Eatting back exercise calories

Fraser91x

Hello everyone!

I have hopefully a quick question. I was wondering on the amount of exercise calories everyone eats back?

If I do a program like insanity ( which I would like to try once I hit the 220lb mark ) I will be using a lot of calories to which I will check with my HRM. My question is how many of those calories should I eat back? So If I use 400 calories in the workout should I eat all 400 back?

Currently I am a 23year old male at 237 lbs 6' 1''. My MFP set me at 1900 calories to lose 1.5 a week. So I know my body would react badly to netting 1500 calories if I didn't make up the 400 from insanity it just confuses me why I would workout just to eat the calories back.

TeaBea

Hello everyone!

I have hopefully a quick question. I was wondering on the amount of exercise calories everyone eats back?

If I do a program like insanity ( which I would like to try once I hit the 220lb mark ) I will be using a lot of calories to which I will check with my HRM. My question is how many of those calories should I eat back? So If I use 400 calories in the workout should I eat all 400 back?

Currently I am a 23year old male at 237 lbs 6' 1''. My MFP set me at 1900 calories to lose 1.5 a week. So I know my body would react badly to netting 1500 calories if I didn't make up the 400 from insanity it just confuses me why I would workout just to eat the calories back.

A heart rate monitor is designed for steady state cardio. A heart rate monitor with a chest strap should be more accurate than wrist only jobs. Things like strength training are more difficult to measure.

Many MFP users will start with 75% of calories & work from there. If you start to feel run down, you're not eating enough, if you lose slower than anticipated you could be eating too much. Trial and error.

diannethegeek

Isn't Insanity one of the programs that comes with a nutrition guide? Have you checked to see how much it suggests you need to eat with the program? At the very least, it might give you a starting point.

DanielGray73

Try reading up on TDEE. I've recently switched from MFP's calculations and going to give it a go by ensuring I get at least my BRM consumed. MFP currently had my calories set at less than my BRM and I haven't lost any weight in over 2 weeks despite exercising every day.

You may need to eat back calories with this method but you'd need to tailor you TDEE to find out and it's entirely dependant on the individual and their habits.

logg1e

I started off exercising in order to have the calories for a big meal. Now I mostly exercise because I enjoy the way it makes me feel and the fact that I enjoy my heart and lungs being healthier.

cwolfman13

You're going to have to make adjustments for inherent estimation error. Even a HRM is not entirely accurate...it is relatively accurate for a steady state cardio event, but the further away you get from steady state cardio (like running) the less accurate it is going to be for calorie burn.

You are on the right track though..this tool is designed to set you up with a calorie goal for weight loss as if you weren't going to do any exercise whatsoever...your activity level setting is supposed to be your day to day type of stuff and shouldn't include exercise if you're following the MFP method. Note that your exercise goals are just for you..they have no bearing on your calorie goal...if you don't believe me, just play around with them a bit and you'll quickly see what I mean.

This means that exercise then becomes and extra activity that has not been accounted for in your activity level...thus requiring more calories to support while still maintaining your set deficit. Lets say your non-exercise theoretical maintenance number as per MFP is 2,300 calories and you tell MFP you want to lose about 1 Lb per week...MFP will cut 500 calories off that number and give you and 1,800 calorie goal. Now you decide to start working out and lets say you burn around 300 calories and log that...your goal will get bumped up to 2,100 calories to support that extra activity...but you still have the same net deficit because your theoretical maintenance number has also been increased by that same 300 calories and would now be 2,600 calories. 2,600 - 2,100 = 500 calorie deficit still.

You just have to make sure you're not overestimating calorie burn. It will take some playing around...maybe start with 50% of your exercise calories...if you end up losing more than predicted over the course of a few weeks then you know you can up your intake a bit. This is all just math...never forget the math. These calculators and estimates give you a good starting point but you have to make adjustments as per real world results...those adjustments are pretty easy to make when you understand the math.