Not losing weight? This might be why...

softsculptor

Well, I see your point, and I think it may be true for many people who are already eating too much but if you are exercising for an hour 5x a week and on a 1,200/ calorie intake, I would argue that it is important to eat back at least some of your calories. No nutritionist would recommend less.

I personally do not even try to estimate calories burned with exercise. I do an exercise regime based on my goals and adjust calorie intake based on what is happening on the scale\calipers\mirror\tape measure

This

If a difference due to overestimation of calories burned is causing you to gain weight (or not lose) then perhaps you are giving yourself too narrow a margin by which to eat and exercise.

Some people are really good at the "eat back exercise calories" plan, usually because they are active people by nature and they're making sure to get sufficient calories to support their lifestyle. For me personally, physical activity is a huge part of my lifestyle and burning calories is a side effect, not a direct attempt to lose weight. Weight loss comes from diet. Physical fitness comes from exercise.

I'm sorry to say it, but doing a 30 minute elliptical workout every day doesn't mean you need to eat more.

invictus8

I focus on:

1. getting a caloric deficit from food intake alone
2. improving cardiovascular health from intense cardio
3. increasing/maintaining muscle mass with strength training

So the elliptical is mostly for #2, not for #1 (or #3).

softsculptor

I think it depends on your calorie intake and how much you are exercising. if you are starting out with a 1,200 calorie/day intake it is definitely not a good idea to do high-intensity workouts without eating some of your calories back.

Shayztar

Well, I see your point, and I think it may be true for many people who are already eating too much but if you are exercising for an hour 5x a week and on a 1,200/ calorie intake, I would argue that it is important to eat back at least some of your calories. No nutritionist would recommend less.

At the same time, some people eat more that 1200 calorie and factor in their regular exercise into their daily calorie allotment. They eat higher than their BMR automatically, regardless what MFP calculator tells them. Other people have been successfully working weight loss for so long that cals in/cals out become intrinsic to them.

I would hope that if you were only eating 1200 calories a day, you would eat back almost all of your exercise calories.

Buy a HRM. They are way more accurate than a machine, or even the MFP entries. They are not perfect either, but nothing in life is.

secretlobster

Well, I see your point, and I think it may be true for many people who are already eating too much but if you are exercising for an hour 5x a week and on a 1,200/ calorie intake, I would argue that it is important to eat back at least some of your calories. No nutritionist would recommend less.

I don't think anyone should be shooting for 1200 calories a day, but that's just me. If the idea of eating the bare minimum is something that appeals to you personally (I'm using the collective "you" here), you are better off raising the caloric bar and just trying to meet it consistently without calculating how many calories you burn and how many you eat back. If you force yourself into a narrow caloric margin, you give yourself very little room for error in terms of miscalculation or overestimation of calories burned.

waldo56

You don't trust the exercise cals on the machine (Eliiptical) but trust the calorie goals on the other machine (MFP). Interesting.

Adjust your calorie goals on MFP based on results and don't worry if your exercise cals are right or wrong, the error will be cancelled out by the goal adjustment.

WendyTerry420

MFP puts my normal 40 minute workout as burning around 200-300 calories. I see a lot of people on my friends list posting that they burned three times that amount in the same time period. That was my first clue. I checked around on different websites for average burns when walking/jogging in place and found that what I enter into MFP is within about 50 calories on average. I usually leave about 100-200 calories per day uneaten, unless I do strength training which always makes me hungry.

The OP is absolutely correct that some people who aren't losing are WAY over-estimating their burns.

softsculptor

1,200/day works for some people...it works for me and I don't feel like I am restricting myself at all! I have only been really hungry on one occasion, and on that day I simply ate more. I eat pasta regularly, but I also find myself making healthier food choices.

At the same time, I am a 5'3 female. I imagine it is less practical for someone taller and/or male.

Well, I see your point, and I think it may be true for many people who are already eating too much but if you are exercising for an hour 5x a week and on a 1,200/ calorie intake, I would argue that it is important to eat back at least some of your calories. No nutritionist would recommend less.

I don't think anyone should be shooting for 1200 calories a day, but that's just me. If the idea of eating the bare minimum is something that appeals to you personally (I'm using the collective "you" here), you are better off raising the caloric bar and just trying to meet it consistently without calculating how many calories you burn and how many you eat back. If you force yourself into a narrow caloric margin, you give yourself very little room for error in terms of miscalculation or overestimation of calories burned.

secretlobster

Also, weight loss is something that, for each of us, has taken some amount of experimentation to get right. I highly doubt any one of us has come to MFP, immediately calculated our exact TDEE and BMR, correctly guessed the amount of calories we burn through exercise, and lost weight consistently without ever gaining a pound on the scale, eaten too much or too little, or gone through a weight loss plateau.

There are a lot of people who are afraid of not losing, or gaining, during the process so they want to calculate everything exactly so they don't "screw up". Well everyone screws up at some point, you just have to keep going and not be afraid to make changes.

softsculptor

Agreed! It is highly individualized!

Also, weight loss is something that, for each of us, has taken some amount of experimentation to get right. I highly doubt any one of us has come to MFP, immediately calculated our exact TDEE and BMR, correctly guessed the amount of calories we burn through exercise, and lost weight consistently without ever gaining a pound on the scale, eaten too much or too little, or gone through a weight loss plateau.

There are a lot of people who are afraid of not losing, or gaining, during the process so they want to calculate everything exactly so they don't "screw up". Well everyone screws up at some point, you just have to keep going and not be afraid to make changes.

secretlobster

1,200/day works for some people...it works for me and I don't feel like I am restricting myself at all! I have only been really hungry on one occasion, and on that day I simply ate more. I eat pasta regularly, but I also find myself making healthier food choices.

At the same time, I am a 5'3 female. I imagine it is less practical for someone taller and/or male.

That works for you, but to stay on topic, I'm referring to the people who aren't getting the results they want by trying to calculate exactly how many calories they need to eat by calories burned through exercise

espinozAgal

Thanks for this very useful info!!

Determinednoob

i would think a lot people eating 1200 cals per day wouldn't even need exercise to lose weight. A lot of people exercise way more than they need to and\or in an incorrect manner for the goals that they have. Or they don't make themselves specific enough goals in the first place.

abbylg1983

Apparently, this is a topic of high interest to those who have a picture of a cat in their profile.

Haha. I had to go back and look but you are right.

My treadmill way overestimates too. I'd love it if I was burning 150 calories in 10 minutes, but I just don't think that's the case. From what I have heard, most people think they probably burn just under half of what the readouts say.

leanne9876

I used to use MFP calories but when I started putting my weight into the treadmill and xtrainer, the calories burned showed alot lower then what MFP estimated.

So for now I use what the machine says.
On the xtrainer if I do 10 mins I burn approx 100 calories.
I was on the treadmill today and decided to use the nike app on my iphone and the calories were very close to what it said on the treadmill, but I can't compare exactly cause I only turned on the nike app about 5 mins into my workout.

MrDude_1

Most people suffer from a lack of education. They have no clue on the science behind anything.
So if they dont even know what a kilocalorie is, how can you expect that person to realize the machine is horribly inaccurate? same for how people log stuff constantly.. its horrible. You see double-counting everywhere... most commonly the BMI being included with the exercise calories.

Faintgreeneyes

Best way to not over-eat.... don't eat back your exercise cals!

marie_cressman

Best bet: buy your own heart rate monitor and use it and ignore the machine.

^^ yup. that's what i do!

athensguy

Which is why you shouldnt be eating exercise calories back anyway, its counterproductive.

If I want to maintain my weight, I'm pretty sure I have to eat enough calories to cover my exercise.

secretlobster

Most people suffer from a lack of education. They have no clue on the science behind anything.
So if they dont even know what a kilocalorie is, how can you expect that person to realize the machine is horribly inaccurate? same for how people log stuff constantly.. its horrible. You see double-counting everywhere... most commonly the BMI being included with the exercise calories.

This is the truth. But I think you mean BMR not BMI?

Not trying to sound harsh, but MFP is a tool that is intended for the "uneducated". It's an easy way to log food and exercise and have a calorie target without any extra calculation or thought required. If you want to "outsmart the system" and come up with your own calorie goals, just using MFP as a number-holder rather than a calculator, you'd better know the science behind what the numbers are otherwise you are shooting yourself in the foot.

That said, MFP also makes it really easy to double-log calories burned when you set your activity level to "highly active" and yet still log every (perhaps overestimated) calorie from exercise.

ninerbuff

Research shows that certain exercise machines overestimate calories burned. The elliptical is the worst offender with an overestimation of up to 42%!

You can meticulously log your food, but if you are overestimating calories burned, you are bound to plateau. I am 100% convinced this is what caused my last plateau.

I spend, for instance, an hour on that thing during my workouts and in the end, it says I've burned 800 calories. Even though I have it on max resistance, I KNOW this is too good to be true as I am going at a pace that allows me to read while exercising.

Now I subtract 42% from all my elliptical calories and am successfully losing weight.

Worthwhile articles:

http://www.everyfit.com/2011/03/08/true-or-false-elliptical-machines-overestimate-your-calorie-burn

http://abcnews.go.com/GMA/Weekend/exercise-calorie-counters-work/story?id=9966500#.UDImBdAe5UM

TRUTH. Unless a gym is calibrating each and every day (which I've NEVER seen) then the readings are usually exaggerated.

A.C.E. Certified Personal and Group Fitness Trainer
IDEA Fitness member
Kickboxing Certified Instructor
Been in fitness for 28+ years and have studied kinesiology and nutrition

WendyTerry420

Also, weight loss is something that, for each of us, has taken some amount of experimentation to get right. I highly doubt any one of us has come to MFP, immediately calculated our exact TDEE and BMR, correctly guessed the amount of calories we burn through exercise, and lost weight consistently without ever gaining a pound on the scale, eaten too much or too little, or gone through a weight loss plateau.

There are a lot of people who are afraid of not losing, or gaining, during the process so they want to calculate everything exactly so they don't "screw up". Well everyone screws up at some point, you just have to keep going and not be afraid to make changes.

Well so far so good for me, but I am mentally preparing myself for a plateau at some point. I am only 6 weeks in.

msjamartin

I've noticed in my 1 hour workouts when I vary machines, especially different types of ellipticals, I get varying numbers each time. One machine is way under MFP by 100-150 calories for that 1 hour (so I'll log this). The other is about 100-150 over (and I'll log MFP instead). I tend ot wear my HRM watch only on the treadmill, while doing a dvd at home or running/biking outside. I've found the my HRM is close to the newer treadmills at the gym than the older (indicating they calibration doesn't happen regularly). I also do not really use my exercise calories as part of my daily intake goals. I set myself a range to eat between 1400-1600 a day. Until the last 4-5 months I lost regularly. Now I'm working through a plateau to get the last 40 off. My approach really has had nothing to do with what I'm tracking from workouts but more on varying my workouts and my diet to find a better combination for burning the rest of this excess fat off. I do think that if you are one to eat back exercise calories, that you should log at least 25% less in calories burned from any machine/hrm/mfp listing. None are 100% accurate and we all want that deficit for weightloss. Balance is really the key (IMO). Eating the right balance and portions of protein, carbs and fat with regular and varied exercise. This is what will bring long term results and a healthy life.

Jeneba

I think I am very much the exception. The numbers on the elliptical, on MFP, and on my HRM are virtually identical.

LaMujerMasBonitaDelMundo

MFP also rates about double of my HRM.

Me too & this is the very reason why I don't eat all my exercise calories.

Lina4Lina

Well, I see your point, and I think it may be true for many people who are already eating too much but if you are exercising for an hour 5x a week and on a 1,200/ calorie intake, I would argue that it is important to eat back at least some of your calories. No nutritionist would recommend less.

The reason no nutritionist would recommend less than 1200 calories is because it is really hard to get the proper amount of nutrients on less than 1200 calories/day. If you are eating a varied 1200 calorie/day diet then you should be getting plenty nutrients but also a multivitamin never hurt either.

Again, it really depends on what you are doing and your goals. If you have athletic goals and are exercising a lot every day, then you really do need to eat some of your calories back. If you are doing light exercise or 20-30 minutes/day, then eating back your calories is not important.

Determinednoob

Well, I see your point, and I think it may be true for many people who are already eating too much but if you are exercising for an hour 5x a week and on a 1,200/ calorie intake, I would argue that it is important to eat back at least some of your calories. No nutritionist would recommend less.

The reason no nutritionist would recommend less than 1200 calories is because it is really hard to get the proper amount of nutrients on less than 1200 calories/day. If you are eating a varied 1200 calorie/day diet then you should be getting plenty nutrients but also a multivitamin never hurt either.

Again, it really depends on what you are doing and your goals. If you have athletic goals and are exercising a lot every day, then you really do need to eat some of your calories back. If you are doing light exercise or 20-30 minutes/day, then eating back your calories is not important.

I would say more accurately you need to at least be eating an amount that keeps your body functioning properly and does not lead to metabolism slowing too much.

docktorfokse

Which is why you shouldnt be eating exercise calories back anyway, its counterproductive.

strong this.

everything else is broscience

but if i don't have three extra slices of pizza after i work out, i'll go into starvation mode!

Determinednoob

Which is why you shouldnt be eating exercise calories back anyway, its counterproductive.

strong this.

everything else is broscience

but if i don't have three extra slices of pizza after i work out, i'll go into starvation mode!

I'm not sure what nonsense this is. I eat my pizza between sets. And of course I have an IV running BCAAs during my entire workout.

k4evans1

Wear a heart rate monitor and you're good to go! Very accurate