Exercise calories

liannebaker17

Am I supposed to be eating my calories burnt by exercise each day?

malibu927

Yes, because that is how MFP is set up. http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10503681/exercise-calories-do-i-eat-these-a-video-explanation

gothchiq

If you can afford a fitbit or something like that it'll help to figure out how many calories you actually burned with that exercise. I don't always think the MFP calories burned is correct for me.

liannebaker17

gothchiq wrote: »

If you can afford a fitbit or something like that it'll help to figure out how many calories you actually burned with that exercise. I don't always think the MFP calories burned is correct for me.

I have a Fitbit but it always says I've burned more calories than MFP even though I've got MFP synced to to my Fitbit.
So what calories do I follow? X

liannebaker17

malibu927 wrote: »

Yes, because that is how MFP is set up. http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10503681/exercise-calories-do-i-eat-these-a-video-explanation

The sound on the video isn't working

malibu927

liannebaker17 wrote: »

malibu927 wrote: »

Yes, because that is how MFP is set up. http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10503681/exercise-calories-do-i-eat-these-a-video-explanation

The sound on the video isn't working

Hmmm, it works on my end. But here's another thread by the same OP that explains it. http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/818082/exercise-calories-again-wtf

And with your Fitbit, eat those added calories back too as it brings you up to your true TDEE.

liannebaker17

malibu927 wrote: »

liannebaker17 wrote: »

malibu927 wrote: »

Yes, because that is how MFP is set up. http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10503681/exercise-calories-do-i-eat-these-a-video-explanation

The sound on the video isn't working

Hmmm, it works on my end. But here's another thread by the same OP that explains it. http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/818082/exercise-calories-again-wtf

And with your Fitbit, eat those added calories back too as it brings you up to your true TDEE.

What's TDEE? Do I go by calories burnt on my Fitbit or on here? Calories on Fitbit are much much more but they show calories burnt just from sitting and watching tele so that confuses me. Sorry I'm so new to this

SCoil123

liannebaker17 wrote: »

gothchiq wrote: »

If you can afford a fitbit or something like that it'll help to figure out how many calories you actually burned with that exercise. I don't always think the MFP calories burned is correct for me.

I have a Fitbit but it always says I've burned more calories than MFP even though I've got MFP synced to to my Fitbit.
So what calories do I follow? X

Try both and see which is more accurate for you, or just follow the lower to be safe. I have mine synced and eat the adjustments Fitbit gives me on here. It comes to about half of what I was getting when I would enter workouts on MFP

sosteach

I do not eat my exercise calories back. I am getting enough food without doing that.

Muana1005

Fitbit calculates total calorie burn ie exercise plus that of general existance, therefore it allows you to eat more. It passes only the exercise portion to MFP. MFP only counts the exercise beyond the minimum required for each of the activity levels.

I personally use MFP but know people who used Fitbit and still lost, just not as quickly.

I nearly always eat back exercise cals - sometimes going up to 2,000 total calories. My net average over the week works out to be 1200-1400 and I'm losing 1kg a week on that.

estherdragonbat

When I started MFP, I weighed 254 lbs, had a base calorie allowance of 1710 and was pushing myself to take a 25-minute walk and burn about 170 calories. I didn't eat any of those back. But here's the thing: as of today,

• I weigh 188.8 lbs.
• My calorie allowance has gone down to 1380.
• I did two hours of walking and an hour of strength training today, as well as a warmup and some cooldown stretches.
• MFP tells me that today, I burned 628 calories on the walks and stretches. (strength-training burns are hard to calculate, so I only log weights-and-cardio interval workouts, not the full body strength-training program I did today)

I can't fuel that level of activity on 1380 without feeling hungry and tired. So I try to eat back half and don't sweat it if I go up to 75% of exercise calories. And I'm losing right about where I want to: 1.2 to 1.8 lbs/week with just under 59 lbs to go until goal.

liannebaker17

My starting calories are 1780 and I set it at light activity as I'm always on my feet running around after two children. So shall I not eat exercise calories because it's already been accounted for in my starting calories?

JeromeBarry1

I'm going make a radical suggestion. Set the Fitbit aside for a few weeks.

The MFP calorie allowance for "lightly active" should be enough for you to fuel your activities and meet your weight loss goal.

Log your food accurately. If you do cardio workouts, log that accurately, too. After a month of accurate logging, you can mathematically determine if your weight change matches the calorie deficit your log shows you've accumulated. If at that time you are convinced that something is wrong, you change your activity level or introduce the Fitbit.

I've managed to lose 100 lb without any gadgets. I just set my activity level to "sedentary", log my food and exercise, and eat most of my exercise calories. The weight comes off.

liannebaker17

See I don't do any specific exercise I don't go to the gym or anything but I spend most of my day walking so I wouldn't be able to accurately log my walking calories without the Fitbit I don't follow calories on my Fitbit if I did I would be eating around 5000 calories a day I just follow the ones transferred over to mfp for the ones I've burnt by walking which is a max of 1100 a day but I do t eat those back as my calorie goal is already 1780 I don't want to be eating near 3000 calories a day so I have just been leaving my exercise calories there as burnt

DX2JX2

liannebaker17 wrote: »

See I don't do any specific exercise I don't go to the gym or anything but I spend most of my day walking so I wouldn't be able to accurately log my walking calories without the Fitbit I don't follow calories on my Fitbit if I did I would be eating around 5000 calories a day I just follow the ones transferred over to mfp for the ones I've burnt by walking which is a max of 1100 a day but I do t eat those back as my calorie goal is already 1780 I don't want to be eating near 3000 calories a day so I have just been leaving my exercise calories there as burnt

Your workout calories burned seem way too high. Even with chasing two kids around all day, 1100 extra calories from activity is pretty huge. I would keep doing what you're doing but allow yourself to start eating back at least some of those exercise calories if you start to feel depleted over time.

djbigspinda513

So it sounds like basically I should calculate my TDEE using no exercise & let my FitBit add in the exercise calories for an accurate (or more accurate) count?

liannebaker17

DX2JX2 wrote: »

liannebaker17 wrote: »

See I don't do any specific exercise I don't go to the gym or anything but I spend most of my day walking so I wouldn't be able to accurately log my walking calories without the Fitbit I don't follow calories on my Fitbit if I did I would be eating around 5000 calories a day I just follow the ones transferred over to mfp for the ones I've burnt by walking which is a max of 1100 a day but I do t eat those back as my calorie goal is already 1780 I don't want to be eating near 3000 calories a day so I have just been leaving my exercise calories there as burnt

Your workout calories burned seem way too high. Even with chasing two kids around all day, 1100 extra calories from activity is pretty huge. I would keep doing what you're doing but allow yourself to start eating back at least some of those exercise calories if you start to feel depleted over time.

This is my calories burned ATM this will probably be up to 800 by the end of the day.

DX2JX2

I know it's what MFP says, but it still sounds very high. For reference, a general rule of thumb is that walking one mile should burn about 65 to 100 calories, depending on your weight. An 1100 calorie burn via walking would mean that you walked for 11 miles (assuming the high end of the scale). At a fairly brisk walking pace of 3 mph, this would mean that you walked for a total of not quite four hours, or somewhere on the order of 20,000 steps.

This could very well be the case as I don't know your exact routine but know that 1100 calories per day from exercise is absolutely monster. Still, I think you're doing the right thing by not eating them back right away. Wait for your body to tell you that you need them first and then start phasing in the calories until you find the right balance.

tinkerbellang83

@DX2JX2 OP has stated in her other post she has 7 stone still to lose, so it's entirely possible the burn is correct.

I burn on average 1000-1200 per day just from my walk to/from work and general steps around home, to the shops and dog walking and my tracker is about 2% underestimating my burns when I reviewed it in a spreadsheet factoring in my weight loss and my food intake.

liannebaker17

DX2JX2 wrote: »

I know it's what MFP says, but it still sounds very high. For reference, a general rule of thumb is that walking one mile should burn about 65 to 100 calories, depending on your weight. An 1100 calorie burn via walking would mean that you walked for 11 miles (assuming the high end of the scale). At a fairly brisk walking pace of 3 mph, this would mean that you walked for a total of not quite four hours, or somewhere on the order of 20,000 steps.

This could very well be the case as I don't know your exact routine but know that 1100 calories per day from exercise is absolutely monster. Still, I think you're doing the right thing by not eating them back right away. Wait for your body to tell you that you need them first and then start phasing in the calories until you find the right balance.

I average anywhere between 11000- 15000 steps a day
My Fitbit estimates calories from living and ATM this says around 2000 but transfers exercise calories to mfp which is 680 ATM
So am I safe in saying that I can eat this calories back ?

tinkerbellang83

liannebaker17 wrote: »

DX2JX2 wrote: »

I know it's what MFP says, but it still sounds very high. For reference, a general rule of thumb is that walking one mile should burn about 65 to 100 calories, depending on your weight. An 1100 calorie burn via walking would mean that you walked for 11 miles (assuming the high end of the scale). At a fairly brisk walking pace of 3 mph, this would mean that you walked for a total of not quite four hours, or somewhere on the order of 20,000 steps.

This could very well be the case as I don't know your exact routine but know that 1100 calories per day from exercise is absolutely monster. Still, I think you're doing the right thing by not eating them back right away. Wait for your body to tell you that you need them first and then start phasing in the calories until you find the right balance.

I average anywhere between 11000- 15000 steps a day
My Fitbit estimates calories from living and ATM this says around 2000 but transfers exercise calories to mfp which is 680 ATM
So am I safe in saying that I can eat this calories back ?

The only way to truly find out if it's accurate is to eat a set percentage of these for around a month (whether this be all of them or 50%/75%) whilst accurately logging your food intake to your calorie allowance + that amount and reviewing if your weight loss matches the rate you've chosen in your setup.

For example you chose to eat 50% back:

Your calorie goal is 1780
You receive a calorie adjustment of 680 from your Fitbit
You eat 2120 (1780+ half your calories burned)

If at the end of 4 weeks you were losing more weight than you had set yourself in MFP you would eat more of them back, if you were losing less than you had set yourself up in MFP then you would eat less of them. If you're losing at the rate intended stick with 50%