Do I eat calories burned - SCOOBY Calculator?

txblondiee

Hi everyone! I am wondering if I eat back the calories burned on my workouts?
Right now I am weight lifting about 3 times a week, and walking/ jogging 3-5 times a week, so do I just enter that into the scooby calculator and eat what it says and forget about calories burned? I am thinking YES, but i wanted to make sure.

One more question... WHAT IF I don't get my workouts in, does that change anything? Should I eat less those days? How much less?
Any insight would be great!!

heybales

That's the way MFP works - yes.
Daily activity is considered foundation - exercise is added when actually done.
Deficit for weight loss is there no matter what you do.
Eat different amounts daily possible.

Scooby is using a system that only includes exercise, not daily life.
You better do what you planned and said you'd do, or slow to no weight loss.
Eat same amount daily.

For the MFP method:
Weight lifting logged is accurate enough as it's so low calorie burn.
Running is good too as long as you enter in the total avg pace, not fastest reached.
Walking depends on how slow.

You decide the system - stick to it - and adjust as needed.
To big a deficit - you'll be wasting some time with lifting transforming your body as well as it could.

malibu927

If you’re following Scoobys you do not eat them back, as exercise is already accounted for in the calories. And it’s an average of what you burn over the week, so technically you would eat the same amount every day.

bfanny

I use what Scooby gave me as a BMR for my minimum daily cals here (hey it’s more than the typical 1,200) and let my Fitbit add my activity so it varies daily, I don’t necessarily track when I lift because it’s about 20 minutes only when I do a 1 hr long class like Body Pump...Still trying to figure this out since I only have about 5 lbs to lose

cwolfman13

txblondiee wrote: »

Hi everyone! I am wondering if I eat back the calories burned on my workouts?
Right now I am weight lifting about 3 times a week, and walking/ jogging 3-5 times a week, so do I just enter that into the scooby calculator and eat what it says and forget about calories burned? I am thinking YES, but i wanted to make sure.

One more question... WHAT IF I don't get my workouts in, does that change anything? Should I eat less those days? How much less?
Any insight would be great!!

Scooby is a TDEE calculator and your exercise is included in your overall activity level...so logging them and eating back calories would be double dipping. The only reason you do that with MFP is because exercise isn't accounted for in your activity level.

You would select your activity level as basically an average of your week...so there will be days where you're in a bigger deficit and days when it's smaller since you're eating the same calories everyday.

TDEE is a good method if you're consistent with your exercise and your activity level is set to be realistic with what you're really doing rather than what you wish/intend to do, but never get around to. In other words don't set it to 6 hours intense exercise weekly when in reality you're doing 3-4 hours of moderate exercise.

Missing a workout here and there happens and it's not really a big deal unless you're consistently at a lower activity level than what your level is set at in the calculator.

sijomial

Look at how differently the activity setting questions are phrased between Scooby and Myfitnesspal....

Scooby - exercise is predominant and the only jobs/work that gets mentioned are desk job or strenuous (that's a potential issue if your job/lifestyle falls between the two extremes).
Myfitnesspal - exercise is completely excluded, it's about job/lifestyle only. Hence why you add if exercise after you do it and get extra calories - they aren't accounted for elsewhere.

"WHAT IF I don't get my workouts in, does that change anything? Should I eat less those days? How much less?
Any insight would be great!!"

TDEE calculators assume a long term average so you eat to the same daily goal. Which is fine if that suits you and your routine is reasonably regular.
If you don't want to eat the same and don't have a regular routine then it makes sense to choose the Myfitnesspal method.

My exercise varies enormously from about 250 to many thousand which obviously needs feeding on the day (long distance cyclist) so it's clear which method suit me.
For many people either method would work and the choice comes down to preferring a same every day goal or a varied daily goal.

jonathanthewlis

For me you need to pick a method and stick to that for a period, I have a basic meal plan every day and alternate one meal if I’m exercising or not to give me more calories, so I do eat more on exercise days but that keeps my caloric defecit the same roughly every day and I’ve lost on average 3lb a week doing this. But everyone’s body, lifestyle is different so try it and resist the urge to chop and change.