exercise calories explained

jacksonpt

Jesus...

I quit. What I thought was a good thread has turned into a muddy mess by interpretation and the desire to be exact in what is inherently an inexact process.

febes1972

Thank you for explaining everything to me. I understand better now.

mmimmi1

I really thought I was clear on this before. I do log my execise every time I do it and I was eating the calories back (most of the time). I have reached my weight loss goal, and now I would like to lower my body fat. If I eat my exercie calories, is that mean I do not burn fat, I burn calories I eat only? I was just about to post a topic when I saw this post...

CM9178

Jesus...

I quit. What I thought was a good thread has turned into a muddy mess by interpretation and the desire to be exact in what is inherently an inexact process.

I am just trying to point out that unless you KNOW you are going to be, for example, Highly active every single day, and you KNOW you are going to burn x amount of calories in daily activity, every single day, I don't see why you would ever set your MFP activity level to anything but sedentary or lightly active. Otherwise, you are assuming that you are going to burn those calories - and could very well be eating way too many calories. I'm sure there are tons of people on MFP that are doing exactly that.

Also, the activity level thing is confusing to many people - on many other sites/calculators - it does say "highly active - work out 5 or 6 times a week" for example. I'm sure a large majority of people on MFP assume that the activity level includes their daily exercise.

jacksonpt

Jesus...

I quit. What I thought was a good thread has turned into a muddy mess by interpretation and the desire to be exact in what is inherently an inexact process.

I am just trying to point out that unless you KNOW you are going to be, for example, Highly active every single day, and you KNOW you are going to burn x amount of calories in daily activity, every single day, I don't see why you would ever set your MFP activity level to anything but sedentary or lightly active. Otherwise, you are assuming that you are going to burn those calories - and could very well be eating way too many calories. I'm sure there are tons of people on MFP that are doing exactly that.

Also, the activity level thing is confusing to many people - on many other sites/calculators - it does say "highly active - work out 5 or 6 times a week" for example. I'm sure a large majority of people on MFP assume that the activity level includes their daily exercise.

*sigh*

You're missing the bigger picture. First, this is all about averages and estimates. You never really KNOW. Even with HRMs and such, it's still just an estimate. Second, there are lots of ways that work. Your way may work for you, great. Other ways work for other people.

The principles are the same for everyone... the method is what can change, but that seems to be more than you're willing to accept.

CM9178

Jesus...

I quit. What I thought was a good thread has turned into a muddy mess by interpretation and the desire to be exact in what is inherently an inexact process.

I am just trying to point out that unless you KNOW you are going to be, for example, Highly active every single day, and you KNOW you are going to burn x amount of calories in daily activity, every single day, I don't see why you would ever set your MFP activity level to anything but sedentary or lightly active. Otherwise, you are assuming that you are going to burn those calories - and could very well be eating way too many calories. I'm sure there are tons of people on MFP that are doing exactly that.

Also, the activity level thing is confusing to many people - on many other sites/calculators - it does say "highly active - work out 5 or 6 times a week" for example. I'm sure a large majority of people on MFP assume that the activity level includes their daily exercise.

*sigh*

You're missing the bigger picture. First, this is all about averages and estimates. You never really KNOW. Even with HRMs and such, it's still just an estimate. Second, there are lots of ways that work. Your way may work for you, great. Other ways work for other people.

The principles are the same for everyone... the method is what can change, but that seems to be more than you're willing to accept.

I completely understand and agree that it is about averages and estimates. I understand that you never really know 100%. I understand the principles are the same for everyone. I am not disagreeing with any of that. I am also not saying that MFP doesn't work - because it does. But there is a very good possibility that many people could be eating way too many calories just because they set their activity level wrong.

I am simply stating that I believe it would be MORE accurate in the grand scheme of things to NOT set an activity level on MFP and then attempt to calculate how many calories you actually burn each day, plus excerise.

Think about it - if you set highly active you could be way over estimating how many calories you are burning - if you aren't truly highly active every day.
But, if you set to sedentary and then calculate how many calories you burned at work that day - I think there is a much better chance of being more accurate in your calculation which would reduce the chance of over eating.

jacksonpt

Agree to disagree... moving along....

CM9178

Agree to disagree... moving along....

If you are set to Highly active and you sit at home all day and do nothing that day, how are you NOT overestimating calories burned?

cmriverside

Agree to disagree... moving along....

If you are set to Highly active and you sit at home all day and do nothing that day, how are you NOT overestimating calories burned?

Let it go CM9178.


He knows what he's talking about.

CM9178

Agree to disagree... moving along....

If you are set to Highly active and you sit at home all day and do nothing that day, how are you NOT overestimating calories burned?

Let it go CM9178.


He knows what he's talking about.

Oh excuse me, I didn't know I was speaking to the master of the universe.
If he knows what he's talking about, he would give me an explanation/answer to my question above. I'm not getting an answer to this question, because I'm right. My question is a very valid one, and if I'm wrong, I'd like to know why.

cwolfman13

Agree to disagree... moving along....

If you are set to Highly active and you sit at home all day and do nothing that day, how are you NOT overestimating calories burned?

Let it go CM9178.


He knows what he's talking about.

Oh excuse me, I didn't know I was speaking to the master of the universe.
If he knows what he's talking about, he would give me an explanation/answer to my question above. I'm not getting an answer to this question, because I'm right. My question is a very valid one, and if I'm wrong, I'd like to know why.

He did explain it....you just aren't listening. I use the TDEE method and my activity level is between light active and moderately active...but I don't burn the same calories every single day...sometimes it's more, sometimes it's less...but over the course of a week, it averages out and I lose weight.

It's the individual's responsibility to appropriately set their activity level. Overestimating activity level is just cheating themselves.

Kreider86

bump so when I get confused about exercise calories again I know where to go. Thank you!

CM9178

Agree to disagree... moving along....

If you are set to Highly active and you sit at home all day and do nothing that day, how are you NOT overestimating calories burned?

Let it go CM9178.


He knows what he's talking about.

Oh excuse me, I didn't know I was speaking to the master of the universe.
If he knows what he's talking about, he would give me an explanation/answer to my question above. I'm not getting an answer to this question, because I'm right. My question is a very valid one, and if I'm wrong, I'd like to know why.

He did explain it....you just aren't listening. I use the TDEE method and my activity level is between light active and moderately active...but I don't burn the same calories every single day...sometimes it's more, sometimes it's less...but over the course of a week, it averages out and I lose weight.

It's the individual's responsibility to appropriately set their activity level. Overestimating activity level is just cheating themselves.

You too, are missing my question. I give up.

DavPul

You too, are missing my question. I give up.

Mia_RagazzaTosta

Agree to disagree... moving along....

If you are set to Highly active and you sit at home all day and do nothing that day, how are you NOT overestimating calories burned?

Then you are not highly active and will eat too much then gain weight. Like Cwolfman said, it's up to the individual to set their level appropriately.

There are very few absolutes in life.

CM9178

Agree to disagree... moving along....

If you are set to Highly active and you sit at home all day and do nothing that day, how are you NOT overestimating calories burned?

Then you are not highly active and will eat too much then gain weight. Like Cwolfman said, it's up to the individual to set their level appropriately.

There are very few absolutes in life.

I don't mean sit home all day every day - I mean life happens - sometimes you aren't going to be highly active every single day - even if that is what you are typically.

Mia_RagazzaTosta

Agree to disagree... moving along....

If you are set to Highly active and you sit at home all day and do nothing that day, how are you NOT overestimating calories burned?

Then you are not highly active and will eat too much then gain weight. Like Cwolfman said, it's up to the individual to set their level appropriately.

There are very few absolutes in life.

I don't mean sit home all day every day - I mean life happens - sometimes you aren't going to be highly active every single day - even if that is what you are typically.

You are overthinking this.

ssizmur

Bump for later!

CM9178

Agree to disagree... moving along....

If you are set to Highly active and you sit at home all day and do nothing that day, how are you NOT overestimating calories burned?

Then you are not highly active and will eat too much then gain weight. Like Cwolfman said, it's up to the individual to set their level appropriately.

There are very few absolutes in life.

I don't mean sit home all day every day - I mean life happens - sometimes you aren't going to be highly active every single day - even if that is what you are typically.

You are overthinking this.

How so?
What I am saying makes perfect sense - I think people are misunderstanding me.

You are set to Highly Active - let's say that equals 350 calories extra per day that MFP is going to assume that you burn during daily activity.
5 days that week, you go to work and you are highly active as normal.
Two days that week, something happens so you aren't highly active - and end up sitting on the couch all day, or barely doing anything.
You still eat the same number of calories.
You have now over eaten 700 calories for the week.
How is this overthinking, when it is a fact?

This doesn't mean you are lying to yourself, or setting the incorrect activity level. But on the other hand, this doesn't even out - especially if it happens frequently. I don't see how anybody could burn the same amount of calories every single day, no matter what. Which is exactly why I am saying that it would make more sense to set the activity level to sedentary - so MFP won't assume you burn anything - and then manually enter the calories you actually burned that day!

mmimmi1

700 calories more a week averages 100 calories a day. If you have a deficit, 100 calories a day is not going to cause you to gain or not loose.

CM9178

700 calories more a week averages 100 calories a day. If you have a deficit, 100 calories a day is not going to cause you to gain or not loose.

Ok you are taking it too literal. I have no idea how many calories per day would be figured as burned for someone that is supposedly "highly active". It would depend on the person. I just threw 350 calories out there as an example. It could be 500, 1000 calories per day. Who knows.

targosz33

I have a fitbit and is syncs all my calorie burning activity straight oi myfitnesspal, it re caluculates my calories for the day, is this the same thing? My basis calories for the day is 1200 then if i do any exercise it adds calories on.

jacksonpt

700 calories more a week averages 100 calories a day. If you have a deficit, 100 calories a day is not going to cause you to gain or not loose.

Ok you are taking it too literal. I have no idea how many calories per day would be figured as burned for someone that is supposedly "highly active". It would depend on the person. I just threw 350 calories out there as an example. It could be 500, 1000 calories per day. Who knows.

If you select an appropriate activity level based on your typical lifestlye, it'll all balance out.

Like you said, life happens and some days you sit on the couch all day. Some days you chase your kids around the park for 4 hours. If you base your activity level on an average day, then everything will balance out over time... the days when you're less active than normal will balance out the days you are more active than normal. If they don't balance out, then you picked the wrong activity level for your typical day.

As for cals...

Here are the numbers for me to maintain (to establish a starting point for conversation)...
sedentary: 2090 cals daily
lightly active: 2260 cals daily
moderately active: 2420 cals daily
highly active: 2590 cals daily.

So you pick an activity setting that most appropriately matches your typical daily lifestyle. Say for the sake of conversation that's moderately active. Your goal is 2420 cals daily. Tomorrow you are sick so you lay around the house all day. That 2420 will be a surplus for that day. But next week work is crazy or you take your dogs for a hike or whatever else... that 2420 will be a deficit. So the surplus from when you are sick balances out the deficit from when you hiked with your dogs.

If you pick an honest and reasonable activity level based on a reasonably typical day, all the ebbs and flows will balance out.


.

jacksonpt

I really thought I was clear on this before. I do log my execise every time I do it and I was eating the calories back (most of the time). I have reached my weight loss goal, and now I would like to lower my body fat. If I eat my exercie calories, is that mean I do not burn fat, I burn calories I eat only? I was just about to post a topic when I saw this post...

Apples and oranges.

Eating back cals (or not) comes down to maintaining a healthy deficit. A deficit will lead to weight loss. Weight loss is a part of fat loss (with muscle retention being the other part).

Fat loss is about a calorie deficit (for weight loss) combined with sufficient protein intake and adequate strength training (for muscle retention).

mmimmi1

700 calories more a week averages 100 calories a day. If you have a deficit, 100 calories a day is not going to cause you to gain or not loose.

Ok you are taking it too literal. I have no idea how many calories per day would be figured as burned for someone that is supposedly "highly active". It would depend on the person. I just threw 350 calories out there as an example. It could be 500, 1000 calories per day. Who knows.

If you want to be that accurate, you should wear a heart rate monitor 24 hours a day. I used your example, to average it. If you are that active to have extra 1000 calories per or more per day really you can rest 2 days a week. Actually most intense exersise programs recommend a day or 2 of rest. That does not mean you are not highly active. The average per day is not going to be that significant to cause you not to loose in the long run, it's not an exact science and you can't be 100% accurate. MFP tells you to eat 1300 calories per day ...most of the time you can't eat exactly 1300 on the dot, you are going to be a few over or under, in which case MFP tells you that you either are not eating enough calories which if it's 10 calories less it's not going to throw you in starvation mode, and if you are 100 over you are still going to loose weight. My goal is to be accurate and I would rather log under my exercise calories, just to be safe, but you can't be that accurate. MFP is that same, it uses averages and estimates, more like a guideline that an exact science.

mmimmi1

I really thought I was clear on this before. I do log my execise every time I do it and I was eating the calories back (most of the time). I have reached my weight loss goal, and now I would like to lower my body fat. If I eat my exercie calories, is that mean I do not burn fat, I burn calories I eat only? I was just about to post a topic when I saw this post...

Apples and oranges.

Eating back cals (or not) comes down to maintaining a healthy deficit. A deficit will lead to weight loss. Weight loss is a part of fat loss (with muscle retention being the other part).

Fat loss is about a calorie deficit (for weight loss) combined with sufficient protein intake and adequate strength training (for muscle retention).

Got it ... protein+weight training ... and maintain a calories deficit! :bigsmile:

alexisdc

Doing the Bumpty dance! Thanks for taking time to do this!!

wareagle8706

bump to read later

bakemma

Very helpful. Thanks for taking out the time!

cwolfman13

Agree to disagree... moving along....

If you are set to Highly active and you sit at home all day and do nothing that day, how are you NOT overestimating calories burned?

Then you are not highly active and will eat too much then gain weight. Like Cwolfman said, it's up to the individual to set their level appropriately.

There are very few absolutes in life.

I don't mean sit home all day every day - I mean life happens - sometimes you aren't going to be highly active every single day - even if that is what you are typically.

Consistency is the key. If you aren't consistent, your formula is flawed...but one day out of many isn't going to make or break you. I pretty much sit on my *kitten* on Sundays and am no where near moderately active (very close to my TDEE)...but I'm active enough over the course of the other 6 days to make up for it. This is what everyone is telling you...it averages out if you're not mired in the minutia of a single day.

Roughly moderate active TDEE is my overall lifestyle...it averages out so long as I'm sticking to that life style most of the time...yeah...if I break my neck or something I might have to switch things up to compensate.