Exercise calories - do I eat these? A video explanation.
Replies
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kay1977newme wrote: »I've set mfp to inactive but I work out 4-5 times a week at the gym my job is on my feet most the day up and down the stairs etc but I wear a Fitbit and eat a few of the cals back! Is this correct? Or should I up the mfp activity?
It's up to you. If you up your activity level you'll get a higher amount of calories to start with but a lower adjustment, and it will still equal what you get on sedentary in the end.3 -
I am afraid I might be slowing up my metabolism. MSP says I can eat 1840 calories per day to lose my target of 2 pounds a week. I have been going to the gym everyday, resistance and treadmill every other day, and then another form of cardio on the alternate days. Each day I do 45 minutes of cardio, including treadmill days, getting my heart rate up to Target of 138 BPM for at least half an hour. I didn't lose any weight this week, but I'm wondering if I could have gained muscle. I rarely even make my 1840 calories. Usually I clock in somewhere around 1500 to 1600 calories and I'm not hungry. I have lost 50 pounds and still need to lose about another 100. I feel better than I have in a very long time. I used to be in great shape. Several years ago I developed diabetes and a few months ago it became difficult to control my blood sugar even with high amounts of insulin. I eventually went on a carb-free diet and it took almost a month of that to get my blood glucose under control, and that was taking 120 units of basal insulin a day. Now in just a few weeks back at the gym I am down to 35 units a day, with great sugar control. I do not eat my exercise calories, and I was wondering if at 1500 calories a day I am sabotaging my metabolism. I could probably make it to the 1800 a day, but with the types of Foods I am now choosing I seem to get plenty of volume with a lot fewer calories. This week could just be an odd thing, too much salt and retained a little bit of water, or whatever. I would really like to stay at 2 pounds loss a week, because even then this is going to take me another year. I had read somewhere not to eat fewer than 900-1200 calories or your metabolism would go into starvation mode. But everybody is different. 1500 sounds like a decent diet plan. Even 1800 at my size. Should I be trying to force myself to consume all my calories even if I'm not hungry? Should I really be eating the exercise calories, or should I let them be extra weight loss? My progress at the gym has also been surprisingly fast. At first I couldn't even maintain 3 miles an hour on a 2 incline, and I'm already doing 3.5 at an 8 incline to keep my heart rate in the right Zone. I don't want to go any faster because then I begin to jog and I don't think that would be good for my knees. My wife is amazed that I can do 45 minutes on the elliptical, also maintaining my target heart rate. Could all this extra exercise and extra earned calories actually be sabotaging my metabolism instead of making it higher?
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bad_dog_ny wrote: »I am afraid I might be slowing up my metabolism. MSP says I can eat 1840 calories per day to lose my target of 2 pounds a week. I have been going to the gym everyday, resistance and treadmill every other day, and then another form of cardio on the alternate days. Each day I do 45 minutes of cardio, including treadmill days, getting my heart rate up to Target of 138 BPM for at least half an hour. I didn't lose any weight this week, but I'm wondering if I could have gained muscle. I rarely even make my 1840 calories. Usually I clock in somewhere around 1500 to 1600 calories and I'm not hungry. I have lost 50 pounds and still need to lose about another 100. I feel better than I have in a very long time. I used to be in great shape. Several years ago I developed diabetes and a few months ago it became difficult to control my blood sugar even with high amounts of insulin. I eventually went on a carb-free diet and it took almost a month of that to get my blood glucose under control, and that was taking 120 units of basal insulin a day. Now in just a few weeks back at the gym I am down to 35 units a day, with great sugar control. I do not eat my exercise calories, and I was wondering if at 1500 calories a day I am sabotaging my metabolism. I could probably make it to the 1800 a day, but with the types of Foods I am now choosing I seem to get plenty of volume with a lot fewer calories. This week could just be an odd thing, too much salt and retained a little bit of water, or whatever. I would really like to stay at 2 pounds loss a week, because even then this is going to take me another year. I had read somewhere not to eat fewer than 900-1200 calories or your metabolism would go into starvation mode. But everybody is different. 1500 sounds like a decent diet plan. Even 1800 at my size. Should I be trying to force myself to consume all my calories even if I'm not hungry? Should I really be eating the exercise calories, or should I let them be extra weight loss? My progress at the gym has also been surprisingly fast. At first I couldn't even maintain 3 miles an hour on a 2 incline, and I'm already doing 3.5 at an 8 incline to keep my heart rate in the right Zone. I don't want to go any faster because then I begin to jog and I don't think that would be good for my knees. My wife is amazed that I can do 45 minutes on the elliptical, also maintaining my target heart rate. Could all this extra exercise and extra earned calories actually be sabotaging my metabolism instead of making it higher?
First, starvation mode doesn't exist. Second, weight loss is not linear. It could be from excess sodium, but it's definitely not muscle. Third, 1500 is the lowest a male should eat. Ideally you should be eating to your goal after exercise. You want to fuel your body, and the video in the first post explains why. If you're having problems meeting your goal, add in some calorie dense items (nuts, nut butters, dairy, cooking oils, even a little treat if you have to).4 -
kay1977newme wrote: »I've set mfp to inactive but I work out 4-5 times a week at the gym my job is on my feet most the day up and down the stairs etc but I wear a Fitbit and eat a few of the cals back! Is this correct? Or should I up the mfp activity?
Why are you lying to the tool, you are not sedentary.
Pick the appropriate activity level and your weight loss goal, then log with integrity. Your self-awareness improves from looking at the real data, not trying to 'game' the system to up your weight loss.8 -
Just giving this a bump since the topic has come up so often today.0
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I guess I'm a bit confused on the "need" to eat those calories. Do you need to? Or i can? I don't usually because I figure this will help my weight loss even more if I'm burning even more calories and just leaving them burned.0
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ElleHeart22 wrote: »I guess I'm a bit confused on the "need" to eat those calories. Do you need to? Or i can? I don't usually because I figure this will help my weight loss even more if I'm burning even more calories and just leaving them burned.
It depends on your initial built in deficit and how steep it is. You can choose to eat or not eat your calories back if not eating them back would not put you at a deficit greater than 35% or even lower if already lean (some use a loss of 1% of body weight per week as an upper limit, but I don't like it because it can result in a calorie budget that is quite low for some people) or if your extra exercise is something like relaxed yoga or a short stroll which don't burn that many calories. You need to eat back at least some of your exercise calories if not eating them puts you at a steep deficit or if you are not obese (morbidly obese people can handle a temporary steep deficit better and may need to do so if the risk of staying fat is greater than the risk of losing fast). If you are lean, a steep deficit will cause greater muscle loss and hormonal imbalances that may affect your hunger levels leading to binges, your period, your energy, your gallbladder, and if your chosen starting calorie budget is already low, your nutrients, plus a host of other problems like greater metabolic slowdown and the like.
Now if you want to burn calories and leave them burned you could use the TDEE method. It's essentially the same as eating back exercise calories, except your account for your exercise in advance. Here is an example person whose sedentary (no exercise) maintenance calories are 2000 and wants to lose at a 500 daily deficit:
MFP method:
Sedentary maintenance is 2000
2000 - 500 = 1500 that's the starting budget
The person exercises for 250 calories, their budget becomes 1500 + 250 = 1750, so they need to eat back their calories to keep their deficit at 500.
The TDEE method:
The person exercises daily for 250 calories putting their maintenance at 2250
to achieve a 500 calorie deficit that means 2250 - 500 = 1750.
Since exercise is already accounted for in the budget, this person should not eat back their exercise calories.0 -
kay1977newme wrote: »I've set mfp to inactive but I work out 4-5 times a week at the gym my job is on my feet most the day up and down the stairs etc but I wear a Fitbit and eat a few of the cals back! Is this correct? Or should I up the mfp activity?
If there was no Fitbit involved - of course the setup would be wrong because you are no where near sedentary.
But with MFP trying to correct itself with better estimate of activity from Fitbit - you are merely trying to counter that correction by your ignoring the extra calories.
You don't need to increase the MFP activity level since you have Fitbit - but take the correction that is being done - eat your calories.
Sounds like you are trusting MFP more than Fitbit.
And here MFP is trying to correct itself with the Fitbit data.
In which case - keep trusting what MFP is attempting to do to save you from yourself.3 -
Great video!
I suppose it *also* depends on how much exercise a person is doing.
If I've set a modest weight-loss goal and do a modest bit of exercise, the effect of ignoring my exercise calories ought to be pretty much the same as temporarily setting MFP to a larger weight loss goal. So it's low stakes.
But if I've set a very ambitious goal (e.g. the fastest weight loss MFP will allow) and then done a lot of exercise, then effectively I've pushed things beyond what MFP considers safe - probably a bad idea!
A further problem in this drastic scenario is probably that "exercise calories" are really "exercise nutrients" - if I exercise a lot, I need protein to repair and upgrade my muscles. So I should eat extra protein! It probably will be used for body repair/upgrade rather than burned as calories. If I'm refusing to provide the protein my body needs, then it can't respond healthily to the strain I'm putting it under.
I suppose a lot of this comes down to Patrick's sensible advise - be guided by how you are feeling!
The final point of confusion I repeatedly see is whether you have to eat the exercise calories that very day. I often don't, but I monitor my intake over a week, and catch up if I feel more hungry in the days following a lot of exercise.1 -
amusedmonkey wrote: »ElleHeart22 wrote: »I guess I'm a bit confused on the "need" to eat those calories. Do you need to? Or i can? I don't usually because I figure this will help my weight loss even more if I'm burning even more calories and just leaving them burned.
It depends on your initial built in deficit and how steep it is. You can choose to eat or not eat your calories back if not eating them back would not put you at a deficit greater than 35% or even lower if already lean (some use a loss of 1% of body weight per week as an upper limit, but I don't like it because it can result in a calorie budget that is quite low for some people) or if your extra exercise is something like relaxed yoga or a short stroll which don't burn that many calories. You need to eat back at least some of your exercise calories if not eating them puts you at a steep deficit or if you are not obese (morbidly obese people can handle a temporary steep deficit better and may need to do so if the risk of staying fat is greater than the risk of losing fast). If you are lean, a steep deficit will cause greater muscle loss and hormonal imbalances that may affect your hunger levels leading to binges, your period, your energy, your gallbladder, and if your chosen starting calorie budget is already low, your nutrients, plus a host of other problems like greater metabolic slowdown and the like.
Now if you want to burn calories and leave them burned you could use the TDEE method. It's essentially the same as eating back exercise calories, except your account for your exercise in advance. Here is an example person whose sedentary (no exercise) maintenance calories are 2000 and wants to lose at a 500 daily deficit:
MFP method:
Sedentary maintenance is 2000
2000 - 500 = 1500 that's the starting budget
The person exercises for 250 calories, their budget becomes 1500 + 250 = 1750, so they need to eat back their calories to keep their deficit at 500.
The TDEE method:
The person exercises daily for 250 calories putting their maintenance at 2250
to achieve a 500 calorie deficit that means 2250 - 500 = 1750.
Since exercise is already accounted for in the budget, this person should not eat back their exercise calories.
This was really helpful thanks. I guess I probably should be eating more in this case.. my calorie intake is 1,380 and honestly, I only usually get to 1,000 at the most a day. I assume that's probably bad.
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ElleHeart22 wrote: »amusedmonkey wrote: »ElleHeart22 wrote: »I guess I'm a bit confused on the "need" to eat those calories. Do you need to? Or i can? I don't usually because I figure this will help my weight loss even more if I'm burning even more calories and just leaving them burned.
It depends on your initial built in deficit and how steep it is. You can choose to eat or not eat your calories back if not eating them back would not put you at a deficit greater than 35% or even lower if already lean (some use a loss of 1% of body weight per week as an upper limit, but I don't like it because it can result in a calorie budget that is quite low for some people) or if your extra exercise is something like relaxed yoga or a short stroll which don't burn that many calories. You need to eat back at least some of your exercise calories if not eating them puts you at a steep deficit or if you are not obese (morbidly obese people can handle a temporary steep deficit better and may need to do so if the risk of staying fat is greater than the risk of losing fast). If you are lean, a steep deficit will cause greater muscle loss and hormonal imbalances that may affect your hunger levels leading to binges, your period, your energy, your gallbladder, and if your chosen starting calorie budget is already low, your nutrients, plus a host of other problems like greater metabolic slowdown and the like.
Now if you want to burn calories and leave them burned you could use the TDEE method. It's essentially the same as eating back exercise calories, except your account for your exercise in advance. Here is an example person whose sedentary (no exercise) maintenance calories are 2000 and wants to lose at a 500 daily deficit:
MFP method:
Sedentary maintenance is 2000
2000 - 500 = 1500 that's the starting budget
The person exercises for 250 calories, their budget becomes 1500 + 250 = 1750, so they need to eat back their calories to keep their deficit at 500.
The TDEE method:
The person exercises daily for 250 calories putting their maintenance at 2250
to achieve a 500 calorie deficit that means 2250 - 500 = 1750.
Since exercise is already accounted for in the budget, this person should not eat back their exercise calories.
This was really helpful thanks. I guess I probably should be eating more in this case.. my calorie intake is 1,380 and honestly, I only usually get to 1,000 at the most a day. I assume that's probably bad.
Long term most definitely it is. The thing that many don't realize is the negative effects will happen internally long before they start showing up in external things. Usually when a person starts getting very brittle nails, losing hair, and all the rest, they have stuff that has been happening inside for a long time already.4 -
Thank you! I was very confused about this, but I understand now.0
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The website gives me a LOT more calories than MFP's goal.... I always get the feeling they don't scale properly (either) for big people..... that site suggests 2781 daily w/ 20% loss .... MFP gives me 2060 daily w/ 1kg/week loss... I am a desk-jockey and so on both set my activity level low.
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I have my cals goal set to maintenance on here, try to eat around 300 under and use my exercise calories ONLY as a buffer if i am out at a family dinner/drinks with friends.0
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Could use a bump.0
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I stand on my feet a few days a week anywhere from 4 to 7.5 hours a day at work in a supermarket. So you work out how many calories that is and then add it to the exercise section of myfitnesspal?0
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lynwak2016 wrote: »I stand on my feet a few days a week anywhere from 4 to 7.5 hours a day at work in a supermarket. So you work out how many calories that is and then add it to the exercise section of myfitnesspal?
This is already part of your activity level so it shouldn’t be logged as exercise1 -
Giving this a bump for the season.1
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Bump1
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Bump.0 -
The video is really helpful thanks for sharing. Just ordered my fit bit, can't wait to link it to mfp.0
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Good video!0
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Thanks for a helpful video0
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Thank you for the video. I'm pretty new here and admittedly haven't read through all the forums. I do have a question for you. When I was 44 years old I went on an extreme diet and started exercising. A lot. Marathons, triathlons, ironman training. I kept my weight down for over five years. Then, I had back to back surgeries and was unable to get back to that level of training. I also started eating more. Now, I've regained about 60 pounds of the 100 that I kept off for all those years. It just seems that the only way I can lose weight anymore is to eat a lot less than the recommended daily amounts and exercise 60-90 minutes a day. Any suggestions? Should I just not count the exercise calories at all?0
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Barrigon160 wrote: »Thank you for the video. I'm pretty new here and admittedly haven't read through all the forums. I do have a question for you. When I was 44 years old I went on an extreme diet and started exercising. A lot. Marathons, triathlons, ironman training. I kept my weight down for over five years. Then, I had back to back surgeries and was unable to get back to that level of training. I also started eating more. Now, I've regained about 60 pounds of the 100 that I kept off for all those years. It just seems that the only way I can lose weight anymore is to eat a lot less than the recommended daily amounts and exercise 60-90 minutes a day. Any suggestions? Should I just not count the exercise calories at all?
You should really start your own thread for targeted advice if you don't get many answers. I mean, this thread is a "sticky" post because, yes, you should eat back the exercise calories if you are going to use Myfitnesspal's tool.
Your problem could be due to many factors, but it's most likely your food logging accuracy and/or the length of time you've been logging accurately and the way you've set up your account. Tighten that up, use the numbers for a couple months and if you see no results, open up your food log and come back with a new thread and get some feedback. In the meantime, keep reading around the forums.0 -
My Fitness apps tell me I buy around 2000 calories a day on average. I am on a 1450 calorie diet, I weigh 5 feet 9 and 35 years old.Would it be fair to consume 25% of my workout calories, through protein sources?1
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My Fitness apps tell me I buy around 2000 calories a day on average. I am on a 1450 calorie diet, I weigh 5 feet 9 and 35 years old.Would it be fair to consume 25% of my workout calories, through protein sources?
It depends on how you’re measuring your calories burned. But you should be aiming for 1500 minimum net calories after exercise.1 -
Thank you so much for explaining this, think I will eat 50% of my exercise calories as you suggested and go from there.0
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Thank you! A perfect, easy to understand explanation.0
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