Calorie deficit and exercise

SuLuABQ

I am eating my BMR minus 500 calories.

I have started to become more active.

Yesterday I burned 800 calories swimming for an hour.

Would I then increase my calorie consumption on the days I am more active?

SW 330lbs
CW 311lbs

springlering62

First of all, good for you for being proactive and taking charge!

How are you calculating 800 calories? That seems extraordinarily high.

I’d suggest eating back half your exercise calories and tracking for six weeks. If you’re losing weight, then you know you’re on the right track. If not, then either adjust your exercise calorie calculations, or your food intake.

Do you have a fitness tracker? My watch has absolutely rocked my world. I don’t think I’d be here today without it.

springlering62

And hey, the one thing I wish I’d known at first….increased activity can lead to temporary water weight. Don’t be surprised to “gain” several pounds when you take up a new exercise. It passes off pretty quick, but can be a frustrating shock to people who don’t know to expect this and think they’ve somehow “failed”.

SuLuABQ

springlering62 wrote: »

How are you calculating 800 calories? That seems extraordinarily high.

Thank you for your response.

I entered the exercise into my fitness pal and it gave me 8xx calories for 1 hour of swimming.

I don’t have a fitness tracker, but have been considering getting one because i put my phone on the treadmill to watch a show while walking and haven’t been getting very accurate step counts

Retroguy2000

Congrats on doing the swimming.

You should generally eat a bit more when you have done workouts, especially if you feel the need to do so. Not necessarily all of the estimated workout calories though, in part because those can be frequently over-estimated.

I too wonder about that 800 calorie estimate. Your BMR is maybe 100 calories per hour, give or take. So sitting doing nothing is going to be in that ballpark, called 1 MET. Walking is more than 1 MET, jogging is more again. Everything has different estimates for exertion. If your swimming was non-stop butterfly stroke for an hour, yeah you'll have burned a hell of a lot. If it was casual laps in between treading water resting, it won't be nearly so high. If we settle on an estimate of say 5 MET, that's 500 burned in the hour, but really that's 400 additional calories burned, because 100 is already factored into your daily estimates.

I'm not saying your workout was actually 400, just saying a lot depends on how vigorous that hour was. Which is why we need to be wary about eating back all of the assumed workout calories, since it can be easy to consume too much.

I hope that makes sense.

springlering62

You can get trackers pretty cheap nowadays. My daughter got a Fitbit she loves for about $100 from Costco. I’ve used Apple Watch for four and half years and could not have done this without it. Lots of folks here use Garmin, so if you get one of the “big names” you’ll always find someone here who can help you through setting it up and learning curves.

I gave my old Apple Watch to a newb in aquafit. That seemed more appropriate than getting a $25 credit towards a new one. You can find used trackers on freecycle, NextDoor, Facebook marketplace etc. or just ask around. I bet a friend or neighbor has an unused one laying in a drawer.

Also, be careful about relying on calorie burns registered by gym equipment. They are often inflated by two times or more due to user error, lack of calibration/poor maintenance, and (my suspicion) gyms having a vested interest in making you think you’ve burned a lot more than you have.

I like the Apple Watch because I can tuck my phone in a running belt and control podcasts from my watch while walking, answer phone or texts if I don’t have my phone on me, and most importantly, tell Siri to call 911, since I’m often out and about before and after dark walking doggo or walking to yoga classes. Also like the heart rate monitor. If I get over 155 my trainer will make me stop between sets, and I like to freak her out by doing yoga breathing techniques to bring it down really quick. It responds immediately.😂 But the functions I use most (besides recording steps and workouts) are reminders and timers. You can just tell it to set either one and it chimes or vibrates at the proper time. I don’t even use the oven timer anymore.

cmriverside

You don't subtract calories for weight loss from your BMR, you subtract it from your Total Daily Energy Expenditure (TDEE) - or in myfitnesspal's tool, the calorie deficit for weight loss is subtracted from your Non Exercise Activity Thermogenesis (NEAT) which includes all your daily activity before purposeful exercise.

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

With that said, I swam a lot when I was losing weight, and 800 calories for an hour is really high unless you're a competitive athlete.

I'd use probably more like 300 calories, and yes, eat 300 calories more on exercise day. That is explained in my link too.

Retroguy2000

@cmriverside While that's correct about subtracting from TDEE generally, did you catch that in this case OP is 311 pounds? Their BMR is probably 2200-2500, so 500 off that still allows for getting adequate nutrition. If they are losing weight too fast, I'd encourage them to go higher.

cmriverside

Retroguy2000 wrote: »

@cmriverside While that's correct about subtracting from TDEE generally, did you catch that in this case OP is 311 pounds? Their BMR is probably 2200-2500, so 500 off that still allows for getting adequate nutrition. If they are losing weight too fast, I'd encourage them to go higher.

I saw her weight.

It's just a frequently stated wrong assumption (BMR minus some amount for weight loss) and I was explaining that, not her particular calorie intake which she didn't even state. None of the posts so far in the thread mentioned it. ::shrug::

I also didn't mention nutrition (?) but I agree with your general points. 1600-1800ish plus a couple hundred more on exercise days is plenty, and sufficient nutrition is important.

Jthanmyfitnesspal

Yay, swimming! It's the best exercise in the world.

Swimming hard for a solid hour is, well, hard! That's why MFP gave you 800kcals for it. You must subtract for any rest time. Also, be honest if you were swimming at higher or lower intensity, which are both listed.

Best of luck and keep on swimming!

paintscraper01

You can use my fitness pal in conjunction with Garmin connect. It will help you a lot in this endeavor. It will subtract and add in calories for you (accordingly to the activities you do)so you know, you will still meet your goal.you need a good Garmin watch to help but you would love it.