Confused, calories?

Allisonfitness99

So I know people eat calories for body weight, but when you excersize you need to eat more calories? I don't understand?
MFP says I should eat 1600 iv eaten 798 workout was -742 but the calories I have left to eat is 1559...
I'm trying to lose weight but I can only so light work outs for now because of my PF, seems like a lot of calories to me..

Can someone please explain this to me?

susannamarie

742 is a lot of calories and I'd be suspicious of such a high number, how long did it take? A lot of people eat only half of their exercise calories due to overestimation by MFP.

Allisonfitness99

742 is a lot of calories and I'd be suspicious of such a high number, how long did it take? A lot of people eat only half of their exercise calories due to overestimation by MFP.

Idk? Maybe I'm doing something wrong? I logged in my work out and that's what came up...

jchadden42

Calories are the energy you get from eating food. Your body needs a certain amount of energy just to survive. The concept on this site is that if you consume fewer calories than you use, your body will get the energy from the stored fat (excess weight) already in your body. This works until you've used up your excess weight. Then, your body looks for the energy from your muscles. Most people don't make it to this point unless they have an eating disorder.

MFP has a calculator to tell you how many calories your body needs just to function on a day-to-day basis. When you exercise, you use more calories, and you can choose to either eat those calories back, or you can choose to go with the original setting, which leaves you at a deficit to help you lose weight.

For me, MFP says that I need 1750 calories to be me. Since I don't wish to lose weight, I need to eat 1750 calories every day. If I choose to exercise, I want to eat back those calories (because I don't want to lose weight). Some people find MFP to over-estimate calories burned through exercise. I have not found that to be the case for me.

I hope this helps.

Allisonfitness99

Calories are the energy you get from eating food. Your body needs a certain amount of energy just to survive. The concept on this site is that if you consume fewer calories than you use, your body will get the energy from the stored fat (excess weight) already in your body. This works until you've used up your excess weight. Then, your body looks for the energy from your muscles. Most people don't make it to this point unless they have an eating disorder.

MFP has a calculator to tell you how many calories your body needs just to function on a day-to-day basis. When you exercise, you use more calories, and you can choose to either eat those calories back, or you can choose to go with the original setting, which leaves you at a deficit to help you lose weight.

For me, MFP says that I need 1750 calories to be me. Since I don't wish to lose weight, I need to eat 1750 calories every day. If I choose to exercise, I want to eat back those calories (because I don't want to lose weight). Some people find MFP to over-estimate calories burned through exercise. I have not found that to be the case for me.

I hope this helps.

It does thank you!!

levitateme

742 is a lot of calories and I'd be suspicious of such a high number, how long did it take? A lot of people eat only half of their exercise calories due to overestimation by MFP.

Idk? Maybe I'm doing something wrong? I logged in my work out and that's what came up...

You aren't doing anything wrong. MFP has extremely inflated calorie burns for basic exercises. Only eat back your exercise calories if you're sure they are accurate. The best way to be sure is to know your average heart rate for the duration of the activity. You can either invest in a heart rate monitor or you can enter the MFP calculated burns and eat back a portion (probably half) the calories it says you burn.

jenilla1

You burned 742 calories doing a "light workout"? I'd have to run almost 8 miles to burn that many myself. Obviously, people burn calories at different rates due to differences in size and fitness level, but that seems really high for what you've said was a light workout. I agree with the others who think maybe MFP is overestimating your burn...:flowerforyou:

veganbaum

1. When you sign up for MFP, you tell it what your goal is (lose weight, maintain, gain weight). If you set it to lose weight, it gives you a set number of calories to eat, and you should lose weight eating that number - MFP has already included a deficit for you to lose.

2. When you exercise you make your deficit larger, which is not actually always, or even often, a good thing. So you need to eat those calories, taking you back to your original deficit. Many people eat around 50-75% of those exercise calories to account for inaccuracies, but some people can eat 100% of them and still lose.

Allisonfitness99

You burned 742 calories doing a "light workout"? I'd have to run almost 8 miles to burn that many myself. Obviously, people burn calories at different rates due to differences in size and fitness level, but that seems really high for what you've said was a light workout. I agree with the others who think maybe MFP is overestimating your burn...:flowerforyou:

I did 65 mins all together but I did weights 20mins I did elliptical for 25, and rower for 20...
But I agree I think it might have overestimated my workout.

Sobus76

i'd suggest getting a heart rate monitor, i suggest one from Polar (its what i use and like it a lot) before i got it MFP was actually UNDERestimate my calorie burn most of the time, like today i did a day of couch to 5k, MFP calculated me to have burned almost 200 calories less then what my heart rate monitor did. the HRM has probably been my best investment in myself.

SLLRunner

You burned 742 calories doing a "light workout"? I'd have to run almost 8 miles to burn that many myself. Obviously, people burn calories at different rates due to differences in size and fitness level, but that seems really high for what you've said was a light workout. I agree with the others who think maybe MFP is overestimating your burn...:flowerforyou:

I did 65 mins all together but I did weights 20mins I did elliptical for 25, and rower for 20...
But I agree I think it might have overestimated my workout.

Yeah, even at your weight, I'd say 742 calories is a bit overestimated. I'd take a hundred or even 200 off that.

An example of overestimated calories: Today I ran 6.25 miles in about an hour and walked for about ten minutes and my heart rate monitor gave me 563 calories. The treadmill's reading said almost 800 calories. My average run was 6.2 mph, which is not in the MFP database, but when I input 6 mph, the burn came out to 641. 6.2 mph would render a higher number.

See the difference between my heart rate monitor (which has a chest strap and is calibrated with my particular settings) and the readings from the treadmill and MFP?

Those difference can kill a calorie deficit.

SLLRunner

i'd suggest getting a heart rate monitor, i suggest one from Polar (its what i use and like it a lot) before i got it MFP was actually UNDERestimate my calorie burn most of the time, like today i did a day of couch to 5k, MFP calculated me to have burned almost 200 calories less then what my heart rate monitor did. the HRM has probably been my best investment in myself.

That's interesting you say that. I got my heart rate monitor (Polar FT7) because I was losing weight faster than what I had set my goals for. I knew I wasn't underestimating my food so I figured it had something to do with calorie burns. I wasn't using MFP but a running app on my phone. It was underestimating my calories as well.

raven_ous

How to set up your calorie and macro goals properly, plus other extremely good stuff...

http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/1080242-a-guide-to-get-you-started-on-your-path-to-sexypants

Concerning exercise calories...

http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/818082-exercise-calories-again-wtf

DefiningMyHealth

Calories are the energy you get from eating food. Your body needs a certain amount of energy just to survive. The concept on this site is that if you consume fewer calories than you use, your body will get the energy from the stored fat (excess weight) already in your body. This works until you've used up your excess weight. Then, your body looks for the energy from your muscles. Most people don't make it to this point unless they have an eating disorder.

I agree with this.

Sobus76

i'd suggest getting a heart rate monitor, i suggest one from Polar (its what i use and like it a lot) before i got it MFP was actually UNDERestimate my calorie burn most of the time, like today i did a day of couch to 5k, MFP calculated me to have burned almost 200 calories less then what my heart rate monitor did. the HRM has probably been my best investment in myself.

That's interesting you say that. I got my heart rate monitor (Polar FT7) because I was losing weight faster than what I had set my goals for. I knew I wasn't underestimating my food so I figured it had something to do with calorie burns. I wasn't using MFP but a running app on my phone. It was underestimating my calories as well.

i noticed it too with apps on my phone like Couch to 5k, and the mapmyfitness apps, i also use the FT7 and highly recommend it. i never workout without it now.