Eating Exercise Cals Slowing Your Weight loss? Read This.

Mindful_Trent

Disclaimer: I love math. I'm a numbers person, which is what drove me to post this. It's kind of long, but I think it will help clarify for some people why it makes sense to eat your exercise calories, what may cause your weight loss to slow/stop when you are eating exercise calories, and when it would make sense to not eat exercise calories. I'm not a doctor/expert, but it's all about the math (or at least mostly) and this post is based on how MFP operates.
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I see so many people saying that eating their exercise calories slows their weight loss below their goal. Mathmatically, this doesn't make any sense. MFP bases your daily calorie goal WITHOUT taking any exercise calories into consideration. (Specifically, it's based on age/height/weight/gender and normal daily activity level) Example - I burn about 2200 calories on an average day, before exercise. To lose 2 lbs/week, I need a 1000 cal/day deficit, which means I need to eat 1200 calories/day (2200 minus 1000 = 1200). If I workout, I'm now burning MORE than the average daily calories that my goal was based off of. If I only eat my original goal calories, that means that my deficit is now more than 1000 and I should be losing weight faster. Generally it's not considered safe to lose weight too quickly, which is why it's not recommended to have a deficit of more than 1000 cal/day.

The big question, then, is why do some people see their weight loss slow down (or stop) when they are eating exercise calories? There could be several reasons for this:

1) Your "average daily calories burned" calculation is inaccurate. The most obvious cause of this is that you selected the wrong "normal daily activity level" - if you selected lightly active but are really sedentary, then MFP is overestimating your average daily calories burned. Another thing to consider is that MFP uses a generic formula to estimate this, but in reality two people who weight the same and are of the same height may burn a different number of calories due to their individual metabolism/body chemistry. Plus, rarely do people do EXACTLY the same thing every day. Some days I stop by the store on my way home, which burns more calories than going straight home and watching tv. If you selected the right activity level then chances are, MFP shouldn't be too far off on this, but there is always that possiblity.

2) You may be overestimating exercise calories. If you're aiming for a 1 lb/week loss (500 cal deficit) and eat back most of your exercise calories, overestimating by only 50 or 100 cals/day could have a big effect on your progress. I use a bodybugg-type device, and find that sometimes MFP and the gym machines significantly overestimate my burn. Ex - 30 min on an elliptical for me is over 400 cals per MFP, but my bodybugg says it's only a little over 200 on a recent visit. The problem is that MFP and machines use very generic formulas that don't always take into account your effort/intensity of your workout.

3) You may be underestimating calories consumed - do you count the olive oil/spray you use in the pan when cooking? Do you count the sugar/small bit of milk you put in your coffee? Do you actually weight/measure your foods? Most people have a pretty poor understanding of serving sizes. When I started measuring everything, I was a bit shocked at how wrong I was on some things!

4) If your daily calorie goal was set to 1200 by MFP, then another possibility is that you are not burning enough on a daily basis (normal daily calories burned) to SAFELY apply your chosen deficit. Example - a petite woman may only burn 1600 calories on a regular day, before exercise. If she wants to lose 2 lbs/week, a 1000 calorie deficit would put her at 600 cals/day, which is NOT considered healthy. This is one case where you would need to burn more calories through exercise and not eat them back to reach your desired deficit. I would highly recommend anyone who is given 1200 as a calorie goal by MFP to go to their Goals page and see if this situation applies to them.

5) You may have a medical condition that interferes with the weight loss process - how to best address this will depend on your condition and should be discussed with your medical care provider.

In conclusion, if you choose to not eat any of your exercise calories in an attempt to lose weight *faster* than your selected goal, then that is one thing - I would just encourage you to listen to your body and make sure that you are upping your food intake if your body is indicating it needs more fuel. Some say that having too high of a deficit for too long will slow your metabolism, but I don't know specifics about that. However, if you find that you have to not eat exercise calories just to meet your goal, then chances are, one (or more) of the 5 situations above apply to you.

I would highly recommend investing in a HRM or BodyBugg type device to estimate exercise calories burned. I like the Bodybugg type myself, because they're more accurate for non-exercise calorie estimates (though they still have a possible error of +/- 10% for non-exercise calories). I wear mine all day, and my BodyBugg agrees with MFP's esimate of my normal daily calories burned. I find mine is pretty accurate at estimating weight loss when I faithfully wear it and track everything I eat.


Edited to add: Thanks to AnnaPixie for pointing out something I missed...

One more thing - this is something most people don't do, but to be most accurate, you should be deducting your normal calorie burn from your exercise calories. For example, when I burn 500 cal. working out for an hour, part of that is already counted by MFP as part of my "normal daily calories burned." I calculate this by taking my normal daily burn of 2200 divided by 24 to get about 90 calories/hour. I would've burned those 90 calories/hour regardless of if I'm working out or not. I use this rate to take out "normal" calories from any exercise calories burned. (So that 500 calorie burn would go down to 410, since that's the part of it that's actually earned by the exercise.) If you workout several hours a day, that could mean a couple hundred calorie difference. Depending on your goal, that could make a big difference in your weight loss efforts.

AnnaPixie

Great post. Thanks for explaining all of that. I am definitely in the 4 category, unfortunately, but I already realised that eating back all my calories would slow progress.

Absoultely agree that eating when your body tells you its hungry is a great idea. This happened to me last week and I added another 200 cals to my usual intake.

I think the only one you forgot was that MFP dont deduct your resting calories from the exercise one's. So if your resting for 24 hours at 1500 but you exercise for an hour and burn 500 then 1/24th of the 1500 is already counted (haven't got a calculator handy to work that out...lol). So you should never eat back ALL of them anyhow.

I'm going to buy a bodybugg thing to check all this in view of our conversation yesterday anyhow. Went out today but couldnt find one so will have to order online.

Thanks for taking the time to explain :drinker:

Paige1108

Thanks for this info. I love the math too. And I ditto the weight/ measure. Being from the mid-west when I put, what I considered 1 oz/ 1 serving of cheese on my little scale...I was blown away. It was 3.5oz of cheese. That's a 250 calorie difference, at least. my scale was $6.00, not digital but gets the job done. I love it. Weight/ Measure you will be amazed. Thanks again Account

Mindful_Trent

I think the only one you forgot was that MFP dont deduct your resting calories from the exercise one's. So if your resting for 24 hours at 1500 but you exercise for an hour and burn 500 then 1/24th of the 1500 is already counted (haven't got a calculator handy to work that out...lol). So you should never eat back ALL of them anyhow.

Thanks so much for pointing that out about the resting calories. People have disagreed with this on other posts, but I ALWAYS subtract what I would normally burn resting from my exercise calories - I calculate it by taking my normal 2200 cals/day divided by 24 hours for an hourly amount of about 90 calories (45 cals for half an hour, 23 for 15 min, etc.).

coolstacey6

I always read your posts! I've learned alot from you and appreciate you! keep it up and thanks!

jamie11k

Thanks for the food for thought!

obifatkanobi

It all sounds good, but here is a past post that explains why not to eat them extra calories...

Hope it adds some insight, since losing weight is more than just a numbers racket, it's medical science.

http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/10589-for-those-confused-or-questioning-eating-your-exercise-calo

Mindful_Trent

It all sounds good, but here is a past post that explains why not to eat them extra calories...

Hope it adds some insight, since losing weight is more than just a numbers racket, it's medical science.

http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/10589-for-those-confused-or-questioning-eating-your-exercise-calo

Sorry but you must've misread that post you linked to. Banks is an advocate FOR eating exercise calories, and I have read that post before. There are cases when you may not want/need to eat them, and I explained those above.

travelgirl09

That is a great way to explain it. You broke it down very well. Thanks.

obifatkanobi

Not misread, just a poor choice of wording. The past post does explain many of the same things you do, but in different terms. I commented not to disagree, but to add to your original. More information allows for better rationalizations. I do apologize for the poor wording, you have some good points, and explain things well from the Numbers side, the post I shared explains it from another side.

obifatkanobi

Not misread, just a poor choice of wording. The past post does explain many of the same things you do, but in different terms. I commented not to disagree, but to add to your original. More information allows for better rationalizations. I do apologize for the poor wording, you have some good points, and explain things well from the Numbers side, the post I shared explains it from another side.

Mindful_Trent

Not misread, just a poor choice of wording. The past post does explain many of the same things you do, but in different terms. I commented not to disagree, but to add to your original. More information allows for better rationalizations. I do apologize for the poor wording, you have some good points, and explain things well from the Numbers side, the post I shared explains it from another side.

Oh! Thanks, then. Sorry for misunderstanding. The post you referred to is a great "classic" post that I refer people to all the time!

megsta21

Bump! Great post!!! =D

StacySkinny

MFP has a tendency to over estimate calorie burns. I've noticed that a lot. People with HRM have verified that their calories burned are often a LOT less then what MFP estimates.

Natural

i've eating more this week and have lost about 3 lbs. i've also exercised more. i save about 200 calories in the end. hey my body needs fuel for me to workout like i do. i will feed it. thanks for this info.

sometimes the body gets bored with our workout and pouts. maybe we have to shake things up a little and do something different.

LotusF1ower

I think the only one you forgot was that MFP dont deduct your resting calories from the exercise one's. So if your resting for 24 hours at 1500 but you exercise for an hour and burn 500 then 1/24th of the 1500 is already counted (haven't got a calculator handy to work that out...lol). So you should never eat back ALL of them anyhow.

This is absolutely correct and anybody that doesn't like it and insists that they need to eat back every single calorie is fooling themselves.

If somebody burns, say, just 100 calories in an hour, doing some chore and insists they will eat those 100 calories back, they are not doing themselves any favours, because although they burned 100, what would have been their resting calorie burn had they sat in front of the TV and not moved? Possibly around 60 calories, therefore, they only really burned an extra 40 and if they want to insist on eating their exercise calories, it should only be those extra 40 and not the full-blown 100.

Very, very, good point!

Certified_Femail

way over my head

Certified_Femail

way over my head

stormieweather

Good post, from one accountant to another math type :flowerforyou:

themyriadthings

I love MFP partly because it is all about the math! The fact that it was all about the math is what convinced me I could actually do it. Thanks for explaining these concepts so clearly.

One thing I do wonder about is if everyone knows that the MFP exercise calories are high, why doesn't MFP lower them?

stormieweather

MFP matches the machines at my gym...but people's metabolism (and effort) can vary.

Beth720

way over my head

THIS! My head hurts from trying to understand it! I HATE math!!

Mindful_Trent

way over my head

THIS! My head hurts from trying to understand it! I HATE math!!

I hope you at least got something from it - the math wasn't supposed to be the main point, not really, anyways. The main point was the 5 main reasons why eating your exercise calories would cause your weight loss to slow/stop. So if this happens, you should check and make sure that you're not overestimating exercise calories, underestimating what you eat, that you realistically set your normal daily activity level when you set your goals, and that you're not someone whose normal daily activity is so low that MFP doesn't give you the full deficit that you set as your goal. If all of that seems okay, then you might be dealing with a medical issue or you may just have a metabolism that's different from the norm, which would be causing your "normal daily calories burned" as estimated by MFP to be inaccurate.

KarenBorter

Thanks for doing this ... I am posting so I can reference it in my topics so I can find it easily!

Amandac6772

Well done! When I follow those rules I can see a 4/10th of a lb drop almost daily. Now is every day the same, no, but on my good days when I do the work and the live the plan it works like magic.

SHBoss1673

good post AB. I agree with everything on here.

for the record, I'm the "Banks1850" that posted the link listed above. While the math can be a bit confusing, anyone who wishes a more personalized explanation and/or a chat about it., can PM (personal message, or MFP email) me. I set up a chat link a long time ago and the room is still available, so when ever there is a need we can set up a time for a chat session and I (and I'm sure AB as well and anyone else) can log in and answer any specific questions you may have. The science, while still in a relatively early stage of it's life cycle, is pretty solid and based on proven concepts in anatomy and physiology.

Don't be bashful, trust me, I've heard just about every question there is on weight loss, there are no dumb questions except for questions unasked.

arewethereyet

I think the only one you forgot was that MFP dont deduct your resting calories from the exercise one's. So if your resting for 24 hours at 1500 but you exercise for an hour and burn 500 then 1/24th of the 1500 is already counted (haven't got a calculator handy to work that out...lol). So you should never eat back ALL of them anyhow.

This is absolutely correct and anybody that doesn't like it and insists that they need to eat back every single calorie is fooling themselves.

If somebody burns, say, just 100 calories in an hour, doing some chore and insists they will eat those 100 calories back, they are not doing themselves any favours, because although they burned 100, what would have been their resting calorie burn had they sat in front of the TV and not moved? Possibly around 60 calories, therefore, they only really burned an extra 40 and if they want to insist on eating their exercise calories, it should only be those extra 40 and not the full-blown 100.

Very, very, good point!

Here is my thought process for the "eating every exercise calorie" theory. Throughout the day I now walk from the back of the parking lot, put 2 big bags of dog food in the cart 1st thing, walk the perimeter of the store PRIOR to any other purchase, take the stairs everywhere, walk a lot more than I ever did before..........all lifestyle changes that I do NOT log each and every day. I figure if my HRM says 350 for my hour on the ellip, I will eat those back because I am underestimating what I need to begin with.

Just my thoughts on the subject
(I have lost and kept off 35 pounds or so in this fashion. I am trying to lose the last few now!)

arewethereyet

good post AB. I agree with everything on here.

for the record, I'm the "Banks1850" that posted the link listed above. While the math can be a bit confusing, anyone who wishes a more personalized explanation and/or a chat about it., can PM (personal message, or MFP email) me. I set up a chat link a long time ago and the room is still available, so when ever there is a need we can set up a time for a chat session and I (and I'm sure AB as well and anyone else) can log in and answer any specific questions you may have. The science, while still in a relatively early stage of it's life cycle, is pretty solid and based on proven concepts in anatomy and physiology.

Don't be bashful, trust me, I've heard just about every question there is on weight loss, there are no dumb questions except for questions unasked.

Your a good man Banksy!

cardigirl

MFP matches the machines at my gym...but people's metabolism (and effort) can vary.

And MFP is lower than the machines at my gym. Isn't that funny?

Such a science, this estimating calorie burn. :laugh:

Mindful_Trent

I think the only one you forgot was that MFP dont deduct your resting calories from the exercise one's. So if your resting for 24 hours at 1500 but you exercise for an hour and burn 500 then 1/24th of the 1500 is already counted (haven't got a calculator handy to work that out...lol). So you should never eat back ALL of them anyhow.

This is absolutely correct and anybody that doesn't like it and insists that they need to eat back every single calorie is fooling themselves.

If somebody burns, say, just 100 calories in an hour, doing some chore and insists they will eat those 100 calories back, they are not doing themselves any favours, because although they burned 100, what would have been their resting calorie burn had they sat in front of the TV and not moved? Possibly around 60 calories, therefore, they only really burned an extra 40 and if they want to insist on eating their exercise calories, it should only be those extra 40 and not the full-blown 100.

Very, very, good point!

Here is my thought process for the "eating every exercise calorie" theory. Throughout the day I now walk from the back of the parking lot, put 2 big bags of dog food in the cart 1st thing, walk the perimeter of the store PRIOR to any other purchase, take the stairs everywhere, walk a lot more than I ever did before..........all lifestyle changes that I do NOT log each and every day. I figure if my HRM says 350 for my hour on the ellip, I will eat those back because I am underestimating what I need to begin with.

Just my thoughts on the subject
(I have lost and kept off 35 pounds or so in this fashion. I am trying to lose the last few now!)

That's fantastic that it's working for you! Your approach would work for someone who consistently does all that extra little stuff that bumps their "normal daily calories burned" above what MFP is estimating. Everyone has to figure out what works for them, though, because for me, I find that unless I'm busy, then I'll just barely burn what MFP says I will burn for my "normal daily calories," (if even that much) given my relatively sedentary lifestyle (apart from workouts). Some days are busier, and like you said, I don't log all the extra "busy day" calories - so in those cases I could probably eat all my exercise calories and not worry about it, but other days I really do have to take into account the "normal burn" portion of my exercise time. Everyone has a different approach, and I would rather underestimate my exercise calories a little bit than consistently overestimate them. I feel like I'm eating more than enough, I'm losing weight steadily, so this is what seems to work for me.

Mindful_Trent

good post AB. I agree with everything on here.

for the record, I'm the "Banks1850" that posted the link listed above. While the math can be a bit confusing, anyone who wishes a more personalized explanation and/or a chat about it., can PM (personal message, or MFP email) me. I set up a chat link a long time ago and the room is still available, so when ever there is a need we can set up a time for a chat session and I (and I'm sure AB as well and anyone else) can log in and answer any specific questions you may have. The science, while still in a relatively early stage of it's life cycle, is pretty solid and based on proven concepts in anatomy and physiology.

Don't be bashful, trust me, I've heard just about every question there is on weight loss, there are no dumb questions except for questions unasked.

Thanks for giving my post the Banks seal of approval! :happy:

And yes, I'm more than happy to help people look at their specific situations via MFP email. Never tried the chat room but I suppose if the timing works that might be a possibility as well.