Completely Confused

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ajcamber
ajcamber Posts: 89 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
Well, I just started this and I am really confused about one thing. I earned 1,411 calories by exercising and it was added to the total calories that I am supposed to consume for the day which brings me over 3,000. How am I supposed to eat that much and still lose weight?
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  • cvaldays
    cvaldays Posts: 1 Member
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    I try not count my calories that I get from exercise.
  • delilah47
    delilah47 Posts: 1,658
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    Recalculate your exercise calories unless you ran a marathon.

    Overestimating exercise calories is just as bad as not logging food. Make sure you set up your profile preferences correctly too.
  • RunsForFood
    RunsForFood Posts: 110 Member
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    I generally don't eat the extra calories I earn working out unless it's a ton, then I will eat some of them. I wouldn't worry too much about taking in that much food. If you feel good about your intake for the day then don't worry :)
  • syradove
    syradove Posts: 12 Member
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    No, don't count the extra calories, just keep eating and staying under the smaller number before the excercise. Wow really? You burned 1400 calories? That must have been one heck of a workout!
  • bigredhearts
    bigredhearts Posts: 428
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    what are you counting as exercise?
  • butterfli7o
    butterfli7o Posts: 1,319 Member
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    Whoa!!! Are you sure you burned that many calories??
  • lizard053
    lizard053 Posts: 2,344 Member
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    I eat 1/2 to 2/3 of my exercise calories most of the time. I have gotten over 3000 calories before. Ate about 2500, still lost weight. MFP truly works! Just make sure you over-estimate how much you've eaten and under-estimate how much you burn.
  • Fay84Vegan
    Fay84Vegan Posts: 225 Member
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    It depends on what you NET for the day that matters..

    If your daily calorie allowance is eg 1500 you then burn 1000 calories through exercise and you didn't eat back your exercise calories you would NET 500 calories which is WAY too LOW to function normally.

    Make sure you NET at least you BMR everyday so you can function properly and that way it will help you to lose weight.

    It's not about eating as few caloires as possible it's about eating the right amount of calories to help your body lose weight.
  • SirZee
    SirZee Posts: 381
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    Can't comment much, diary is not open. However, don't blindly eat back all of the calories, we and MFP tend to overestimate cal burned, and underestimate cal consumed. I just eat my daily cal allowance, and use the exercise calories as justification if I feel like eating a bit more :)

    Tomorrow I am going to be negative cal for the day for sure, given that I play two hockey games, and coach two soccer games.
  • leannems
    leannems Posts: 516 Member
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    The calories are likely overestimated, but most folks on MFP will recommend that you eat at least 1/2 of them back.

    There are some people who say they cannot eat their exercise calories back, because they'll gain weight, so you have to find out what works best for you.

    I lose better when I eat mine back. BTW - what kind of workout are you doing that burns that much? I almost never burn over 1000.
  • Jamie2007
    Jamie2007 Posts: 169
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    What the heck did you do to burn 1,411 calories??!!
  • ajcamber
    ajcamber Posts: 89 Member
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    I lap swim. I used their calculator and just plugged in what type of exercise I chose freestyle swim light/moderate and 60 minutes and that is what it gave me.
    Like I said I am really confused.
  • cbbn11
    cbbn11 Posts: 125 Member
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    Well, I just started this and I am really confused about one thing. I earned 1,411 calories by exercising and it was added to the total calories that I am supposed to consume for the day which brings me over 3,000. How am I supposed to eat that much and still lose weight?

    How did you earn 1,411 calories? Unless you were riding a bike for about 5 hours this seems rather high. I would try recalculating you calories burned.

    If this is what you really did burn you have to give out your secret because I know I would love to burn that much in a day...:happy:

    And welcome to MFP BTW.

    Edit: Ah you posted before I did...lol
  • gerirojas
    gerirojas Posts: 101 Member
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    I bought a Heart Rate Monitor and come to find out I wasn't burning nearly as many calories as the tools on MFP said I did
  • ElPumaMex
    ElPumaMex Posts: 367 Member
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    To find the answer, here is a recent thread on the same subject:

    http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/561583-why-replace-excercised-calories

    The thread also has a bunch of links to previous discussions.
  • BAMFMeredith
    BAMFMeredith Posts: 2,829 Member
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    Recalculate your exercise calories unless you ran a marathon.

    Overestimating exercise calories is just as bad as not logging food. Make sure you set up your profile preferences correctly too.

    I burn that many calories (if not more) every Saturday :) a 12 mile run usually does it! Those are my "fun food" days where I get to eat something I normally wouldn't, so I can stay in my calorie limits and splurge a little!

    Also, the bigger you are, the bigger your burn. I burn a lot less calories in one hour than somebody twice my size, but I burn a lot more calories in one hour than somebody 50 lbs lighter....so, it's possible for the OP to burn that many calories on a regular basis.

    To answer the OP though, I don't eat back all my exercise calories every day. When I have my fun food day, I get close, because I'm usually indulging, but otherwise my intake is usually between 1400-1700 calories regardless of how much I exercise. As long as your body feels fueled and you're able to get through your workout, don't sweat eating extra calories just for the sake of eating them.
  • iremmy
    iremmy Posts: 77 Member
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    Unless you are using a heart rate monitor when you exercise you really cant know that you burned that many calories. I found that when I put my exercises in before purchasing an HRM that My fitness pal WAY over estimated my calories burned. Just FYI in case you were not using one. :) Hope that helps
  • ladyraven68
    ladyraven68 Posts: 2,003 Member
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    Well, I just started this and I am really confused about one thing. I earned 1,411 calories by exercising and it was added to the total calories that I am supposed to consume for the day which brings me over 3,000. How am I supposed to eat that much and still lose weight?

    MFP calculates your Daily expenditure, without exercise, and then takes a defict from it to allow you to lose weight based on what goals and info you set.

    If you exercise you make that deficit larger and too large a defict is not recommended so you need to eat back teh calories to maintain the deficit you set.

    Assuming you set a 500 defict for 1lb a week, by burning a further 1400, you have made a defict of almost 2000.

    http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/206951-asked-my-trainer-re-eating-back-calories

    http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/539912-why-eating-exercise-calories-is-so-important
  • cmriverside
    cmriverside Posts: 33,977 Member
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    .
  • loseweightjames
    loseweightjames Posts: 365
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    I try not count my calories that I get from exercise.

    ^^^^^^^^^^^^^ this.

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