Exercise Calories

drivingahead
drivingahead Posts: 47 Member
in Motivation and Support
Do you eat your exercise calories? I do a 40 min walk everyday and put it in my fitness pal and it says I burn 310 calories. Most days I probably eat 100 of these but I don’t know how accurate my fitness pal is with exercise calories. Any guidance would be great.

Replies

  • Iwantahealthierme30
    Iwantahealthierme30 Posts: 293 Member
    yes because mfp already puts in a deficit for you. If I didn't eat mine my deficit would be 700+, too big.
  • NovusDies
    NovusDies Posts: 8,940 Member
    drivingahead wrote: »
    Do you eat your exercise calories? I do a 40 min walk everyday and put it in my fitness pal and it says I burn 310 calories. Most days I probably eat 100 of these but I don’t know how accurate my fitness pal is with exercise calories. Any guidance would be great.

    310 is a high for 40 minutes. How far and fast are you walking?

    You should eat at least a portion of your exercise calories as long as you have not already included them in your activity when you went through the guided set-up. In other words, if you selected a higher activity only because you know you walk then eating them would be double dipping.
  • cwolfman13
    cwolfman13 Posts: 41,865 Member
    drivingahead wrote: »
    Do you eat your exercise calories? I do a 40 min walk everyday and put it in my fitness pal and it says I burn 310 calories. Most days I probably eat 100 of these but I don’t know how accurate my fitness pal is with exercise calories. Any guidance would be great.

    Yes, but I'd also be careful with things like walking. 310 calories for 40 minutes of walking is on the high side IMO. Do you know how many steps you take in a given day? I ask because even a setting of sedentary is going to include up to around 3-5K steps if memory serves me correctly. This means that a certain number of steps are already included in your calorie target...you would only want to log walking that is above and beyond the steps already accounted for in your activity level.

    Also, walking is a low level, very efficient activity. It doesn't require a great deal of fuel or recovery. I never bothered logging my walks unless they were quite long. I do a 45 minute walk with my family and dog most days and I just kinda consider it bonus. I do however account for calories by eating more for more strenuous exercise.
  • Mollyeire77
    Mollyeire77 Posts: 1 Member
    Beginner here...So if I do a good 10km walk I roughly burn 750 calories,, so are u saying I can use these up or just keep under my daily allowance always!?!
    And I’m a month in and my daily calorie allowance is the same from setup, does this not change????? Cause I’m on 1740 since started!
  • Iwantahealthierme30
    Iwantahealthierme30 Posts: 293 Member
    Mollyeire77 wrote: »
    Beginner here...So if I do a good 10km walk I roughly burn 750 calories,, so are u saying I can use these up or just keep under my daily allowance always!?!
    And I’m a month in and my daily calorie allowance is the same from setup, does this not change????? Cause I’m on 1740 since started!


    yes, you are supposed to "eat them back", have you been logging your weight loss? it changes that way, about 10 calories lower per 3 pounds. you also burn less as you lose weight so it evens out.
  • Shortgirlrunning
    Shortgirlrunning Posts: 1,020 Member
    I only eat back my running calories. My other workouts (walking or strength training) I struggle to estimate my calorie burn accurately and I lose more consistently when I don’t eat those back, I view them as giving me some wiggle room for my calories for all the home cooking I do which can be tricky for figuring out exact calorie counts for meals.
  • AnnPT77
    AnnPT77 Posts: 34,261 Member
    I usually eat back my walking calories, but that's on top of a calorie level I know works for me without the walks, i.e., it's not part of my MFP activity level steps based on experience. Since walking is only a moderate calorie burn, one option would be to estimate it as net calories (so as not to double-count BMR) using the estimating formula (calories = 0.3 x body weight in pounds x distance in miles).

    I've always eaten back exercise calories, after estimating them carefully/conservatively, and lose/maintain fine.
  • amusedmonkey
    amusedmonkey Posts: 10,330 Member
    How are you calculating your walking calories? If you use the formula Ann mentioned or use this website https://www.exrx.net/Calculators/WalkRunMETs (make sure to pick "Net", not "Gross") you can safely eat every single calorie you get from walking. Any individual variations on the estimate will likely be too small to matter.
  • Deedoyle9721
    Deedoyle9721 Posts: 563 Member
    I eat 1/2 of them and that gives me wiggle room if any of my foods and/or condiments go over a tad. :)

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