Exercise calories burned as part of BMR

kerenvaknin

Hi Guys,

I came to a very interesting understanding yesterday, when I calculated the calories burned when standing for 4 hours at a party.
In the activity calculator I got 400+ cals burned. I assumed that during the day I'm burning calories anyway (BMR), so standing burns a little more and the calculation is OK.

Then I realized, that since I started my weight loss journey, I always calculated the calories burned from exercise in addition to my BMR (to create the required deficit). But now I understand that it is incorrect, because my BMR (for sedentary lifestyle) is 70 calories per hour, and I didn't take this under consideration when calculating exercise calories burned!

For example, If I exercise for two hours during the day, and I burn 700 calories, I need to deduct 140 calories if I consider my BMR as 1600 calories everyday.

What do you say? Are my assumptions correct?
I will appreciate your replies, I really need to understand this better.

Thanks!
Keren

sweetsunlover

i'd like to hear the answers to this to as have thought about this myself :-)

blowtotheskull

This article from Runner's World might help you - it explains (although in the context of running, it's universally applicable) the difference between total calories burned (which includes those you'd burn anyway due to your BMR) and net calories burned (the extra calories used up due to exercise).

http://www.runnersworld.com/article/0,7120,s6-242-304-311-8402-0,00.html

TavistockToad

Yes, i saw this in another post (about starvation mode & calorie deficits i think), and you are correct that technically you should subtract your BMR calories from exercise as you would be burning some cals just sitting, breathing etc anyway.

I guess it depends how accurate you want to be, whether you measure all your food to the last gram etc!

Cytherea

Yes! It is! Absolutely!

This is one of the most misunderstood things on here, I think. And my theory is that this is the reason why people claim to not lose as much weight (or not lose at all or even gain!) when they eat back their exercise calories- because they don't subtract the calories that they would have burned just by existing, they end up actually *overeating* when they go to eat back those exercise calories!

I've explained this a few times, so I'll copy and paste here just so that you (and any one else!) can see how this all works out

Do you have a HRM? If you don't, and the calorie burns are estimates, I'd eat probably only about half of my exercise calories back just to be safe.

If you do, you can safely eat all of them back minus the ones that you would have burned if you were just at rest. So you'll have to do some math first to subtract the ones that you can't eat back.

When you are doing nothing- resting, not exercising, you are still burning calories! A small amount, mind you, but you are. Those calories that you burn throughout the day if you were totally at rest is what makes up your BMR. When MFP calculates how much you need to eat each day in order to lose weight, it is using your BMR.

So what happens when you exercise is you burn more calories- but some of those calories you would have burned anyways just by existing. And since MFP has already accounted for those calories, you don't want to eat them back.

The best way to figure this is out is if you have a HRM, but you can do it from just your BMR too. What you need to do is wear your HRM for 10 minutes while you are just lying around doing nothing. Make sure that nothing happens to get your heart rate up. Don't walk around, don't read/watch something intense, just sit calmly and quietly. At the end of the 10 minutes, see how many calories it says you burned.

Alternatively, if you don't have a HRM, use the BMR tool on MFP and see what it tells you your BMR is. Now, that is over the course of the day, so you will want to break it down to a smaller increment (you can do it in minute intervals or 10 minute intervals). So if you want to do the 10 minute to be consistent, whatever it tells you your BMR is divided by the number of 10 minute intervals in a day (144). Just remember, the BMR tool won't be as accurate as a HRM.

Once you have this number, you can do your workouts as usual. Once you've finished your workouts, this is when it is time for more math.

What the aim of all this is is to subtract the number of calories you would have burned anyways at rest from your total burned during the workout so that you can see exactly how many you should eat back. Take however many minutes you worked out and divide by 10 (since I'm going to stick with the 10 minute theme). So if you worked out for 1 hour, the answer is 6. If you worked out for an uneven number of minutes, don't round up or down, keep the decimal. Then, multiple that number by the number you already figured out that you burn at rest in 10 minutes. Then, subtract that number from the total that you burned working out, and you have how many calories you should eat back.

Here's an example from one of my actual workouts. According to my HRM, I burn between 17 and 19 calories every 10 minutes at rest (you can do this over the course of a few days and then average them to get a more accurate number), so we'll say 18 (average).

I worked out for: 33 minutes. My HRM said I burned: 282 calories.

33 / 10 = 3.3
3.3 * 18 = 59.4
282 - 59.4 = 222.6

So you eat back 222 calories (at this point, you can round).

If I were to eat back all 282 calories, I'd actually be over my calories for the day by 60.

My theory is that most people who claim they can't eat back their exercise calories and still lose weight are actually doing it wrong. If you don't do these calculations, you WILL be overeating when you exercise!

The way I like to do it is to log as exercise what my HRM said I burned, but then "quick add" the calories that I subtract, so that I know I can't eat them. You could just subtract them from the total burned calorie amount and log it that way too, though.

Hope this helps!

katz22

I dont think you would gain much weight by being over by 60 cals a day

kerenvaknin

Thank you so much guys!!! your answers really helped me a lot and from now on I will use this calculation!!!

jennmoore3

Very interesting. I will have to try this to see if it makes a difference. I usually eat back exercise calories but leave 100-200 left over for the day.

Cytherea

I dont think you would gain much weight by being over by 60 cals a day

That was just an example, it obviously can vary. Especially if you don't have a HRM, you could be easily eating a few hundred calories over. The MFP calculations don't take into consideration how hard you worked! And no, one day wouldn't hurt you, but if you ate 60 calories over every day, it would certainly slow your weight loss! My point is to say that people will claim eating back their exercise calories hurts them, and prevents them from losing. In reality, I believe that more often than not, it is their own miscalculations (or lack of calculations altogether) that is hurting them. So when they stop eating their exercise calories back, they see a more dramatic weight loss, and claim that eating back exercise calories is bad. And it is true, they are losing more weight than they were before- but the reason for that is simply that they were doing it wrong in the first place!

A lot of what makes MFP work so well is accuracy. If you are estimating your food portions and not weighing/measuring it out, it isn't going to work as well. The more accurate you are- with everything- the better. If you make the decision to have a more leisurely day and eat more than normal but less than maintenance, or not be as accurate as possible, then that's perfectly fine. But if you are trying really hard to follow the plan you've set out for yourself and find it not working as well as it should be, then the results of overeating by 60 calories is going to be really frustrating, and you aren't going to have any idea what you are doing wrong. Which leads you to be more likely to come to rash conclusions (e.g. eating back exercise calories is bad, or this MFP thing doesn't work at all), because you don't have all the information that you need to make this work and help yourself. Personally? I'm a perfectionist, and I'm all about being as clear and accurate as possible. So being over by 60 calories, by accident, and not knowing it, is exactly the kind of thing that would really bother me.

amengel

bump

lisa_lotte

Great post!!! )

psb13

bump

KellyBurton1

bump

shepali

This is very interesting and a question I've also had before. But what none of the comments/articles address is the following:

'They' say that when working out vigorously (and particularly when lifting weights), our bodies burn more calories for a period of time AFTER the workout, in order to 'repair' the muscles and also because we've raised our metabolism.

So...my thought has been that the BMR calories that I theoretically would have burned during my workout do not need to be subtracted from the total calories burned, because they will be offset by a increase in my BMR calories subsequent to the workout. This of course is probably truer for a sedentary person, then a consistently active person.

But then...what do I know?!?!

Anyone have thoughts on that view?

p.s. My HRM always calculates much fewer calories burned during exercise than those populated in MFP. Do others notice that as well? It also shows less than the HRMs of those I work out with. So, I've wondered if mine is mis-calibrated - but, at the same time, I figure its a good thing for purposes of MFP, since I then eat back less exercise calories

p.p.s. I also wore my HRM for 24 hours straight during a 'normal' activity day, and the calories burned above my BMR were extremely close to those predicted by MFP for purposes of my daily calories goals as a sedentary person. That was an interesting test, and also showed me that something as simple as walking to the water cooler more often can increase daily calorie burn quite a bit!

tiaydew

bump! very informative!

basschick

I dont think you would gain much weight by being over by 60 cals a day

That was just an example, it obviously can vary. Especially if you don't have a HRM, you could be easily eating a few hundred calories over. The MFP calculations don't take into consideration how hard you worked! And no, one day wouldn't hurt you, but if you ate 60 calories over every day, it would certainly slow your weight loss! My point is to say that people will claim eating back their exercise calories hurts them, and prevents them from losing. In reality, I believe that more often than not, it is their own miscalculations (or lack of calculations altogether) that is hurting them. So when they stop eating their exercise calories back, they see a more dramatic weight loss, and claim that eating back exercise calories is bad. And it is true, they are losing more weight than they were before- but the reason for that is simply that they were doing it wrong in the first place!

A lot of what makes MFP work so well is accuracy. If you are estimating your food portions and not weighing/measuring it out, it isn't going to work as well. The more accurate you are- with everything- the better. If you make the decision to have a more leisurely day and eat more than normal but less than maintenance, or not be as accurate as possible, then that's perfectly fine. But if you are trying really hard to follow the plan you've set out for yourself and find it not working as well as it should be, then the results of overeating by 60 calories is going to be really frustrating, and you aren't going to have any idea what you are doing wrong. Which leads you to be more likely to come to rash conclusions (e.g. eating back exercise calories is bad, or this MFP thing doesn't work at all), because you don't have all the information that you need to make this work and help yourself. Personally? I'm a perfectionist, and I'm all about being as clear and accurate as possible. So being over by 60 calories, by accident, and not knowing it, is exactly the kind of thing that would really bother me.

I'm the same way! And I sometimes work out for 2 hours/day so I would be eating back 120 extra calories. 120 extra calories every day would really add up over time.