extra exercise calories

momtofour

Hi i know this has probably been done to death (sorry) but if you had 45lbs or more maybe to lose do you or would you eat your exercise calories i have drawn up a plan to walk three miles a day which takes me am hour aye works off 279 calories according to mfp exercise tracker x
any advise either way would be much appreciated
thanks x

BrianSharpe

If you're going to eat back your exercise calories you need to be reasonably accurate about the net number of calories burned directly attributable to the exercise, many calculators work out the gross calories expended which results in overestimating calories available to be eaten.

Runners World suggest the following formula for calculating the net calories burned walking:

.30 x body weight in lbs x distance in miles (eg a 200 lb person's net expenditure walking would be 60 cal / mile or 180 for a 3 mile walk)

It's pretty well known that MFP's calorie calculations are on the generous side and, for that reason, a lot of members will only eat back half to three quarters of the estimated calories burned.

cwolfman13

This is a basic math formula...

MFP Method:

BMR + NEAT - X calories for weight loss = Calorie Goal + Exercise

As you can see in the formula...exercise is accounted for on the back end of the formula...it is not accounted for in your activity level...it must be accounted for somewhere...thus you eat back exercise calories.

Other methods (namely TDEE):

BMR + NEAT + Exercise = TDEE - X% (cut to lose).

As you can see, an estimate of exercise is accounted for up front in the formula as part of your activity level...thus you wouldn't eat back exercise calories.

the key is to be as precise as possible and that's where most people fail. Also, walking is great and good for the heart and good to just move...but I wouldn't sweat it too much if I wasn't fueling that...it becomes far more important with big calorie burns and intense exercise.

momtofour

thanks guys so i see its .30 x 185 x 3 = 166.5 so that's a lot less than the 276 that mfp calculates had estimated x
cheers i've a better idea now how to do this and i suppose as my weight changes so do the sums