calories burned

mamaDaisyJ

So, I was poking around in various threads and a thought occurred to me regarding the accuracy of calories burned and eating them back. Lots of people say to eat back all the calories, others say half, and others still say none. Another thread mentioned the difference between the site, machine, and HRM calculations of calories burned.
Ok, so my thought is that maybe the amount of exercise calories you eat back maybe should depend on the accuracy of your calories burned. For instance, I wear a HRM (sportline watch) when I do my Shred and have a better idea of what I burned than if I entered in circuit training. So, I would say I should eat back all those calories. However, I went swimming today and forgot my watch, and haven't had a chance to try it there, so I have to go by the site's calculations. It always seems really high, so I already put in half the time I actually spent swimming. In my mind, this estimation of calories burned might require me to eat only half of them back.
And so, this is why I think there are so many different opinions about how many exercise calories to eat back. Any thoughts?

SandraMay1982

It depends what the calories are that you're eating back. Of course we'd all like to hope they're wonderfully healthy ones! ha.

Protein builds muscle, more muscle = higher burn rate. You'd surely have to eat back some of the calories your burned, but I wouldn't be inclined to eat all of mine.

I started on here just this week, I haven't gone in to the fitness part. It's mainly rainy around where I live and I have to take a toddler *L* I'll stop making excuses soon.

xarrium

I'd say use the HRM whenever possible and try to correlate what the HRM says with what MFP says. I know that MFP will take the number of calories it thinks you'd expend and subtracts what you would have expended just sitting around, so generally MFP's estimate is a bit lower than what the HRM would say, but I think overall HRM is the best way to go. (Enough acronyms for ya?)

As far as eating back exercise calories, I find that it's hard for me to not eat most of them back because after a workout I get really hungry. I figure that I'm creating the deficit I want to create by eating less (meeting my "goal" every day but not exceeding it) so I'm not concerned about eating the exercise cals back.

naturebaby

yes i'm with you on that! I play 18 holes of golf about 3-4x a week MFP says cals burned for my weight are over 1000 which i think to be quite high..so..I just received today my polar f4t and I will be comparing it in the next week or 2 just to see if they are even close..meawhile after 5 months I only eat back about 300-500 of that 1000 in golf cals burned..

eekface

I use a site that has me input my weight, and if it was a moderate or vigorous workout and estimates the calories. It makes sense to me. Then I ate like 3/4 of the calories. So far so good!

aippolito1

I use a site that has me input my weight, and if it was a moderate or vigorous workout and estimates the calories. It makes sense to me. Then I ate like 3/4 of the calories. So far so good!

I used Self.com to do that for awhile and comparing that with the numbers I get now with my heart rate monitor... the difference is drastic. For one thing, say you don't lose weight but you're in better shape than when you first started... so you're burning less, or you're burning more because you're working at a more intense level. There's no way for a calculator to know that.

The best thing for anyone on a calorie deficit diet, is to get a heart rate monitor. I agree with OP, that if you have the most accurate estimate you can get, you're safe to eat them all back...otherwise, guess, and eat "most".

eekface

Crap, I am using self too. I put vigorous if my heart rate is over 150, and moderate if its under. Is there another site you recommend without me getting a hr monitor? See my elliptical does heart rate, but doesn't have me enter my weight.

eekface

Well I just looked up some watches and they are much cheaper than I figured they would be. Do you use a heart rate monitor watch or?

mamaDaisyJ

I use the sportline watch, I think it was $27 at wal-mart. You just have to keep pushing the button to get a reading and keep skin contact on the backside. It took me a few workouts to get it down, but its simple now. Let's you add your age and gender, but not weight. It does give you a percentage of max heart rate though, and counts the calories as you go. I like it, for the money at least. I usually read mine during the Shred, when we start, after warm-up, about half way through second circuit and at cool-down.

rjadams

just remember that during that hour you exercise MFP has already calculated that you would expend some calories to live. Even with a HRM you are counting everything you burned during that hour. what about what MFP already took into the calculations? I burn about 60 calories an hour just to live. I subtract that from what my HRM tells me I burned in an hour to get a more accurate picture of what I need to eat back. Just food for thought.

Candice83

i would suggest eating only your recommended amount of cals a day for example if you should be eating 1200 cals a day stick to that UNLESS you have earnt extra cals and are actually hungry.. if you're not hungry dont eat the extra cals.. if you are hungry eat them but make sure theyre healthy ones. Don't just eat them for the sake of using them up though. That will get you nowhere