For those of you who don't eat exercise cals back

selig0730

i put in my exercise in the phone/computer and then i eat like normal, i dont eat more if i exercise i just eat when im hungary and only if i have calories left, the phone will let me know how many i have eaten, exercised and how much i got left, when i log into the exerise coloum i just look at the food part so i dont try to eat all my work out calories, i hope this makes any sense and helps

zorbaru

most of the time i dont look at it as "eating back burnt calories" i look at it as "burning off excess calories eaten"

kayemme

One last thing- Any trainer or nutritionist will tell you that 1200 calories is barely enough to sustain the average sized person if all they did was lay in bed all day. So, if you're exercising at all, its simply not enough fuel. You're not only at a calories deficit, you're at a nutritional deficit as well.

i don't totally agree, though i don't necessarily disagree. I feel like I eat really well. some days maybe not as great as others, but most days I eat very clean, high-fiber, nutrient-dense food. It's actually quite difficult to eat more than 1500 of this kind of calorie because the fiber is keeping you very full for a long time.

Some days I don't even reach 1200 according to MFP, but I also know that I "gauge" things like "1/4 cup" this or that, but mostly I try to eat when I'm hungry.

I would agree that for the "typical" american diet, 1200 calories wouldn't be very nutritious nor very plentiful, but I am confident in saying I eat plenty and stay well under 1500 calories a day.

susannamarie

I found this on the LiveStrong website:

"Net Calories Used

To calculate calories burnt during a specific activity, use a free calculator such as the Calories Burned Estimator on the Health Status Website. This calculator tells you how many calories you burned based on the activity you did, the time spent and your weight. To determine net calories, subtract the calories you burned from the calories you took in. If you get a negative number, you burned more calories than you took in and you will lose weight."

I presume you're meaning this article: http://www.livestrong.com/article/290204-net-calories-after-exercise-to-lose-weight/

This article is not very clear, but it seems to be using a different definition of net calories which would require calculating every single activity (including sleeping, etc) for calorie burn, for 24 hours.

Using MFP's definition, you should NOT be aiming for negative net calories.

HelenDootson

i just know how much im allotted a day and when i hit that number the day is done.

Thats the way I do it. Although if I am eating out unplanned or doing a hugh amount of extras I will eat about half of my exercise amount - Doesn't happen too often

charlotteannnnn

I add in the amount of calories I have burnt through exercise as and when I do the exercise, because that is the amount your body is running off? However, I try not to eat them back otherwise what was the point in burning them off? But, for example if your goal is 1200kcal and you burn of 600kcal, and then you eat 1400kcal - your body has still consumed less than 1200, which is why I log as I go.

levirudy

hi dont mean to be confusing but ive done the healthy diet,walked 12miles,strenght exercise 2times a day at 15mins each & always busy &put on a pound in my 1st week...not impressed...how has it worked for you...what are you doing im not???

LoveAustralia

I don't eat my exercise calories back, I log my exercise as soon as I do it. So if I burn 400 calories I log it but then I use quick add calories in my snacks and add 400 calories so I don't get confused then at the end of the day I delete the quick add calories before I complete my log.

Bssh

I log my exercise but record it as 1 calorie burned (I keep a note of actual calories burned in the notes section so I can ensure I am not burning more than my BMR - if I am then I eat extra the difference).

tadpole242

I do it slightly different than everyone it seems
I’ve 2040 per day, so on day where I do nothing, that is my target. On days I exercise, I divide my target 2040 by 24 (85 calories per hour) and subtract that for each hour or part that I exercise from my exercise total. I do it this way as I don’t want to count the calories twice.
I’m then free to eat enough food on the days where I exercise, so I don’t end up feeling faint or I’m kept up at night with hunger pains. I’m always hungry, (even when I was eating 6000 calories a day) so that to me is no indicator of whether I need to eat or not.
I will also keep track of my weekly calories and usually I have a few thousand spare at the end of the week.
I don’t eat back all or even half my exercise calories but I also don’t beat myself up if I go over by a couple of hundred calories on non-exercising day

soontobesam

My Fitbit adjusts my exercise which, in turn, ups my calories and macros for what I can eat. I stay around or under the initially macro goals before exercise is counted. I have my activity level set to Active to match what I've gotten for a daily burn from Fitbit. It was my albeit limited understanding that eating exercise cals back was only for people who set themselves as Sedentary for activity.

Correct. If you've set yourself as "active", and by that you mean "I don't work a very active job like a landscaper or another job that requires heavy lifting for a significant portion of the day, but I work out a lot every day", then you absolutely DO NOT want to eat back your exercise calories because they are already accommodated for in your lifestyle.

"Exercise calories" are those that are "earned" by engaging in activity over and above your "normal lifestyle".

So someone like me, who is a desk monkey, can choose to set my activity level to "active" and commit to spending an hour on Mr. Elliptical daily, or set my activity level to "sedentary" and log my visits to Mr. Elliptical as activity over and above my lifestyle, thereby earning extra calories that (the way the MFP site is designed) I am expected to eat back. I'll end up with about the same calories every day.

Example, based on 1 lb/week weight loss:
- sedentary gives me 1,890 calories a day.
- active gives me 2.,270 a day.

So if I did a 400-calorie workout daily, I could choose between sedentary and logging the workout, and active and not logging it, and be allotted nearly the exact same number of calories.

If you set your activity level to something that includes your exercise and THEN log the exercise, you're double-eating those calories back and cutting into the very deficit that is designed to lose the weight for you. In my case, if I set my lifestyle to active, then ate back that 400 calories, it's 4/5ths of the 500-calorie deficit that loses me the 1 lb/week. So I'd be losing 1 pound every 5 weeks.

This is perfect - very helpful explanation.

trophywife24

I don't log my exercise in mfp. I stopped a while ago. I think that most of the time, mfp grossly overestimates the amount of calories that most people burn while working out and well....... I'm too lazy to tinker with a heart rate monitor. I lift, spin and do pilates, and stay pretty active. If I'm hungry, I'll also eat. I don't live and die by my calorie goal. Having that little red - number at the end of the day is fine compared to living in a state of Hulk rage because I'm hungry.

70davis

Bump