Don't add eat exercise calories
gofaster01
Posts: 2 Member
I wasn't loosing weight at first then I stopped adding my exercise calories to my goal calories. I still exercise but I don't add the extra calories to my intake and I lost 9 pounds.
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Replies
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This is bad advice.
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Typically when people don't lose when they eat their exercise calories it's due to their exercise calories being over-estimates (this can be particularly true when people are using bad database entries or going by the output from an exercise machine) or if their logging is looser.
But good job finding a method that works for you!20 -
I have a Fitbit and didn't eat my cals back. Lost way more muscle mass than I needed to!23
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Glad you figured out what works for you! For me (when I'm weighing all food/logging carefully) I had success eating back 1/2-2/3 of my exercise calories. I agree with pp that often exercise calories are overestimated and that can throw people off.7
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NorthCascades wrote: »This is bad advice.
I think it depends on the person. If someone is running several miles, they need to eat their exercise calories. Conversely, some people come to these threads asking why they aren't losing weight, and it comes out that they're eating 400 calories over their goal because of an "intense" 30 minute yoga routine. If your exercise calories are an overestimate, don't eat them. If you're burning a significant number of calories with your exercise, you need to eat them. That's the universal rule.28 -
All people who use MFP to come up with their calorie goal should eat back the calories they burn from exercise. Not necessarily the number some app or magic 8 ball told them, but the number they actually burned. That's a little bit of a challenge because for most types of exercise you can't know exactly how many you burned, but to lose weight you don't need exacting standards so much as you need consistency and the right ballpark. But it is true of everybody who gets their calorie goal from MFP because that's how the math works.
There are a lot of reasons that's true, ranging from health, nutrition, and recovery to weight loss, because losing weight is a long term goal, and only works when you stick to it. The more punishing you make it, the less likely it is that you'll actually do it in the long term. Motivation is great, but it's also fleeting, and it's better to rely on sustainable habits.30 -
NorthCascades wrote: »This is bad advice.
I think it depends on the person. If someone is running several miles, they need to eat their exercise calories. Conversely, some people come to these threads asking why they aren't losing weight, and it comes out that they're eating 400 calories over their goal because of an "intense" 30 minute yoga routine. If your exercise calories are an overestimate, don't eat them. If you're burning a significant number of calories with your exercise, you need to eat them. That's the universal rule.
no not really...
If you are following MFP as it is designed you should eat back your exercise calories.
Figuring out if they are over esitmating is the key.
For me when I started MFP exercise calories were bang on for what I was doing...once I knew I was logging my food correctly I ate back all my exercise calories for my 28min 30 day shred...and my 20min walk...I kept losing at the same rate.
If they log 30 min of yoga they should eat them all back until they are sure it's an over estimate then go to half...or start at half to be safe and eat more or less based on results...
But in my experience it's not about exercise calories as much as it's about food and inaccuracies in that log.10 -
I eat my exercise calories back and I've lost 18lbs!21
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All this means is you're at a calorie deficit now. So you must have before been miscalculating your calories in and/or your calories out.19
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But in my experience it's not about exercise calories as much as it's about food and inaccuracies in that log.
This. But if not eating your exercise calories balances the logging errors, and you continue to lose at your expected rate long term, then it isn't really an issue.
Yes, it's not how MFP is designed an no it won't work for me (I eat mine) but the key is what is your weight doing. If it's coming off as expected, then keep doing what works. Almost a case of 2 wrongs making a right.
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OP - How long did it take to lose the 9 pounds?3
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I have a Fitbit and I eat back 95% of the calories it gives me and I've lost 25lbs since New Years.
Weigh everything, log everything. be patient.
And don't make blanket-statement posts.15 -
I have always eaten mine back, and I do go on a bit encouraging others to too.
Why? Well, as well as it being the way MFP is set up, I wonder what happens when someone can't work out, or reaches goal and decreases their exercise intensity/frequency.
Do they arbitrarily drop calories not knowing what their NEAT is, or do they put on weight.
I see enough help I'm sick/injured/going on vacation threads where people are scared to put on weight because they can't exercise that I think getting as accurate as possible in the logging of calories out is as important as the calorie in part of the equation for good weight management.
I started lifting about 18 months ago and the general consensus on threads I had read was the burn was minimal so no need to worry about the cals.
For me that was wrong. I am petite and older and had been maintaining for 5 years at that time. In the matter of weeks my weight dropped and burn out was imminent. A good 2weeks tracking and I found I was burning an extra ~200 cals. Not a lot in the grand scheme of things, but when your sedentary maintenance is about 1350 it has a big impact.
I also know when I have a few days where I have a lot of reading to do my calories will be closer to 1200.
Not eating back exercise calories and working off a basic calorie goal works, until it doesn't, and when it doesn't one doesn't have the detailed data to look back on to remedy the problem.
Cheers, h.14 -
If i didn't eat excersice cals back i might literally die lol.11
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I have a question, mostly regarding Fitbit and calories, not sure if there is another post out there already....
I am set up with MFP to eat 1200cals a day, so far, so good...and based on the information, I do eat my calories back...mostly
BUT, for instance today, I have not worked out, but I already have an additional 14 calories from "exercise"...yes, 14 calories are close to nothing, but, they add up....once I walk close to my usual 10k steps for the day without an actual workout, I have a couple of hundred extra cals...plus whatever I burn on the treadmill/elliptical/stairmaster etc...
Are you eating 100% of your calories, regardless of the lack of exercise? Has this affected your gain/loss of muscle/weight?
I was used to just tracking my workout calories burned, but since Fitbit is so automatic, I was wondering how others deal with it...2 -
I personally agree with this. When I add my exercise calories I end up obsessing over food and eating more than I would if I weren't counting calories at all.2
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NorthCascades wrote: »This is bad advice.
I think it depends on the person. If someone is running several miles, they need to eat their exercise calories. Conversely, some people come to these threads asking why they aren't losing weight, and it comes out that they're eating 400 calories over their goal because of an "intense" 30 minute yoga routine. If your exercise calories are an overestimate, don't eat them. If you're burning a significant number of calories with your exercise, you need to eat them. That's the universal rule.
no not really...
If you are following MFP as it is designed you should eat back your exercise calories.
Figuring out if they are over esitmating is the key.
For me when I started MFP exercise calories were bang on for what I was doing...once I knew I was logging my food correctly I ate back all my exercise calories for my 28min 30 day shred...and my 20min walk...I kept losing at the same rate.
If they log 30 min of yoga they should eat them all back until they are sure it's an over estimate then go to half...or start at half to be safe and eat more or less based on results...
But in my experience it's not about exercise calories as much as it's about food and inaccuracies in that log.
It really does depend on the person, and how they are using this site. I use it only to track my calories consumed. If I have a super high activity day, I'll get hungry and obviously will need to eat more. I never look at the exercise calories, but I do use the FitBit site to track my activity for my own record. I've lost 10 pounds since Feb 10 so what I am doing, is working for me.0 -
LOL this has been a huge topic in our household this week. I was on Weight Watchers and they discouraged people from eating their fit points. However if your exercise consists of a few gos around the block then sure you probably shouldn't eat them.. but if you are doing a spinning class 5x a week or some other equally vigorous workout then not eating them is probably going to do more harm than good. Its just finding the correct amount of extra calories to eat.. anyhow.. I believe you should eat them.. not all but some even the majority, if you are at the gym and putting in some effort. I have decided to stop WW after the conversation with the class leader and have booked an app with a nutritionist at my gym this weekend. I just want someone to tell me exactly how many calories I should eat a day lol as right now I have no clue if I am eating enough.. based on WW I know I was eating too few, and losing weight by starving myself isn't how I want to do it.6
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Everyonelies wrote: »Are you eating 100% of your calories, regardless of the lack of exercise? Has this affected your gain/loss of muscle/weight?
Yes, I eat back all the cals, even the non-exercise ones. You still gas up the car, even when not taking extended trips.6 -
LOL this has been a huge topic in our household this week. I was on Weight Watchers and they discouraged people from eating their fit points. However if your exercise consists of a few gos around the block then sure you probably shouldn't eat them.. but if you are doing a spinning class 5x a week or some other equally vigorous workout then not eating them is probably going to do more harm than good. Its just finding the correct amount of extra calories to eat.. anyhow.. I believe you should eat them.. not all but some even the majority, if you are at the gym and putting in some effort. I have decided to stop WW after the conversation with the class leader and have booked an app with a nutritionist at my gym this weekend. I just want someone to tell me exactly how many calories I should eat a day lol as right now I have no clue if I am eating enough.. based on WW I know I was eating too few, and losing weight by starving myself isn't how I want to do it.
Exactly...MFP will give me about 1900 calories before exercise to lose 1 Lb per week...I'm an avid cycling enthusiast and for general fitness I ride 60-80 miles per week and more if I'm training for a race or other event. On Saturdays I usually put in a good 25-30 mile ride and will burn around 850-1,000 calories...if I just ate 1900 calories, that would leave me with a whopping 900-1,000 calories for my body to use for basic functions and going about my day...ultimately recovery would be a huge issue and so would performance and my health in general would suffer with that...and I'm doing all of this namely for my health.
I also lift 2-3x per week...failing to fuel my fitness would be an utter disaster. Fit people eat and train...11 -
Everyonelies wrote: »I have a question, mostly regarding Fitbit and calories, not sure if there is another post out there already....
I am set up with MFP to eat 1200cals a day, so far, so good...and based on the information, I do eat my calories back...mostly
BUT, for instance today, I have not worked out, but I already have an additional 14 calories from "exercise"...yes, 14 calories are close to nothing, but, they add up....once I walk close to my usual 10k steps for the day without an actual workout, I have a couple of hundred extra cals...plus whatever I burn on the treadmill/elliptical/stairmaster etc...
Are you eating 100% of your calories, regardless of the lack of exercise? Has this affected your gain/loss of muscle/weight?
I was used to just tracking my workout calories burned, but since Fitbit is so automatic, I was wondering how others deal with it...
I think a lot of the confusion here is because the same word can mean different things in different contexts.
Exercise is a thing some people do to burn calories, and for no other reason. It's also a thing people do to get big muscles or improve their fitness. All the time, you see people saying "exercise is this" or "exercise is for this" followed with "not that."
You burned 14 calories from walking. It wasn't from exercise to get fit, but it was legitimate energy that you spent moving your body. Maybe to go pee, I don't know.
"Intentional exercise" is a dumb standard. One time I got a flat tire on my bike and didn't have one of the tools I needed to fix it. So I walked a few miles back to my car with the bike. That was very much unintentional exercise, but it still burned calories. Just like your 14 non-workout calories.
I'm typing this to explain how it all works. On a practical level, 14 calories might be 1 raspberry, it's not worth worrying about. But the concept is worth understanding and being comfortable with.Everyonelies wrote: »Are you eating 100% of your calories, regardless of the lack of exercise? Has this affected your gain/loss of muscle/weight?
When you say "100 % of" that maybe gets a little confusing. I don't trust the number of calories my tracker thinks I burn when I walk, so I come up with a more realistic number and eat those. I'm not sure if that's a yes or a no. I trust my Garmin for bike calories, it will never be more than 5 % off, so I eat whatever it tells me. I've lost about 75 pounds this way.6 -
NorthCascades wrote: »This is bad advice.
It's not bad advice. I have a target of 1450. I get an extra 300 a day on average for exercise. If I eat 1750 I don't lose weight. If I eat 1450 I do lose weight. It's quite ok NOT to eat your exercise calories unless you are working out really hard and eating very little and have a massive deficit.
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EbonyDahlia wrote: »NorthCascades wrote: »This is bad advice.
It's not bad advice. I have a target of 1450. I get an extra 300 a day on average for exercise. If I eat 1750 I don't lose weight. If I eat 1450 I do lose weight. It's quite ok NOT to eat your exercise calories unless you are working out really hard and eating very little and have a massive deficit.
It depends on how you arrived at your "target".
If you used the MFP method, the reason you don't lose would be because you aren't burning 300 calories for that exercise.
This is one part people are missing, you have to have a reasonably accurate calculation of the burn, and the number MFP gives someone for exercise they manually enter is generally found to overestimate by about 50% or so. Numbers from something with a heart rate monitor are generally found to be fairly accurate. (Personal trial and error should be applied to fine tune.)
If however you got a target by total energy expended, then your target *already* counts those exercise calories, and if you eat them, you will indeed be over your intended deficit.
So for the OP to blanket say "dont eat exercise calories" is bad advice, because it does not apply to all situations/methods, and most certainly not to the method the MFP app uses. If you have a MFP derived target of 1450 and exercise off another 300 or 400 calories, you are netting only 1150 or even 1050, which is way too low for most people. eating those calories keeps you at exactly the target you set (with MFP).
Good advice would be to specify where (in which method) it is needed to eat them, and in which it is not.13 -
Everyonelies wrote: »I have a question, mostly regarding Fitbit and calories, not sure if there is another post out there already....
I am set up with MFP to eat 1200cals a day, so far, so good...and based on the information, I do eat my calories back...mostly
BUT, for instance today, I have not worked out, but I already have an additional 14 calories from "exercise"...yes, 14 calories are close to nothing, but, they add up....once I walk close to my usual 10k steps for the day without an actual workout, I have a couple of hundred extra cals...plus whatever I burn on the treadmill/elliptical/stairmaster etc...
Are you eating 100% of your calories, regardless of the lack of exercise? Has this affected your gain/loss of muscle/weight?
I was used to just tracking my workout calories burned, but since Fitbit is so automatic, I was wondering how others deal with it...
I have a polar tracker, so I don't know if it is different. I get 2 figures under exercise. One says calorie adjustment and the other specifies a particular exercise eg swimming. Those are my training sessions. The calorie adjustment is from day to day living. I used MFP when I set up my goal. So I do not generally eat back the calorie adjustment since I figured that that is already in my goal, however I do eat back the training calories since those were extra. I would not however stress myself if I didn't eat all of these back or if I go into the calorie adjustment so long as I am under goal. I am losing with this.
Basically I eat as much as I need to not feel hungry and have energy and no effects eg dizziness or nausea.0 -
The rub here is getting an accurate number of calories from your workout. I discussed in another thread the radical calorie burn difference I see between Map My Ride and my Polar HRM after a 30 mile bike ride.
Also, as was mentioned above, MFP gives a Polar calorie adjustment based, apparently, on the activity measure of my watch....and I delete it. Why take credit for something I didn't do?
I do allow myself to go over a bit my standard calorie level when my exercise cals show 500 or more and I put in a fairly hard workout, but I never eat them all back and have no adverse effects from doing it that way.1 -
Nobody has linked this yet?:
http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10503681/exercise-calories-do-i-eat-these-a-video-explanation/p18 -
gofaster01 wrote: »I wasn't loosing weight at first then I stopped adding my exercise calories to my goal calories. I still exercise but I don't add the extra calories to my intake and I lost 9 pounds.
It's better not to think about your exercise calories as somehow different from the rest of your calories. You should be aiming for a consistent calorie deficit. Some days that means exercising more. Some days that means eating less.3 -
CoachJen71 wrote: »I have a Fitbit and didn't eat my cals back. Lost way more muscle mass than I needed to!
This is why people should eat at least a portion of their exercise calories back. Enough so that they're losing at the expected rate of (healthy) loss.
You don't just lose fat when you lose weight, you also lose muscle tissue. When you lose weight too aggressively, you put yourself more at risk for increasing the amount of muscle you lose.
Unless you have purposely set up MFP to work using the TDEE method of loss, it is designed so that you should eat exercise calories back.
Advising people not to do so and/or acting like it's a good thing not to do so is bad, harmful advice.13 -
This is one of the most common questions here and I would respond - it depends.
If you are accurate in your caloric intake logs and accurate with you caloric burn estimations, then yes this is ideally the way MFP is designed to work. The problem is inherent with the inaccuracies of calorie estimations. What you want is to lose fat and retain muscle, so it is more important to note the rate of loss. Equally important is incorporating some manner of resistance training to protect the muscle mass you have.
Trained professionals are known to underestimate caloric intake and the industry margin of error on calorie estimation is 20%, so this is why you get the responses to not eat back exercise calories. Note that you also typically get these responses in the "Why am I not losing weight?" posts. Context is key.1
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