? about consumed vs net

Maggieq87

When you log your exercise, it negates calories. Do you go ahead and eat those extra calories or do you go by what you've consumed regardless of calories burned.

I feel like I should just stop logging excersise because it makes me think I have an excuse to eat more and I end up consuming more than I think I should even though my Net is still under my daily goal.

ering

Short answer, YES eat back your excercise calories. MFP already figures in a deficit for you so if you don't eat your calories you'll be at a huge deficit.

If you'll use the search there a zillion threads on this topic. Good Luck

Maggieq87

Thanks! I should have just searched, lol sorry!

ering

Haha no problem

dsckrc

no apologies. i wondered the same thing. quicker to ask fellow dieters than to research it yourself. good luck. by the way, i know it seems frustrating to eat back your exercise calories, but everyone says to do it!?!?!?

erickirb

When you log your exercise, it negates calories. Do you go ahead and eat those extra calories or do you go by what you've consumed regardless of calories burned.

I feel like I should just stop logging excersise because it makes me think I have an excuse to eat more and I end up consuming more than I think I should even though my Net is still under my daily goal.

MFP assumes you will not exercise when it give you your calorie goal, the moment you exercise you require more fuel.

As an example say MFP gives you 1450 calories to lose 1 lb/week, and you plan on exercising 5x/week for an average of 400 cals per workout. well MFP will tell you to eat 1450 on the days you don't workout and 1850 on the days you do whereas a "professional" may tell you to eat 1750 everyday regardless if you workout.

So for the week MFP will have you eat 12,150 (1450*2+1850*5) whereas doing it the other way will have you eat 12,250 (1750*7) almost the same number of cals for the week. The issue in not following MFP is if you don't workout the full 5 days or burn more or less than planned. If that is the case you may lose more or less than your goal, whereas MFP will have you lose your goal amount regardless how much you actually workout.

What many MFP do is take the low 1450 and not eat back exercise calories which is wrong, if you are not eating them back then your daily activity level should reflect the higher burn with would be covered in the 1750/day above.

Gigi_licious

Exercise IS an excuse to eat more. What else would it be for? :huh:

kapeluza

"Hello Folks,

So often people personal message me asking me if I think their calories are correct. It seems that people think there is some magical formula that only a very few can figure out. I see so many people on here just popping in numbers and following them heedless of what the numbers mean. I feel it's ULTRA important to know why MFP (and me, and a few others) gives you certain numbers. To that end I will try to empower YOU to be able to understand the basics about calories, calorie deficits, and why we recommend eating exercise calories. With this knowledge you should be able to easily figure out what your calories should be at for reasonable, healthy weight loss. So without further ado, lets get started.

1st things first, a few givens must be stated:

-Everyone's body is slightly different. ALWAYS keep in mind your numbers may not be exactly what MFP thinks simply because everyone's bodies all burn energy at a different rate. Tweaking may be needed.

- MFP's goals wizard is a "dumb" tool. That means it doesn't care whether a specific goal is healthy and/or right for you, it just subtracts the goal deficit from projected maintenance calories. This means that even if you shouldn't be trying for a 2 lb a week loss, MFP won't care, it will still try to help you get there.

-1200 calories is a generic number. It's not right for everyone. It's a baseline minimum given out as a floor by MFP based on prior research by the medical community. NOT everyone will need a minimum of 1200, very small people can go under, and bigger people need more.


OK with those facts firmly set in your mind (please go back and re-read the givens until you have them firmly planted in your skull!), we can continue. Figuring out your perfect deficit isn't magic, it's a few simple formula's base on some basic, worldwide standards, and generally with slight modefication, will work for just about anyone who (besides weight) is generally healthy.

Here's what you need:
Height, weight, age, activity level, sex

NOTE: activity level isn't as mysterious as it sounds. If you have a desk job, and do very little walking throughout the day and don't really perform any sports or physical activities, then you are sedentary, if you do some walking every day (or at least 4 days a week) or other light activity for at least 30 minutes cumulative at least 4 times a week, you are lightly active. If you do 60 minutes of light activity 5 days a week or do some kind of sport that requires walking or light jogging (say swimming or mailman or warehouse employee) then you are active, If you do a physically demanding activity (one that makes you sweat) for 4 days a week or more and for more than 1 hour a day, you are very active (like a coach that runs drills or you play volleyball). When in doubt, go down 1 level, you'd rather burn more than you think than less.

With all these numbers you can generate your BMI. Now I realize BMI is flawed, but for what we're doing it's good enough. After years on here, and doing lots and lots of research, I've been able to associate general BMI ranges with approximate goal levels. This works for about 80 to 85% of people out there (there's always a few that are outside the curve).

So now we can figure out where your goal should be.
Go to the tools section and figure out your BMI:

Generally someone with a BMI over 32 can do a 1000 calorie a day (2 lbs a week) deficit
With a BMI of 30 to 32 a deficit of 750 calories is generally correct (about 1.5 lbs a week)
With a BMI of 28 to 30 a deficit of 500 calories is about right (about 1 lb a week)
With a BMI of 26 to 28 a deficit of about 300 calories is perfect (about 1/2 lb a week)
and below 26... well this is where we get fuzzy. See now you're no longer talking about being overweight, so while it's still ok to have a small deficit, you really should shift your focus more towards muscle building, and reducing fat. This means it is EXTRA important to eat your exercise calories as your body needs to KNOW it's ok to burn fat stores, and the only way it will know is if you keep giving it the calories it needs to not enter the famine response (starvation mode).

With this quick guide you can figure out your goal rather easily. I know many people will say "I can't eat my exercise calories, I gain weight when I do". Well I have news for you, that's not correct. I submit this, if you eat your exercise calories and gain weight 1 of 3 things happened:
1 you were previously in starvation mode, and you upped your calories, and had an immediate weight gain, that's normal, to be expected, and necessary to get your body on track. Give it a month, that will stop, and you, once again, will begin to lose, but this time, in a healthy manner.
2 you incorrectly calculated something, either your exercise calories, your calorie intake, or you put in to large of a goal. Go back and check all your numbers.
3 you haven't given it enough time to work. This site promotes HEALTHY weight loss people. Healthy weight loss doesn't happen in days or weeks, it takes months and years. Each change you make in how you eat needs a month or more to work, be patient, give it time. It will happen.

And to everyone who has a trainer that doesn't agree with eating your exercise calories. I also submit this: In 90% of the cases (and I have talked to a LOT of trainers about this exact topic) they actually DO agree with this method, you just explained it wrong.
Just saying to a trainer "should I eat my exercise calories?" isn't enough, you have to explain to them that MFP already generates a deficit prior to any exercise, therefore the deficit will remain whether you exercise or not. Once you give them that idea, and you are relatively sure they understand the concept then I'll bet they change their tune.

I hope this helps, it's pretty straight forward if you've been here a while, and to you new guys, I recommend going to the message boards link, clicking on the "general diet and weight loss" area, and clicking on those first few posts that have the little mouse trap next to them, they are sticky and will always be there, and are a wealth of knowledge about this site, exercise calories, starvation mode...etc."

RollinDawg

If you're not hungry, don't eat the calories. I always thought the number MFP gives you is a goal to stay under for the day. I haven't hit that number once since June 2011, and when I exercise there's no way I could hit that number....and in the days before MFP, I could put away A LOT of calories. As long as you stay over 1200 consumed, you're good. That's the minimum your body needs to work.

erickirb

If you're not hungry, don't eat the calories. I always thought the number MFP gives you is a goal to stay under for the day. I haven't hit that number once since June 2011, and when I exercise there's no way I could hit that number....and in the days before MFP, I could put away A LOT of calories. As long as you stay over 1200 consumed, you're good. That's the minimum your body needs to work.

Hunger is not the best indication of nutritional requirements.

RollinDawg

Ok, maybe I'm wrong but it seemed to me that the object was to stay under the goal. There have been days when I've exercised for an hour and it made my MFP calorie number go to over 4,000 calories. I would eat and feel like I was about to bust at 2000 calories....are you saying I should have found a way to eat 2,000 more calories after that point? Seems like that was what got me in the shape I was before I found MFP.

erickirb

Ok, maybe I'm wrong but it seemed to me that the object was to stay under the goal. There have been days when I've exercised for an hour and it made my MFP calorie number go to over 4,000 calories. I would eat and feel like I was about to bust at 2000 calories....are you saying I should have found a way to eat 2,000 more calories after that point? Seems like that was what got me in the shape I was before I found MFP.

The more you have to lose the less important it is to eat them back (or to eat all of them back) and if you are not using a HRM you are most likely over estimating your calorie burn away.

alcon79

As an example say MFP gives you 1450 calories to lose 1 lb/week, and you plan on exercising 5x/week for an average of 400 cals per workout. well MFP will tell you to eat 1450 on the days you don't workout and 1850 on the days you do

Where does MFP give you 2 numbers for days you workout and days you don't? I went into change/update profile and it only gives me one count of 1410 to lose .5 a week and tells me how many calories I'm hoping to burn with my workouts.

erickirb

As an example say MFP gives you 1450 calories to lose 1 lb/week, and you plan on exercising 5x/week for an average of 400 cals per workout. well MFP will tell you to eat 1450 on the days you don't workout and 1850 on the days you do

Where does MFP give you 2 numbers for days you workout and days you don't? I went into change/update profile and it only gives me one count of 1410 to lose .5 a week and tells me how many calories I'm hoping to burn with my workouts.

It does not change the amount based on planned exercise. The cals go up when you enter the exercise you actually did, not planned on doing, in the exercise tab.

keiraev

I don't understand how people don't understand the concept of NET calories- seriously? I hope I don't sound rude but I keep seeing the same question asked over and over again.

I just used the phone app before I knew about the website/forum etc and I immediately grasped that it meant green for go (as in eat more!) and red for stop!

Granted if I did 4000 cals worth of exercise it would be challenging to eat that much but if my goal is 1200 and I'm allowed to eat 500 more than there's no hesitation- of COURSE I'm gonna eat them!:bigsmile:

shaj316

In addition the HRM erickirb talks about, you should also subtract the calories you burn just sitting around from the amount you burned in that same time period. MFP is already taking into account your sitting around time.

Ex. If I burn 200 calories just sitting around for an hour, then I exercise and say burn 600 calories, I've only really burned an additional 400 calories and that is what I add in MFP when I log the cardio exercise.

At least that's what I thought i was supposed to...