Worked out four hours today

sweetnessnc

Totals: 1,896

Your Daily Goal: 2,743

Remaining: 847

*You've earned 1,383 extra calories from exercise today

As you can see, I didn't eat all of my calories. I understand that you are suppose to eat back ALL of the calories. But I just don't understand how eating 2,743 calories could actually help me lose weight...I ate 1,896 calories. That seems to be waaay more then enough. What do you think?

i think you have worked it out very well.
i disagree that the understanding is to eat bacl ALL your exercise cals.that would be counter intuitive, and also not recommended by my doctor,for me anyways.

i too exercised 4 hours today, ate back 25% of my exrcise cals as was hungry.also added in an extra treat for tomorrow night. my little snack bank haha.

people say exercise burns are overestimated on mfp, but i have done a lot of comparatives with other swimmers using hrms,trackers etc and we are comfortable with burns logged.
dont listen to the nay sayers and doom merchants please.

great burn day and stay positive.

regards
cw 88kg now.

THANK YOU CW.

It is easy to get discouraged with those who say the MFP calculator is wrong. That's the only thing motivating me right now. If I believed the "nay sayers and doom merchants " I just may slack off or worse-GIVE UP, telling myself it doesn't matter cause "it's wrong anyway".
Your post puts it to rest for me.
Again, thank you!

sweetnessnc

I did four hours because all I did was walking outside and walking up and down my stairs in the house. I didn't do them all at the same time either.

It sounds like a normal day for a lot of people. I wouldn't call walking 'working out' but MFP has some weird conventions.

One of my MFPals actually walks at my jogging pace. And she covers double the miles! Yeah, that's a workout

Yes girl because my pit bull have me sweating! That's why I call it a workout. And walking up and down my stairs is a even bigger workout because my legs burn and I sweat. I know I need to do strength training...I could probably just use my bands but I really do love walking. It truly does help me.

EMTFreakGirl

When I first read the title/subject line, I thought, "4 hours...that's crazy!" Then I realized that I do that sometimes, too. In the winter, on "mountain days" (those days that I ski or snowshoe) I exercise WAY more than 4 hours. lol Good for you OP!
To answer the question, I try to eat back half or a bit less, on average. If it's a crazy hungry day, I will eat back every single one, but that's only happened once or twice. Good luck to you!

daw0518

This thread made me realize that the term 'working out' means something very specific in my head. When I think working out, I think hardcore (to me) exercise, like hard aerobics, running, or lifting weights at the gym, while when I think general exercise I think walking to class or cleaning or light hiking or pretty much anything else.

Maybe that's why so many people were like 'omg, you worked out for FOUR HOURS today?!', haha. Because I know I was thinking 'omg you were at the gym for FOUR HOURS today?!' in my head.

Shauna2626

This thread made me realize that the term 'working out' means something very specific in my head. When I think working out, I think hardcore (to me) exercise, like hard aerobics, running, or lifting weights at the gym, while when I think general exercise I think walking to class or cleaning or light hiking or pretty much anything else.

Maybe that's why so many people were like 'omg, you worked out for FOUR HOURS today?!', haha. Because I know I was thinking 'omg you were at the gym for FOUR HOURS today?!' in my head.

This.

Elsie_Brownraisin

This thread made me realize that the term 'working out' means something very specific in my head. When I think working out, I think hardcore (to me) exercise, like hard aerobics, running, or lifting weights at the gym, while when I think general exercise I think walking to class or cleaning or light hiking or pretty much anything else.

Maybe that's why so many people were like 'omg, you worked out for FOUR HOURS today?!', haha. Because I know I was thinking 'omg you were at the gym for FOUR HOURS today?!' in my head.

This.

Went holiday to Scotland in the Ben Nevis area and spent at least 2 hours a day walking and on 2 of the days well over 6, as well as open water swimming every day (admittedly a dip on the big walk days) but it's still working out. Much more fun than the gym too.

If working out for 4 hours is something that you don't do very often, don't worry about not eating the calories back on that particular day and just work it in over the next few days. If you've burned a lot, it's sometimes difficult to physically eat it all on the one day. If it's something you do often, because you have an active job or strenuous hobby (e.g. allotment gardening) then you'll have to get those extra calories in regularly.

I don't log my excerise calories in the same way, but the consensus seems to be that you should eat a bit less than what MFP gives you as it overestimates. Other than that, eat the extra calories - you've burned them. As long as you're eating less than you burn, you'll lose weight, even if the deficit figure for the extra active days are rather higher than you're used to.

lemurcat12

LOL wasn't trying to be a doom merchant (although I may use that title at another time because it's pretty catchy) but was merely pointing out something that many others have noticed and commented on as a potential MFP flaw to consider as having a direct impact on "General Diet and Weight Loss Help" such as the title of this message board.

Apologies if I've caused people to be discouraged, wasn't my intention.

Peace out.

Well, people need to be aware of the potential issue if they are wondering why they aren't losing weight. One possibility is overestimating calories burned. It's the truth. Whether you believe it or not, just because you ignore it doesn't mean it doesn't exist.

ha ha ha wouldn't they be ASKING that question if it was an issue. Nobody was asking why they weren't losing....were they?? Potential issue? Seems if it's not the issue in this post, then why would it even need to be addressed here?

Well, the OP had a 1300+ exercise total from 4 hours of exercise, so if I've found that the totals for, say, 4 hours of biking seem way off for me, and that I lose what I expect to (or only a little more) by eating back about half of those totals (which is true), it's relevant to the advice sought. Basically, sometimes there's a problem with multi-hour exercise totals, maybe because what you'd burn otherwise needs to be backed out.

I don't think anyone should strain to eat back a giant exercise calorie total in a particular day. If it's an irregular thing, eat what you feel like and be open to eating a little more the next day if you are hungrier. If it's regular, consider working it into overall activity level. When I'm commuting regularly by bike I may ride 2 hours in the day (in lieu of a on average 1:45 daily commute, so it doesn't really cost me much time) on top of whatever other exercise I do, but I include bike commuting (and walking, like the OP seems to be largely talking about) as part of general activity level.

I also think there are other calorie totals that seem too high, but people should experiment with their results. I've also seen people claiming they don't lose when they eat back exercise calories, and that's certainly not been my experience--other than the really high totals, I tend to eat back most of mine and don't lose less than I should.

jdhcm2006

This thread made me realize that the term 'working out' means something very specific in my head. When I think working out, I think hardcore (to me) exercise, like hard aerobics, running, or lifting weights at the gym, while when I think general exercise I think walking to class or cleaning or light hiking or pretty much anything else.

Maybe that's why so many people were like 'omg, you worked out for FOUR HOURS today?!', haha. Because I know I was thinking 'omg you were at the gym for FOUR HOURS today?!' in my head.

This!

Bearbo27

This thread made me realize that the term 'working out' means something very specific in my head. When I think working out, I think hardcore (to me) exercise, like hard aerobics, running, or lifting weights at the gym, while when I think general exercise I think walking to class or cleaning or light hiking or pretty much anything else.

Maybe that's why so many people were like 'omg, you worked out for FOUR HOURS today?!', haha. Because I know I was thinking 'omg you were at the gym for FOUR HOURS today?!' in my head.

^^^This