Eating back exercise calories?

treebek

Hey there, I’ve been a member of MFP for a long time but just starting to use it again. Reason I’m back is that I’ve stalled out on my weight loss and I want to start tracking my
food. I think my biggest problem is that I’m not eating enough. So I’m going to start lgging everything and see how I’m doing.

My question is do you eat back your exercise calories? I’m a member of a fitness group and I workout out about 60-90 minutes 5 to 6 days a week, mostly a combination of spin and weight training. According to my Apple Watch my typical calories burned during a session are about 500-600 calories which seems kind of low to me for working out that long, but who am I to argue with Apple? 😂 (I kid)

Anyway I still want to lose about 30 more pounds but I haven’t lost anything since December, in fact I’ve gained about 8 pounds since then which correlates to when I started weight training. The number on the scale is important to me, but even though I’m frustrated that the scale is moving in the wrong direction, I’m still plugging along. So MFP calculated my daily caloric goal at 1340 to lose 2 pounds per week. should I eat back the exercise calories I’m burning? I’m kind of wondering if the scale stalled because I’m not eating enough.

Stats are: female, almost 50, 5’8”, currently 178 and I want to be 150.

Thanks for your feedback!

NorthCascades

If you exercise 7.5 hours a week you should be eating those calories back.

wunderkindking

I hiked a total 50 miles/for about 15 hours this week.

Yes, I ate the calories back.

I think I might have died otherwise.

AnnPT77

I ate every carefully-estimated exercise calorie, and lost weight fine. (In maintenance, I have to eat exercise calories, or I'll keep losing, y'know? I believe in practicing the habits I'll need long-term. Now, I'm in year 5+ of maintaining a healthy weight, so I guess it worked? Also, exercise calories taste best.)

I'm assuming you set up MFP as per directions to get a calorie goal, so your "activity level" includes only your activity *before* intentional exercise? If so, add the exercise calories & eat them. (If you synch the Apple watch to MFP, that may or may not work correctly, because Apple doesn't properly comply with the MFP data spec, as I understand it.)

Is this about a number on the scale, or about improved health and appearance? If the latter things, then underfueling (and maybe sub-par nutrition because not enough calories to optimize it)? Not the right strategy for those goals.

You're already set at an aggressively fast loss rate for your size and the amount you have left to lose. (Many of us around here would recommend 0.5%-1% of current body weight per week as a maximum loss, with a bias toward the lower end of that generally, and certainly so when within 25ish pounds of goal weight, maybe even slower if closer than that. That would suggest a goal of at most 1.78lb/week, better more like 0.9 pounds (call it one) if not less. So, maybe a 500 calorie daily deficit on average, tops, for a pound a week loss?

So, you're set at an aggressive goal. On top of that, you're considering not eating back exercise calories, which would add nearly another 500 calories daily to your deficit, take loss rate to 2.5-3 pounds a week. Very aggressive for your size. Very. Also, not compatible with strength or exercise performance goals, if it goes on even remotely long.

Your Apple exercise calories don't seem crazy to me, depending on how you split your time between spin and weights.

Weight training doesn't burn very many calories, though it's good for a body. MFP's exercise database entry (in the cardio section) for "strength training" would be a reasonable cross-check. (It's one of the few things in that database that I think is likely to be about the best option for the exercise type it estimates.) Heart rate is a poor indicator for strength training calorie expenditure. When I was around your weight (but a bit shorter, 5'5"), I figured a pretty intense 45 minute spin class would be worth something in the 300s of calories, maybe upper 300s on a good day, possibly just over 400 if we went for a full hour. (I was already pretty well conditioned, had been working out routinely for a decade by then, so we're not talking about low intensity due to low fitness.)

Clearly, one's personal experience with loss matters more than any calculator estimate. So, you want to set up a reasonable-seeming regimen based on the calculations, then run it for 4-6 weeks. (If you're not in menopausal yet, compare body weights for whole menstrual cycles to minimized hormonal water weight distortions.) After that, you'll have the personal data you need to adjust your intake and hit whatever sensible loss rate you choose. So-called calculators just spit out population averages for similar people. Most people are pretty average so the estimates will be close; a few people are non-average (for maybe not-obvious reasons) and will find their calorie need higher or lower.

My exercise is seasonal, weather dependent, and variable these days. My weight pretty much behaves as I'd expect at this point, with varying exercise schedule, using the data that I've gathered from my personal experience.

As an added thought: Underfueling increases the risk of fatigue, adaptive thermogenesis, more extreme/mysterious water weight fluctuations; possibly increases health risks, limits strength training progress; limits ability to learn maintenance habits; may increase difficulty of compliance for long enough to lose meaningful weight; and more. Too-slow loss may be frustrating, but too-fast loss may be a health or success risk.

Best wishes!

sijomial

treebek wrote: »

So MFP calculated my daily caloric goal at 1340 to lose 2 pounds per week.

No - MFP calculated your goal to be 1340 + exercise calories.

But losing 2lbs a week is an aggressive goal for someone exercising a decent amount and not having a lot of weight to lose.
I'd change that rate of loss AND eat back exercise calories, just like you will have to learn to do when you get to goal weight. You can't just ignore a significant part of your body's energy needs.

Your Apple watch calories for that duration of exercise seem within the realms of reasonable to me and reasonable is good enough for purpose.

kshama2001

treebek wrote: »

Hey there, I’ve been a member of MFP for a long time but just starting to use it again. Reason I’m back is that I’ve stalled out on my weight loss and I want to start tracking my
food. I think my biggest problem is that I’m not eating enough. So I’m going to start lgging everything and see how I’m doing.

My question is do you eat back your exercise calories? I’m a member of a fitness group and I workout out about 60-90 minutes 5 to 6 days a week, mostly a combination of spin and weight training. According to my Apple Watch my typical calories burned during a session are about 500-600 calories which seems kind of low to me for working out that long, but who am I to argue with Apple? 😂 (I kid)

Anyway I still want to lose about 30 more pounds but I haven’t lost anything since December, in fact I’ve gained about 8 pounds since then which correlates to when I started weight training. The number on the scale is important to me, but even though I’m frustrated that the scale is moving in the wrong direction, I’m still plugging along. So MFP calculated my daily caloric goal at 1340 to lose 2 pounds per week. should I eat back the exercise calories I’m burning? I’m kind of wondering if the scale stalled because I’m not eating enough.

Stats are: female, almost 50, 5’8”, currently 178 and I want to be 150.

Thanks for your feedback!

Two pounds per week is aggressive for only 30 pounds to lose:



And, as others have said,

Unlike other sites which use TDEE calculators, MFP uses the NEAT method (Non-Exercise Activity Thermogenesis), and as such this system is designed for exercise calories to be eaten back. However, many consider the burns given by MFP to be inflated for them and only eat a percentage, such as 50%, back. Others, however, are able to lose weight while eating 100% of their exercise calories.

https://support.myfitnesspal.com/hc/en-us/articles/360032625391-How-does-MyFitnessPal-calculate-my-initial-goals-

heybales

In addition to the above excellent points, since you have an activity tracker estimating your daily burn.

Does Apple share how active you are above their base burn outside exercise calories? (I know they do)
That base burn is Sedentary, very little daily activity, usually less than 4K steps, or couple miles.
About the same as MFP uses if you selected Sedentary here. Did you select Sedentary on MFP?

Are you creating an extra large deficit from unaccounted daily activity & exercise, plus your 2lb weekly loss deficit?

If so - welcome to the world of extreme diets. Those have negative results in so many ways. Besides the 80% failure rate to reach or maintain goal weight.

Just want to emphasis why it's a great idea following the prior posted advice - and good job reaching out now.

natasor1

I don t see youe age, but I think you are overexercising. Too long too often. We were not born to live in the gym. If you switch to 4 times a week light cardio/ HIIT 30-45 min and 2 times heavy lifting/ HIIT. You also won t need to eat you exercise calories back. You order this exercise plan, than you can drop off the group after 30-45 min and twice a week follow them till 90 min. It is all your right