Extra calories earned from exercise

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brandy_losinit
brandy_losinit Posts: 21 Member
in Fitness and Exercise
Do you guys eat them?

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  • estherdragonbat
    estherdragonbat Posts: 5,283 Member
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    Yup!
  • AnvilHead
    AnvilHead Posts: 18,344 Member
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    https://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10503681/exercise-calories-do-i-eat-these-a-video-explanation/p1
  • shadow2soul
    shadow2soul Posts: 7,692 Member
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    Definitely. Lost over 100 lbs while eating them.
    I tried not eating them and it was a pretty miserable experience. Headaches, fatigue, decreased intensity during exercise, and a bad case of hangry. That was after only a week or 2. I would have definitely not been able to sustain that long term.

    MFP is designed so that you have a calorie deficit WITHOUT exercise. Since exercise increases your calorie burn you need to eat a bit more so your deficit doesn’t get too large. Having a large deficit isn’t necessarily a good thing.

    If you would prefer to have them already taken account for in your calorie goal than use a TDEE calculator and manually change your goal here. This has you eating the same amount daily regardless of exercise and will likely be a higher calorie target than MFP gives you (remember exercise isn’t counted until logged on MFP while TDEE will account for your weekly exercise).
  • amusedmonkey
    amusedmonkey Posts: 10,330 Member
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    Yes. They're not exactly "extra", they're there to correct the number of calories needed to achieve the deficit you chose based on what your body burned that day (when you burn more calories, your body needs more calories). Assuming you aren't using an over-estimated value, you're actually eating the "wrong" amount of calories for your desired deficit if you don't eat your exercise calories.
  • sgt1372
    sgt1372 Posts: 3,982 Member
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    My goal iscurrently maintenance, not weight loss, but I row 10k meters/day to burn an extra 550 cals/day so that I can eat that much more than my maintenance cal level will allow.

    Sometimes I eat them all back and sometimes I don't. What matters is more that my weight remains constant w/in a range of +/- 2#, which has been the case for over 6 months since I switched from weightloss to maintenance.
  • sijomial
    sijomial Posts: 19,811 Member
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    They aren't extra - they are a part of my overall calorie needs.
    I'd be a skinny mess if I didn't fuel my exercise properly.

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  • BrianSharpe
    BrianSharpe Posts: 9,248 Member
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    If your activity level is set at sedentary then a definite yes, MFP has already calculated a deficit and the additional exercise takes fuel. However, there are 2 conditions that need to be met. First is that the estimate of calories expended during exercise is reasonably accurate and secondly that you're accurately recording your food consumption. It takes a little trial and error at times, if you're diligently logging and not losing weight (over time) you need to cut back on the food a little, conversely if you're losing weight too rapidly eat a little more.
  • brandy_losinit
    brandy_losinit Posts: 21 Member
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    Thank you guys! That was what i needed to know.
  • brandy_losinit
    brandy_losinit Posts: 21 Member
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    AnvilHead wrote: »
    https://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10503681/exercise-calories-do-i-eat-these-a-video-explanation/p1
    This is an awesome video. Thank you!

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