Calories in vs calories out

successby50

Can someone explain to me the theory behing "eating your exercise calories"? For some reason I just don't get it! Isn't the thought behind weight, loss burning more calories than we take in? If we eat the calories we just exercised, wouldn't we just maintain? I thought it was important to have a calorie deficit in order to loose.
I would love someone to clarify this to me so it makes sense. Any good explanations out there?

postrockandcats

Can someone explain to me the theory behing "eating your exercise calories"? For some reason I just don't get it! Isn't the thought behind weight, loss burning more calories than we take in? If we eat the calories we just exercised, wouldn't we just maintain? I thought it was important to have a calorie deficit in order to loose.
I would love someone to clarify this to me so it makes sense. Any good explanations out there?

TDEE- how many calories you burn every day. You eat that amount to maintain your weight. To loose*, you eat 500 calories less a day for every pound you want to loose a week.

Say on a normal day, between your organs functioning and your normal every day movements, you burn 2500 calories (for example). To loose weight with MFP's 1-pound-a-week method, you'd have to eat 2000 calories a day. Now, say you work out and burn an extra 500 calories; instead of burning that 2500 calories, you've burned 3000 calories for that day. So, to still be on that 1-pound-a-week caloric deficit, you'd eat 500 less than that, or 2500 calories.

The idea behind it is you don't want to loose too fast to not screw up your metabolism.

*Yup. It's misspelled.

postrockandcats

If we eat the calories we just exercised, wouldn't we just maintain? I thought it was important to have a calorie deficit in order to loose.

Because MFP already figures a deficit when they set up our goals. The adding on of the exercise cals just keeps the "correct" deficit.

3dogsrunning

Can someone explain to me the theory behing "eating your exercise calories"? For some reason I just don't get it! Isn't the thought behind weight, loss burning more calories than we take in? If we eat the calories we just exercised, wouldn't we just maintain? I thought it was important to have a calorie deficit in order to loose.
I would love someone to clarify this to me so it makes sense. Any good explanations out there?

There is confusion because MFP is set up differently than a lot of calculators. It does not account for activity where the tDEE methods do.

So MFP figures your BMR(basal metabolic rate). This is the number you body burns every day just to survive as if you were lying in bed all day. So say that is 1500 calories.
Then it asks you to enter your daily activity. This is just life - brushing teeth, moving about, and your job. So lets assume that that's an additional 500 calories.
So everyday your body needs 2000 calories just to survive. If you ate that number and didn't exercise you would neither gain or lose weight.
But MFP asks how much weight you want to lose per week. If you choose 1 lb a week, that is 500 calories less per day so your goal would be 1500.
So your MFP goal is 1500. If you eat that you should lose weight.
MFP has not accounted for exercise. If you workout and burn 500 calories, that is an additional deficit. For a few reasons many people suggest keeping a modest deficit. So MFP tells you to "eat the calories back" to maintain your 500 calorie deficit.


So even of you eat back your calories you are still at a deficit.

The issue here is accuracy of calories burned. I don't eat all of mine back but at least a portion.

hilldiggity

I just can't help myself here: It's "LOSE" not "LOOSE". Just a pet peeve. Ignore me.

postrockandcats

I just can't help myself here: It's "LOSE" not "LOOSE". Just a pet peeve. Ignore me.

Long morning and I didn't catch it. I'm going to go back and bold it. Spelling correction is against TOS, BTW.

waldo56

If we eat the calories we just exercised, wouldn't we just maintain? I thought it was important to have a calorie deficit in order to loose.

Because MFP already figures a deficit when they set up our goals. The adding on of the exercise cals just keeps the "correct" deficit.

This.

Whether or not you stick ot the correct deficit is up to you, but chronically too big of deficits tends to come with baggage; lots of muscle loss and plateau/stall problems.

MFP is designed so that you add in exercise calories to keep a constant deficit. If you are doing it right you should be reliably losing at exactly the rate you have set (over the long term, water fluctuations can confound things in the short term).