How much to eat back...?

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bradp1979
bradp1979 Posts: 154 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
So this happens relatively often: I have a 1440-calorie/day goal. I exercise either by riding a stationary bike or by walking almost every day. I use the Fitbit, which knocks off calories throughout the day just from my daily activities. Today, I ate a banana and an apple for "breakfast" around 10:00, then I went for a 48-minute walk on my lunch break, and come back to 1845 calories remaining for the day. The Fitbit says that I have burned 700 calories so far today, with the walk and with running around my office all morning. Should I still try to gross 1440 calories for the day, or should I try to eat another 1800 calories between lunch, dinner, and snacks?

Thoughts?

Replies

  • Papa_Grande
    Papa_Grande Posts: 63 Member
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    Mna, I'm gonna wait for the replies....I never understand it.
  • TutuMom41
    TutuMom41 Posts: 278
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    It depends on your goal. I am maintaining so I eat them all back if I can.
  • bradp1979
    bradp1979 Posts: 154 Member
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    Wow. Great loss, TutuMom! My goal is to lose 2 lbs a week.
  • redwoodkestrel
    redwoodkestrel Posts: 339 Member
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    Do you have MFP and your Fitbit synced? If so, go by what MFP tells you is your remaining calories for the day. You don't have to eat them all back, but most people aim for eating back ~50-75% of their exercise calories.
  • AlFreebs
    AlFreebs Posts: 24 Member
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    It actually shouldn't depend on your goal. If you've entered your goal & timeframe in the FitBit App & MFP, they are both giving you the total calories you need to eat to maintain MINUS the amount you need to need to forego in order to lose. MFP's estimate is based on your everyday activitiy (without extra exercise), therefore when you log your exercise, you are allowed to "eat back" those calories and still stay in your "loss range". FitBit is also doing this (and automatically adds the calories based on your activity and steps), so they should end up fairly similar.

    Bottomline, as long as you are logging your food & exercise accurately, you should be able to eat back your exercise calories and still lose. It gets super confusing, but hopefully this helps!
  • Adaniel65
    Adaniel65 Posts: 105 Member
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    I have a question for the group related to this... When MFP calculates your calorie goals for the day, it takes into account how many calories you burn just basically existing during the day based on your activity level (sedentary, active, etc.). So, while I've been thinking about getting a fitbit, does it make sense to only use it while I'm working out since it syncs with MFP? My rationale is that I don't want it calculating calories already accounted for in my profile setting. Make sense?

    Thanks!
  • redwoodkestrel
    redwoodkestrel Posts: 339 Member
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    I have a question for the group related to this... When MFP calculates your calorie goals for the day, it takes into account how many calories you burn just basically existing during the day based on your activity level (sedentary, active, etc.). So, while I've been thinking about getting a fitbit, does it make sense to only use it while I'm working out since it syncs with MFP? My rationale is that I don't want it calculating calories already accounted for in my profile setting. Make sense?

    Thanks!

    It won't double-count your calories - you can wear your Fitbit all day, and it will only add calories burned to MFP ABOVE what you have your activity level set for. Most people I know with Fitbits set their activity level to sedentary and wear their Fitbit all the time - so any activity you do above the normal "sedentary" settings will add calories burned to your day. This might not be much if you work a desk job and just get up and walk around every once in awhile - so you'll get the calories you'd normally for a "lightly active" setting, for example. On days where you walk/run a lot, you'll get more calories burned coming from your Fitbit to MFP... so those days you'd get the calories from a "moderately" or "highly active" setting. It's like personalizing your MFP setting every day, based on how much actual activity you did that day.

    You could set MFP to a different level than sedentary, and thus you'll start out each day with more calories you can eat, and Fitbit will sync less calories burned throughout the day to MFP from your general activities. If you choose to do this though, then I recommend enabling negative calories... that way if you're set on MFP at lightly active, for example, but your Fitbit records that you were actually sedentary that day, it will take away calories for you to eat.

    I just find it easiest to wear the Fitbit all day, have MFP set to sedentary, and then let the Fitbit show how active I actually was each day.
  • Adaniel65
    Adaniel65 Posts: 105 Member
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    Ah, I see. Thank you, I appreciate the info.
    I had it all wrong!

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