"You've earned xxx extra calories from exercise today."

FrankWorsley

I think this feature of MFP is pretty bogus. I don't exercise to earn more allowable calories. Doesn't that kind of defeat the purpose?

I noticed that my progress really increased when I focused on filling myself with as much delicious, healthy food as I could find and exercising at a regular, sustainable rate.

CMmrsfloyd

I hope this doesn't come off the wrong way, but - You *just* started. Maybe you could give it a chance before you bash the system?

If you set your settings/goals saying that you want to lose or maintain weight, then the calorie goal that MFP gave you is already set at a point for you to reach that goal. You could eat the amount it tells you to eat and do absolutely no exercise and you will lose weight or maintain, whichever you set as your goal (assuming you set your activity level appropriately). If you *do* exercise, then yes you did 'earn' the ability to eat those extra calories, b/c even before the exercise you were already on track to lose weight as long as you stayed within your calorie goal. MFP is set up on a day-by-day basis. It doesn't mean you necessarily have to operate exactly as it tells you, it's a guideline. Give it a chance. If you stick pretty close to what MFP suggests, it really does work.

theroadto100

It depends on your settings. I've set to lose weight already. So I have a deficit. Meaning MPF tells me to only eat 1400 calories a day. That's not much, honestly. So exercising gives me more calories to work with through the day and I don't have to be so meticulous or worry so much about going over.

Liquid741

I hope this doesn't come off the wrong way, but - You *just* started. Maybe you could give it a chance before you bash the system?

If you set your settings/goals saying that you want to lose or maintain weight, then the calorie goal that MFP gave you is already set at a point for you to reach that goal. You could eat the amount it tells you to eat and do absolutely no exercise and you will lose weight or maintain, whichever you set as your goal (assuming you set your activity level appropriately). If you *do* exercise, then yes you did 'earn' the ability to eat those extra calories, b/c even before the exercise you were already on track to lose weight as long as you stayed within your calorie goal. MFP is set up on a day-by-day basis. It doesn't mean you necessarily have to operate exactly as it tells you, it's a guideline. Give it a chance. If you stick pretty close to what MFP suggests, it really does work.

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macpatti

I think this feature of MFP is pretty bogus. I don't exercise to earn more allowable calories. Doesn't that kind of defeat the purpose?

I noticed that my progress really increased when I focused on filling myself with as much delicious, healthy food as I could find and exercising at a regular, sustainable rate.

I don't think you understand how this feature works. Many people use this feature and have lost weight. You can choose to be one of those who doesn't, but I'd suggest learning about it before calling it 'bogus'.

MikeSEA

I think this feature of MFP is pretty bogus. I don't exercise to earn more allowable calories. Doesn't that kind of defeat the purpose?

I noticed that my progress really increased when I focused on filling myself with as much delicious, healthy food as I could find and exercising at a regular, sustainable rate.

It only really defeats the purpose if you're accounting for your activity/exercise twice. You can either assume your exercises raise your overall activity level, which would increase the amount of calories it gives you per day. Alternately, you could track and log your exercises and lower your activity level. Doing both, increasing activity level settings and logging the exercises that are raising your activity level, would definitely defeat the purpose.

FrankWorsley

Thanks for the feedback. It is fair and I took it as you intended. I'm sure the program works well and it appears to help those who are counting calories estimate how many calories are used by exercise. What I like about this site is that it allows one to honestly log everything they eat as well as the exercise they do. I think if people will share their log with others it will help motivate them. I log religiously (elsewhere because, as you noted, I'm new here) and before I put anything into my body I think about whether I want that on my log. I think tracking calories is tiring and that it might divert someone from focusing on what will really help; eating lots of very healthy food and combining that with exercise.

MikeSEA

As a side note, I think a lot of us use it to track calories along with macros and sodium etc. I definitely like to monitor the calories, but the other trackables can help with monitoring for health too.

hikeout470

my experience is this... if you don't attempt to eat your exercise calories after you have decarbed, or created an overall deficit, you will not be able to expend the necessary energy to work out. So it is a balance. Go ahead and stick with the minimal until you start to fatigue. Then you will have to recalculate something, otherwise your workouts will consist of very minimal activity.

macpatti

Thanks for the feedback. It is fair and I took it as you intended. I'm sure the program works well and it appears to help those who are counting calories estimate how many calories are used by exercise. What I like about this site is that it allows one to honestly log everything they eat as well as the exercise they do. I think if people will share their log with others it will help motivate them. I log religiously (elsewhere because, as you noted, I'm new here) and before I put anything into my body I think about whether I want that on my log. I think tracking calories is tiring and that it might divert someone from focusing on what will really help; eating lots of very healthy food and combining that with exercise.

Logging helps me think about everything I eat, too! I know my friends on here will hold me accountable when they see my diary. Welcome to the site.

Lyadeia

I think this feature of MFP is pretty bogus. I don't exercise to earn more allowable calories. Doesn't that kind of defeat the purpose?

I noticed that my progress really increased when I focused on filling myself with as much delicious, healthy food as I could find and exercising at a regular, sustainable rate.

Just to echo the others' answers, it's only bogus if you are changing MFP's recommended calorie level from when you entered in your stats as I do. See for me, I manually changed my calorie level up to 1550 calories. But, that's because I use a formula that incorporates exercise into the calculation already. MFP doesn't do that, so they recommended that I eat 1200 calories a day. So, I could eat 1200 + exercise calories, or just keep it simple and eat 1550. I say "keep it simple" ONLY because I pre-plan what I eat, and everything is pre-logged to meet my goals. That becomes harder to do if you can't visualize what the macro levels should be post-workout. But since my HRM estimates around 400-500 calories per cardio workout, I am technically eating 1200 + a little more than half of my exercise calories back (which adds up to around 1550)...

At any rate, if you are following the program on MFP, then eat those calories back since they were not factored in at the beginning. If you are NOT following the program on MFP and have changed your calorie goal based on other reasons, for example "eating this amount worked before," then don't worry as much about eating them back. It honestly all depends on whether or not you are following the MFP plan to begin with.

llkilgore

What I like about this site is that it allows one to honestly log everything they eat as well as the exercise they do.

Exactly! For me that's the whole point of exercise calories. The site could assumed some one-size-fits-all calorie burn for each and every user who identifies as "moderately active" (or whatever), and then add a completely arbitrary number of "extra" calories to the "calories out" side of the equation without any explanation of what they're doing, or of the math behind it. Such opaque handling of the issue would all but eliminate discussions like this one from the forums, but at the cost of a great deal of the system's flexibility. The advantage to the user of doing it this way is that each of us is able to fine tune our diet and exercise programs to our own lives. The disadvantage for many is that they get completely hung up on the word "extra." The way I see it, exercise calories aren't really "extra" calories at all. They're simply the part of the normal, expected daily calorie burn that can vary widely from day to day, and that the software doesn't know you well enough to predict.