Help on calories burned vs calories eaten and exercise

CraigM42

Ok, I am very confused, can someone explain in plain english? I have a fitbit and walk at least 5 miles a day or more, in the past 2 weeks I have been under my calorie intake total by a fairly large margin, yesterday I walked 7 miles, so I basically gained back through exercise all the calories I had already eaten in the day. I have been told not to leave too many calories uneaten. I thought you were supposed to be on the plus side of calorie intake with exercise and not to eat back all the calories you have expended. Can someone help with a good explanation? I do not want to be eating 500 to 1000 calories after dinner just because I went for a walk, that seems counter productive.

mschicagocubs

If your calorie goal is 1800 and you burn 700 a day...your NET calories are only 1100 which is undereating. You need to fuel your body.

So you should make it a habit to eat back roughly 50% of your exercise calories.

MFP puts you in a calorie deficit ... in this example 1800 ... you dont need exercise to lose weight.

Edited - Can't subtract

EvanKeel

When you set up MFP with your goals, I'm going to assume you set it up to lose some amount of weight per week. Based on that, it gives you a goal. This is important: that starting goal includes a caloric deficit.

Assuming your fitbit is linked to your MFP account, Fitbit is telling MFP how much it thinks you're going to burn for the day based on your activity and what it thinks your BMR is. MFP then uses that information to determine how many exercise calories you have.

Because the deficit is built into your goal, whether or not you exercise, you are encouraged to eat back your exercise calories.

As your diary is closed, I can't really speak to whether or not your intake or exercise calories seems high or low

katro111

What goals did you setup on Fitbit for your calories burned per day and the food plan/deficit? Since Fitbit provides with you with your TDEE, it will also tell you how many calories to consume based on your exercise at any given time in the day.

CraigM42

I have opened up my diary, sorry did not realize it was on private

EvanKeel

I have opened up my diary, sorry did not realize it was on private

In your exercise diary from yesterday I see separate entries for walking as well as what your fitbit is adding. Were you not wearing your fitbit for those entries, and that's why you're logging them separately? If that's not the case you may be double adding your exercise.

EDIT: also, 687 calories for a 60 min walk seems a little high to me, depending on whether or not there was an incline.

CraigM42

I thought I was supposed to log everything in MFP, I am ignoring the fitbit calories

morethenjustmum

I set my mfp to sedentary so it gives me 1200, allow negative calories from fit bit, log all non step based exercise in mfp, eat back 50-75% of the fit bit calories added in.
I know a,few other fit bit users who,do this as well.

My understanding is that once you log something in mfp (you have to enter a start time) it negates those movements from the fit bit.
if i have a crazy day i eat more, when i park it on the couch i eat way less.

redwoodkestrel

I thought I was supposed to log everything in MFP, I am ignoring the fitbit calories

You would probably get a much more accurate estimation on your calories burned if you let your Fitbit sync all your step-based activities/exercise.

Any other exercise you do that is NOT step-based (bicycling, weight lifting, etc.) you should log through MFP with accurate start and stop times so you're not double-counting your burn with MFP and Fitbit.

EvanKeel

I thought I was supposed to log everything in MFP, I am ignoring the fitbit calories

Forgive the question, but why bother wearing the fitbit at all then?

You could just unlink your fitbit account from your MFP account and it wouldn't put in a calorie adjustment that way, and you could then log your activity manually. In that case, I'm not sure what good the fitbit is doing for you, at least with regard to monitoring activity levels.

shadow2soul

I thought I was supposed to log everything in MFP, I am ignoring the fitbit calories

Honestly I'm confused as to why you have fitbit and MFP linked then.

As for an explanation about calories and such:

Your base goal on MFP is determined by:
- estimated BMR based on Age, Height, Weight, & Gender + estimated daily non exercise activity level that you choose = Estimated daily energy expenditure before exercise

Estimated Daily Energy expenditure - deficit = MFP calorie goal

Example:

My estimated BMR: 1584
My activity level Sedentary: 396 estimated calories
My weight loss goal***: 0.5lbs per week (-250 calories per day)

1584 (BMR) + 396 (daily activity estimate) = 1980 estimated calorie burn without exercise
1980 - 250 = 1730 calorie goal
So to lose 0.5lbs per week without exercise, I should eat roughly 1730 calories per day.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Now adding exercise into the equation and you get:
- estimated BMR based on Age, Height, Weight, & Gender + estimated daily non exercise activity level that you choose = Estimated daily energy expenditure before exercise

Estimated Daily Energy expenditure - deficit = MFP calorie goal

Estimated Daily Energy expenditure before exercise + Exercise Calories burned = Total Estimated Daily Energy Expenditure
Total Estimated Daily Energy Expenditure - deficit = Total Calorie Intake Goal or Food - Exercise = MFP Calorie Goal

Fitbit takes a lot of the guessing about activity level and such out of the equation. I own a fitbit as well. When fitbit and MFP are synced, things look more like this:
- estimated BMR based on Age, Height, Weight, & Gender + estimated daily non exercise activity level that you choose = Estimated daily energy expenditure before exercise

Estimated Daily Energy expenditure - deficit = MFP calorie goal

Estimated Daily Energy expenditure before exercise + Exercise Calories burned = Total Estimated Daily Energy Expenditure
Total Estimated Daily Energy Expenditure - deficit = Total Calorie Intake Goal or Food - Exercise = MFP Calorie Goal

Fitbit Tracked Calorie Burn* - MFP Total Estimated Daily Energy Expenditure = neg/pos adjustment in the form of exercise calories

*Fitbit calorie burn = BMR estimate + tracked daily activity + logged/tracked exercise

Example:
My estimated MFP BMR: 1584
My MFP activity level Sedentary: 396 estimated calories
My weight loss goal***: 0.5lbs per week (-250 calories per day)
No logged exercise on MFP.

My estimated Fitbit BMR: 1632
My tracked calorie burn for 3/21: 2649
Activity Record: 4.69 miles/ 1hr 47mins/ approx calories 748

1584 + 396 =1930

2649-1930 = 719 calorie adjustment added in exercise

1930 + 719 - 250 = 2399 or Food Consumed - 719 = 2399

The more calories you burn in a day, the more you can consume and still be in a deficit. If you have a fitbit synced with MFP then you don't need to log walking/running based activities. Other types of exercises will need to be logged (either here or on fitbit your choice) with the correct start time and duration.