Eating Exercise Cals Slowing Your Weight loss? Read This.

jbuffan218

I am sure I fall into one of these catagories, just not sure which one.
Your explanation was greatly needed and very clear.
I HATE math, so thank you for doing the work :blushing:

MayLan

Nice post! Really puts everything into perspective! I think it's about trying out what works for your body, and as you said, seeing if we are moving "extra" for our daily activities on one day.

Fit4Penny

This is great information to have. Unfortunately for me, I fall into #4 :mad:

KimuraCarter

Thanks for the info!

KarenBorter

Okay I actually copied and pasted this to an email to reference later. I got my HRM yesterday and tomorrow I am going to put it on as soon as I get up and estimate what my "resting" calories are throughout the day. I weighed myself today and neither gained or lost and I find it odd that I would hit a Plateau 16 days in. The only way to explain it is calories. So, I will do this tomorrow, record the calories from the time I wake up until the time I get to the gym. I really DO the same thing M-F so it should be accurate to withing 5% +/- ... then start my normal exercise. I will use the equations and see if my calories are correct and go from there. It may be that I have to up my base calories ... Have I mentioned that I hate math?

sanura

thanks for the time and effort to make this so clear!!! we appreciate it!

Cytherea

Thanks for this really awesome post. I'm awful at math and I understood it perfectly!!

I've always been a bit wary of the exercise calories, because while I know and get why you should eat them back, it worries me that the number burned is inaccurate! I generally exercise on the treadmill or my Wii and it gives you the cals burned, so I input that on here and manually fill in those calories that the machine gives me (both machines know my age/weight), but you never can be completely sure that they are accurate. So while I do try to eat them back, I usually don't eat ALL of them back because like you said, if the numbers aren't accurate, it IS going to slow/hurt your weight loss!

My question is, regarding the hrm- how do we know that THAT is accurate?? It is just another machine calculating calories burned in a different way. Why do we trust it? (I don't have one and definitely can't afford one, but just in case I can in the future)

Mindful_Trent

Okay I actually copied and pasted this to an email to reference later. I got my HRM yesterday and tomorrow I am going to put it on as soon as I get up and estimate what my "resting" calories are throughout the day. I weighed myself today and neither gained or lost and I find it odd that I would hit a Plateau 16 days in. The only way to explain it is calories. So, I will do this tomorrow, record the calories from the time I wake up until the time I get to the gym. I really DO the same thing M-F so it should be accurate to withing 5% +/- ... then start my normal exercise. I will use the equations and see if my calories are correct and go from there. It may be that I have to up my base calories ... Have I mentioned that I hate math?

I would not recommend using your HRM to estimate your resting calories. They are not designed for this purpose and will not likely be accurate. They're designed to be accurate only during constant exercise, not casual or resting activity. If you invest in a bodybugg, these are designed to be worn all day and estimate resting/casual calories burned, but even it has a +/- 10% error margin. HRM's margin of error would be even higher, and it's generally just not recommended to use HRMs that way.

KarenBorter

hmmm okay ... then I will just do the calcs for exercise calories then using MFP's estimates.

Mindful_Trent

My question is, regarding the hrm- how do we know that THAT is accurate?? It is just another machine calculating calories burned in a different way. Why do we trust it? (I don't have one and definitely can't afford one, but just in case I can in the future)

Well, HRMs are designed to work by monitoring our heart rate, and then it uses a formula based on weight, age, and gender (I think) to estimate calories burned based on your heart rate during the workout. I don't know for sure, but I would imagine these are tested against very scientific and very expensive machines that analyze and estimate calories burned. I'm not a scientist, so i can't tell you how they know *that* is accurate, but on the BodyMedia Fit website (an alternative to a HRM that I use), it says their product is tested against the $40,000 portable oxygen analyzer, which is the "gold standard" for measuring calories.

If you ever do invest in one, make sure you do your research - some (ex. chest-strap HRMs) are more accurate than others (ex. wrist-monitors).

Personally, I know my BodyMedia Fit is accurate because it can pretty closely predicting the weight I lose based on the calories it says I burned and the calorie intake I track here on MFP.

mandypooh2103

Really puts things in perspective thanks!

Jessica_Lo

Whoa the bodybugg is pricey. Has anyone found a good deal on it?

Mindful_Trent

hmmm okay ... then I will just do the calcs for exercise calories then using MFP's estimates.

When I first read that, I thought you were saying that you're going to use MFP to calculate exercise calorie estimations, but after reading it again, I'm assuming you just mean that you'll use MFP's "calories burned from normal daily activity" to estimate the amount per hour you need to back out of your HRM's exercise calorie calculation, right? (This would be what I would do if I didn't have a bodybugg type device to estimate normal daily burn calories.)

Mindful_Trent

Whoa the bodybugg is pricey. Has anyone found a good deal on it?

Try Amazon. Also look up "BodyMedia Fit" - it's the exact same thing, same company, different brand. I went with that brand because it was a little cheaper at the time I was searching. Got a deal for 3 months free web access through Amazon.com with the purchase of the device.

Jessica_Lo

OMG so now I am even more frustrated. This is what I hear you telling me. Based on my MFP calulation I burn 1440 calories a day. Yes I know...this sucks and is the only part I hate about being short.
So last night I went for a walk which burned 99 calories. So if I take the hourly calories of 60 that MFP already calculated then I only got 39 calories from that walk?

No this isn't the work out I normally do. I've had a bad cold for a week and haven't gone to the gym so I settled for walking but even going to a step cardio class I still only get 220 calories burned because of my size. I don't understand how anyone can burn 1000 calories a day by exercising. What are they doing to do that?

Shoot me now.

Mindful_Trent

OMG so now I am even more frustrated. This is what I hear you telling me. Based on my MFP calulation I burn 1440 calories a day. Yes I know...this sucks and is the only part I hate about being short.
So last night I went for a walk which burned 99 calories. So if I take the hourly calories of 60 that MFP already calculated then I only got 39 calories from that walk?

No this isn't the work out I normally do. I've had a bad cold for a week and haven't gone to the gym so I settled for walking but even going to a step cardio class I still only get 220 calories burned because of my size. I don't understand how anyone can burn 1000 calories a day by exercising. What are they doing to do that?

Shoot me now.

Aww - don't be too frustrated. Think of it this way - you STILL burned more than you normally would've - by over 50%!!!

Regarding the 1000 calories/day, it's definitely possible if they're doing intense workouts for long periods of time - when I run/jog/walk (I do intervals) I can burn 400-600 exercise calories in an hour, depending on my workout. If I were to do that for 2 hours - that's probably about 1000 calories there. People at higher fitness levels can run a lot faster than me for longer periods - I'm betting they burn quite a bit. However, I am skeptical of anyone who says they're burning 1000 calories on an elliptical, unless they were on it for 3 to 4 hours! I think many people overestimate exercise calories by using the gym machine's estimates, or generic MFP estimates.

It sounds like you're short and don't have too much to lose (12 lbs per your profile) - so unfortunately you won't burn as much doing exercises as someone who is heavier. If you want to increase your workout while walking, you could try adding ankle weights? I've never tried it myself, but I know adding weights to a workout burns more calories - some of us just can't remove the weight cause it's in the form of fat in our bodies! :laugh:

KarenBorter

hmmm okay ... then I will just do the calcs for exercise calories then using MFP's estimates.

When I first read that, I thought you were saying that you're going to use MFP to calculate exercise calorie estimations, but after reading it again, I'm assuming you just mean that you'll use MFP's "calories burned from normal daily activity" to estimate the amount per hour you need to back out of your HRM's exercise calorie calculation, right? (This would be what I would do if I didn't have a bodybugg type device to estimate normal daily burn calories.)

Yeah sorry ... going to use MFP's calories burned ... but use my HRM for actual calories and do the math as per the Original Post you did ... that should give me a good idea of what I am doing

islandnutshel

This post makes more sense everytime I read it. Thanks

Ms_Natalie

Thank you for this post...when I first started my journey, I guess I was skeptical about this approach...but it has worked fantastically for me...helping me lose every single pound by eating back most of my exercise calories and being aware of the whole mathematical approach to it.

When people start, it is often ignorance that promotes the idea of eating as few calories as possible to lose weight quickly...which can be dangerous to your metabolism and health. I was one of these people and I am so glad that people like you had the time and patience to explain to me thoroughly why this is the best approach to weight loss..

Thank you :flowerforyou:

NeuroticVirgo

bump...

JDMPWR

bump

StacySkinny

Great post! I read it once before but finally took the time to slow down and really absorb all that you said. This article is probably going to be a huge help to a lot of people and I really wish they had "stickies" so that this could be one of the important articles that is recommended to the newbies (or even the vets who are still struggling with their calorie and exercise burn numbers.

One of the things I recommend to people who ask me how I'm losing so well is I tell them that I only log about 1/2 of my exercises because of this site's tendency to grossly overestimate calorie burns. That way I can eat back my exercise calories and not worry about eating back to many cals. This helps SO MUCH. It's working really well. I know once I can finally afford to invest in something like you have - the body bug thing, that it will help me to be able to more accurately calculate my burns. Until then I have to just do it my way of only logging half my exercise calories.

Thanks again for the awesome article!

cmriverside

Great post! I read it once before but finally took the time to slow down and really absorb all that you said. This article is probably going to be a huge help to a lot of people and I really wish they had "stickies" so that this could be one of the important articles that is recommended to the newbies (or even the vets who are still struggling with their calorie and exercise burn numbers.

This can now be found in the "Sticky" thread at the top of the "General Diet and Weight Loss Help" category called "Links in MFP you want to read again (and again.)"

Scroll through that thread for a lot of great advice! This post is on page 15.

Here's the link:
http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/23912-links-in-mfp-you-want-to-read-again-and-again?page=15#posts-1789297

Thanks, accountant_boi!

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STR0NGisSEXY

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.

This is me..
So I shouldn't eat them?
Or at least not MOST of them, right?

Mindful_Trent

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.

This is me..
So I shouldn't eat them?
Or at least not MOST of them, right?

Right... you won't want to eat most of them, but it would be a good idea to eat at least some, especially if you're doing really hard calorie burning workouts- your body needs the extra fuel! The more calories you burn in exercise, the more important it is to eat some of those calories. A 200 calorie workout isn't too big of a deal, but if you're burning 500, 800, 1000 - you should eat some of those!!

STR0NGisSEXY

Thanks!

kewkdb

All great and accurate points, accountant_boi!

airraidsiren

Nice post. It is important to factor in the power of anaerobic exercise on calorie burn AFTER the workout is finished in terms of calorie burn vs. "Normal Activity". I would recommend everyone do aerobic exercise, but also some really good anaerobic exercise to really get the engine running. That plus apply the dietary logic here is a winner. It has been for me.

getupandgo

Bump.

I'm in the number 4 category and didn't realize it and I typically eat all my exercise calories. Maybe that explains why I'm not losing as fast as I'd like!

hparke

I'm kinda thinking the same thing...maybe if I read it a couple more times it'll sink in :huh: