50% Exercise Calories Add

tcgrace123

When I walk calories are added to my daily goal. It has been my experience that it is a wash. The calories added equal 100% of the calories burned. Not a good way to lose weight.

I would like to recommend that the AP have a 50% calories add button. That way, I am adding calories from exercise but only half the amount. This would aide in weight loss.

rileysowner

The app doesn't include you planned exercise calories in its calorie goal calculations. That means exercise will make your deficit larger than planned. If you are morbidly obese, that likely won't make a huge difference, but if you are not, then it can result in too aggressive a calorie deficit with its negative effects. That is why the exercise calories are added. Many people lose weight using the app as it was designed including eating all their exercise calories. Others do not. Which you are is something you will find out.

AnnPT77

You tell MFP things about you (height, weight, age, etc.) and tell it how fast you want to lose weight. The MFP documentation tells you to specify an activity level that does not include intentional exercise.

Then, MFP estimates how many calories it would take for you to maintain your current weight with no exercise, based on that demographic-type and activity data. Next, MFP subtracts calories to create the deficit to trigger the loss rate you asked for. It uses standard formulas based on scientific research.

When we exercise, we're supposed to log that exercise (accurately or close!), and eat those calories, too. That keeps the same weight loss rate.

Example, using round numbers and the assumption that all estimates/logs are accurate:

Let's say my maintenance calories to maintain my current weight, without considering my exercise schedule, are 2000 per day. I tell MFP I want to lose a pound a week. It will give me a daily goal of 1500. I eat 1500, I can expect to lose a pound a week.

One day, I do 300 calories worth of exercise. That means that on that particular day, in order to maintain my current weight, I'd have to eat 2300 calories (2000 from my normal day, 300 from exercise). However, I still want to lose a pound a week, of course (not faster, not slower). To accomplish that, MFP tells me to eat 1500+300 calories, i.e., 1800 calories that day. That keeps the same 500 calorie deficit that we'd expect to trigger the pound a week loss.

One caveat: MFP's calorie estimates are for the statistically average person. Most people are close to average, but not all. The usual advice here is to follow the MFP estimate closely for 4-6 weeks (at least a full menstrual cycle for those who have them), then adjust calorie goal based on actual results. That should work well.

If you're following the estimates, and have been doing it consistently for that long, you may need to adjust your base calorie goal. Use the assumption that 500 calories per day is roughly a pound a week, and use arithmetic if there are fractional pounds. That should work.

FWIW: It worked great for me, even though I'm one of those weirdos for whom MFP estimates incorrectly. In fact, I'm a rare form of weirdo, because it's way off, like 25-30% off, hundreds of calories daily, which is very unusual but possible in the rare case. Once I figured that out by looking at my multi-week experience data (calorie intake and weight change), I lost weight quite predictably, and have maintained weight for around 8 years since loss . . . all the while eating back every carefully-estimated exercise calorie.