logging exercise calories

sloanranger55

I have stopped logging my exercise calories.

As I am eating them and feel this is defeating the object.

What does everyone else do ?

Jo

Pebble321

www.shouldieatmyexercisecalories.com

Cait_Sidhe

www.shouldieatmyexercisecalories.com

quote for emphasis.

Patovader

If you are logging your exercise calories accurately and you are not eating them back then you are starving your body. This is counter-productive for weight loss, as the above post says check out www.shouldieatmyexercisecalories.com.

I have reached my goal and lost a total of 46 pounds and it was because I generally ate my exercise calories. I say generally because I would usually save around 100 to 150 per day Monday to Friday so I could have a drink at the weekend and be on or around my goal averaged over the week, this resulted in me steadily losing circa 1 pound per week.

By not following this then I am afraid that you have misunderstood how this site works.

Good luck on achieving your goals.

A

donna_glasgow

I eat mine back if Im hungry (Im not a believer in eating for the sake of it, I listen to my body)....

Logging them gives me the option to feed myself a little more if required .....also it gives me the over all view of what Im doing day to day and how I can change it/ mix is up if it stops working for me.

the body may well be a machine but mixing your day up (in my opinion) keeps it on its toes

I have lost 33 lbs to date (28 of them pre MFP) I have kept the weight off

DaveTopliss

If you are logging your exercise calories accurately and you are not eating them back then you are starving your body.

I think this is an important point, but i am always dubious of how accurate the calorie count is for the exercises so i have a tendancy to not eat all back but i do the majority, my body usually tells me. The rest as above really; i think eating workout calories really helps me keep my energy and focus when your body has enough calories to do what your asking of it.

temp666777

Do not eat your exercise calories. It's just totally silly. Do not do it.

There are two significant issues:

(1) it is ALMOST IMPOSSIBLE to really accurately measure how many "calories burned" in a given exercise. Even worse, almost every estimate is ridiculously way too high. They are usually TWICE AS HIGH as they should be, if not more.

EVEN IF you decided to adopt a strategy of "eating your exercise calories", as a rule of thumb you should DEFINITELY CUT IN HALF the measure - to begin with. So if your "estimate" of calories burned is 200, make it 100 instead and MAYBE eat back the "100".

(2) EVEN IF you are a top athlete, and you have a full sports medicine lab and two research scientists at your disposal, so you have a vague idea of how many calories your exercise is burning ... EVEN IF that was the case ... it is madness to eat back your exercise calories. Don't forget you are TRYING TO LOSE FAT !!!!!!!!!!!!!! It's just that simple.

there is a further major issue:

(3) "CALORIES ARE NOT CALORIES" -- just as food is not food (eating carbs, fat and protein - the same number of calories - is totally different) -- exercise is not exercise and calories are not calories.

IT IS INCREDIBLY LIKELY THAT when you exercise, all you will achieve is burning off MUSCLE mass and some ATP that's lying around and maybe some water weight, and then people immediately eat back inevitably CARBOHYDRATES which immediately goes on as PURE BODY FAT.

Alternately, IF you have a whole sports science lab at your disposal, and after the long warm-up phase (which does nothing for you) you are actually burning some (miniscule) amount of fat during exercise, if you go and eat afterwards you're just packing on far more fat.

Let's recap

(a) it is ALL BUT IMPOSSIBLE to estimate how much calories you actually burned. If you really must go down this crazy path, CHOP THE NUMBER IN HALF before proceeding.

(b) ALMOST ALWAYS when you exercise you ARE NOT burning fat -- however when you "eat the calories" you ARE ABSOLUTELY putting on PURE FAT. Indeed there is NO POSSIBLE WORSE COMBINATION than exercising away not-fat and then eating-on fat via carbohydrates. Think about this!

(c) a vast amount of clear scientific opinion says the idea is rubbish. if anyone is going to do something as whacky as "eat back the calories" I urge you to first read ALL of the book "Good calories, bad calories" by Gary Taubes. At least then you will have some basic info about this whacky idea.

Do not base a massive decision like this on some dribble seen on the internet - like this post For goodness sake, if you're going to go down such a whacky path, get some real science. Buy the book! You could waste A YEAR if you have the wrong info.

(d) as a general principle it's crazy to "exercise off" and then "eat on" . Note that even if it worked, YOU HAVE ACHIEVED NOTHING. It's that simple. It is ridiculous. You might a well say "If I diet and don't eat a banana, could I then eat a banana to make up for the fact that amazingly I did not eat a banana?" It just MAKES NO SENSE.

Say I told you "here's a green pill from the future that will make you instantly lose 1 kilo of fat". Would you take one of the pills -- and then quickly "eat on" a kilo of fat? It just MAKES NO SENSE -- DON'T DO IT, for goodness sake!

mandylooo

I have stopped logging my exercise calories.

As I am eating them and feel this is defeating the object.

What does everyone else do ?

Jo

Do you mean you have stopped logging completely? I can't see anything in your diary.

ETA: O RLY?

stuey39

I have tried eating them back and it doesn't work.....for me, it might for others but definately not
for me...this is because we are all DIFFERENT!

I gave it a fair trial and over a 6 week period have gained 6lbs which is half of what I'd previously
lost..before anyone comments about muscle mass etc I'm sure even Mr Olympia would be mighty
proud of gaining 2" of 'muscle' around his waste in 6 weeks!

I have come to this conclusion...weightloss is NOT an exact science and what might work for one
INDIVIDUAL may not work for another so it's about finding what works for yourself.

Good luck to all on your weightloss/fitness journey however you decide to do it.

Pebble321

Temp, I think you've missed the point of how MFP calculates calories.

Every single method I've seen of calculating your daily calorie intake makes some reference to how active you are - and if you are more active you eat more. MFP just gives you a base line calorie intake based on no exercise and encourages you to add on the exercise as you do it. Most other system include the exercise in the initial figure, MFP adds it in later.
The outcome is the same, it's just a different method.


I do agree that the methods used to estimate calorie burn are probably inaccurate - but frankly, so are the estimates for the food we eat.

OP, MFP's system has worked well for lots of people and it encourages you to eat more to fuel your exercise - that certainly makes sense to me (and it's worked well for me).
But hey, if you don't like that theory, then use a different method of calculating your daily calorie allowance (one that already includes your exercise!) and don't record your exercise calories.

Patovader

Do not eat your exercise calories. It's just totally silly. Do not do it.

There are two significant issues:

(1) it is ALMOST IMPOSSIBLE to really accurately measure how many "calories burned" in a given exercise. Even worse, almost every estimate is ridiculously way too high. They are usually TWICE AS HIGH as they should be, if not more.

EVEN IF you decided to adopt a strategy of "eating your exercise calories", as a rule of thumb you should DEFINITELY CUT IN HALF the measure - to begin with. So if your "estimate" of calories burned is 200, make it 100 instead and MAYBE eat back the "100".

(2) EVEN IF you are a top athlete, and you have a full sports medicine lab and two research scientists at your disposal, so you have a vague idea of how many calories your exercise is burning ... EVEN IF that was the case ... it is madness to eat back your exercise calories. Don't forget you are TRYING TO LOSE FAT !!!!!!!!!!!!!! It's just that simple.

there is a further major issue:

(3) "CALORIES ARE NOT CALORIES" -- just as food is not food (eating carbs, fat and protein - the same number of calories - is totally different) -- exercise is not exercise and calories are not calories.

IT IS INCREDIBLY LIKELY THAT when you exercise, all you will achieve is burning off MUSCLE mass and some ATP that's lying around and maybe some water weight, and then people immediately eat back inevitably CARBOHYDRATES which immediately goes on as PURE BODY FAT.

Alternately, IF you have a whole sports science lab at your disposal, and after the long warm-up phase (which does nothing for you) you are actually burning some (miniscule) amount of fat during exercise, if you go and eat afterwards you're just packing on far more fat.

Let's recap

(a) it is ALL BUT IMPOSSIBLE to estimate how much calories you actually burned. If you really must go down this crazy path, CHOP THE NUMBER IN HALF before proceeding.

(b) ALMOST ALWAYS when you exercise you ARE NOT burning fat -- however when you "eat the calories" you ARE ABSOLUTELY putting on PURE FAT. Indeed there is NO POSSIBLE WORSE COMBINATION than exercising away not-fat and then eating-on fat via carbohydrates. Think about this!

(c) a vast amount of clear scientific opinion says the idea is rubbish. if anyone is going to do something as whacky as "eat back the calories" I urge you to first read ALL of the book "Good calories, bad calories" by Gary Taubes. At least then you will have some basic info about this whacky idea.

Do not base a massive decision like this on some dribble seen on the internet - like this post For goodness sake, if you're going to go down such a whacky path, get some real science. Buy the book! You could waste A YEAR if you have the wrong info.

(d) as a general principle it's crazy to "exercise off" and then "eat on" . Note that even if it worked, YOU HAVE ACHIEVED NOTHING. It's that simple. It is ridiculous. You might a well say "If I diet and don't eat a banana, could I then eat a banana to make up for the fact that amazingly I did not eat a banana?" It just MAKES NO SENSE.

Say I told you "here's a green pill from the future that will make you instantly lose 1 kilo of fat". Would you take one of the pills -- and then quickly "eat on" a kilo of fat? It just MAKES NO SENSE -- DON'T DO IT, for goodness sake!

You are of course entitled to your own opinion, although it would appear that you are simply quoting someone else's.

You have a deficit set up on this site, by eating your exercise calories back you are still maintaining your deficit so point (d) you make is completely irrelevant. You will also note that I stated accurate exercise, which concurs with your initial points.

No one is advocating that you simply eat carbohydrates to replace energy expended from exercise, I think you are supposed to eat 'a balanced diet'.

Final point from me, and please do not read too much into this as I am clearly un-educated, have lost all my weight by luck and am now just having a little sport because its a Friday, but do you receive a retainer for promoting "Good calories, bad calories" by Gary Taubes...

Cait_Sidhe

Do not eat your exercise calories. It's just totally silly. Do not do it.

There are two significant issues:

(1) it is ALMOST IMPOSSIBLE to really accurately measure how many "calories burned" in a given exercise. Even worse, almost every estimate is ridiculously way too high. They are usually TWICE AS HIGH as they should be, if not more.

EVEN IF you decided to adopt a strategy of "eating your exercise calories", as a rule of thumb you should DEFINITELY CUT IN HALF the measure - to begin with. So if your "estimate" of calories burned is 200, make it 100 instead and MAYBE eat back the "100".

(2) EVEN IF you are a top athlete, and you have a full sports medicine lab and two research scientists at your disposal, so you have a vague idea of how many calories your exercise is burning ... EVEN IF that was the case ... it is madness to eat back your exercise calories. Don't forget you are TRYING TO LOSE FAT !!!!!!!!!!!!!! It's just that simple.

there is a further major issue:

(3) "CALORIES ARE NOT CALORIES" -- just as food is not food (eating carbs, fat and protein - the same number of calories - is totally different) -- exercise is not exercise and calories are not calories.

IT IS INCREDIBLY LIKELY THAT when you exercise, all you will achieve is burning off MUSCLE mass and some ATP that's lying around and maybe some water weight, and then people immediately eat back inevitably CARBOHYDRATES which immediately goes on as PURE BODY FAT.

Alternately, IF you have a whole sports science lab at your disposal, and after the long warm-up phase (which does nothing for you) you are actually burning some (miniscule) amount of fat during exercise, if you go and eat afterwards you're just packing on far more fat.

Let's recap

(a) it is ALL BUT IMPOSSIBLE to estimate how much calories you actually burned. If you really must go down this crazy path, CHOP THE NUMBER IN HALF before proceeding.

(b) ALMOST ALWAYS when you exercise you ARE NOT burning fat -- however when you "eat the calories" you ARE ABSOLUTELY putting on PURE FAT. Indeed there is NO POSSIBLE WORSE COMBINATION than exercising away not-fat and then eating-on fat via carbohydrates. Think about this!

(c) a vast amount of clear scientific opinion says the idea is rubbish. if anyone is going to do something as whacky as "eat back the calories" I urge you to first read ALL of the book "Good calories, bad calories" by Gary Taubes. At least then you will have some basic info about this whacky idea.

Do not base a massive decision like this on some dribble seen on the internet - like this post For goodness sake, if you're going to go down such a whacky path, get some real science. Buy the book! You could waste A YEAR if you have the wrong info.

(d) as a general principle it's crazy to "exercise off" and then "eat on" . Note that even if it worked, YOU HAVE ACHIEVED NOTHING. It's that simple. It is ridiculous. You might a well say "If I diet and don't eat a banana, could I then eat a banana to make up for the fact that amazingly I did not eat a banana?" It just MAKES NO SENSE.

Say I told you "here's a green pill from the future that will make you instantly lose 1 kilo of fat". Would you take one of the pills -- and then quickly "eat on" a kilo of fat? It just MAKES NO SENSE -- DON'T DO IT, for goodness sake!

Wow. So much broscience and wrong here I don't even know where to start. I'm sure someone will do a better job of it than me, so I'll just say:

Don't listen to this guy. It just MAKES NO SENSE -- DON'T DO IT, for goodness sake!

sloanranger55

Hiya and thank you all very much for your input. I think I will go with, eating some of them back and see where that gets me.

I am doing a 5k race for life today, so I will see if my added exercise has at least improved my fitness if not my waist line.

Thank You all

Jo x