Adjusting calories for less exercise

iowalinda
iowalinda Posts: 357 Member
edited 11:28AM in Goal: Maintaining Weight
I am at maintenance and trying to figure out how to adjust my calories for times when I exercise less. I get less exercise during the cold Winter months. Also thinking about cutting back on some of my aerobic exercise time right now. FWIW, I do not have a fitness tracker watch. How do you figure this out?

Replies

  • sijomial
    sijomial Posts: 19,809 Member
    How are you accounting for your exercise currently?
    (Remember exercise and activity settings are separate entities.....)

    The beauty of the much derided MyFitnessPal "eat back exercise calories" method is it copes with varied exercise routines as you estimate after the event - not before the event such as with the TDEE method.
  • iowalinda
    iowalinda Posts: 357 Member
    sijomial wrote: »
    How are you accounting for your exercise currently?
    (Remember exercise and activity settings are separate entities.....)

    The beauty of the much derided MyFitnessPal "eat back exercise calories" method is it copes with varied exercise routines as you estimate after the event - not before the event such as with the TDEE method.

    Once I hit maintenance, I stopped logging exercise and upped my activity setting one notch. Is that not how it's supposed to be done?
  • sijomial
    sijomial Posts: 19,809 Member
    iowalinda wrote: »
    sijomial wrote: »
    How are you accounting for your exercise currently?
    (Remember exercise and activity settings are separate entities.....)

    The beauty of the much derided MyFitnessPal "eat back exercise calories" method is it copes with varied exercise routines as you estimate after the event - not before the event such as with the TDEE method.

    Once I hit maintenance, I stopped logging exercise and upped my activity setting one notch. Is that not how it's supposed to be done?

    Nope - they are completely separate and different things.
    Activity is your day to day lifestyle and job.
    Exercise is just purposeful exercise.

    The way it's supposed to work is assuming your lifestyle/job activity hasn't changed you simply change your calorie goal from weight loss to "maintain current weight" so your base calories go up.
    You continue to log exercise as it's not accounted for otherwise.
  • iowalinda
    iowalinda Posts: 357 Member
    edited June 2018
    Thank you!
  • sijomial
    sijomial Posts: 19,809 Member
    iowalinda wrote: »
    Thank you!

    You are very welcome.
    In your goal settings there is also an option to manually adjust your daily base calorie goal - it's very useful for fine tuning.
  • middlehaitch
    middlehaitch Posts: 8,486 Member
    Something you may want to do is look back at your diary for the last couple of months, with exercise logged separately, and average out your hourly exercise calorie burn.

    I was doing a variety of 1hr classes, cardio/conditioning, 5 days a week plus walking when losing and the burn was very similar for all of them so when I hit maintenance I just averaged it out to 200 cal an hour for classes, 30 cal a mile for walking, and 200cal for 90min lifting.

    I haven't counted my cals for a few years now but know my intake enough that I can use those numbers as a sliding scale.

    (Numbers are low because they are mine and I am small, light, and old B) )

    Do follow sijomial's advice until you have a good handle on your maintenance though.

    Cheers, h.
  • arbuckle57
    arbuckle57 Posts: 10 Member
    when your ready set your profile to sedentary
  • sijomial
    sijomial Posts: 19,809 Member
    arbuckle57 wrote: »
    when your ready set your profile to sedentary

    @arbuckle57

    No that's not how it works. Sedentary is an activity setting (lifestyle, job, daily routine) and nothing to with exercise.
    Whatever you activity setting exercise is on top of that and separate.

    When I had a sedentary job I was exercising 7 days a week so my base calories were low but got elevated by my exercise.
    Now I'm semi-retired and much more active my base calories are higher but exercise is still added separately.
  • Gamliela
    Gamliela Posts: 2,468 Member
    It took me years before I realized how mfp actually works n regard to added excersize and the activity level.
    I like it when people say their activity level increased after they retired. Not what I thought would happen, but now I walk all the time, being unstuck to a desk is a wonderful change.
  • Maxxitt
    Maxxitt Posts: 1,281 Member
    According to my trackers, scale and calories-in data, my "winter" calorie burn excluding intentional exercise decreases by 250-300 calories a day - my outside walking goes from about 4 miles/day to about 2 miles/day and I hunker down earlier in the evening cuz it's dark so early so I am less active all the way around.
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