Simple maths, people. Please.

erikatoth

The whole "eat your exercise calories" subject has been bugging me for way too long.

Let me use myself as a simple example, based on MFP calculations. Let's say that I am a very active person who exercises 5 times a week for over an hour (I wish, but let's say). I also walk to work every day 2X1 hour.

I do my MFP analysis and put my lifestyle as "active". Anyone disagreeing?

With all other details (weight, height, etc) constant, wanting to lose 1 pound a week calculation, it gives me 1750 cals/day . Wooo hoo yippe!!

Then I go on to day one. I eat 1600 calories. I have one hour runnign session (400 cals), then swim for half an hour (200), then I add 2 hours brisk walking to and from work (let's undercalculate and say it's only 200. Then I go onto MFP and add all the nice 800 extra cals as exercise. And then I have a 850 cal dinner. Because I am supposed to eat my exercise calories.

End result on MFP? I am still 100 cals under... wow, how lucky am I? I am eating 2500 calories and I am supposed to lose a pound a week - have i died and just got to heaven?

Wrong.

You are ONLY allowed to eat your exercise calories if you haven't already included exercise in your lifestyle definition! if I had put sedentary lifestyle, for a 1 pound week weight loss MFO would have given me the minimum of 1200. Then, IF I do indeed exercise and walk ads much as I said, I may, MAY be allowed to eat 1200+800 and MAY possibly still lose the weekly one pound MFP promises me.

You either add your exercise (walking included!) into your activity, OR you record your exercise on the "sedentary lifestyle" base. If you do both, you are double counting your exercise.

Sorry, had to get it off my chest. Please people stop sabotaging other people's efforts by telling them they need to eat their exercise cals.

(For background info, I am 67cm and 54 kg, my ideal weight, after MFP helped me to lose 15 kilos. I did it by sticking to 1200/day most days. No heavy exercise, no no carbs, no forbidden foods, just eating a comfortable 1200. Now I am on 1500 to maintain weight and been maintaining for 3 months now. )

AZKristi

That is exactly correct. I chose sedentary and eat back my exercise calories because my days vary tremendously based on what I do at work. It will work either way.

Lillyeatslilies

As a medical technician, I'm on my feet all day and when I'm not exercising at home I'm cleaning. I chose slightly active because I am although I do work out 7 days a week (45 mins). I typically will eat about half of my calories back since my HRM broke and it's just to be safe. That's still over 1500 calories. I find that I'm losing pretty fast by doing this. I think being honest is the best policy in calorie counting!

alarae

That's a very nice explanation. Thank you! I think I may have just figured out why I have so much trouble. (well besides the over eating). Lol

tigersword

The whole "eat your exercise calories" subject has been bugging me for way too long.

Let me use myself as a simple example, based on MFP calculations. Let's say that I am a very active person who exercises 5 times a week for over an hour (I wish, but let's say). I also walk to work every day 2X1 hour.

I do my MFP analysis and put my lifestyle as "active". Anyone disagreeing?

With all other details (weight, height, etc) constant, wanting to lose 1 pound a week calculation, it gives me 1750 cals/day . Wooo hoo yippe!!

Then I go on to day one. I eat 1600 calories. I have one hour runnign session (400 cals), then swim for half an hour (200), then I add 2 hours brisk walking to and from work (let's undercalculate and say it's only 200. Then I go onto MFP and add all the nice 800 extra cals as exercise. And then I have a 850 cal dinner. Because I am supposed to eat my exercise calories.

End result on MFP? I am still 100 cals under... wow, how lucky am I? I am eating 2500 calories and I am supposed to lose a pound a week - have i died and just got to heaven?

Wrong.

You are ONLY allowed to eat your exercise calories if you haven't already included exercise in your lifestyle definition! if I had put sedentary lifestyle, for a 1 pound week weight loss MFO would have given me the minimum of 1200. Then, IF I do indeed exercise and walk ads much as I said, I may, MAY be allowed to eat 1200+800 and MAY possibly still lose the weekly one pound MFP promises me.

You either add your exercise (walking included!) into your activity, OR you record your exercise on the "sedentary lifestyle" base. If you do both, you are double counting your exercise.

Sorry, had to get it off my chest. Please people stop sabotaging other people's efforts by telling them they need to eat their exercise cals.

(For background info, I am 67cm and 54 kg, my ideal weight, after MFP helped me to lose 15 kilos. I did it by sticking to 1200/day most days. No heavy exercise, no no carbs, no forbidden foods, just eating a comfortable 1200. Now I am on 1500 to maintain weight and been maintaining for 3 months now. )

Lifestyle isn't for exercise, it's for your daily life. Desk job = sedentary, retail manager = active. Exercise is separate. That's also why you get different calculations with MFP then you do with other online sites. MFP does not factor exercise into the equation.

VictoriaWorksOut

I think being honest is the best policy in calorie counting!

Amen!

jo_marnes

Agreed.

Without going out of my way to exercise, I am lightly active. So I set my level at that and then log exercise. This helps as my exercise can vary greatly day to day

wifealiciousness

Holla! I used to have a VERY active job, but actually, the majority of it involved walking and cycling, which I was logging seperately. I then put it down to "moderately" active as I was on my feet a lot, if not actually exercising!

SpecialSundae

I've always worked on that assumption. I set my general rate as sedentary and eat some of my exercise calories, but then I'm not trying to lose weight quickly. I'm working on a comparatively low calorie deficit so that a. I don't feel like I'm on a diet and b. when I reach my goal weight I won't end up putting it all back on.

lisab0864

I never understood the big push to "eat your exercise calories" either -- especially for those looking to lose weight.. It is probably easiest to chose sedentary and add in your exercise/activity -- unless of course you are active (w/out exercise) in your daily life (and for the most part if that was the case we wouldn't have been fat to begin with).

fatboyruss

For me, this is an intersting tool, which focuses me on what I am consuming, vs what I expend. I do not put absolute faith in the figures posted by this application, and sometiimes when I am recodrding the calories, I go for the nearest approximation I can find on the database. Other than that I am brutally honest with what I eat and drink (far too much of the latter I'm sorry to say) It has sparked my interest in myself, I have a few friends on this site who are very dedicated and are a source of inspiration. That being said, I have never really stressed about my weight. Results in the gym, and eating well will ultimatlely lead to that. Body composition and things like VO2 Max iis what people should focus on.

katcunock

I've always worked on that assumption. I set my general rate as sedentary and eat some of my exercise calories, but then I'm not trying to lose weight quickly. I'm working on a comparatively low calorie deficit so that a. I don't feel like I'm on a diet and b. when I reach my goal weight I won't end up putting it all back on.

this.

Martucha123

this is why mfp describes activity level like this

Sedentary: Spend most of the day sitting (e.g. bank teller, desk job)
Lightly Active: Spend a good part of the day on your feet (e.g. teacher, salesman)
Active: Spend a good part of the day doing some physical activity (e.g. waitress, mailman)
Very Active: Spend most of the day doing heavy physical activity (e.g. bike messenger,

Exercise is not mention, and should not be included here
if you go with activity level form some other place, then you are not using mfp method and need to doublecheck if you are not counting something twice...

Mathguy1

Your original premise is flawed. Your "lifestlye" refers to your work "lifestyle"; it does not refer to your "workout lifestyle".

Sit behind a desk all day = "Sedentary".
Move around a lot for your JOB ="Moderate".
Does your job require a lot of physical exersion? (Work construction? Lift a lot for a warehouse job? Does your job feel like a workout? etc) Then set it at "Very active".

I do not remember the exact names for the activity level settings, but you get the idea.

You are correct when stating that based on which setting you select, MFP will give you a different allotment of calories. The reason is that you burn more calories each day(before considering exercise) based on the higher the activity level your job requires.

erikatoth

I've always worked on that assumption. I set my general rate as sedentary and eat some of my exercise calories, but then I'm not trying to lose weight quickly. I'm working on a comparatively low calorie deficit so that a. I don't feel like I'm on a diet and b. when I reach my goal weight I won't end up putting it all back on.

Excellent point and a very healthy way to lose weight. I was very afraid that once I up my cals I will end up gaining back.. so what I did was to start upping by 50 cals every two weeks until i got to 1500 cals , which was 12 weeks later. Maybe I could have jumped back up to 1500 straight away, I dont know. but this way not a single gram came back. So I can recommend this method good luck reaching your goal weight!

erikatoth

Your original premise is flawed. Your "lifestlye" refers to your work "lifestyle"; it does not refer to your "workout lifestyle".

Sit behind a desk all day = "Sedentary".
Move around a lot for your JOB ="Moderate".
Does your job require a lot of physical exersion? (Work construction? Lift a lot for a warehouse job? Does your job feel like a workout? etc) Then set it at "Very active".

I do not remember the exact names for the activity level settings, but you get the idea.

You are correct when stating that based on which setting you select, MFP will give you a different allotment of calories. The reason is that you burn more calories each day(before considering exercise) based on the higher the activity level your job requires.

Your lifestyle, is not just "work lifestyle". normally a person works around 37 hours a week, or 7 hours per working day - the rest of the hours in the week are also part of the lifestyle! :):)

My question to you, if a person sits at a computer 7 hours monday to friday, but walks the dog twice every day and every weekend goes trekking, also walks everywhere instead o taking the tube, how would you classify that person's OVERALL lifestyle? Sedentary? Really?

JosephVitte

Bump.............I'm half asleep and read up until the "wrong" part. sound interesting enough, something I'd like to find out about, thanks in advance.


Happy Friday everyone! I just started my 4 day weekend laast night! whooowoooo!

elebel82

Please correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't there a follow up exercise question?

I was only playing with it the other day, and was a bit surprised that although my lifestyle is listed as sedentary, I had ticked the box that stated I intended to exercise 5 times a week. When I changed that to zero, I could have sworn the calorie allowance went down. If I had listed the 5 times a week, and ate back my calories, would I not be double dipping as the OP stated?

diadojikohei

Your original premise is flawed. Your "lifestlye" refers to your work "lifestyle"; it does not refer to your "workout lifestyle".

Sit behind a desk all day = "Sedentary".
Move around a lot for your JOB ="Moderate".
Does your job require a lot of physical exersion? (Work construction? Lift a lot for a warehouse job? Does your job feel like a workout? etc) Then set it at "Very active".

I do not remember the exact names for the activity level settings, but you get the idea.

You are correct when stating that based on which setting you select, MFP will give you a different allotment of calories. The reason is that you burn more calories each day(before considering exercise) based on the higher the activity level your job requires.

Your lifestyle, is not just "work lifestyle". normally a person works around 37 hours a week, or 7 hours per working day - the rest of the hours in the week are also part of the lifestyle! :):)

My question to you, if a person sits at a computer 7 hours monday to friday, but walks the dog twice every day and every weekend goes trekking, also walks everywhere instead o taking the tube, how would you classify that person's OVERALL lifestyle? Sedentary? Really?

I run a shop. I spend most of my day sitting down or walking around slowly, I have my settings to 'sedentary' . However, I walk my daughter to school each day (2.5 miles) and do 30DS 3 times a week. I log that as exercise and eat back(most) of the calories. I do it this way because it is a life choice, I could drive my daughter to school or not do 30DS. So like this week I've been told by my doc to not exercise, I have my 1441 daily allowance and that is all. I found this the easiest way to account for the variables in my week.

SideSteel

I think it's important that people generally select an appropriate activity factor, however MFP does not factor in exercise into activity factor, as others have mentioned.

It's a bit unique in that external TDEE estimators will typically assume an exercise inclusive activity factor.

loopingcaterpillar

'simple maths' sould only take 1 paragraph to explain, otherwise we're talking brainache. i let this site do the maths and only question my own choices.