exercise calories explained

jacksonpt

I typed this up for another thread, but because if all the questions about exercise calories, I thought I'd post it separately.


*disclaimer*
Everything I'm about to say assumes no special dietary or health "conditions"
*/disclaimer*

Healthy weight loss comes from maintaining a healthy calorie deficit. A deficit that is too high can (and often will) result in a lower number on the scale, but there are several unhealthy side effects (loss of muscle/lean body mass being the most common). Maintaining a reasonable calorie deficit while eating correct macros will lead to healthy weight loss.

How you get to that calorie deficit is up to you. This is where the MFP diet profile comes into play.

The diet profile allows you to specify a number of things. The 2 we care about for this conversation are your activity level and your goal. How you set these will determine whether or not you should be eating back your exercise calories.

Activity Level
This is where you set your daily activity level. *Most* people set this to reflect their activity level NOT including exercise/workouts. As such, they track their exercise separately as part of their diary. MFP uses this (along with the rest of your profile data) to determine an estimate for required for daily calories - i.e. how many calories you need each day to maintain your body as it currently is.

Goal
This is where you set your weight gain/loss goal. MFP uses this to set a daily calorie goal to help you reach your weight goals - a calorie deficit if your goal is to lose weight, a calorie surplus if you want to gain.

So, with all that said... how do we know if we should be eating back exercise calories or not? Well, it comes down to how you setup your profile.

Assuming your goal is to lose weight, MFP will calculate a healthy calorie deficit for you based on age, weight, activity level, etc. That number is what you need to be NETTING each day. Period. There is no debate here. The concept of net calories is just like net income... I'm REALLY hoping that doesn't need to be explained.

So the need to eat back exercise calories really comes down to how you determined your activity level when setting up your dietary profile. If your set activity level does NOT account for exercise/workouts (this is how most people use MFP), then you should be logging your exercises separately and eating back those calories. Why? In order to hit the calorie goal MFP set for you based on your profile data/goals. Consider this example: Your daily calorie goal is 1500cal. That number is calculated by MFP based on your profile data and is the number of calories you need to net each day to hit your weight loss goal. So you eat 1500cal. Good. Then you workout and burn 350 calories. Your NET intake for the day is now 1150, which is too low, and thus you need to consume an additional 350 calories during the day to compensate for the workout and be able to hit your goal of 1500cal for the day.

Make sense?

Alternatively, if you set your activity level so that it DOES account for your daily exercise, then the daily calorie goal MFP sets for you takes into account those calories burned during exercise, and as such you do NOT need to eat back burned calories. Example: Your daily calorie goal is 1850 (higher because MFP is accounting for daily exercise). So you eat 1850 calories. Good. Now you exercise and burn 350 calories. MFP already accounted for those 350 calories to be burned because of the activity level you set in your profile, so MFP already knows you burned them. As such, there is no reason to log the exercise separately, and you don't need to eat back those calories.

I hope this clears up the whole exercise calorie question. If nothing else, it gives me a pre-typed response I can cut and paste into future exercise calorie threads.


A couple of side notes:
- a little common sense and some knowledge of YOUR body goes a long way
- hunger (or lack there of) is not always a good indicator of if/when you should be eating
- just because something works for you doesn't automatically make it good advice

bjfmade

Bump, headed to work and want to finish reading this

Bigwrick

Makes sense to me and I completely agree. Thanks for posting this.

erickirb

Good post.

Another thing to add about setting your weekly goal, most MFP users set their weekly loss goal much to aggressively say 2 lbs/week when it should really only be 1lb.

Not to hijack the thread, but to add to it, the following pertains to goal setting based on how much you have to lose:
If you have 75+ lbs to lose 2 lbs/week is ideal,
If you have 40-75 lbs to lose 1.5 lbs/week is ideal,
If you have 25-40 lbs to lose 1 lbs/week is ideal,
If you have 15 -25 lbs to lose 0.5 to 1.0 lbs/week is ideal, and
If you have less than 15 lbs to lose 0.5 lbs/week is ideal.

vim_n_vigor

With your above description in mind, would the logging of exercise based on activity level look like this?

Sedentary - pretty much any activity should be logged. It could be appropriate for some medium to heavy cleaning to be logged, shopping, any walking, most activities outside of the most basic activities.

Lightly Active - Heavy cleaning (moving furniture, scrubbing floors on hands and knees), walks when done for exercise, long shopping excursions (maybe where walking 1+hours)

Active - activities done with the intent to exercise, could still include low impact/light activities

Very Active - Only activities that get the heart rate up, running, heavy cardio, weights, speed walking, or activities that last for an extended period of time that may be in a lower heart rate range (maybe a few hours of targeted walking, etc)

erickirb

With your above description in mind, would the logging of exercise based on activity level look like this?

Sedentary - pretty much any activity should be logged. It could be appropriate for some medium to heavy cleaning to be logged, shopping, any walking, most activities outside of the most basic activities.

Lightly Active - Heavy cleaning (moving furniture, scrubbing floors on hands and knees), walks when done for exercise, long shopping excursions (maybe where walking 1+hours)

Active - activities done with the intent to exercise, could still include low impact/light activities

Very Active - Only activities that get the heart rate up, running, heavy cardio, weights, speed walking, or activities that last for an extended period of time that may be in a lower heart rate range (maybe a few hours of targeted walking, etc)

I would say if you are set at very active the only time you should add anything is that if you go above and beyond your typical workouts. So if you usually do 1 hour 4 days/week, that would be included, but if you did that and also ran a 10K, then you probably should enter the 10K as extra exercise, otherwise don't enter/eat exercise cals if you chose very active, unless without taking into account you are very active.

As for logging walking when set as sedentary, some walking is assumed probably 3000-5000 steps, if you walk to get somewhere far, or for the purpose of exercising log it, but if you are walking 1 min to the bathroom 4 times/day, don't log it it is included in the calories above BMR that you get from the sedentary setting.

vim_n_vigor

.

1FitBabe

Yes, good points. I can see where someone could easily set up MFP as very active and then count exercise calories on top and not lose.

However, if I end up eating a few less calories since I exercised and if I am not hungry, I am not going to go out of my way to eat those calories. I have had a couple days where MFP says I am eating to few calories and I am a hundred or so under, I am not going to rush and eat more to make up for that. I spent plenty of days in the past over eating. I don't think undereating by a few calories, when I am not hungry is going to be a problem.

RyanDanielle5101

Thanks Good Post
I am however usually always under my net calories for the day, not because I don't want to eat back my exercise calories but because I'm just not hungry. I have also been losing about 2lbs a week and have about 25 to lose total. It seems like I'm on the right track

elfy66

Great post! Thank you

erickirb

Thanks Good Post
I am however usually always under my net calories for the day, not because I don't want to eat back my exercise calories but because I'm just not hungry. I have also been losing about 2lbs a week and have about 25 to lose total. It seems like I'm on the right track

Actually with only 25 lbs to go your weekly loss goal should be to lose no more than 1 lb/week. If your deficit is too large given the amount you have to lose you risk burning a larger % of lean muscle as you try to lose the fat.

stroken96

Thanks

RyanDanielle5101

Thanks Good Post
I am however usually always under my net calories for the day, not because I don't want to eat back my exercise calories but because I'm just not hungry. I have also been losing about 2lbs a week and have about 25 to lose total. It seems like I'm on the right track

Actually with only 25 lbs to go your weekly loss goal should be to lose no more than 1 lb/week. If your deficit is too large given the amount you have to lose you risk burning a larger % of lean muscle as you try to lose the fat.

I actually eat more since I started MFP. I used to always skip breakfast, sometimes lunch and I would always eat probably my whole intake of calories at night snacking after dinner. I hope I'm not burning lean muscle, I guess I just figured I'll eat when I'm hungry.

horaks

Thanks for the info-need to read later

Lizmhoughton

If you have less than 15 lbs to lose 0.5 lbs/week is ideal.

I have my profile set to lose 2 lbs a week, but that didn't change my calories. MFP wont let it go under 1200 NET calories for me, so the most I could lose is .9 a week if I follow the plan. I am one of those that are ALWAYS hungry, so I really just use this site so I can keep my carbs and calories in check, especially because I usually snack on lunch and snacks all day.

Good to know that I shouldn't lose more than .5 or so a week though. I'd like to lose more, but as long as my clothes aren't getting tighter I'm not too worried about it.

peachyxoxoxo

Bumping this thread because it's a good explanation about something that can be confusing! Nice work OP.

NWCountryGal

Thank you much, excellent post;)

I typed this up for another thread, but because if all the questions about exercise calories, I thought I'd post it separately.


*disclaimer*
Everything I'm about to say assumes no special dietary or health "conditions"
*/disclaimer*

Healthy weight loss comes from maintaining a healthy calorie deficit. A deficit that is too high can (and often will) result in a lower number on the scale, but there are several unhealthy side effects (loss of muscle/lean body mass being the most common). Maintaining a reasonable calorie deficit while eating correct macros will lead to healthy weight loss.

How you get to that calorie deficit is up to you. This is where the MFP diet profile comes into play.

The diet profile allows you to specify a number of things. The 2 we care about for this conversation are your activity level and your goal. How you set these will determine whether or not you should be eating back your exercise calories.

Activity Level
This is where you set your daily activity level. *Most* people set this to reflect their activity level NOT including exercise/workouts. As such, they track their exercise separately as part of their diary. MFP uses this (along with the rest of your profile data) to determine an estimate for required for daily calories - i.e. how many calories you need each day to maintain your body as it currently is.

Goal
This is where you set your weight gain/loss goal. MFP uses this to set a daily calorie goal to help you reach your weight goals - a calorie deficit if your goal is to lose weight, a calorie surplus if you want to gain.

So, with all that said... how do we know if we should be eating back exercise calories or not? Well, it comes down to how you setup your profile.

Assuming your goal is to lose weight, MFP will calculate a healthy calorie deficit for you based on age, weight, activity level, etc. That number is what you need to be NETTING each day. Period. There is no debate here. The concept of net calories is just like net income... I'm REALLY hoping that doesn't need to be explained.

So the need to eat back exercise calories really comes down to how you determined your activity level when setting up your dietary profile. If your set activity level does NOT account for exercise/workouts (this is how most people use MFP), then you should be logging your exercises separately and eating back those calories. Why? In order to hit the calorie goal MFP set for you based on your profile data/goals. Consider this example: Your daily calorie goal is 1500cal. That number is calculated by MFP based on your profile data and is the number of calories you need to net each day to hit your weight loss goal. So you eat 1500cal. Good. Then you workout and burn 350 calories. Your NET intake for the day is now 1150, which is too low, and thus you need to consume an additional 350 calories during the day to compensate for the workout and be able to hit your goal of 1500cal for the day.

Make sense?

Alternatively, if you set your activity level so that it DOES account for your daily exercise, then the daily calorie goal MFP sets for you takes into account those calories burned during exercise, and as such you do NOT need to eat back burned calories. Example: Your daily calorie goal is 1850 (higher because MFP is accounting for daily exercise). So you eat 1850 calories. Good. Now you exercise and burn 350 calories. MFP already accounted for those 350 calories to be burned because of the activity level you set in your profile, so MFP already knows you burned them. As such, there is no reason to log the exercise separately, and you don't need to eat back those calories.

I hope this clears up the whole exercise calorie question. If nothing else, it gives me a pre-typed response I can cut and paste into future exercise calorie threads.


A couple of side notes:
- a little common sense and some knowledge of YOUR body goes a long way
- hunger (or lack there of) is not always a good indicator of if/when you should be eating
- just because something works for you doesn't automatically make it good advice

nszocinski

Bump

kmm7309

bump... great explanation! This actually changed my perception of how the system works!

Lynn625

bump

jtcook

Great post!