Why should I eat back my exercise calories?!?!

wewon

Okay, this is far from a scientific study, but I thought that this was interesting.

I was just sitting down on the computer with my HRM beside me and remembered a few threads about the calorie calculations from the little device.

Just on a lark, I decided to set my HMR to track my calories as I sat here over an hour. I burned off 70 calories, okay fine.

Decided to multiply that by 24 hours and if my life was totally sedentary I would burn off 1680 calories, thats no exercise, walking or anything else. That's almost the same consumption rate that MFP (giving both methods some slack for error).

It takes 1680 calories just for me to sit on my *** and breath. So if I start dipping below that what get sacrificed?

Imagine if I decide to go running for 30 minutes, something has to give.

If you don't eat back to calories from exercise, you're not even getting enough energy to sit on your butt, so either your metabolism will slow down or you will start losing lean tissue.

tgh1914

Although I agree with the principle of what you're trying to say, HRMs are not made to take accurate resting heart rates. They are really just made for measuring HR during aerobic exercise. The numbers may work out for you (I don't know) but for most at rest they will probably overestimate.

Nataliethin81

HRM's are actually only designed to calculate your calories burned while doing actual exercise, not just sitting around. So most likely it's not accurate.

aippolito1

I agree, my resting heart rate is between 50 and 80 but when I put it on, it's usually much higher and I'm not excited or mad or experiencing any other emotion that would make my heart rate to be elevated. Soooo I don't think HRMs are very accurate for resting heart rates either. You would have to literally time your pulse to figure out how many calories you burn just resting to get the most accurate BMR...

wewon

Okay, so instead of being off by 10% it should be 12%?

LOL!

WifeMomDVM

If you don't eat back to calories from exercise, you're not even getting enough energy to sit on your butt, so either your metabolism will slow down or you will start losing lean tissue.

+/- some fat...

I do advocate eating exercise calories, but didn't want people to think their muscles will waste away if they sit around and don' eat (though technically they would if you DID just sit and NOT eat), but eating protein and doing strength training helps minimize lean tissue loss during weight loss.

Just wanted to throw that in!

SassyStef

I am not really sure i agree with the posters above....My mom was having a situtation where her heart would race just when she was sitting down and the cardiologist recommended a HRM so she can log when her rate was high and low and it is the same one I use for exercise...so if a doc is using it to track HR for that then why wouldnt it count for the OP evaluation???

I also agree about the exercise calorie thing! You burn it you gotta fuel your body to keep going

ladyhawk00

Here's a very informative and helpful blog about HRMs and how best to use them (no, they aren't very good at tracking anything other than aerobic activity).

http://www.myfitnesspal.com/blog/Azdak/view/the-real-facts-about-hrms-and-calories-what-you-need-to-know-before-purchasing-an-hrm-or-using-one-21472

But yes, eat your exercise cals.

tgh1914

I am not really sure i agree with the posters above....My mom was having a situtation where her heart would race just when she was sitting down and the cardiologist recommended a HRM so she can log when her rate was high and low and it is the same one I use for exercise...so if a doc is using it to track HR for that then why wouldnt it count for the OP evaluation???

I also agree about the exercise calorie thing! You burn it you gotta fuel your body to keep going

I imagine the doc was wanting her to use it to get a measure of her HR (pulse). The inaccuracy comes in when you try to translate that into calorie burn.