Does anyone eat their exercise calories while losing?
Replies
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heiliskrimsli wrote: »Same here. If I'm doing a lot of exercise I might eat a little more but it's not with the intent of reaching a particular percentage. It hasn't hindered my training at all. I've actually made a lot of progress with both distance and pace in the last year of running, and have not had any decline in lifting.
Exactly what I do. Clearly, a highly active day is going to affect my hunger, so I certainly will eat more. But I never go calculate the calories I may have burned and try to eat back some % of that number.0 -
HGarcia1527 wrote: »I rarely eat them back but if I do I was told never to eat more than half.
Twinsies! I never eat more than 113 % of mine!!!
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fitmom4lifemfp wrote: »heiliskrimsli wrote: »Same here. If I'm doing a lot of exercise I might eat a little more but it's not with the intent of reaching a particular percentage. It hasn't hindered my training at all. I've actually made a lot of progress with both distance and pace in the last year of running, and have not had any decline in lifting.
Exactly what I do. Clearly, a highly active day is going to affect my hunger, so I certainly will eat more. But I never go calculate the calories I may have burned and try to eat back some % of that number.
I don't have a focus on reaching a particular minimum every single day. If the day ends with calories left and I'm not hungry, that's just fine by me. I don't stress about not eating right up to the limit and I definitely don't intentionally eat when not hungry just because I theoretically can.Eating when not hungry doesn't help me live the kind of life that I choose to live.1 -
VintageFeline wrote: »
Anyone know how it came about? The whole cups as measures for everything thing? We pilfer a lot of things from the US here in the UK but this never made it (for which I am eternally grateful).
Back in the late 1800's there was a place called the Boston Cooking School run by a woman named Fannie Farmer. She was teaching upper and middle class women how to cook and she standardized measurements in the format we use today in order for women who never cooked to understand how to write and read recipes. It spread all over the US and has never changed.2 -
VintageFeline wrote: »I have always eaten mine. When I started I left some and lost a little faster so I started eating them because food. A large part of why I exercise is so I can eat more. Particularly now, I am not far from initial goal and am otherwise pretty sedentary. If I didn't exercise and eat my calories I'd be on a pitifully small amount of food and I like to eat. I also like to not have too much adaptive thermogenesis going on (natural down regulation of metabolism when eating in a deficit) so take regular diet breaks in order to re-upregulate and restore hormones to normal.
...
But the attitude of "I'm eating the bare minimum and running/cycling 15 miles every other day without eating those back, yay me!" attitude is baffling. That's only going to end in a bad time as there will be absolutely no fuel for normal bodily functions, stored body fat simply isn't enough.
Edited your post to highlight what I'm specifically agreeing with - ITA0 -
I try to go by the serving size on the products I use. I do have a food scale and I use it for items that have the weight in grams or ounces. I make sure the user-entered product data here is the same as on the packaging.janejellyroll wrote: »Usually when people have problems with their exercise calories, it's because they have some logging errors than mean they are eating more than they think or because they're using a method that over-estimates the amount of calories they're burning via exercise.
For your logging: It looks like you're using a mixture of weights and item counts to measure things (fruit is in grams, but then you've logged things like "4 cookies" or "16 crackers"). Are you using a scale for solid foods? You also have some entries that look very vague (like the Jason's Deli entry that lists salad bar, chicken salad, and chocolate mousse as one meal for 400 calories -- how do you know the person who created this entry had the same portions that you did? This seems incredibly low for these items).
Are your exercise calories being synced from something like a Fitbit?
Jason's deli has a nutrition calculator on their website so I used that to figure out my serving sizes and nutritional information. When it said a serving of olives was 3, I only took 3. The chicken salad was served in a cup so it was a limited portion.
I looked up information about how many calories you burn for exercises at other websites since people were saying the amounts listed here were too generous.
I don't have a Fitbit but I do have a pedometer to measure the distances I walk.
I'm trying to be very careful about weighing and measuring everything. If the information is wrong on a product or its website, I have no way of knowing that.
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amyoliver85 wrote: »I would have to agree. I'm a woman and I eat back exercise calories. The human body needs fuel. The calculations on MFP are basically for people who sit around all day but probably walk 10,000 steps...ish. When you burn more than that, your body needs more back. I actually find that if I don't eat the calories back I have a more difficult time losing weight because then my metabolism slows down to match my energy consumption.
MFP sedentary, a physical activity factor of 1.25x your Mifflin StJeor BMR estimate assumes approximately 30 to 40 minutes of not sitting in a day that can also be expressed as about 3500 steps. This setting "tops out" for most people at about 5000 steps a day.
Once you exceed 1.5 hours of daily life movement and exercise which is usually necessary in order for you to reach 10000 steps, you are well above the average American who averages 5-6k steps in a day, and you would probably use the MFP Active setting to capture your activity with a single number.
If your 10k steps were the result of a single exercise activity while sitting all day for the rest of the day, it might be more appropriate to choose MFP's sedentary setting plus log your exercise activity separately--the way MFP was originally conceived to be used before the proliferation of all day activity trackers.3 -
Yes, I weigh weekly. On my previous MFP diet, I weighed daily for a while just to get used to the fluctuations in my weight during the week. I was thinking about trying to weigh once a month but I'm too impatient to weight that long!HeliumIsNoble wrote: »@PikachuFL I'm guessing you're weighing weekly? (Nothing wrong with that, just checking.)
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I try to go by the serving size on the products I use. I do have a food scale and I use it for items that have the weight in grams or ounces. I make sure the user-entered product data here is the same as on the packaging.janejellyroll wrote: »Usually when people have problems with their exercise calories, it's because they have some logging errors than mean they are eating more than they think or because they're using a method that over-estimates the amount of calories they're burning via exercise.
For your logging: It looks like you're using a mixture of weights and item counts to measure things (fruit is in grams, but then you've logged things like "4 cookies" or "16 crackers"). Are you using a scale for solid foods? You also have some entries that look very vague (like the Jason's Deli entry that lists salad bar, chicken salad, and chocolate mousse as one meal for 400 calories -- how do you know the person who created this entry had the same portions that you did? This seems incredibly low for these items).
Are your exercise calories being synced from something like a Fitbit?
Jason's deli has a nutrition calculator on their website so I used that to figure out my serving sizes and nutritional information. When it said a serving of olives was 3, I only took 3. The chicken salad was served in a cup so it was a limited portion.
I looked up information about how many calories you burn for exercises at other websites since people were saying the amounts listed here were too generous.
I don't have a Fitbit but I do have a pedometer to measure the distances I walk.
I'm trying to be very careful about weighing and measuring everything. If the information is wrong on a product or its website, I have no way of knowing that.
Oh, I see -- I didn't realize you had created that Jason's Deli entry.
If you're weighing all your solid foods, including things like crackers and bread, and not seeing losses when you eat back your exercise calories based on exercise entries from your pedometer, it's possible that your pedometer is leading you to overestimate how many calories you're burning. Have you tried just eating back a portion of your exercise calories to see if that helps?0 -
I have on a few days but I haven't been at this long enough to see if it helps. I'm still working on finding the right daily calorie limit for myself. I just wasn't sure if I should be eating more or eating less so that's why I thought I'd ask what others are doing. I think eventually the weight has to start coming off since I'm not eating like I used to. I'm eating a lot more fruits and vegetables and being much more active.0
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rileysowner wrote: »kshama2001 wrote: »cwolfman13 wrote: »It is the way this tool is designed. Your exercise isn't accounted for in your activity level...it would make sense that it should be accounted for in some way. Also, why does everyone seem to think MFP is trying to trick them...makes no sense.
Have you seen men think exercise shouldn't count? I've only noticed women, and so I suspect something cultural specific to women.
Yes, many times. Usually they are eating far less than they should too, like 1200 calories. It is not specific to women.
Oh, I've definitely seen men undereating, but hadn't noticed them thinking exercise calories shouldn't count.1 -
heiliskrimsli wrote: »fitmom4lifemfp wrote: »heiliskrimsli wrote: »Same here. If I'm doing a lot of exercise I might eat a little more but it's not with the intent of reaching a particular percentage. It hasn't hindered my training at all. I've actually made a lot of progress with both distance and pace in the last year of running, and have not had any decline in lifting.
Exactly what I do. Clearly, a highly active day is going to affect my hunger, so I certainly will eat more. But I never go calculate the calories I may have burned and try to eat back some % of that number.
I don't have a focus on reaching a particular minimum every single day. If the day ends with calories left and I'm not hungry, that's just fine by me. I don't stress about not eating right up to the limit and I definitely don't intentionally eat when not hungry just because I theoretically can.Eating when not hungry doesn't help me live the kind of life that I choose to live.
Eating when not hungry was what caused me to gain this damn 15-20 pounds I am now working on losing. I have to log my food. I will always have to. I know that, and stupidly allowed myself to get lazy and ignored the scale creeping up. So so dumb. Yeah eating more when I am not hungry - that just doesn't work for me.0 -
amyoliver85 wrote: »I would have to agree. I'm a woman and I eat back exercise calories. The human body needs fuel. The calculations on MFP are basically for people who sit around all day but probably walk 10,000 steps...ish. When you burn more than that, your body needs more back. I actually find that if I don't eat the calories back I have a more difficult time losing weight because then my metabolism slows down to match my energy consumption.
MFP sedentary, a physical activity factor of 1.25x your Mifflin StJeor BMR estimate assumes approximately 30 to 40 minutes of not sitting in a day that can also be expressed as about 3500 steps. This setting "tops out" for most people at about 5000 steps a day.
Once you exceed 1.5 hours of daily life movement and exercise which is usually necessary in order for you to reach 10000 steps, you are well above the average American who averages 5-6k steps in a day, and you would probably use the MFP Active setting to capture your activity with a single number.
If your 10k steps were the result of a single exercise activity while sitting all day for the rest of the day, it might be more appropriate to choose MFP's sedentary setting plus log your exercise activity separately--the way MFP was originally conceived to be used before the proliferation of all day activity trackers.
That's exactly why I choose sedentary. There actually have been days where I don't even make 2000 steps. I hate those days, but there is nothing to be done about them (elderly parent issues, sometimes I am dealing with them an entire day). And with my desk job, I simply have to make a specific effort to get in movement and exercise.0 -
nefudaboss wrote: »I did the math i have to lose 70k calories more, i dont see the point in eating back calories when i have so much to burnnefudaboss wrote: »I have climbed a mountain and burned 8k calories, when i got home i lost 8 lbs of water and fat and probably muscle lmao but i didn't eat back 6500 calories
At least you won't have to carry all the muscle you lost up the next mountain.
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I only measure the distances I walk during my breaks at work, not the steps I take all day.
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Yes. How many I eat back depends on how hungry I am that day. I feel that part of this journey is learning to listen to your body. I have a Fitbit One that keeps track and have my level set to slightly active. A couple times a month Th I might eat all of them, but mostly it is around half0
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I eat between 50-70 percent of mine, and I lose at my chosen rate or just slightly better (set to 1 pound/week, overall rate according to Happy Scale is 1.31/week). I do that to make sure that my exercise calories are not over-estimated or to cover any logging errors, and I consider the extra to be "bonus". However, if I am truly hungry, I WILL dip into them up to my total.
I think this is the best of both worlds.... getting the extra cals for being active makes maintaining my deficit so much easier, and I get a little extra loss for my work. It also gives me piece of mind to not get too crazy with getting caught up in logging (I weight 90% or more of what I eat, but eat out a lot and travel so you can only estimate so well). And, if I am STARVING I have that safety net to dip into if needed. Working out well for me!0 -
fitmom4lifemfp wrote: »heiliskrimsli wrote: »Same here. If I'm doing a lot of exercise I might eat a little more but it's not with the intent of reaching a particular percentage. It hasn't hindered my training at all. I've actually made a lot of progress with both distance and pace in the last year of running, and have not had any decline in lifting.
Exactly what I do. Clearly, a highly active day is going to affect my hunger, so I certainly will eat more. But I never go calculate the calories I may have burned and try to eat back some % of that number.
I don't eat back exercise either, but when I calculate my calorie goal (based on TDEE) I of course use my ACTUAL activity level (the fact I run about 35 miles per week and do other exercise) and don't pretend to be sedentary. Saying you stick to a calorie goal and don't eat back exercise when the calorie goal is calculated based on a sedentary activity level you don't have doesn't make sense to me.
For me focusing on hunger isn't useful as I may or may not be hungrier on a day I workout. Sometimes I'm more hungry the following day, which is why I like the TDEE method. But I don't try to achieve a calorie deficit that goes beyond what seems sensible by working out and ignoring it in my calorie goal.5 -
I typically log 500-700 cals for each 45m-1:20h cardio workout. I get the number from the cardio machines, which are weight adjusted and give significantly lower numbers than MFP.
I started out not eating any, but my training performance suffered, so I started eating all but 200 of the excess.
Now that I have enough data, I can see that I'm still losing at a rate of 1.8 lbs/wk, when I intend to be losing at 1.5, so I've just started eating back close to all of it, to see if I can dial it in.
And now that I'm 50 lbs down, with 25-30 to go, I'd like to slow things down a little anyway.1 -
lemurcat12 wrote: »fitmom4lifemfp wrote: »heiliskrimsli wrote: »Same here. If I'm doing a lot of exercise I might eat a little more but it's not with the intent of reaching a particular percentage. It hasn't hindered my training at all. I've actually made a lot of progress with both distance and pace in the last year of running, and have not had any decline in lifting.
Exactly what I do. Clearly, a highly active day is going to affect my hunger, so I certainly will eat more. But I never go calculate the calories I may have burned and try to eat back some % of that number.
I don't eat back exercise either, but when I calculate my calorie goal (based on TDEE) I of course use my ACTUAL activity level (the fact I run about 35 miles per week and do other exercise) and don't pretend to be sedentary. Saying you stick to a calorie goal and don't eat back exercise when the calorie goal is calculated based on a sedentary activity level you don't have doesn't make sense to me.
For me focusing on hunger isn't useful as I may or may not be hungrier on a day I workout. Sometimes I'm more hungry the following day, which is why I like the TDEE method. But I don't try to achieve a calorie deficit that goes beyond what seems sensible by working out and ignoring it in my calorie goal.
Not to mention, consistently undereating will lead to a larger degree of adaptive thermogenesis, which is really counterproductive when weight loss at a reasonably steady and predictable pace is the goal.3 -
VintageFeline wrote: »lemurcat12 wrote: »fitmom4lifemfp wrote: »heiliskrimsli wrote: »Same here. If I'm doing a lot of exercise I might eat a little more but it's not with the intent of reaching a particular percentage. It hasn't hindered my training at all. I've actually made a lot of progress with both distance and pace in the last year of running, and have not had any decline in lifting.
Exactly what I do. Clearly, a highly active day is going to affect my hunger, so I certainly will eat more. But I never go calculate the calories I may have burned and try to eat back some % of that number.
I don't eat back exercise either, but when I calculate my calorie goal (based on TDEE) I of course use my ACTUAL activity level (the fact I run about 35 miles per week and do other exercise) and don't pretend to be sedentary. Saying you stick to a calorie goal and don't eat back exercise when the calorie goal is calculated based on a sedentary activity level you don't have doesn't make sense to me.
For me focusing on hunger isn't useful as I may or may not be hungrier on a day I workout. Sometimes I'm more hungry the following day, which is why I like the TDEE method. But I don't try to achieve a calorie deficit that goes beyond what seems sensible by working out and ignoring it in my calorie goal.
Not to mention, consistently undereating will lead to a larger degree of adaptive thermogenesis, which is really counterproductive when weight loss at a reasonably steady and predictable pace is the goal.
Good point. I also would be concerned about losing more muscle than necessary, which for me (as a woman in my 40s) would really be counterproductive. At this point I'm interested in BF% WAY more than just losing weight.2 -
kshama2001 wrote: »rileysowner wrote: »kshama2001 wrote: »cwolfman13 wrote: »It is the way this tool is designed. Your exercise isn't accounted for in your activity level...it would make sense that it should be accounted for in some way. Also, why does everyone seem to think MFP is trying to trick them...makes no sense.
Have you seen men think exercise shouldn't count? I've only noticed women, and so I suspect something cultural specific to women.
Yes, many times. Usually they are eating far less than they should too, like 1200 calories. It is not specific to women.
Oh, I've definitely seen men undereating, but hadn't noticed them thinking exercise calories shouldn't count.
I don't see the need to make it some sort of gender issue. It's just counter-intuitive to say that if burning more calories than one is ingesting reduces one's weight, burning even more calories will reduce that weight more. It's about reaching goals.1 -
yes, I eat at least half of my exercise calories back and I am still losing almost 2 lbs/week1
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VintageFeline wrote: »
Anyone know how it came about? The whole cups as measures for everything thing? We pilfer a lot of things from the US here in the UK but this never made it (for which I am eternally grateful).
Back in the late 1800's there was a place called the Boston Cooking School run by a woman named Fannie Farmer. She was teaching upper and middle class women how to cook and she standardized measurements in the format we use today in order for women who never cooked to understand how to write and read recipes. It spread all over the US and has never changed.
I never knew. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fannie_Farmer
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You know, for the last couple of days, I've gotten barely any exercise (preparing to leave home, time on a train, etc yesterday; helping my parents around the house today). And I was a bit worried about how to manage without those extra calories. Funny thing. I'm actually not hungry on 1450 calories if I'm not doing stuff to increase my deficit, like 2-hour walks or 50 minutes on a glider. Whereas if I try to go through the day without eating back half my exercise calories, when I'm more active, it's a different story. I guess I really do need the extra fuel.2
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I do my best to make sure my calculations are as accurate as possible, including subtracting 2 kcal/min to get net burn. But then I eat 100% back.
Just to make sure l understand... For example, if u worked out for 60 min and got 200 exercise cals, u would subtract 120 calories from the 200, leaving u with 80 net exercise calories?0 -
estherdragonbat wrote: »You know, for the last couple of days, I've gotten barely any exercise (preparing to leave home, time on a train, etc yesterday; helping my parents around the house today). And I was a bit worried about how to manage without those extra calories. Funny thing. I'm actually not hungry on 1450 calories if I'm not doing stuff to increase my deficit, like 2-hour walks or 50 minutes on a glider. Whereas if I try to go through the day without eating back half my exercise calories, when I'm more active, it's a different story. I guess I really do need the extra fuel.
I'm the same. I had a sloth day the other week, and my usual counting down the hours til mealtime wasn't there on that day. I had dinner a few hours later than normal because i wasn't as ravenous as usual.
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I typically log 500-700 cals for each 45m-1:20h cardio workout. I get the number from the cardio machines, which are weight adjusted and give significantly lower numbers than MFP.
I started out not eating any, but my training performance suffered, so I started eating all but 200 of the excess.
Now that I have enough data, I can see that I'm still losing at a rate of 1.8 lbs/wk, when I intend to be losing at 1.5, so I've just started eating back close to all of it, to see if I can dial it in.
And now that I'm 50 lbs down, with 25-30 to go, I'd like to slow things down a little anyway.
They may be weight-adjusted, but I assure you they are high.0 -
lemurcat12 wrote: »I don't eat back exercise either, but when I calculate my calorie goal (based on TDEE) I of course use my ACTUAL activity level (the fact I run about 35 miles per week and do other exercise) and don't pretend to be sedentary. Saying you stick to a calorie goal and don't eat back exercise when the calorie goal is calculated based on a sedentary activity level you don't have doesn't make sense to me.
For me focusing on hunger isn't useful as I may or may not be hungrier on a day I workout. Sometimes I'm more hungry the following day, which is why I like the TDEE method. But I don't try to achieve a calorie deficit that goes beyond what seems sensible by working out and ignoring it in my calorie goal.
That's not what I said. I have a calorie goal (my own - not MFP). Generally I stay around that number with my normal activity. On a more active day, IF I find myself hungrier, I eat more. You are far more active than me - if I ran 35 miles I week I would be eating like a race horse. I don't run anymore (well very little) due to a healing knee. I don't *pretend* to be sedentary. I have a very sedentary day...and then try to fit in exercise at night. In nearly 8 weeks, I have lost about 7 pounds. Not exactly a "deficit that goes beyond what seems sensible".
Do what works for you. I do what works for me. 0
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