Eating Exercise Calories

TheRealEnglishRose

I am trying to lose weight through dieting and am eating between 1200 and 1260 calories every day. (MFP has my target as 1260 and I know that I should always eat more than 1200).

On the weekend I burn about 500 calories on the treadmill each day and I am unsure about whether I should eat an additional 500 calories on those days to balance this.

I have tried looking it up online but there is a lot of conflicting information and advice.

HELP...!

lrmall01

If you got your calorie target from MFP, then yes, log and eat back the exercise calories.

Ludka13

I am trying to lose weight through dieting and am eating between 1200 and 1260 calories every day. (MFP has my target as 1260 and I know that I should always eat more than 1200).

On the weekend I burn about 500 calories on the treadmill each day and I am unsure about whether I should eat an additional 500 calories on those days to balance this.

I have tried looking it up online but there is a lot of conflicting information and advice.

HELP...!

Yes! Eat your exercise calories. I don't always eat all of them, depends on how hungry I am. And I am not always convinced that calories burned estimates are right, be they on machines or on MFP, I think we tend to overestimate how much we burn.

ValGogo

I'm SO glad you brought this up!!!

I biked to work and am going to bike back. It bumped my calories to 3000 plus. There is NO way I'm going to eat 3000 calories today. Are they insane? I will go up to 2000 plus MAYBE. Jeebus, I'm trying to get into a deficit here.

jkestens63

I eat them if I am hungry.

__hannah_

When I first started MFP I exercised so that I could eat more calories, but now I don't feel as hungry so I sometimes eat exercise calories back. I know people who always eat them back, people who never do, and people who eat like half of them back, so it's up to you. See how you feel and just make sure your not starving yourself.

Alaterial

Calorie estimates are often much much higher than your actual caloric output. For example, if I track my calories burned with my Garmin watch while running it will give me one number versus putting in time and pace into MFP which will give me another.

You never burn as many calories as you think you do.

I usually slash off at least 100 calories from whatever number MFP or the Garmin gives me.

Some days I eat the calories back, sometimes I don't. See how hungry you are and eat accordingly.

TheRealEnglishRose

One of my main concerns came from the fact that I am eating only just above the "minimum" 1200 calories, and I am scared that if I don't eat them back I will put my body into "starvation mode". However, I don't really want to eat them back as I already eat a lot normally within my 1200-1260 and am therefore not really hungry for the extra calories.

cwolfman13

Here's how it works...you put all of this groovy info about yourself into this calculator called MFP. You're supposed to choose an activity level that best describes your day to day WITHOUT any exercise...just your normal hum drum. This calculator then calculates your theoretical NON-EXERCISE maintenance number based on your stats and activity level as per statistical averages of the general populous. From this number, MFP will take a cut of XXX calories as per your desired rate of loss...250 calories per day cut for 1/2 Lb per week...500 calories per day cut for 1 Lb per week...1,0000 calories per day for 2 Lbs per week (aggressive). 1200 net calories is the lowest MFP will go as it is extremely difficult to get actual proper nutrition below that intake...and really, anything lower than that would be considered a VLCD for the vast majority and should only be done under medical supervision to ensure minimum nutritional requirements are being met.

So let's say you do what most people do and select "sedentary" and 2 Lbs per week loss rate goal...MFP is pretty much going to default to around 1200 calories because for one, if you're sedentary you don't need that many calories to maintain; and 2, 1,000 calories per day is ****ing huge deficit of energy. Usually if you say sedentary and 2 Lbs, that 1200 calorie goal is only about a 600 - 800 calorie deficit from your theoretical "sedentary" maintenance number.

So that means that MFP is assuming your NON-EXERCISE maintenance number to be around 1800 calories or so...pretty typical for a sedentary to light active female of average size...this gives you a deficit built into your diet of 1800 - 1200 = 600 calories per day...just over 1 Lb per week. Now if you exercise you are adding additional activity...so your maintenance number moves from 1800 calories per day to 1800 + 500 = 2,300 calories per day and your new calorie goal goes from 1200 calories to 1,700 calories...but you still maintain the same 600 calorie deficit you were at because 2,300 - 1,700 = 600 calories per day.

Now you may ask, why not just keep the additional 500 calories and tack that onto the 600 and have a deficit of 1,100 calories? The reason is that your net calories would be very low...too low really to provide your body with what it needs...a net of 700 calories is just far too low for the vast majority. The other issue here is that most people really aren't sedentary, but that's what they put and that further strains their calorie restrictions.

You should at least be eating some portion of those exercise calories back..I would leave some margin for error as it is difficult to accurately determine calorie burns and it is also likely that you underestimate your intake (pretty much everyone does, even if they're religious about food scales and measuring tools). That is the way that this tool is designed.

justcat206

I don't, but only because MFP tends to underestimate the calories I eat and WAY overestimate the calories I burn. But, I don't do a ton of cardio, either, so my window is pretty small. If you're still trying to lose instead of maintain, then I'd be cautious about eating back many.

cwolfman13

I'm SO glad you brought this up!!!

I biked to work and am going to bike back. It bumped my calories to 3000 plus. There is NO way I'm going to eat 3000 calories today. Are they insane? I will go up to 2000 plus MAYBE. Jeebus, I'm trying to get into a deficit here.

Jeebus...your deficit is already built into your calorie goal as per all that groovy info about yourself that you input to this calculator so that it could do it's job and calculate a calorie deficit for weight loss for you....

That said, I'd say your burn was way over estimated unless you were literally riding a 1/2 century or something. I ride around 80 miles per week and maintain at around 2800 - 3000 calories. You have to be very careful with calorie burn estimates...apps and databases tend to grossly overestimate. My cycling app tells me I burn 800 + calories for a 15 mile ride...in actuality I burn around 530 as per my wattage output...about 65% of what my app tells me.

kirili3

You don't have to but I sure do. I'll jog for chocolate covered almonds.

TheRealEnglishRose

Here's how it works...you put all of this groovy info about yourself into this calculator called MFP. You're supposed to choose an activity level that best describes your day to day WITHOUT any exercise...just your normal hum drum. This calculator then calculates your theoretical NON-EXERCISE maintenance number based on your stats and activity level as per statistical averages of the general populous. From this number, MFP will take a cut of XXX calories as per your desired rate of loss...250 calories per day cut for 1/2 Lb per week...500 calories per day cut for 1 Lb per week...1,0000 calories per day for 2 Lbs per week (aggressive). 1200 net calories is the lowest MFP will go as it is extremely difficult to get actual proper nutrition below that intake...and really, anything lower than that would be considered a VLCD for the vast majority and should only be done under medical supervision to ensure minimum nutritional requirements are being met.

So let's say you do what most people do and select "sedentary" and 2 Lbs per week loss rate goal...MFP is pretty much going to default to around 1200 calories because for one, if you're sedentary you don't need that many calories to maintain; and 2, 1,000 calories per day is ****ing huge deficit of energy. Usually if you say sedentary and 2 Lbs, that 1200 calorie goal is only about a 600 - 800 calorie deficit from your theoretical "sedentary" maintenance number.

So that means that MFP is assuming your NON-EXERCISE maintenance number to be around 1800 calories or so...pretty typical for a sedentary to light active female of average size...this gives you a deficit built into your diet of 1800 - 1200 = 600 calories per day...just over 1 Lb per week. Now if you exercise you are adding additional activity...so your maintenance number moves from 1800 calories per day to 1800 + 500 = 2,300 calories per day and your new calorie goal goes from 1200 calories to 1,700 calories...but you still maintain the same 600 calorie deficit you were at because 2,300 - 1,700 = 600 calories per day.

When I entered all my data into MFP I told it that I had an active lifestyle. I am currently using a pedometer for my own curiousity and my job alone contributes between 10,000-15,000 steps a day, depending on what I need to get done that day and I am also constantly crawling around the floor since I work as a lab tech. I am not sure if this information would also be used in the MFP calculation.

cwolfman13

Here's how it works...you put all of this groovy info about yourself into this calculator called MFP. You're supposed to choose an activity level that best describes your day to day WITHOUT any exercise...just your normal hum drum. This calculator then calculates your theoretical NON-EXERCISE maintenance number based on your stats and activity level as per statistical averages of the general populous. From this number, MFP will take a cut of XXX calories as per your desired rate of loss...250 calories per day cut for 1/2 Lb per week...500 calories per day cut for 1 Lb per week...1,0000 calories per day for 2 Lbs per week (aggressive). 1200 net calories is the lowest MFP will go as it is extremely difficult to get actual proper nutrition below that intake...and really, anything lower than that would be considered a VLCD for the vast majority and should only be done under medical supervision to ensure minimum nutritional requirements are being met.

So let's say you do what most people do and select "sedentary" and 2 Lbs per week loss rate goal...MFP is pretty much going to default to around 1200 calories because for one, if you're sedentary you don't need that many calories to maintain; and 2, 1,000 calories per day is ****ing huge deficit of energy. Usually if you say sedentary and 2 Lbs, that 1200 calorie goal is only about a 600 - 800 calorie deficit from your theoretical "sedentary" maintenance number.

So that means that MFP is assuming your NON-EXERCISE maintenance number to be around 1800 calories or so...pretty typical for a sedentary to light active female of average size...this gives you a deficit built into your diet of 1800 - 1200 = 600 calories per day...just over 1 Lb per week. Now if you exercise you are adding additional activity...so your maintenance number moves from 1800 calories per day to 1800 + 500 = 2,300 calories per day and your new calorie goal goes from 1200 calories to 1,700 calories...but you still maintain the same 600 calorie deficit you were at because 2,300 - 1,700 = 600 calories per day.

When I entered all my data into MFP I told it that I had an active lifestyle. I am currently using a pedometer for my own curiousity and my job alone contributes between 10,000-15,000 steps a day, depending on what I need to get done that day and I am also constantly crawling around the floor since I work as a lab tech. I am not sure if this information would also be used in the MFP calculation.

Did you set your activity level to "very active" or your fitness/exercise goals? Your fitness/exercise goals are just for you and have no bearing on your calorie goal calculation...for example, if you tell MFP you're going to walk 10000 steps per day and burn 500 calories per day doing so, that is just for you...MFP doesn't recalculate your calorie goal based on that information. If you actually set your activity level to "very active" then it should calculate a reasonable calorie goal based on being very active. I have never seen anyone put in "very active" in their activity level setting and get back a 1200 calorie goal.

I was just playing around with my profile and put in that I was a 5'3" female and 180 Lbs "very active" wanting to lose 2 Lbs per week and MFP gave me a calorie goal of 1,640 calories. If I were you, I'd go in and check and adjust my profile to reflect an appropriate activity level...if not, you'd want to add back calories from your steps if they aren't included in your calorie goal as well as any other additional exercise.

I am unsure of your sex or stats as your profile is completely locked so this is the best I could come up with.

TheRealEnglishRose

Sex: Female
Current Weight: 155lbs (This was where I started)
Goal Weight: 105lbs
Height: 5' 1"
Activity: Active
Goal: 2lbs a week

Also, my profile should be visible now...

nrheasley

If you eat them back and gain or don't have a loss, try knocking off a certain percentage-maybe start out by eating back 95% and leaving the other 5% out. Same results next week, bump that up to 10%. Just a suggestion!

SkimFlatWhite68

If you got your calorie target from MFP, then yes, log and eat back the exercise calories.

If you eat them back and gain or don't have a loss, try knocking off a certain percentage-maybe start out by eating back 95% and leaving the other 5% out. Same results next week, bump that up to 10%. Just a suggestion!

Totally agree. I don't think we can ever really know how many calories we burn in a workout (I don't even try to work it out) but what you can do is eat an average of 1500 (for example) a day for a week and tweak up or down depending on your results.

cherbert1

I normally eat back half. I haven't found the sweet spot yet so ill follow this thread..

nrheasley

Since commenting on this post, I've actually decided to go by my TDEE, which already takes exercise into account. So now I don't have to worry about exercise calories!

TracyV125

Here's how it works...you put all of this groovy info about yourself into this calculator called MFP. You're supposed to choose an activity level that best describes your day to day WITHOUT any exercise...just your normal hum drum. This calculator then calculates your theoretical NON-EXERCISE maintenance number based on your stats and activity level as per statistical averages of the general populous. From this number, MFP will take a cut of XXX calories as per your desired rate of loss...250 calories per day cut for 1/2 Lb per week...500 calories per day cut for 1 Lb per week...1,0000 calories per day for 2 Lbs per week (aggressive). 1200 net calories is the lowest MFP will go as it is extremely difficult to get actual proper nutrition below that intake...and really, anything lower than that would be considered a VLCD for the vast majority and should only be done under medical supervision to ensure minimum nutritional requirements are being met.

So let's say you do what most people do and select "sedentary" and 2 Lbs per week loss rate goal...MFP is pretty much going to default to around 1200 calories because for one, if you're sedentary you don't need that many calories to maintain; and 2, 1,000 calories per day is ****ing huge deficit of energy. Usually if you say sedentary and 2 Lbs, that 1200 calorie goal is only about a 600 - 800 calorie deficit from your theoretical "sedentary" maintenance number.

So that means that MFP is assuming your NON-EXERCISE maintenance number to be around 1800 calories or so...pretty typical for a sedentary to light active female of average size...this gives you a deficit built into your diet of 1800 - 1200 = 600 calories per day...just over 1 Lb per week. Now if you exercise you are adding additional activity...so your maintenance number moves from 1800 calories per day to 1800 + 500 = 2,300 calories per day and your new calorie goal goes from 1200 calories to 1,700 calories...but you still maintain the same 600 calorie deficit you were at because 2,300 - 1,700 = 600 calories per day.

Now you may ask, why not just keep the additional 500 calories and tack that onto the 600 and have a deficit of 1,100 calories? The reason is that your net calories would be very low...too low really to provide your body with what it needs...a net of 700 calories is just far too low for the vast majority. The other issue here is that most people really aren't sedentary, but that's what they put and that further strains their calorie restrictions.

You should at least be eating some portion of those exercise calories back..I would leave some margin for error as it is difficult to accurately determine calorie burns and it is also likely that you underestimate your intake (pretty much everyone does, even if they're religious about food scales and measuring tools). That is the way that this tool is designed.

This is definitely the most helpful post I've ever read on this site. Thank you for taking the time to explain in such detail. I just recently seemed to stall in weight loss and now I know why I should eat some of my exercise calories back (and NOT feel guilty about it). Can't thank you enough for this great explanation.

FindingAmy77

I eat them if I am hungry.

me too

AdamRNY

fantastic post thank you...question though...Is there a guideline where you want to use the combination of exercise with reduced calorie intake to increase speed of weight lose?

So I am a male, 5'9", 208.5, sedentary setting and I put ion to lose 1.5 pounds a week and it gave me a daily goal of 1530. Now I also have a FitBit that links into MFP and pushes in my "calculated" burned calories based upon it's setting and let's take today for example I did a 30 min run this morning and currently my fit bit has me at 354 burned for the day (2:00 pmEST). So let's say I get up to 440 burned for the day then my total would 1530 + 470 = 2000. As I type it out I think I answered my own question ... so my nutritionist said I should do at least 1500 a day...so if I burn anything I need to eat it back cause otherwise I will be under 1500. Am I missing anything?