When we "earn" calories

skinnyjess00

I don't know what to eat after I've burned calories that I need to eat back! I burn about 450 cal every day (which is over a third of my daily calorie allowance). Shouldn't I get a third more allowance on sugar, carbs, protein, etc? How am I supposed to eat back my calories without going over on everything?

SkyeBows

bumo**

kellykat

I know mine gives me extra carbs, fiber and proteins...

jennylynn84

Mine adjusts all of my different areas like protein, carbs etc. MFP operates on percentages, so if I earn back 200 calories, it divides that up in the 40-30-30 that I have set up.

Although, I have noticed that MFP's iPhone application doesn't seem to make those adjustments on the home page.

SkyeBows

Does anyone know if you "get" anything for strength training? I do it but I never enter it since I do so many different things at the gym and half of them I dont know the name

jrbowers83

I try to plan my meals out up to a week ahead of time, and adjust as necessary for exercise, unexpected eating out, etc. This is they "best" way I've found to make sure when I eat extra cals, they stay within my values. The only thing MFP adjusts for are the macro nutrients-cals, carbs, protein, and fat. All of the micro nutrients (sodium, sugar, cholesterol, fiber,etc) it doesn't account for. So I guess you'd want to adjust those values according to your exercise for that day.

As for the question on strength training, I've heard various viewpoints on whether to count it or not. Mainly because you aren't consistently raising your heartrate high enough to give you a cardio burn. But it does burn a decent amount of cals, and for me personally strength training has really kept my exercise momentum going. There is a general weightlifting category in the cardio database you can use to count for your strength training if you want to count those.

Lisa0711

Does anyone know if you "get" anything for strength training? I do it but I never enter it since I do so many different things at the gym and half of them I dont know the name

I definately get my heart rate up when doing strength training, but that's because I lift heavy. If I lift moderate, my heart rate isn't as high, but it's still more than normal. There is a section under "cardio" where you can type in "strength training" and it will calculate the calories without having to put each individual exercise in. I have a HRM, and MFP's calculations are pretty consistent with what my HRM says.