
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Replies
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I use mine as a buffer. I plan to eat just my regular calories, but then if I'm hungry, I give myself permission to eat half of the day's exercise calories. I don't always do it, but it's nice to have the option.5
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Usually at least a portion of them, sometimes all of them. That is how MFP is designed.5
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I've found that the calories MFP awards you for exercise are high. I always subtract at least 20% from them. So I would eat a portion back--back half--if you want to eat any back.5
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I try not to, the bigger deficit, the bigger the weight loss8
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Commander_Keen wrote: »I try not to, the bigger deficit, the bigger the weight loss
And depending on how much you have to lose, the bigger the deficit, the more muscle mass you will lose. Your body can only oxidize so much fat in a day. The less total fat you have, the less percentage of that fat you can burn off. Once your body has burned off the amount of fat it can in a day, it takes the rest from other sources, meaning a bigger deficit is not always a better deficit as the goal is to lose fat not muscle and other lean mass.13 -
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rileysowner wrote: »Commander_Keen wrote: »I try not to, the bigger deficit, the bigger the weight loss
And depending on how much you have to lose, the bigger the deficit, the more muscle mass you will lose. Your body can only oxidize so much fat in a day. The less total fat you have, the less percentage of that fat you can burn off. Once your body has burned off the amount of fat it can in a day, it takes the rest from other sources, meaning a bigger deficit is not always a better deficit as the goal is to lose fat not muscle and other lean mass.
Can't you prevent that, by eating, drinking additional protein and lifting weights?1 -
I don't eat the first 500 exercise calories. If I exercise more than that, I eat some of the calories above 500.2
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I am not sure of how well my calories are measured...so nope, if I was sure...then I'd eat, if hungry, about 100 calories or so O_o I guess2
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Commander_Keen wrote: »rileysowner wrote: »Commander_Keen wrote: »I try not to, the bigger deficit, the bigger the weight loss
And depending on how much you have to lose, the bigger the deficit, the more muscle mass you will lose. Your body can only oxidize so much fat in a day. The less total fat you have, the less percentage of that fat you can burn off. Once your body has burned off the amount of fat it can in a day, it takes the rest from other sources, meaning a bigger deficit is not always a better deficit as the goal is to lose fat not muscle and other lean mass.
Can't you prevent that, by eating, drinking additional protein and lifting weights?
That still doesn't change the reality that you can only burn so much fat in a day. Any deficit beyond that needs to be provided for somewhere, and there are only so many options if more calories are not eaten, and all of them are lean mass.
The issue is that more often than not people will start out with a 2 pound per week goal. For someone 75 of more pounds overweight, that is quite appropriate, but often it is people with only 25 pounds to lose, and even that 2 pound per week deficit is too big. Then they don't eat even a portion of their exercise calories which they are supposed to, taking an already huge deficit and making it bigger. Then they think that eating protein and lifting weights will fix that. It won't the energy has come from somewhere.
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Eat half of them if you're still hungry5
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i don't,but if i go over my calories during the week,i don't worry about it because of the fact i don't eat my exercise calories back.it gives me flexibility with the logging.2
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I eat every single one of them, but I'm obese and candle a certain margin of error, plus I have tweaked my exercise calories over the years. If I haven't, I think my eat back amount makes up about 70% or something of the original untweaked amount? Not sure.
Don't get overwhelmed, just eat all or some or none of them back, whichever you wish to start with, then after a couple of months evaluate your average weekly weight loss and eat more/fewer of them back if you find you are losing faster/slower than the app predicts.2 -
Commander_Keen wrote: »rileysowner wrote: »Commander_Keen wrote: »I try not to, the bigger deficit, the bigger the weight loss
And depending on how much you have to lose, the bigger the deficit, the more muscle mass you will lose. Your body can only oxidize so much fat in a day. The less total fat you have, the less percentage of that fat you can burn off. Once your body has burned off the amount of fat it can in a day, it takes the rest from other sources, meaning a bigger deficit is not always a better deficit as the goal is to lose fat not muscle and other lean mass.
Can't you prevent that, by eating, drinking additional protein and lifting weights?
That's only two of the three things that guard against muscle loss - the third being an excessive and prolonged deficit.0 -
I always ate around half of mine, I felt I needed them to stave of the hunger...
It never hindered my weight loss.3 -
Commander_Keen wrote: »I try not to, the bigger deficit, the bigger the weight loss
Yeah that may be true but also if you cut your calories by too much for day you're going to start losing muscle not just fat then you end up being skinny fat1 -
Nope.. I don't even log my exercise on here. I noticed the amount of calories MFP awards for basic exercises are very exaggerated. I figure the calories I burn from exercising cover anything I miss log or inaccurately log on here.
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no, but sometimes I drink them. ha9
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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.
My FitBit One is far less generous with calories than the MFP database and I comfortably eat 100% of the calories I earn from it back.
http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/818082/exercise-calories-again-wtf/p12 -
Hell yes! (most of them anyway). At 4'10", 135 lb, desk job, my 0.5lb/wk loss estimate is 1240 net calories - no way in hell am I not going to be ravenously hungry after a workout. (My calorie burn estimates come from Garmin using a heart rate monitor, so likely fairly accurate).1
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Commander_Keen wrote: »rileysowner wrote: »Commander_Keen wrote: »I try not to, the bigger deficit, the bigger the weight loss
And depending on how much you have to lose, the bigger the deficit, the more muscle mass you will lose. Your body can only oxidize so much fat in a day. The less total fat you have, the less percentage of that fat you can burn off. Once your body has burned off the amount of fat it can in a day, it takes the rest from other sources, meaning a bigger deficit is not always a better deficit as the goal is to lose fat not muscle and other lean mass.
Can't you prevent that, by eating, drinking additional protein and lifting weights?
That's only two of the three things that guard against muscle loss - the third being NOT HAVING an excessive and prolonged deficit.
FIFY0 -
Commander_Keen wrote: »rileysowner wrote: »Commander_Keen wrote: »I try not to, the bigger deficit, the bigger the weight loss
And depending on how much you have to lose, the bigger the deficit, the more muscle mass you will lose. Your body can only oxidize so much fat in a day. The less total fat you have, the less percentage of that fat you can burn off. Once your body has burned off the amount of fat it can in a day, it takes the rest from other sources, meaning a bigger deficit is not always a better deficit as the goal is to lose fat not muscle and other lean mass.
Can't you prevent that, by eating, drinking additional protein and lifting weights?
My target with MFP to lose a Lb is 1900 calories...during cycling season I can routinely burn 1,000 - 1,500 calories on a training ride which would leave me at 400-900 net calories...I don't think protein and lifting are going to do much in that scenario.
Even when I'm not training, I routinely burn 600 calories per day with exercise...so I'd be netting 1,300 calories...sorry...I'm not a little old lady. Beyond that, I have about 10 - 15 Lbs to lose that I put on while injured so a bigger deficit would pretty mush ensure I'm losing muscle mass as I don't have the body fat to mobilize for that kind of deficit.
Also, fueling your training is important to performance as well as recovery and improved fitness.1 -
I eat them because I can't mentally survive on 1200 calories a day.5
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I try not to.
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Being here 4+ years, I'm still amazed that people have zero clue how this tool actually works...I know I shouldn't be, but I am...8
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Measuring exercise and food calories is approximate. If hungry I'll eat 25% earned by exercise...0
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Mfp is designed for you to eat your exercise calories. If you used a TDEE calculator to get your calorie goal then do not eat the exercise calories. But if you are using mfp's goal then you should be eating at least a portion of the exercise calories. If you start out eating 50% of them then in about 4 weeks you can reevaluate. If you are losing faster than your goal then you should eat back more, if you are losing slower than your goal then eat back less.4
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Yes! I eat my exercise calories. Well, sort of...
I use a fitness tracker (w/chest strap heart rate monitor) for my calorie burn. I find to be extremely accurate. I use my calorie burn to gauge how hard I'm working (compared to my average burn) and supplement extra calories based on the type of my workout. On heavy/intense weight lifting days, I use exercise calories to add lean protein. On days I run, I use calories for nutrient-dense carbohydrates. I agree with others that I still try to end the day with an overall calorie deficit but you need to put back what you take out, so I allow some extra calories, eaten responsibly, on workout days!
I TRY not to use exercise calories as an opportunity to eat more cookies but I will say the holiday season was difficult. Every day is a new day. Happy to get back on track!0 -
Im not sure if you should eat your exercise calories???
Let's do the math...
MFP gives me a calorie target of 1,900 to lose about 1 Lb per week (as that is my stated goal)...that target assumes zero exercise...you will note that there is no mention of exercise in the activity level descriptors...and if you play with the app you will note that your exercise goals have no impact on your calorie targets...the calorie target you get with MFP is your target (goal...everyone should look that word up) without any exercise.
So in my scenario, MFP is estimating my maintenance without exercise to be 2,400 calories. Now I go on a nice ride and burn around 600 calories...do I eat them back? Yes...yes I do...otherwise my deficit is too large and beyond the scope of my goals. Will I still lose weight? Yes...yes I will...I can eat those 600 calories earned and still lose 1 Lb per week because my maintenance requirements would have moved up by 600 as well to 2,400 + 600 = 3,000 calories...so I could eat 1,900 + 600 = 2,500 and still lose 1 Lb per week given 3,000 - 2,500 = 500 calorie deficit still.
There are two issues people often have though...these are overestimating energy expenditure and underestimating calories in...in cases where "it's not working" it is generally because the user has at least one, and usually both of those issues going on and thus they aren't actually tracking things accurately.5
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