Need help with exercise calories
admiralamott
Posts: 8 Member
Hi everyone
I'm new to all of this so please excuse my dumb questions...
I'm trying to get into shape and was wondering how 'calories burnt' works because I've seen a lot of conflicting answers on google. Surely if I burn 200 calories on a bike and then eat something that's 200 calories -- that's not how it works? I just wanted to know how much snacking is 'safe' after exercising. I don't want to mess it up!
Thanks a lot
I'm new to all of this so please excuse my dumb questions...
I'm trying to get into shape and was wondering how 'calories burnt' works because I've seen a lot of conflicting answers on google. Surely if I burn 200 calories on a bike and then eat something that's 200 calories -- that's not how it works? I just wanted to know how much snacking is 'safe' after exercising. I don't want to mess it up!
Thanks a lot
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Replies
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If you burned 200 cals and ate an extra 200 cals then you would be sticking to precisely how MyFitnessPal works and the calorie balance that you selected when you did your goal set up.
Most other calorie estimators guess your average exercise routine (and calorie expenditure from that exercise) up front and average it out so that you eat the same every day, part of the daily allowance is your exercise. Some of the answers you got from Google will not be grasping that difference.
MFP just does it differently so that you only get credited with extra cals on the day you do it to have a variable daily goal - "xxxx cals PLUS exercise cals".
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If you burned 200 cals and ate an extra 200 cals then you would be sticking to precisely how MyFitnessPal works and the calorie balance that you selected when you did your goal set up.
Most other calorie estimators guess your average exercise routine (and calorie expenditure from that exercise) up front and average it out so that you eat the same every day, part of the daily allowance is your exercise. Some of the answers you got from Google will not be grasping that difference.
MFP just does it differently so that you only get credited with extra cals on the day you do it to have a variable daily goal - "xxxx cals PLUS exercise cals".
Thank you, so is it safe to eat something containing 100 calories if i burn 100 calories and I'll still be within my calorie limit? (if I don't go over it in the first place i mean)
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admiralamott wrote: »If you burned 200 cals and ate an extra 200 cals then you would be sticking to precisely how MyFitnessPal works and the calorie balance that you selected when you did your goal set up.
Most other calorie estimators guess your average exercise routine (and calorie expenditure from that exercise) up front and average it out so that you eat the same every day, part of the daily allowance is your exercise. Some of the answers you got from Google will not be grasping that difference.
MFP just does it differently so that you only get credited with extra cals on the day you do it to have a variable daily goal - "xxxx cals PLUS exercise cals".
Thank you, so is it safe to eat something containing 100 calories if i burn 100 calories and I'll still be within my calorie limit? (if I don't go over it in the first place i mean)
"Safe" is an odd choice of word for something so ordinary as eating a little bit of food to fuel a little bit of exercise!
Your calorie goal is a goal to be met and not undercut which means yes if you burn 100 cals (or 1000...) cals then that number is added to that day's eating goal.
I'm an endurance cyclist and have eaten back well over 150,000 calories so far this year - I couldn't maintain my weight if I didn't and that really would be unsafe.
Try to keep in mind the relative sizes of numbers when talking about weight loss and exercise burns.
If that 100 cals is in fact double reality and you only actually burned 50 cals it would take seventy exercise sessions to cancel out just one pound of fat loss.
Really not worth over-thinking it - the method makes mathematical sense and works.4 -
admiralamott wrote: »If you burned 200 cals and ate an extra 200 cals then you would be sticking to precisely how MyFitnessPal works and the calorie balance that you selected when you did your goal set up.
Most other calorie estimators guess your average exercise routine (and calorie expenditure from that exercise) up front and average it out so that you eat the same every day, part of the daily allowance is your exercise. Some of the answers you got from Google will not be grasping that difference.
MFP just does it differently so that you only get credited with extra cals on the day you do it to have a variable daily goal - "xxxx cals PLUS exercise cals".
Thank you, so is it safe to eat something containing 100 calories if i burn 100 calories and I'll still be within my calorie limit? (if I don't go over it in the first place i mean)
Yes, if your exercise calorie estimate is reasonably accurate.
Standard recommendation: Set up your MFP profile, making sure to set your "activity level" based on your life before intentional exercise, and set a weight loss rate target. Log exercise when you do it, and eat those calories (or a standard percentage of them if you're very worried that you might have an overestimate). On a day without exercise, just eat the regular base number. (If you use a fitness tracker synched to MFP, then believe the calorie adjustment from it, or eat a standard percentage of that instead.)
Be consistent for 4-6 weeks. Then, compare your target loss rate to your actual loss rate, and adjust your goals if necessary. (Women of the relevant age should compare body weight at the same relative point in at least two different monthly cycles, such as the first or last day of the menstrual period, because hormone-related water retention can play games with scale weight.)
If you're concerned about the validity of your exercise calorie estimate, you can say here what type/intensity/length of exercise you do, where you got the estimate from, how tall/heavy you are, and folks here will give you experiential feedback about how realistic the estimate seems to them. That's not perfect feedback, because we all have our biases 😉, but it may give you some idea. Some exercises are harder to estimate than others, and some methods are more/less likely to give a reasonable estimate.
Don't obsess about it, though: Not necessary. Your 4-6 week experiment will give you excellent feedback.1 -
You already have good answers. I just wanted to show support by saying we've had dumber questions.
(Also, there are no dumb questions.)6 -
If you've used the setup with MFP and said you wanted to lose weight....your daily calorie goal is ALREADY at a deficit....it adds your workout calories back so that you do not create too much of a deficit. You are supposed to eat them back - that's how MFP is set up.
Say your current daily calorie goal is at a 300 cal deficit...then you go burn 300 calories working out too. Then your deficit is at 600 calories, which could easily be far too much (could make your NET calorie intake be below your BMR, or simply might just be unsustainable).
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@sijomial lost me a little bit. @AnnPT77 gives great advice for the longer term.
In the short term: keep calm, enter your meals and snacks as accurately as possible, stay on plan, and eat back at least SOME of your exercise calories, and you will lose weight over time. The exercise estimates are a bit crude. You'll lose a little faster (maybe) if you leave some "on the table," also giving a little leeway for the weekend.
I tend to trust the calorie estimates from good-quality exercise machine when it is programmed with your proper weight. Estimates for walking, running, cycling, etc. can be provided by your phone with one of many apps (MapMyWalk, etc.). Some of these can be linked to MFP so they automatically add in the exercise calories. But, start simple and enter by hand. Using the estimates within MFP is pretty crude but better than nothing.
Best of luck!0 -
Thank you very much everyone I really appreciate it 2
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Two things to consider:
First, your net calories. If an estimate says you burned X calories doing the activity for an hour, your net burn would be around X-100, because you would have burned about 100 calories in an hour while being awake doing nothing.
Second, that estimate you get for your exercise may well be off, and they tend to over-report.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M-RT3MvTY_8
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Retroguy2000 wrote: »Two things to consider:
First, your net calories. If an estimate says you burned X calories doing the activity for an hour, your net burn would be around X-100, because you would have burned about 100 calories in an hour while being awake doing nothing.
Second, that estimate you get for your exercise may well be off, and they tend to over-report.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M-RT3MvTY_8
I would KILL to burn 100 calories an hour just by sitting on my butt!
Er...not my thread. Sorry. 1 -
Maybe I could have phrased that better :-)I would KILL to burn 100 calories an hour just by sitting on my butt!
Er...not my thread. Sorry.
For myself, MFP says 2440 for maintenance at sedentary. Figure slightly higher metabolic rate while awake than sleeping, puts me at just over 100 per hour on average, just being sedentary while awake. If you're 150 pounds, it's going to be quite a bit less.0 -
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Hi again everyone....
I think I must be doing this wrong because this is really silly!
I did a lot of exercise today, a long walk, 50 minutes on my bike doing an FTP test, burned off a fair amount.
I was about to sign off for tonight when I saw that...
There's no way I have 905 calories left to eat today?!
That sounds insane!
Can someone clarify please?
Thanks all so much you've been very kind
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Well you've only eaten 1000 calories, so it's not surprising you have 900 left for the day... Why are you eating so little?1
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Well you've only eaten 1000 calories, so it's not surprising you have 900 left for the day... Why are you eating so little?
Usually I don't.... it's just for dinner today we only had hot dogs and I just have them plain so it was a lot less than usual. I also made myself stop snacking during the day!0 -
admiralamott wrote: »Well you've only eaten 1000 calories, so it's not surprising you have 900 left for the day... Why are you eating so little?
Usually I don't.... it's just for dinner today we only had hot dogs and I just have them plain so it was a lot less than usual. I also made myself stop snacking during the day!
Losing weight faster isn't necessarily a good idea. In fact, it can be a really bad one.
I'm a pretty small li'l ol' lady, age 66, 5'5", 128 pounds this morning . . . and I still lose weight (admittedly slowly) if I stick with 1850 calories plus exercise, which amounts to 2000-2500 calories gross intake most days.
Eating 1000 calories is too little for pretty much anyone's good health, unless maybe some combination of petite, old, quite inactive, very low muscularity, history of yo-yo dieting, and that sort of thing.
Your protein and fat intake are unhealthfully low if you're anywhere near average height, and if you're literally eating that little of veggies/fruits, your micros are unhealthfully low, too. If you have athletic performance goals - as I'm assuming from your doing an FTP test - you need more calories, and much better nutrition, IMO.
ETA: Without knowing more details, 500 calories doesn't seem crazy high for a long walk plus 50 minutes of hard cycling, IMO.2 -
admiralamott wrote: »Well you've only eaten 1000 calories, so it's not surprising you have 900 left for the day... Why are you eating so little?
Usually I don't.... it's just for dinner today we only had hot dogs and I just have them plain so it was a lot less than usual. I also made myself stop snacking during the day!
Doing the math, it looks like your calorie target before exercise is around 1,450? Then you burned 547 with exercise...but you've only eaten around 1,000 calories. So yeah, 358 calories remaining just to reach your before exercise goal and then an additional 547 calories to account for your exercise = 905 calories remaining provided that the 547 estimate is relatively accurate.1 -
Thank you everyone, I'll try to eat better to fuel myself
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I'm curious, with your target being 1450 before workout calories added, what goal does that calorie target represent, i.e. what target weekly weight loss?
If you weren't doing any exercise, 1K calories in is still too low, and with all that exercise it's far too low. Eat more. You don't have to eat back every workout calorie if you don't want to, and see my earlier video posted about why those calorie estimates may be inflated, but you should definitely be eating back a decent portion of those workout calories.0 -
Retroguy2000 wrote: »I'm curious, with your target being 1450 before workout calories added, what goal does that calorie target represent, i.e. what target weekly weight loss?
If you weren't doing any exercise, 1K calories in is still too low, and with all that exercise it's far too low. Eat more. You don't have to eat back every workout calorie if you don't want to, and see my earlier video posted about why those calorie estimates may be inflated, but you should definitely be eating back a decent portion of those workout calories.
Thank you, honestly I don't really have a target weight loss, its just my doctor said I need to start watching my weight! (Which i agree with....) I'm not sure what amount of weight loss would be healthy? 1kg a week? 0.5kg? I think I remember aiming for that.0 -
BTW - you mention an FTP test.....
If your bike is estimating calories based on power (watts) that should be an extremely accurate net calorie estimate which you can be entirely confident about.
The only potential fly in the ointment is if your bike does some silly maths with the numbers (like the Wattbikes I use in my gym!) but you can check with some simple maths. Average watts per hour x 3.6 = your net cals.
e.g. 200 watt average for an hour would be 720 net cals.
If you are estimating your walking from the database here beware that's gross calories but you can use the net calorie option from this calculator https://exrx.net/Calculators/WalkRunMETs
It's a concern that you describe meeting a very ordinary calorie goal of 2,000 cals as "insane" - it really isn't at all. It's often stated as an average calorie intake for the mythical average female (who wouldn't be exercising as much as you).
Even an old fart like me maintains between 2,500 (a day with no exercise) and 5,000 (a day with an unusually long ride).
Don't try to rush your weight loss, if a poor choice for most people and especially for anyone serious about exercise which I'm guessing you are if you are doing FTP tests.
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admiralamott wrote: »Retroguy2000 wrote: »I'm curious, with your target being 1450 before workout calories added, what goal does that calorie target represent, i.e. what target weekly weight loss?
If you weren't doing any exercise, 1K calories in is still too low, and with all that exercise it's far too low. Eat more. You don't have to eat back every workout calorie if you don't want to, and see my earlier video posted about why those calorie estimates may be inflated, but you should definitely be eating back a decent portion of those workout calories.
Thank you, honestly I don't really have a target weight loss, its just my doctor said I need to start watching my weight! (Which i agree with....) I'm not sure what amount of weight loss would be healthy? 1kg a week? 0.5kg? I think I remember aiming for that.
"Watch" your weight, or lose some weight?
If you're not very overweight, which "watch your weight" implies to me, then 0.5% of your current weight per week would be a good maximum loss-rate target, especially for someone with athletic goals.
Unless you're well over 100kg, 1kg per week is too fast, and even 0.5kg could be aggressive if you have relatively little weight to lose.
If you don't currently have a target loss rate, how did you get the 1450 goal? How tall are you, what do you weigh now?
(You don't have to say, but there's really no reason to be shy about it here, either. Earlier, I told you I weigh 128 pounds at 5'5". Since you're using kg, that's 58kg at 165cm. I used to weigh 83kg.)0 -
admiralamott wrote: »Retroguy2000 wrote: »I'm curious, with your target being 1450 before workout calories added, what goal does that calorie target represent, i.e. what target weekly weight loss?
If you weren't doing any exercise, 1K calories in is still too low, and with all that exercise it's far too low. Eat more. You don't have to eat back every workout calorie if you don't want to, and see my earlier video posted about why those calorie estimates may be inflated, but you should definitely be eating back a decent portion of those workout calories.
Thank you, honestly I don't really have a target weight loss, its just my doctor said I need to start watching my weight! (Which i agree with....) I'm not sure what amount of weight loss would be healthy? 1kg a week? 0.5kg? I think I remember aiming for that.
"Watch" your weight, or lose some weight?
If you're not very overweight, which "watch your weight" implies to me, then 0.5% of your current weight per week would be a good maximum loss-rate target, especially for someone with athletic goals.
Unless you're well over 100kg, 1kg per week is too fast, and even 0.5kg could be aggressive if you have relatively little weight to lose.
If you don't currently have a target loss rate, how did you get the 1450 goal? How tall are you, what do you weigh now?
(You don't have to say, but there's really no reason to be shy about it here, either. Earlier, I told you I weigh 128 pounds at 5'5". Since you're using kg, that's 58kg at 165cm. I used to weigh 83kg.)
I'm 5'6 and 179 pounds which is about 81kg. So yeah I need to lose some 0 -
admiralamott wrote: »admiralamott wrote: »Retroguy2000 wrote: »I'm curious, with your target being 1450 before workout calories added, what goal does that calorie target represent, i.e. what target weekly weight loss?
If you weren't doing any exercise, 1K calories in is still too low, and with all that exercise it's far too low. Eat more. You don't have to eat back every workout calorie if you don't want to, and see my earlier video posted about why those calorie estimates may be inflated, but you should definitely be eating back a decent portion of those workout calories.
Thank you, honestly I don't really have a target weight loss, its just my doctor said I need to start watching my weight! (Which i agree with....) I'm not sure what amount of weight loss would be healthy? 1kg a week? 0.5kg? I think I remember aiming for that.
"Watch" your weight, or lose some weight?
If you're not very overweight, which "watch your weight" implies to me, then 0.5% of your current weight per week would be a good maximum loss-rate target, especially for someone with athletic goals.
Unless you're well over 100kg, 1kg per week is too fast, and even 0.5kg could be aggressive if you have relatively little weight to lose.
If you don't currently have a target loss rate, how did you get the 1450 goal? How tall are you, what do you weigh now?
(You don't have to say, but there's really no reason to be shy about it here, either. Earlier, I told you I weigh 128 pounds at 5'5". Since you're using kg, that's 58kg at 165cm. I used to weigh 83kg.)
I'm 5'6 and 179 pounds which is about 81kg. So yeah I need to lose some
From a general "being sensible" perspective, you'd probably be OK losing half a kilogram per week to start, at your current weight. From the perspective of wanting to gain muscle as you lose weight - and including the idea that your current weight is probably not an immediate health threat, plus I'm guessing you're fairly young (compared to me at 66 anyway!), a quarter kilogram per week would probably serve your athletic ambitions better, though weight loss would be slower obviously.
When you get to maybe roughly 20 pounds above a sensible goal weight, I'd suggest the quarter kg as a maximum for sure, though.1 -
admiralamott wrote: »admiralamott wrote: »Retroguy2000 wrote: »I'm curious, with your target being 1450 before workout calories added, what goal does that calorie target represent, i.e. what target weekly weight loss?
If you weren't doing any exercise, 1K calories in is still too low, and with all that exercise it's far too low. Eat more. You don't have to eat back every workout calorie if you don't want to, and see my earlier video posted about why those calorie estimates may be inflated, but you should definitely be eating back a decent portion of those workout calories.
Thank you, honestly I don't really have a target weight loss, its just my doctor said I need to start watching my weight! (Which i agree with....) I'm not sure what amount of weight loss would be healthy? 1kg a week? 0.5kg? I think I remember aiming for that.
"Watch" your weight, or lose some weight?
If you're not very overweight, which "watch your weight" implies to me, then 0.5% of your current weight per week would be a good maximum loss-rate target, especially for someone with athletic goals.
Unless you're well over 100kg, 1kg per week is too fast, and even 0.5kg could be aggressive if you have relatively little weight to lose.
If you don't currently have a target loss rate, how did you get the 1450 goal? How tall are you, what do you weigh now?
(You don't have to say, but there's really no reason to be shy about it here, either. Earlier, I told you I weigh 128 pounds at 5'5". Since you're using kg, that's 58kg at 165cm. I used to weigh 83kg.)
I'm 5'6 and 179 pounds which is about 81kg. So yeah I need to lose some
What's your goal weight?
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I tend not to eat the calories I've burned. I just don't trust that I'm truly burning that many. There are some days when I eat some or all of them. If I'm actually hungry I eat more. If I only think I'm hungry I try not to.
You have to find what works for you.0
But for clarification - OP, yours is definitely NOT a dumb question! Best of luck to you!
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