Exercise calories? Again? WTF
SideSteel
Posts: 11,068 Member
This is a pretty big debate that pops up continually on the main forums.
Should you, or should you not, eat back your exercise calories? The answer is: It depends.
Here are some background definitions before going into this:
BMR (Basal Metabolic Rate): The number of calories you burn at complete rest.
EAT (Exercise Associated Thermogenesis): Caloric requirements of training, or training expenditure.
NEAT (Non Exercise Activity Thermogenesis): Caloric requirements of activity that is not planned exercise. Vacuuming, driving, brushing your teeth, for example.
TEF/DIT (Thermic Effect of Feeding or Diet Induced Thermogenesis): Caloric expense of eating/digestion.
TDEE: (Total Daily Energy Expenditure) = Sum of the above. BMR+EAT+NEAT+TEF
Exercise calories, as they are typically used in MFP specifically, is represented by EAT in the above definition. Whether or not you should eat your EAT (giggity) depends on what system or method you are using to calculate your intake needs.
If you are using most other online calculation tools to determine an intake estimate, that estimate is going to already include EAT as part of the suggested intake. For example, it will ask you an activity factor that includes an average of your exercise, and with this it increases your TDEE to account for the fact that you are exercising.
If you are using MFP to tell you how much to eat, that estimate is NOT going to include EAT as part of the intake estimate.
Myfitnesspal uses a caloric estimation tool that expects you to eat back calories burned during exercise.
Consequently, MFP will essentially give you a LOWER intake estimate than an external TDEE calculator would give you.
In other words:
You tell MFP: I'd like to lose 1lb/week.
MFP says: Hey, you should eat X calories every day to lose 1lb/week.
You then decide to exercise and you burn 400 calories.
MFP says: Hey you pecker, you said you wanted to lose 1lb/week. Now you need to eat X+400 because you told me you wanted to lose 1lb/week.
So based on this:
If you are using MFP to tell you how many calories to eat, you should probably be eating back some portion of your exercise calories.
If you are using an external calculator and then customizing your intake to match that, you should not be eating back your exercise calories.
Lastly: Exercise expenditure is often over-stated.
My general opinion is that it's much simpler and uses less guess-work to use a custom intake and just forget about the exercise calorie model entirely, but that's a different topic of sorts, more discussion of which can be found here: http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/819055-setting-your-calorie-and-macro-targets
Should you, or should you not, eat back your exercise calories? The answer is: It depends.
Here are some background definitions before going into this:
BMR (Basal Metabolic Rate): The number of calories you burn at complete rest.
EAT (Exercise Associated Thermogenesis): Caloric requirements of training, or training expenditure.
NEAT (Non Exercise Activity Thermogenesis): Caloric requirements of activity that is not planned exercise. Vacuuming, driving, brushing your teeth, for example.
TEF/DIT (Thermic Effect of Feeding or Diet Induced Thermogenesis): Caloric expense of eating/digestion.
TDEE: (Total Daily Energy Expenditure) = Sum of the above. BMR+EAT+NEAT+TEF
Exercise calories, as they are typically used in MFP specifically, is represented by EAT in the above definition. Whether or not you should eat your EAT (giggity) depends on what system or method you are using to calculate your intake needs.
If you are using most other online calculation tools to determine an intake estimate, that estimate is going to already include EAT as part of the suggested intake. For example, it will ask you an activity factor that includes an average of your exercise, and with this it increases your TDEE to account for the fact that you are exercising.
If you are using MFP to tell you how much to eat, that estimate is NOT going to include EAT as part of the intake estimate.
Myfitnesspal uses a caloric estimation tool that expects you to eat back calories burned during exercise.
Consequently, MFP will essentially give you a LOWER intake estimate than an external TDEE calculator would give you.
In other words:
You tell MFP: I'd like to lose 1lb/week.
MFP says: Hey, you should eat X calories every day to lose 1lb/week.
You then decide to exercise and you burn 400 calories.
MFP says: Hey you pecker, you said you wanted to lose 1lb/week. Now you need to eat X+400 because you told me you wanted to lose 1lb/week.
So based on this:
If you are using MFP to tell you how many calories to eat, you should probably be eating back some portion of your exercise calories.
If you are using an external calculator and then customizing your intake to match that, you should not be eating back your exercise calories.
Lastly: Exercise expenditure is often over-stated.
My general opinion is that it's much simpler and uses less guess-work to use a custom intake and just forget about the exercise calorie model entirely, but that's a different topic of sorts, more discussion of which can be found here: http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/819055-setting-your-calorie-and-macro-targets
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Giggity!3
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Giggity bump!0
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Thank you so much. This is the best explanation I have read on eating back exercise calories, BMR and TDEE. I've been a bit confused about it since I started on this site, but with some recent podcasts I have listened to, reading up on BMR and now your post, I know I have definately not been eating enough and this is probably where my problem has been for some time.
Thank you. I am most appreciative!5 -
awesome info SS, THanks a ton! Lots of people will benefit from this
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Thank you SS, I already knew this but now I understand it!1
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thank you! this was a great post for me to use to double check my calculations. i wanted to make sure i wasn't inadvertently starving myself or eating to much. ( i had it right-phew!)3
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I knew this, but this is the simplest way I have ever heard it explained. For that, it deserves a bump.3
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Wow, thank you!
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If you don't have a heart rate monitor, eat back half your exercise cals. I found (after I got my hrm) that MFP's calorie burn estimates are grossly inflated for every activity I have done except running, running stairs and jump roping.5
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Bump1
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this was extremely helpful!1
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Very helpful. This information should be a 'sticky' in the main forums,as I would think these questions come up very often. Thanks for posting it.1
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Very helpful. This information should be a 'sticky' in the main forums,as I would think these questions come up very often. Thanks for posting it.
AGREED. I can't tell you how many people NEED to read this. I used to not eat back all my cals while being on the suggested 1200 daily limit, so I ended up netting 890-980 cals a day - worked fine for a few months... until I stopped losing coz I continued to work hard in the gym so much that my body started needing more. I've slowly increased and am starting to see them come off again and my body is healthily leaning out while my muscle builds.2 -
If you see any exercise calorie posts come up in the main forums, please feel free to link this thread as a reply if you would like.2
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Bumping so my FL will see it0
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^^I just realized that I did not have this in my topics /smh0
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With you on exercise expenditures is a vaguely wild estimate!0
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Bookmarked
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I reckon you have to use your judgement anyway.
For example: I told MFP that my job involved moderate daily exercise (I think the category included postman) - so it will generate a generalised calorie consumption for a person who walks about a bit. Of course, some days I work my *kitten* off and other days I'm just driving round checking stock or doing office work, so you have to make allowances for this.
Ergo, I dont eat back all of my exercise calories if I have been a bit of a sloth that day. If I have worked my butt off and still made it to the gym, well...I'll eat em back.
I was flabbergasted at how many calories i estimated I burned at the weekend (I put walking at 3.5 mph for three hours) when in reality it was more like 4 and a half, carrying various bits of kit (rough shoot) - again, I rounded down because I simply refuse to believe I burned that many calories.1 -
bookmared, bumped and much appreciated :happy:0
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MFP says: Hey you pecker, you said...
I need this to happen A LOT! 1 -
bump0
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My problem with the TDEE-x% method is that for people that do not exercise regularly (or are working towards an exercise routine but are still not there yet) it's more complicated to calculate their TDEE because it varies a lot. For example, in my case, I've been slowly adding more and more exercise in my daily life, but it's still difficult for me to commit to it and many days I just skip my exercise plans. So what I've done is to calculate my TDEE assuming I don't do any exercise at all, then subtract 20% and use that as my daily goal. Whenever I actually do some exercise, then there are some extra calories I can eat since they are not part of my calculated TDEE. Does it make sense or do I miss something?4
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My problem with the TDEE-x% method is that for people that do not exercise regularly (or are working towards an exercise routine but are still not there yet) it's more complicated to calculate their TDEE because it varies a lot. For example, in my case, I've been slowly adding more and more exercise in my daily life, but it's still difficult for me to commit to it and many days I just skip my exercise plans. So what I've done is to calculate my TDEE assuming I don't do any exercise at all, then subtract 20% and use that as my daily goal. Whenever I actually do some exercise, then there are some extra calories I can eat since they are not part of my calculated TDEE. Does it make sense or do I miss something?
Yes it makes sense and nope you did not miss anything.2 -
Added to tool box
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Thanks0
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Bump0
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Awesome post! Thanks!!0
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I needed this. Thanks!0
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Just to confirm this sounds right, my daily TDEE with no exercise included is 2260.
My net goal of calories to consume is 1700. That puts me at a 560 daily deficit/25% cut below my TDEE. Again, this is a normal day with no exercise included.
I'd like to stay below a 600 calorie deficit for my BMR's sake. In saying this, I had previously been overestimating my weight lifting calories immensely - thinking I'd burn 400 calories in an hour when it most likely was 100-150. My former problem had been consuming more calories than I had burned, thus shortening my deficit to cause a slower progress. Now that I've recognized my error and only use my HRM for cardio only (or if used for weightlifting, only account for a 1/4th of what I burned), I wanted to see if I fully understand this and if it's really all as basic as it seems.
If I burn 300 calories, I can pretty much eat those all back, correct? Since I'd like to keep my deficit less than 600 calories a day? At the end of the day, I'd be consuming a total of 2000 calories, with my TDEE jumping up to 2560 due to exercise, but regardless my net goal would still be 1700. I admit I'm most likely overthinking this, but getting an extra verification or two can help. :blushing: I'm working with an awesome spreadsheet from another group to calculate all things like TDEE but had been confused about the exercise calories to consume back. Thank you!0
