Does anyone eat their exercise calories while losing?
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middlehaitch wrote: »janejellyroll wrote: »I'm on an MFP program of 1500 calories per day. I also take a spinning class on Mondays, do 45 minutes on an elliptical every Friday morning and either power walk 2-3 miles or cycle > 15 miles on 3 other days of the week.
I try to avoid eating my exercise calories and still keep my intake between 1200 and 1500 per day but, when I finish off each day, I seem to get yelled at a lot by MFP. It keeps claiming I should be consuming at least 1200/day even though I'm normally exceeding that. Why am I getting that feedback?
Because 1,500 is the minimum recommended for a man (which it seems like you may be, based on your name and your profile pic). You're eating below that and, additionally, driving your net even lower by not eating back the calories you burn through activity. MFP is claiming you should be eating more because -- according to the facts you gave here -- you really should be eating more.
NET calories? I'd have to eat around 2000 calories. Too much!
2000 cals too much for what?
Making sure you are getting enough nutrients?
Making sure your lbm, organs, muscles, and bones are well supported?
Making sure your everyday activity doesn't drop?
Making sure you are performing at your best in your chosen exercise?
Making sure you don't have brain fog and your performance at work isn't suffering and causing stress.
Most of these things are not immediately apparent. They sneak up slowly and take a lot to recover from.
If you can't eat 2000 at least eat 1800 min when you exercise, 1500 when you don't.
Cheers, h.
I just don't see how a fat guy like me is going to run out of fuel any time soon.
Because there is a limit to how much fat your body can consume for fuel each day. Once you burn through that fat, you're burning muscle. This will result in weight loss, but it's not the kind of loss that most people typically want. Muscle supports your activity, gives your body a pleasing look, and burns more calories than fat. It's also what your heart is made out of. You probably want to keep your muscle.5 -
janejellyroll wrote: »janejellyroll wrote: »I'm on an MFP program of 1500 calories per day. I also take a spinning class on Mondays, do 45 minutes on an elliptical every Friday morning and either power walk 2-3 miles or cycle > 15 miles on 3 other days of the week.
I try to avoid eating my exercise calories and still keep my intake between 1200 and 1500 per day but, when I finish off each day, I seem to get yelled at a lot by MFP. It keeps claiming I should be consuming at least 1200/day even though I'm normally exceeding that. Why am I getting that feedback?
Because 1,500 is the minimum recommended for a man (which it seems like you may be, based on your name and your profile pic). You're eating below that and, additionally, driving your net even lower by not eating back the calories you burn through activity. MFP is claiming you should be eating more because -- according to the facts you gave here -- you really should be eating more.
NET calories? I'd have to eat around 2000 calories. Too much!
For an active man? Certainly not. I'm a small (108 pound) woman and I maintain my weight on about 1,900 calories a day. Assuming you entered your data correctly, why would you assume that MFP is giving you incorrect numbers?
Okay, okay....I get it. Let's just say too much for my purposes right now.0 -
estherdragonbat wrote: »I eat half. 1) I've lurked enough in the forums to notice all the post (and the infamous flow chart) saying that MFP and fitness machines can overestimate the burns. 2) I've always used measuring cups for solids. As much as I recognize that this is less accurate than weighing, I use American cookbooks a lot and sometimes, I can't be bothered to Google 'weight of 1 cup flour' or the cup of grapes I have with my Greek yogurt in the morning. Not eating back all my calories gives me a bit of a cushion that is—thus far—helping the weight come off. (If and when I plateau, tightening up my weights and measures will probably be the first thing I do.)
I have this page bookmarked: http://www.kingarthurflour.com/learn/ingredient-weight-chart.html
Plus the bag of flour has the grams for 1/4 C, so I just multiply that by 4.
I label other foods.
I do use cups for white sugar, as it is very consistent.
I definitely weigh brown sugar. Most of my recipes call for "packed" brown sugar, which must be super smashed in there!4 -
janejellyroll wrote: »janejellyroll wrote: »I'm on an MFP program of 1500 calories per day. I also take a spinning class on Mondays, do 45 minutes on an elliptical every Friday morning and either power walk 2-3 miles or cycle > 15 miles on 3 other days of the week.
I try to avoid eating my exercise calories and still keep my intake between 1200 and 1500 per day but, when I finish off each day, I seem to get yelled at a lot by MFP. It keeps claiming I should be consuming at least 1200/day even though I'm normally exceeding that. Why am I getting that feedback?
Because 1,500 is the minimum recommended for a man (which it seems like you may be, based on your name and your profile pic). You're eating below that and, additionally, driving your net even lower by not eating back the calories you burn through activity. MFP is claiming you should be eating more because -- according to the facts you gave here -- you really should be eating more.
NET calories? I'd have to eat around 2000 calories. Too much!
For an active man? Certainly not. I'm a small (108 pound) woman and I maintain my weight on about 1,900 calories a day. Assuming you entered your data correctly, why would you assume that MFP is giving you incorrect numbers?
Okay, okay....I get it. Let's just say too much for my purposes right now.
What is your purpose right now?0 -
fitmom4lifemfp wrote: »WinoGelato wrote: »I never eat them back. To me that is the reward for doing the hard work. I always try to stay just under what my initial calorie count for the day is. But that is just me. Some might think this is too aggressive but I have lost 20 pounds over a coarse of about 2 months. Which to me doesn't seem extreme.
Depends on how much you have to lose. 10 lbs/month is greater than 2 lbs/week which is only recommended if you have >75 lbs to lose. Do you have 75 lbs or more to lose?
And MFP is designed to provide you a calorie target excluding exercise, so that if you do NO exercise, you would lose at the rate you selected, providing your logging is accurate. By doing exercise, and then not eating back your calories, you are creating a larger deficit, which can have negative effects including fatigue, hair loss, brittle nails, sallow skin, etc. Not to mention just not eating enough calories to fuel your activity level.
I agree that this could happen. But I also think that if one experiences NONE of those things, and in fact feels great, and their DR., at their physical is saying all is well, that it's most likely that they are not in enough of a deficit to be concerned.
One problem with this reasoning is that symptoms of malnutrition like hair loss don't show for months. And you likely wouldn't be aware of bone loss for years.3 -
janejellyroll wrote: »janejellyroll wrote: »janejellyroll wrote: »I'm on an MFP program of 1500 calories per day. I also take a spinning class on Mondays, do 45 minutes on an elliptical every Friday morning and either power walk 2-3 miles or cycle > 15 miles on 3 other days of the week.
I try to avoid eating my exercise calories and still keep my intake between 1200 and 1500 per day but, when I finish off each day, I seem to get yelled at a lot by MFP. It keeps claiming I should be consuming at least 1200/day even though I'm normally exceeding that. Why am I getting that feedback?
Because 1,500 is the minimum recommended for a man (which it seems like you may be, based on your name and your profile pic). You're eating below that and, additionally, driving your net even lower by not eating back the calories you burn through activity. MFP is claiming you should be eating more because -- according to the facts you gave here -- you really should be eating more.
NET calories? I'd have to eat around 2000 calories. Too much!
For an active man? Certainly not. I'm a small (108 pound) woman and I maintain my weight on about 1,900 calories a day. Assuming you entered your data correctly, why would you assume that MFP is giving you incorrect numbers?
Okay, okay....I get it. Let's just say too much for my purposes right now.
What is your purpose right now?
Office weight loss competition.1 -
kshama2001 wrote: »estherdragonbat wrote: »I eat half. 1) I've lurked enough in the forums to notice all the post (and the infamous flow chart) saying that MFP and fitness machines can overestimate the burns. 2) I've always used measuring cups for solids. As much as I recognize that this is less accurate than weighing, I use American cookbooks a lot and sometimes, I can't be bothered to Google 'weight of 1 cup flour' or the cup of grapes I have with my Greek yogurt in the morning. Not eating back all my calories gives me a bit of a cushion that is—thus far—helping the weight come off. (If and when I plateau, tightening up my weights and measures will probably be the first thing I do.)
I have this page bookmarked: http://www.kingarthurflour.com/learn/ingredient-weight-chart.html
Plus the bag of flour has the grams for 1/4 C, so I just multiply that by 4.
I label other foods.
I do use cups for white sugar, as it is very consistent.
I definitely weigh brown sugar. Most of my recipes call for "packed" brown sugar, which must be super smashed in there!
Thanks! I've added it to my bookmarks, too. I think a lot of it is habit and conditioning. I've been involved with recipes since I was a pre-schooler (Mom taught me to read when I was three and had me reading recipes, measuring, and stirring from about that age; she'd take over when it came time to move on to the oven). It's always been with cups and spoons for dry measures. And, of course, when the cookbook tells you to use cups and spoons and you've always done it, it's easy to just keep going like you always have. Eventually I'll do this often enough that I'll form a new habit and stop patting myself on the back to congratulate myself each time I remember...2 -
estherdragonbat wrote: »kshama2001 wrote: »estherdragonbat wrote: »I eat half. 1) I've lurked enough in the forums to notice all the post (and the infamous flow chart) saying that MFP and fitness machines can overestimate the burns. 2) I've always used measuring cups for solids. As much as I recognize that this is less accurate than weighing, I use American cookbooks a lot and sometimes, I can't be bothered to Google 'weight of 1 cup flour' or the cup of grapes I have with my Greek yogurt in the morning. Not eating back all my calories gives me a bit of a cushion that is—thus far—helping the weight come off. (If and when I plateau, tightening up my weights and measures will probably be the first thing I do.)
I have this page bookmarked: http://www.kingarthurflour.com/learn/ingredient-weight-chart.html
Plus the bag of flour has the grams for 1/4 C, so I just multiply that by 4.
I label other foods.
I do use cups for white sugar, as it is very consistent.
I definitely weigh brown sugar. Most of my recipes call for "packed" brown sugar, which must be super smashed in there!
Thanks! I've added it to my bookmarks, too. I think a lot of it is habit and conditioning. I've been involved with recipes since I was a pre-schooler (Mom taught me to read when I was three and had me reading recipes, measuring, and stirring from about that age; she'd take over when it came time to move on to the oven). It's always been with cups and spoons for dry measures. And, of course, when the cookbook tells you to use cups and spoons and you've always done it, it's easy to just keep going like you always have. Eventually I'll do this often enough that I'll form a new habit and stop patting myself on the back to congratulate myself each time I remember...
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).2 -
VintageFeline wrote: »janejellyroll wrote: »janejellyroll wrote: »janejellyroll wrote: »I'm on an MFP program of 1500 calories per day. I also take a spinning class on Mondays, do 45 minutes on an elliptical every Friday morning and either power walk 2-3 miles or cycle > 15 miles on 3 other days of the week.
I try to avoid eating my exercise calories and still keep my intake between 1200 and 1500 per day but, when I finish off each day, I seem to get yelled at a lot by MFP. It keeps claiming I should be consuming at least 1200/day even though I'm normally exceeding that. Why am I getting that feedback?
Because 1,500 is the minimum recommended for a man (which it seems like you may be, based on your name and your profile pic). You're eating below that and, additionally, driving your net even lower by not eating back the calories you burn through activity. MFP is claiming you should be eating more because -- according to the facts you gave here -- you really should be eating more.
NET calories? I'd have to eat around 2000 calories. Too much!
For an active man? Certainly not. I'm a small (108 pound) woman and I maintain my weight on about 1,900 calories a day. Assuming you entered your data correctly, why would you assume that MFP is giving you incorrect numbers?
Okay, okay....I get it. Let's just say too much for my purposes right now.
What is your purpose right now?
Office weight loss competition.
Oh, I see that now. Thanks.0 -
I eat back my exercise calories and still seem to be losing weight at a rate faster than MFP is estimating. I'm set to sedentary activity level (desk job) and I'm doing P90X every day. I set my workouts manually for between 400 and 650 calories depending on which routine it is. Even the days where I go very slightly over my allowance I'm still losing weight.
I try to brutally honest in my logging of food. And I don't want to be skinny, I want to improve my strength so it doesn't make sense to starve myself IMO.0 -
Reassess your activity level to "lightly active"? After I noticed I was losing at my desired rate, despite going way over on calories most days, I ended up looking for a better description of what sedentary and lightly active might comprise elsewhere, and realised I was definitely in the wrong category.I eat back my exercise calories and still seem to be losing weight at a rate faster than MFP is estimating. I'm set to sedentary activity level (desk job) and I'm doing P90X every day. I set my workouts manually for between 400 and 650 calories depending on which routine it is. Even the days where I go very slightly over my allowance I'm still losing weight.
I try to brutally honest in my logging of food. And I don't want to be skinny, I want to improve my strength so it doesn't make sense to starve myself IMO.
You might have a desk job, but do you actually sit there like an immobile blob for eight hours a day?
http://krupp.wcc.hawaii.edu/BIOL100L/nutrition/energy.pdf
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I haven't read the replies.
Yes, I eat my exercise calories as the site intends.1 -
HeliumIsNoble wrote: »You might have a desk job, but do you actually sit there like an immobile blob for eight hours a day?
You found the PERFECT description of how I spend eight (plus) hours every day! And my wife might agree about me being under the care of someone else!
But maybe the housework / putting the kids to bed stuff is bumping me up to Lightly Active. I started with Sedentary to be on the safe side and I still have fat that needs to come off so I haven't changed my intake yet. Losing about 2 pounds per week but muscle mass and strength still increasing so I'll stick with what's working for now.
Thanks for the descriptions!2 -
I eat them if I am hungry. Usually exercising reduces my appetite so if I have an appetite for food I consider it a true need to eat. I track the calories and try to stay within a reasonable amount of my goal for the day.1
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kshama2001 wrote: »One problem with this reasoning is that symptoms of malnutrition like hair loss don't show for months. And you likely wouldn't be aware of bone loss for years.
For what it's worth, I am 61. And I have had 2 bone density tests in the last 10 years - the last one was in the last year. Results? I have excellent bones. So all good there.
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good question. i am a little confused. i work a desk job, work out 3-4 times a week (run ~18 min @ 6mph, light lifting + yoga), and walk about 10,000 steps a day. most of the day i am sitting if not for this exercise. i synced my iphone to MFP to log my steps as exercise and eat the calories back, as 1200 seems very low and the exercise calories MFP projects seem small too (~100 calories for 11,000 steps???) i'm plateauing, should i change my settings / routine?0
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I dont...I dont even log workoiuts because i trick myself into eating more.1
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HeliumIsNoble wrote: »Reassess your activity level to "lightly active"? After I noticed I was losing at my desired rate, despite going way over on calories most days, I ended up looking for a better description of what sedentary and lightly active might comprise elsewhere, and realised I was definitely in the wrong category.
You might have a desk job, but do you actually sit there like an immobile blob for eight hours a day?
http://krupp.wcc.hawaii.edu/BIOL100L/nutrition/energy.pdf
Well, my desk job does require that I be seated in order to actually work. And there is plenty of disagreement out there from that definition.
This is right off of the MFP site.
http://www.sedentarybehaviour.org/what-is-sedentary-behaviour/
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Every. Single. One.2
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Thanks! But yeah, have seen the MFP definitions. Very sparse aren't they? They're what I used to pick my settings initially, which turned out to be wrong. Since then, I've looked for more detailed descriptions elsewhere, and found them.fitmom4lifemfp wrote: »HeliumIsNoble wrote: »Reassess your activity level to "lightly active"? After I noticed I was losing at my desired rate, despite going way over on calories most days, I ended up looking for a better description of what sedentary and lightly active might comprise elsewhere, and realised I was definitely in the wrong category.
You might have a desk job, but do you actually sit there like an immobile blob for eight hours a day?
http://krupp.wcc.hawaii.edu/BIOL100L/nutrition/energy.pdf
Well, my desk job does require that I be seated in order to actually work. And there is plenty of disagreement out there from that definition.
This is right off of the MFP site.
http://www.sedentarybehaviour.org/what-is-sedentary-behaviour/
The MFP ones are brief and easy to use, which naturally gives a lot of room for error.For example, "sitting most of the day" could mean Anne who really does sit there all day, but it also includes Sharon who gets the coffee, fetches new paper for the printer from the stationery cupboard on the next floor and brings Anne, Georgie and Ellen their print-outs on her way back to her own desk
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