why am I still gaining?

singingflutelady

jaza48 wrote: »

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bwogilvie wrote: »

nickgolledge wrote: »

I didn't quite understand the comment from Carl "As far as MFP goes don't put your exercise in either as it will adjust calories". I enter my exercise each day and it allows me more calories which I thought was okay until I read that comment.

As others have pointed out, eating exercise calories is fine if you accurately estimate exercise calories. A lot of databases, including MFP's, exaggerate the calorie burn of an activity. To burn 500 calories in an hour, for instance, I have to bicycle at 17-18 mph (on flat terrain; slower in the hills), or run 5 miles.

HRMs aren't necessarily much better. My old HRM/cycle computer from Sigma overestimated exercise calories by 50%!

Eating back exercise cals will NEVER work! It should never be done.....period.

Wrong. If you are using the MFP method you should be eating at least a portion of your calories as the # mfp gives you is your net calorie goal. Malnutrition and underfueling isn't fun.

Nony_Mouse

jaza48 wrote: »

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bwogilvie wrote: »

nickgolledge wrote: »

I didn't quite understand the comment from Carl "As far as MFP goes don't put your exercise in either as it will adjust calories". I enter my exercise each day and it allows me more calories which I thought was okay until I read that comment.

As others have pointed out, eating exercise calories is fine if you accurately estimate exercise calories. A lot of databases, including MFP's, exaggerate the calorie burn of an activity. To burn 500 calories in an hour, for instance, I have to bicycle at 17-18 mph (on flat terrain; slower in the hills), or run 5 miles.

HRMs aren't necessarily much better. My old HRM/cycle computer from Sigma overestimated exercise calories by 50%!

Eating back exercise cals will NEVER work! It should never be done.....period.

That is exactly the way it works with MFP. MFP calorie goals are based on NEAT, not TDEE. They only take your non-exercise activity into account, so you need to add your exercise calories on top of that or you will be under-fuelling your body.

As to your reply on my post about using a trend app, it's pretty damn easy to get an idea of your calorie intake, or at least your deficit, doing that. If you're aiming to lose 1 lb per week, and you're averaging that as per the trend app, then you're obviously eating at a 500 calorie deficit.

And the MFP food database is fine if you know how to spot bad entries. It's not difficult.

I suggest you learn about more about how MFP works.

cerise_noir

jaza48 wrote: »

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bwogilvie wrote: »

nickgolledge wrote: »

I didn't quite understand the comment from Carl "As far as MFP goes don't put your exercise in either as it will adjust calories". I enter my exercise each day and it allows me more calories which I thought was okay until I read that comment.

As others have pointed out, eating exercise calories is fine if you accurately estimate exercise calories. A lot of databases, including MFP's, exaggerate the calorie burn of an activity. To burn 500 calories in an hour, for instance, I have to bicycle at 17-18 mph (on flat terrain; slower in the hills), or run 5 miles.

HRMs aren't necessarily much better. My old HRM/cycle computer from Sigma overestimated exercise calories by 50%!

Eating back exercise cals will NEVER work! It should never be done.....period.

That is not how myfitnesspal works. Myfitnesspal calculates a deficit before exercise, so if you're accurate with your exercise cals (or eat 1/3-1/2 back), it will bring you back to your deficit. Not eating exercise cals back can increase the deficit greatly... not good if it means losing more than 1% of your body weight per week.

Edit: just saw @Nony_Mouse and @singingflutelady's response. What they said!

yirara

You are supposed to eat back you exercise calories, but the exercise database is so rubbish that I would only eat back half of it.

RuNaRoUnDaFiEld

jaza48 wrote: »

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bwogilvie wrote: »

nickgolledge wrote: »

I didn't quite understand the comment from Carl "As far as MFP goes don't put your exercise in either as it will adjust calories". I enter my exercise each day and it allows me more calories which I thought was okay until I read that comment.

As others have pointed out, eating exercise calories is fine if you accurately estimate exercise calories. A lot of databases, including MFP's, exaggerate the calorie burn of an activity. To burn 500 calories in an hour, for instance, I have to bicycle at 17-18 mph (on flat terrain; slower in the hills), or run 5 miles.

HRMs aren't necessarily much better. My old HRM/cycle computer from Sigma overestimated exercise calories by 50%!

Eating back exercise cals will NEVER work! It should never be done.....period.

Works for me

sijomial

jaza48 wrote: »

show previous quotes

bwogilvie wrote: »

nickgolledge wrote: »

I didn't quite understand the comment from Carl "As far as MFP goes don't put your exercise in either as it will adjust calories". I enter my exercise each day and it allows me more calories which I thought was okay until I read that comment.

As others have pointed out, eating exercise calories is fine if you accurately estimate exercise calories. A lot of databases, including MFP's, exaggerate the calorie burn of an activity. To burn 500 calories in an hour, for instance, I have to bicycle at 17-18 mph (on flat terrain; slower in the hills), or run 5 miles.

HRMs aren't necessarily much better. My old HRM/cycle computer from Sigma overestimated exercise calories by 50%!

Eating back exercise cals will NEVER work! It should never be done.....period.

@jaza48
Wrong!
Completely and utterly wrong and shows a basic misunderstanding of both how this tool works and also the more mainstream TDEE minus a deficit approach works. That also includes exercise calories.

I'm a long distance cyclist with often very high (and very variable) calorie burns from my exercise and the MFP method works perfectly for me both for weight loss and maintenance.

The cycling estimates in the MFP database are awful but that doesn't negate the eating back exercise calories concept - it just means you use better sources for your estimates.

nickgolledge

Lots of good stuff on here thanks all. MFP is calculating my daily calories at 1900 to lose 0.25 kgs a week so not a massive ambition! So I will allow myself 2,000 on the basis that I am doing some exercise every day and lots on some days and see how it goes for a month. I like the point about not just relying on weight but also using tape measurements will take some tomorrow morning as a start point.