Calories Burned

jmredinger

I know this question has been asked a MILLION times, mostly because I feel as though I’ve read all the posts, but how do you guys handle eating back exercise calories? I have an Apple Watch series 4 and it seems to be pretty accurate for me. Someone mentioned using CalorieLab just to make sure and my watch has always been in the nearby ballpark. I also read something interesting, that it would depend on how you set your activity level in MFP. For instance, I go to the gym everyday and do at least 20 minutes of cardio. However, I keep my activity level to not very active. Are the people who don’t eat back calories the ones who have their activity level set higher? Just curious! Let me know what you guys are doing.

Emmapatterson1729

I have trouble eating back all of the calories it gives me for exercise just using MFP. So, I eat back some.

But I am set at a pretty high calorie limit goal. My daily target is 1689, so, if I workout or get a lot of steps, I try to get calories to over 1700.

If I had calorie goal set lower, like example: lightly active setting with1350 daily goal, I would try to eat back most of calories given.

kimny72

jmredinger wrote: »

I know this question has been asked a MILLION times, mostly because I feel as though I’ve read all the posts, but how do you guys handle eating back exercise calories? I have an Apple Watch series 4 and it seems to be pretty accurate for me. Someone mentioned using CalorieLab just to make sure and my watch has always been in the nearby ballpark. I also read something interesting, that it would depend on how you set your activity level in MFP. For instance, I go to the gym everyday and do at least 20 minutes of cardio. However, I keep my activity level to not very active. Are the people who don’t eat back calories the ones who have their activity level set higher? Just curious! Let me know what you guys are doing.

Your activity level is supposed to be for your day to day life, not purposeful exercise. Then you log your exercise and eat back those calories (or at least some of them if you're concerned they are overly generous).

Some people use a TDEE calculator to get their calorie goal and then plug that into MFP. TDEE calculators include your exercise, so those people should not log their exercise into MFP.

And there are some people who feel the need to use MFP in ways it isn't really intended for, like using their activity level to cover their exercise, or set MFP to maintenance and use uneaten exercise calories to make their deficit, or log calories casually and use unlogged exercise as a buffer. And then they give advice based on that, which confuses people.

Here's a Most Helpful Post about exercise calories:

https://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10503681/exercise-calories-do-i-eat-these-a-video-explanation/p1

lgfrie

I used a TDEE calculator to get my calorie deficit target, rather than MFP's NEAT-based formula. I think this can be a better approach for people who have a very consistent daily exercise routine, which I do. The main reason is that you get the same calorie target everyday and there's no fussing with adding back calories; you just hit your calorie number and do your workout - it's simpler. But if one's exercise fluctuates a lot from day to day, then it's better to go with MFP's system.

sijomial

OP - To understand how this site works you have to completely disassociate exercise from activity settings then it should become a lot clearer. They have absolutely no crossover at all if you use this tool as designed.
You can be sedentary or highly active and exercise a lot or not at all and all possible combinations as well.

Wherever you read this "I also read something interesting, that it would depend on how you set your activity level in MFP." it's simply wrong or at best someone using the tool in an odd way. A bit like using a screwdriver as a hammer - it might work if you get lucky but it's hardly optimal.

If you want to roll activity and exercise together (a valid choice for those who like a same every day goal) then do not use MyFitnessPal to set your daily goal - go to a TDEE site instead to get your daily goal which already includes an average of your exercise calories.

PS
Beware if you have synced your Apple Watch as it doesn't integrate properly if directly synched.

PPS
What did I do? I took the very little time it took to understand how the tool and the calorie calculations worked and set my activity level to reflect my weekly activity/lifetstyle/job and ate back all my considerable exercise calories. Lost weight on schedule, maintained at goal weight.