How do I add exercise without it giving me back calories?

gemabbi

I log mine as 1 calorie also

asbpunkin777

RunRutheeRun wrote: »

You can log your exercise as 1 calorie IF you like but I'm not sure why you aren't eating some of those exercise calories back, they will fuel your body accordingly.

Thank you all for your responses! There's a lot of really helpful information here! It would most definitely make sense to add the exercise at night and just track my calorie deficit that way...I really like that idea.

I noticed several comments mentioning that I shouldn't have to avoid eating my fitness calories back, so I think I might be missing something. From what I understand, 1 pound is approximately 3500 calories - therefore 2 pounds loss each each would be 7,000 calories (I do understand the benefits behind only losing 2 pounds per week and not crash dieting .. I've been there and done that!).

If I eat 1300 calories/day (9100 calories/week), and my resting metabolic rate burns 13,220 calories/ week (formula used: For Women: BMR = 655 + (4.35 x weight in pounds) + (4.7 x height in inches) - (4.7 x age in years)) .... based on this, without exercise, I have created a 4,120 calorie deficit each week. This does not total up to the 7000 calorie deficit for 2 pounds.

Now that you can see what I am doing mathematically ... why exactly would I want to eat back my calories? Wouldn't I want to exercise enough in the week to burn approximately 2,880 more calories to have a full 7000 calorie deficit? I know there are a lot of other factors that can play here, but I'm just using my bare caloric number basics.

Thank you again for all of the information! It's really helpful!

tinkerbellang83

asbpunkin777 wrote: »

RunRutheeRun wrote: »

You can log your exercise as 1 calorie IF you like but I'm not sure why you aren't eating some of those exercise calories back, they will fuel your body accordingly.

Thank you all for your responses! There's a lot of really helpful information here! It would most definitely make sense to add the exercise at night and just track my calorie deficit that way...I really like that idea.

I noticed several comments mentioning that I shouldn't have to avoid eating my fitness calories back, so I think I might be missing something. From what I understand, 1 pound is approximately 3500 calories - therefore 2 pounds loss each each would be 7,000 calories (I do understand the benefits behind only losing 2 pounds per week and not crash dieting .. I've been there and done that!).

If I eat 1300 calories/day (9100 calories/week), and my resting metabolic rate burns 13,220 calories/ week (formula used: For Women: BMR = 655 + (4.35 x weight in pounds) + (4.7 x height in inches) - (4.7 x age in years)) .... based on this, without exercise, I have created a 4,120 calorie deficit each week. This does not total up to the 7000 calorie deficit for 2 pounds.

Now that you can see what I am doing mathematically ... why exactly would I want to eat back my calories? Wouldn't I want to exercise enough in the week to burn approximately 2,880 more calories to have a full 7000 calorie deficit? I know there are a lot of other factors that can play here, but I'm just using my bare caloric number basics.

Thank you again for all of the information! It's really helpful!

BMR isn't the figure you're taking a deficit from, that's your estimated burn for basically not moving your *kitten* out of bed all day. MFP uses NEAT methodology to calculate your burn taking into account your work/homelife activity without exercise at Sedentary this is 1.25 x BMR.

malibu927

How much do you have to lose? 2 pounds a week isn't an appropriate goal for many people.

TeaBea

tinkerbellang83 wrote: »

asbpunkin777 wrote: »

RunRutheeRun wrote: »

You can log your exercise as 1 calorie IF you like but I'm not sure why you aren't eating some of those exercise calories back, they will fuel your body accordingly.

Thank you all for your responses! There's a lot of really helpful information here! It would most definitely make sense to add the exercise at night and just track my calorie deficit that way...I really like that idea.

I noticed several comments mentioning that I shouldn't have to avoid eating my fitness calories back, so I think I might be missing something. From what I understand, 1 pound is approximately 3500 calories - therefore 2 pounds loss each each would be 7,000 calories (I do understand the benefits behind only losing 2 pounds per week and not crash dieting .. I've been there and done that!).

If I eat 1300 calories/day (9100 calories/week), and my resting metabolic rate burns 13,220 calories/ week (formula used: For Women: BMR = 655 + (4.35 x weight in pounds) + (4.7 x height in inches) - (4.7 x age in years)) .... based on this, without exercise, I have created a 4,120 calorie deficit each week. This does not total up to the 7000 calorie deficit for 2 pounds.

Now that you can see what I am doing mathematically ... why exactly would I want to eat back my calories? Wouldn't I want to exercise enough in the week to burn approximately 2,880 more calories to have a full 7000 calorie deficit? I know there are a lot of other factors that can play here, but I'm just using my bare caloric number basics.

Thank you again for all of the information! It's really helpful!

BMR isn't the figure you're taking a deficit from, that's your estimated burn for basically not moving your *kitten* out of bed all day. MFP uses NEAT methodology to calculate your burn taking into account your work/homelife activity without exercise at Sedentary this is 1.25 x BMR.

Yes^

So NEAT math would be BMR 1,888 x 1.25 = 2,360. That's sedentary. So without exercise your deficit is 2360 - 1300.....or 1,060 x 7 = 7420 per week.

7,420 is a little over 2 pounds a week. Add exercise & you push that number even higher. Healthy weight loss helps you lower your body fat %. If you have a ways to go, your body will focus on fat loss. But as you get closer to goal, lowering the deficit to a moderate one helps spare lean muscle mass.

stanmann571

malibu927 wrote: »

How much do you have to lose? 2 pounds a week isn't an appropriate goal for many people.

2 pounds per week is a relatively hard upper limit. There are exceptions, but again, with the exceptions, you're still dealing with 1% per week as a hard line to bump against.

NorthCascades

asbpunkin777 wrote: »

Now that you can see what I am doing mathematically ... why exactly would I want to eat back my calories?

For your health. Because you don't want to lose the muscle mass you have, or your hair. Gaining weight didn't happen all of a sudden one night, why should losing it be a race?

SusanMFindlay

asbpunkin777 wrote: »

Now that you can see what I am doing mathematically ... why exactly would I want to eat back my calories?

Others have addressed the misconception that's leading you to underestimate your daily calorie burn (which should be at least 2360 cals/day instead of 1888 cals/day). I'll address why/when you should eat back exercise calories.

If we're only talking about 100-200 cals/day in exercise calories, it really doesn't matter that much whether you eat them back or not. BUT if you are burning a lot of calories exercising (or just generally being physically active in your daily life), you should "eat back" enough of them to keep you from having too large of a deficit.

What counts as "too large a deficit" will vary from person to person. People with more fat on them can afford a larger deficit. Many people use "don't choose a deficit that will see you lose more than 1% of your weight per week" as an estimate. That works well for many - but is actually too high for most small women. A woman who weighs 120 pounds probably doesn't have enough fat on her for her body to be able to handle a 600 calorie/day deficit, for example. Another number that is widely used is "TDEE-20%". That means that if you burn 2000 calories/day (including exercise), your body could handle a deficit of 400 calories/day (20% of the total daily calorie burn).

Why can't we just have super high deficits and lose weight faster?

A few reasons. Some can be counteracted by careful choice of food and exericse. Others can't.

• The first reason most people give is preservation of lean body mass. If you cut calories too harshly, your body will have to take energy from sources other than fat (in addition to taking it from fat). At first, that might mean glycogen (very crudely: sugar energy stored in your muscles for immediate use) - which is one of the reasons why many people lose a lot of water weight at first because water is used to store the glycogen. But that runs out fast. So, then your body turns to your muscles. Which includes your heart! If you have too larger of a deficit, you are going to lose more muscle than necessary. That can be counteracted by eating enough protein and working your muscles hard enough that the body rebuilds them - but there is still a limit to how much that'll help. You need to be an expert (or be following instructions from one) to play that game.
• Over and above that, your body will respond to what and how much you eat by varying hormone levels. Excessive calorie restriction will tend to lead it to produce more hunger hormones. For many people, that means they'll be prone to binging and undoing that "extra deficit" they worked for.

Now, all of this depends on you measuring your intake accurately. The scale in your bathroom will tell you whether or not your deficit is *actually* too high. So, keep an eye on your progress and if you're losing weight "too fast", make an effort to eat back more calories. If your weight loss is proceeding as expected, then you've managed to strike a good balance between calories in and calories out.

asbpunkin777

Thank you, everyone, for the detailed responses! The calculations and eating back calories makes a lot more sense!

To further avoid the muscle loss vs. fat loss ... are there certain things I could be doing/eating? Should I be eating more protein or drinking protein shakes to avoid this?

nosebag1212

asbpunkin777 wrote: »

Thank you, everyone, for the detailed responses! The calculations and eating back calories makes a lot more sense!

To further avoid the muscle loss vs. fat loss ... are there certain things I could be doing/eating? Should I be eating more protein or drinking protein shakes to avoid this?

Just make sure you get at least 0.8 protein per lb of goal weight and do heavy lifting 2-3 x per week and muscle loss should be minimal

DamieBird

NorthCascades wrote: »

There's really no reason to have your exercise in MFP except to credit yourself for the calories you burned. No other value at all.

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