Do you eat your Exercise calories?

PrettyLight111
PrettyLight111 Posts: 8 Member
in Getting Started
Hi everyone, I was wondering if I should eat my exercise calories. MFP has me at 1300 cal a day, I lose weight at that slowly about 1lb to 0.5 a week. But I noticed when I eat my fit points recently which are around 1650 cal I do not show a weight-loss. I am not doing strenuous exercise at this point due to a pasted back injury, can’t weight train currently. So pretty much just walking anywhere between 10 to 20,000 steps a day. Not sure if I am overdoing or under doing it here any advice what do you guys doing?
Thank you kindly for your input wishing you and continue success and their weight-loss journey and fitness journey.

Replies

  • estherdragonbat
    estherdragonbat Posts: 5,283 Member
    You should eat at least part of them back. MFP can overestimate exercise calories burned. I usually eat back half.


  • AnvilHead
    AnvilHead Posts: 18,343 Member
    https://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10503681/exercise-calories-do-i-eat-these-a-video-explanation/p1
  • 73CL350
    73CL350 Posts: 259 Member
    What's your activity level set to?

    If you're eating back fitbit steps ... your activity level should be sedentary.

    A gym session is a totally different story.
  • 73CL350
    73CL350 Posts: 259 Member
    janejellyroll wrote: »
    73CL350 wrote: »
    What's your activity level set to?

    If you're eating back fitbit steps ... your activity level should be sedentary.

    A gym session is a totally different story.

    Fitbit adjustments are set up to work with any activity level. The adjustment only begins when you've moved more than would have been estimated for your activity level. So a person set to "active" will begin seeing adjustments later than someone who has the setting of "sedentary." Either way, it will wind up being the same amount of calories overall, so you don't have to worry about artificially lowering your activity level.

    Is this newer? This Was not the case in 2015 (last time I had a fitbit)
  • MFIC2
    MFIC2 Posts: 4 Member
    I try not to, I use them more as a safety net to not go over my starting calories in a day, so maybe I use 15-50 of them but not every day. I look at both my calories and my exercise as separate tools to lose weight, so I’m working out to burn more calories not so I can eat more calories if that makes sense. Good luck with your goals!
  • Running2Fit
    Running2Fit Posts: 702 Member
    I don’t right now, like an above poster, I use them as a bit of a safety net for days I go over - so I guess I do eat them back just not necessarily on the day I burned them and I know I’m not eating back all of them.

    But I’m also not doing super intense workouts where I’m burning 500+ calories. At most I burn around 300 on my longest runs (3 miles). I know once I start upping my mileage I’m going to have to start eating those calories back because it will put my Net Calories too far down and I will need those calories to function.
  • workinonit1956
    workinonit1956 Posts: 1,043 Member
    I eat mine, I have a Fitbit and have my activity level set to Lightly Active. Works great for me.
  • janejellyroll
    janejellyroll Posts: 25,763 Member
    73CL350 wrote: »
    janejellyroll wrote: »
    73CL350 wrote: »
    What's your activity level set to?

    If you're eating back fitbit steps ... your activity level should be sedentary.

    A gym session is a totally different story.

    Fitbit adjustments are set up to work with any activity level. The adjustment only begins when you've moved more than would have been estimated for your activity level. So a person set to "active" will begin seeing adjustments later than someone who has the setting of "sedentary." Either way, it will wind up being the same amount of calories overall, so you don't have to worry about artificially lowering your activity level.

    Is this newer? This Was not the case in 2015 (last time I had a fitbit)

    I began using my Fitbit in mid-2015 and it's been that way the whole time I've been using it. It may not have been the case before that.
  • PrettyLight111
    PrettyLight111 Posts: 8 Member
    Thank you everyone for your input! Very helpful ❤️. Have a fab fit day ✌️
  • WinoGelato
    WinoGelato Posts: 13,454 Member
    73CL350 wrote: »
    janejellyroll wrote: »
    73CL350 wrote: »
    What's your activity level set to?

    If you're eating back fitbit steps ... your activity level should be sedentary.

    A gym session is a totally different story.

    Fitbit adjustments are set up to work with any activity level. The adjustment only begins when you've moved more than would have been estimated for your activity level. So a person set to "active" will begin seeing adjustments later than someone who has the setting of "sedentary." Either way, it will wind up being the same amount of calories overall, so you don't have to worry about artificially lowering your activity level.

    Is this newer? This Was not the case in 2015 (last time I had a fitbit)

    I’ve had mine since 2014 and it’s been the case ever since. What activity level someone chooses is personal preference obviously but I agree with janes assessment of how it works when you have FitBit synced with MFP. For me personally I average 10-12k steps/day and have my activity level set at active even though I have a desk job. I start seeing positive adjustments upwards of 8,000 steps usually.

    OP MFP is a NEAT calculator meaning that exercise estimates aren’t included in your baseline target. As active as you are, you aren’t Sedentary, which I bet is what you chose when entering your stats. Depending how much weight you have to lose, your current rate of loss of 0.5-1lb/week could be right for your goals, but if you feel you don’t lose when you eat back exercise calories I would question how accurate your logging is. Are you using a food scale?

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