Am I doing this "numbers game" correctly?

mrsmarquez11

I'm a 26 yo female, 5'5" and 155 lbs. I work out 6 days a week for at least 40 minutes. My daily calorie goal (says mfp) is 1,560. My calorie deficit is 750. Does that mean I need to burn at least 750 calories a day to loose 1 1/2 lbs a week? (Which is also a goal of mine) And eat back at least some of those calories, right?

Yesterday my daily calorie goal was 1,560, and I burned 1,169 calories, ate 2,568 calories and netted 1,399 calories with 161 calories remaining. Did I do this correctly? Or is that eating way too much? Thoughts?

mrsmarquez11

Bump

asdowe13

The way MFP set you up is to eat back your calories burned. Which means at the end of the day you should be netting 1560 calories.

cardbucfan

The numbers are pretty good IF both your calorie burn and your intake are correct. How are you measuring your calorie burns? Are you measuring/weighing your food intake?

MFP is notorious for overestimating how many calories you burn and even HRM's aren't 100% accurate. Like the above poster says, you should be netting what MFP gives you. I don't like to eat back every single exercise calorie because I don't subtract my existence calories from my HRM burns and I'm not religious with weighing things. I like a little extra cushion.

TR0berts

My daily calorie goal (says mfp) is 1,560. My calorie deficit is 750. Does that mean I need to burn at least 750 calories a day to loose 1 1/2 lbs a week? (Which is also a goal of mine) And eat back at least some of those calories, right?

Almost. Your Calorie goal includes a deficit of 750 Cals. That means that you can eat that much and lose weight without exercise. I haven't run the numbers, but that seems maybe a little high for your situation. But, for now, we'll assume it's correct. As far as exercise Calories go, yes - eat back some/most/all of them. The only way to know just how many to eat back is to try it for a month or so, compare how much weight you've lost to how much you should have for that time period (1 month ~ 4 weeks -> should lose about 6 lbs @ 1.5 lbs per week), and adjust as necessary.

Yesterday my daily calorie goal was 1,560, and I burned 1,169 calories, ate 2,568 calories and netted 1,399 calories with 161 calories remaining. Did I do this correctly? Or is that eating way too much? Thoughts?

Yes, you did it correctly. A little low here, a little high there - as long as you net about 1560 Cals per day or 10,920 Cals per week.


That said - what is your goal weight? I think 1.5 lbs per week might be a little too aggressive for you, if you weigh 155 lbs now. I'd think that 1 lb per week loss would be more appropriate. That is, of course, just my opinion and I don't have all the facts. So, I could be wrong in that thought.

ChrysalisCove

Your deficit is already built in to your calorie allotment, so yes you should be eating back exercise calories. Keep in mind, however that many machines (& the MFP database) overestimate burn... if you find you are not losing as expected, try eating back only 50-75% of your exercise cals.

Aaron_K123

You did your math correctly but keep in mind that it depends on the accuracy of your measurement.

1,169 calorie burn from exercise is very high. As a 6' tall 186 pound man I do intensive aerobic cardio for about 50 minutes and I estimate I burn about 400 calories. To burn as much as you I'd have to do that for 3 hours and I'm considerably larger than you so I'm skeptical about your calorie burn estimate.

Can you please answer the following:

1) What method did you use to estimate your calories burned from exercise?
2) What was the specific exercise you did and for how long to burn your estimated 1,169 calories?

sloth3toes

That said - what is your goal weight? I think 1.5 lbs per week might be a little too aggressive for you, if you weigh 155 lbs now. I'd think that 1 lb per week loss would be more appropriate. That is, of course, just my opinion and I don't have all the facts. So, I could be wrong in that thought.

That was my first thought, as well. If you are losing anything close to your 1.5 lb per week goal, say 1 lb a week, or 'whatever....' I'd say, just keep doing what you're doing.

mrsmarquez11

I use a FT4 heart rate monitor
I exercised for 56 minutes doing jillian michaels Ripped in 30 and tony littles hips buttocks and thighs. Then took a break and exercised later for another 54 minutes doing jillian michaels banish fat boost metabolism

Aaron_K123

I use a FT4 heart rate monitor
I exercised for 56 minutes doing jillian michaels Ripped in 30 and tony littles hips buttocks and thighs. Then took a break and exercised later for another 54 minutes doing jillian michaels banish fat boost metabolism

I really doubt you are burning 1200 calories with 2 hours of exercise most likely. Keep in mind that heart rate monitors INCLUDE the calories you burn based on your BMR and you would have to subtract that out to get the number of calories you burn from the exercise alone. That won't make a huge dent in your estimate but it would have an effect.

Here is a quick article explaining the difference. A HRM is going to give you a gross calorie loss not a net calorie loss.

http://www.shapesense.com/fitness-exercise/articles/net-versus-gross-calorie-burn.aspx

If you use a gross estimate you are essentially double counting with your BMR.

Long story short wear your heart rate monitor doing your normal daily activities for 2 hours and see how many calories it says you have burned. If it says say 300 calories where it said 1100 when you were exercising then you actually burned 800 calories from the exercise.

Aaron_K123

All that said 1100 calories for close to two hours of exercise still sounds pretty high to me. You might want to try eating back 50%-75% of that amount and see how you feel. I'm guessing its closer to 700 than 1100.

mrsmarquez11

Ok great thanks all! I will be making a few tweaks to my goals and such then.

Aaron_K123

Hey that said your math looks good so you are approaching it the right way. Its just a matter of collecting data over time and making adjustments based on how your body responds. It might take months of logging to get enough data but eventually you can nail down a trend, see how much you are losing and adjust accordingly. Best friend you have in this is consistency and regular logging. Accurate estimates are great but everyones body is going to respond a bit differently so in the end you have to be able to watch your own body and figure out how to make the adjustments to get where you want to be.

Honestly though if you are watching your intake and getting regular exercise you will get results even if they are faster or slower than you expect.

Listen to your body. If you are hungry it is telling you something, if you find yourself weaker on your next workout instead of stronger that is telling you something. Don't be afraid to eat more if you need to.

mrsmarquez11

Thanks a lot for all the info, my mind is at ease.. One last question... So instead of putting in the exact amount of calories my HRM tells me, I should subtract the calories burned by about 20% to have a more accurate reading?

mschicagocubs

Thanks a lot for all the info, my mind is at ease.. One last question... So instead of putting in the exact amount of calories my HRM tells me, I should subtract the calories burned by about 20% to have a more accurate reading?

That or say it says you burned 400 calories, just eat like 200 back.

mrsmarquez11

Ok thank you!

Aaron_K123

Thanks a lot for all the info, my mind is at ease.. One last question... So instead of putting in the exact amount of calories my HRM tells me, I should subtract the calories burned by about 20% to have a more accurate reading?

Understand that I'm just guessing based on personal experience that your numbers are high...I don't "know" that they are high. The only way to truly no is just to log everything, track your stats (be it weight or inches around your waist) and be honest in your logging of calories and exercise calories. After enough time you will have enough data to see what happens with YOUR body which is all that really matters and a question only you can answer.

Lets say you are horribly wrong about how many calories you are burning exercising and when you think you are burning 1000 you are actually burning 600. Lets then say you were aiming for a 750 calorie deficit but because of that mistake you were only hitting a 350 calorie deficit.

After 3 months of logging lets say you would notice that you had lost weight but rather than losing 18 pounds you lost 9. Well then you know you should eat about 300 calories less. That's the only way to really know, otherwise its estimates and conjecture.

Am I right? I don't know, its just my suspicion that it is unlikely you are burning that much in your workouts.

To burn 1000 calories I think you'd have to be at like 80% of your maximum heart rate for something over 2 hours and my guess is those workouts have a warm up and a cool down in those minutes where you are probably at 80% of your heartrate for maybe 70 minutes of those 100 minutes you were working out.

I hear a lot of people suggest that you take your calories burned estimate and eat back 50% of those calories. You might try that but you have to listen to your body. If you find that doing that makes you tired or makes it harder to keep the intensity in your workouts later down the road you should probably eat more than that.

Its trial and error when it comes down to it I'm afraid and I'm not willing to say flat out "Yes do this exact thing and it will work for you specifically"

mrsmarquez11

Understand completely thanks!