exercise calories explained

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

Replies

aeg176

great post! it covers everything. thank you!

Fuzzith

bump

KatieHPhoto

So after eating well throughout the day and exercising, my net is normally around the 600 mark daily, which means I'm under-eating? :S

Eating back the calories burnt will seem like I'm over-eating...

Created by MyFitnessPal.com - Nutrition Facts For Foods

jacksonpt

So after eating well throughout the day and exercising, my net is normally around the 600 mark daily, which means I'm under-eating? :S

Eating back the calories burnt will seem like I'm over-eating...

Taken at face value, yes you're under eating. How does 600 cals seem like sufficient fuel for everything you ask your body to do? Digest food, pump blood, breath, clean the house, run errands, work, exercise, etc etc etc.

bump

Bump

bump

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christyrivers

Makes total sense. Thank you for taking the time to explain it!

changing4life

save for later!!!

drj1485

I'm sure you got it, but I just want to check. When you say you are active that means your body burns those calories in a normal day for you. If you do nothing your body is still going to burn around 2000. I am 6'0" and weigh 199lbs. I go to school most of the day and work in an office so I sit around and do nothing most of the day if I don't work out. So I choose sedentary. Doing NOTHING, my body will still burn over 2000 calories just to sustain my life. Those 2420 calories in your example are being burned just doing whatever. I am going to say that if you sit in bed the whole day you will still burn close to 2000 just because of your body's metabolism. You burn almost 500 calories during 8 hours of sleep.

You should not consider time spent in the gym as part of your lifestyle if you are also tracking your workouts with this app. You should leave it as "how your day is without the gym." If you are a mailman and walk around every day a lot then you have a highly active lifestyle. If you are saying you are highly active because you go to the gym AND track your individual workouts, then you are double counting calories.

The safest bet, if you use the app to keep tabs on your exercises, is to just leave it as sedentary. This essentially puts the number of calories your body will burn just keeping you alive and awake with minimal activity. For me, 2410 calories is a "net zero" meaning I will neither gain nor lose weight. That is what I would burn if I sat on this forum all day and did nothing else. From there I can adjust my calorie goal for how many lbs I would like to lose or gain, and tracking my workouts will not count double into the equation. I do not live a sedentary life, but I feel that doing it this way is much more accurate. Changing to higly active will bump me to a 2990 allowance before weight goals. So that assumes I am burning an additional 500 calories than I would just sitting around all day, but I don't always burn 500. I may burn more or less depending on the day. Since your activity level is really all relative it is best to just say you are sedentary and go from there.

The only real way to know what you can burn in a day is to go and have tests done on you. Your body's metabolism adjusts to your activity level. So if you are highly active you are going to burn more calories even on days you don't do anything.

imzadi481

Thanks for this post OP, made everything clear!

diadia1

Thank you!!!

Quick question: I set mine as active, I work out 6 days a week doing weights and cardio.

If for some reason I miss a workout, does that mean I should eat less that day?

Assuming you set it to active BECAUSE you workout 6 days a week, then it kind of depends how often it happens. If it's only every once in a while, then no, I wouldn't worry about it. If its every week, then yes (and you should probably change it from active to something less active).

If you set it to active because you have an active job/life, but log your workouts separately, then no you don't. MFP will adjust automatically based on your logged workouts.

thanks for this explanation!

Christi132

Great post!

Murat143

yeah i would so but resting day should be light cardio like just pop in do 20 mins it wont hurt

prettyface55

This is very clear and good to know, thank you!!

kit_liu

Thanks for a clear explanation. Now I wont guilty when I eat back my exercise calories in my sedentary life.

Siansonea

What is this "exercise" you speak of? :huh:

mode42

bump

Mr_Knight

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.

I disagree with this. It's fine in theory, but in practise it is a complete disaster. IMO the right answer for most newcomers to MFP is to set their MFP to sedentary and NOT eat back their exercise calories.

This is because most people with significant amounts of weight to lose are in poor physical condition. This means their exercise will burn relatively few calories to begin with, because The Universe doesn't give a flying fig how "hard" it feels, it only cares how far and how fast you go. Which means, in the real world, people are vastly over-estimating their burned calories. Which in turn means they are setting themselves up for a stall moment they eat them back.

IMO the best advice is to ignore exercise calories until you're running 5km at a time, 2-3x a week, or equivalent.

So - set activity level to sedentary, do not eat back exercise calories, and get on a C25K type program. Revisit once running 5k three times a week (or equivalent).

Hildy_J

What is this "exercise" you speak of? :huh:

It's a variable some people choose to bring into the weight-loss equation which impacts quite heavily on the error margin - best not to bother.

rushfive

THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU !!!!!!!!!!!!

Siansonea

What is this "exercise" you speak of? :huh:

It's a variable some people choose to bring into the weight-loss equation which impacts quite heavily on the error margin - best not to bother.

Bleah. I was never a stellar algebra student, I'm certainly not going to throw another variable into my equation. :drinker:

Mr_Knight

What is this "exercise" you speak of? :huh:

Let me 'splain.

No, there is too much, let me sum up.

Exercise** is something people do so they can rationalize eating more, and then express righteous indignation when their weight loss stalls, which allows them to follow further anonymous advice to eat even more.

**MFP Edition

evdenapoli

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.

Tks for this!!

pukekolive

Bump for later - great explanations! I have always set my own calorie goal (customize) but eat back half my exercise caloires - activity level set at sedentary as I am lucky to move much at work.

I fitness walk and strengthtrain as regularly as I can but find my biggest aid to 'scale loss' is to tweak my protein level to 25-30% of my calories and keep it there consistently - this is where my 'sweetspot' is.

I wish everyone the best results on MFP as possible - it is a great tool and a great community!

Siansonea

What is this "exercise" you speak of? :huh:

Let me 'splain.

No, there is too much, let me sum up.

Exercise** is something people do so they can rationalize eating more, and then express righteous indignation when their weight loss stalls, which allows them to follow further anonymous advice to eat even more.

**MFP Edition

It All Makes Sense Now™! :drinker:

Marymoe138

Thanks for this! Perfect explanation!!

gward_1984

Just a quick question.... I'm 6ft5 215lbs and go running 2-3 times a week and burn off 600 cals a time as well as doing weights on the other days. I have set my fitness level as active even though I have a desk job and I have it also set that I want to lose 1.5lb a week.

So, I've put all that into to MFP and it's come up with 2,230 a day. As I've put active as my fitness level am I right in thinking I shouldn't be logging exercise? So I aim for 2230 cals a day, shouldn't this vary between the days I run and the days I don't? Or does it take into account the non running days.

I love running and don't want to give it up.

erickirb

Just a quick question.... I'm 6ft5 215lbs and go running 2-3 times a week and burn off 600 cals a time as well as doing weights on the other days. I have set my fitness level as active even though I have a desk job and I have it also set that I want to lose 1.5lb a week.

So, I've put all that into to MFP and it's come up with 2,230 a day. As I've put active as my fitness level am I right in thinking I shouldn't be logging exercise? So I aim for 2230 cals a day, shouldn't this vary between the days I run and the days I don't? Or does it take into account the non running days.

I love running and don't want to give it up.

No. If you want it to vary by day then chose sedentary and log your exercise and eat those cals back. The way you are doing it essentially averages your low, high, and no cals burned for the week divided by 7 so you eat the same everyday to achieve the same weekly weight loss. So you are eating more on days you don't workout and less on days you do then if you logged exercise and were set at sedentary