Can someone explain to me how calorie burning works?

manningania

Let's say today I ate 1500 calories and I burnt 300, would that count as eating 1200?

SezxyStef

Yes that is exactly how it works.

Suggestions are often to eat back 50-75% of your exercise calories if you use MFP database burns as they can be high for most exercises.

PhearlessPhreaks

Let's say today I ate 1500 calories and I burnt 300, would that count as eating 1200?

Yes. It will show your 'net calories' as 1200.

ColeCake292012

Yeppers! Its kinda nifty if you think about it. Want to eat that super tasty treat that would put you over your calories? You can still earn it!

Aussie_in_PA

Essentially yes however calories in does not exactly equal calories out (It’s not quite that simple). Calories are a unit of measuring energy and in that regard calories expended must be greater than calories consumed or else calories will be stored (weight gain).

If you do a lot of exercise and strength training, then you do give yourself back some wiggle room in consuming additional calories and continue to lose or gain weight depending on your goal.

Capt_Apollo

i'm so glad i took an accounting class in college.

Frood42

Yes.

MFP aims to give you a consistent deficit as well.

Maintenance: 2200
Target deficit: 1000 (2lbs per week)
NET: 2200 - 1000 = 1200

NET Target: 1200
Exercise: 600

NET: 1200 - 600 = 600 (below NET target)
Deficit: 1600 (now larger as you have exercised)

Eat exercise cals: 600

NET: 600 + 600 = 1200 (back on NET target)
Deficit: 1000 (back on target)

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Shropshire1959

TOTAL calories IN (eaten) = TOTAL calories OUT (Energy for just being alive!! + Energy expended in exercise + ENERGY POOPED and WEE'd)

This last bit is often ignored.... gotta love your wee and poo !!!

Frood42

Essentially yes however calories in does not exactly equal calories out (It’s not quite that simple). Calories are a unit of measuring energy and in that regard calories expended must be greater than calories consumed or else calories will be stored (weight gain).

If you do a lot of exercise and strength training, then you do give yourself back some wiggle room in consuming additional calories and continue to lose or gain weight depending on your goal.

It is that simple, Calories In vs Calories Out
However the food you eat and the Nutrition you get from it will impact on your body composition, energy levels and other biological workings.

A balanced diet is good, so that you can get the right Nutrients so that the body will work the best it can.

However you can lose weight via Calories In vs Calories Out if you only eat McDonalds or Twinkies, it is the deficit that causes the loss of weight.

The loss of fat is different to the loss of weight, and factors such as a good diet and the appropriate training will help maintain LBM while losing Fat.


:grumble:
.

StaciMarie1974

There is more to calories burned that exercise. I think of it as your body uses energy (spends calories) in 3 ways:

Coma Calories: what your body uses for bodily functions. Your body spends energy to regulate your body temperature, pump blood, for your lungs to function, cell growth, food digestion, etc. I call 'em coma calories because this is energy you'd use even if you were in a coma or in bed all day.

Regular activity calories: you burn a little more to move throughout your day. Assuming you don't spend all day in bed/in a coma of course. How much depends on how active you are. Your body uses energy to carry your body around.

Exercise calories: intentional exercise, mainly cardio, gets your heart rate up & has you moving at a more active pace than your usual activity and so you burn a higher amount of calories when doing cardio. I say mainly cardio because most people don't burn much extra doing strength training.

Your height, age, weight, gender all play a part in this. If all else is equal, a 100 pound body uses less energy to move around than a 300 pound body. MFP takes information you provide and estimates how much you burn in the first 2 categories and subtracts enough (based on your weight loss goal) to have you eat at a deficit. If you burn more thru exercise you earn extra calories to consume because your deficit is already accounted for.

cmandd

I hate the "net calories" feature. If you are setting calories based on your TDEE, you are already accounting for the exercise. I skip the "net" and just go off the calories in part. If you want to use the "net" feature, set your daily goal based off of BMR, not TDEE.

brianpperkins

I hate the "net calories" feature. If you are setting calories based on your TDEE, you are already accounting for the exercise. I skip the "net" and just go off the calories in part. If you want to use the "net" feature, set your daily goal based off of BMR, not TDEE.

TDEE, BMR, and NEAT (the number MFP uses as its basis) are three different measurements.

manningania

I'm a bit confused by what you mean so if eating 1500 calories then the body did not burn off the extra 300 if that's how much would be burned? Lol

manningania

I hate the "net calories" feature. If you are setting calories based on your TDEE, you are already accounting for the exercise. I skip the "net" and just go off the calories in part. If you want to use the "net" feature, set your daily goal based off of BMR, not TDEE.

TDEE, BMR, and NEAT (the number MFP uses as its basis) are three different measurements.

I'm a bit confused by what you mean so if eating 1500 calories then the body did not burn off the extra 300 if that's how much would be burned? Lol

cmandd

I hate the "net calories" feature. If you are setting calories based on your TDEE, you are already accounting for the exercise. I skip the "net" and just go off the calories in part. If you want to use the "net" feature, set your daily goal based off of BMR, not TDEE.

TDEE, BMR, and NEAT (the number MFP uses as its basis) are three different measurements.

TDEE is BMR+NEAT+Exercise frequency. I typically use the Harris-Benedict formula instead, but MFP's suggestion is usually pretty close and that's already taking exercise into account.

cmandd

BMR is Basal Metabolic Rate, how many calories your body would burn a day if you did nothing at all.
NEAT is calories burned from daily movements. (Walking around your house, going to work, etc.)
TDEE is Total Daily Energy Expenditure, which is figured through a formula based on your BMR and typical activity level and exercise frequency.

Example:
For me, my BMR is 1856
My TDEE is 2669-2706 depending on which formula I use (Katch-McArdle uses BF%, Harris-Benedict is more general but works fine unless you are severely obese or a bodybuilder, as you can see, they are not far off).
MFP recommends around 2650 maintainance. This already includes an estimate of what my exercise level would burn.
So if I wanted to lose 1 pound, I would need a 500 cal/day deficit, which puts me at eating 2100-2200 cal/day.