Confused.com why do I get extra calories?

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Insathius
Insathius Posts: 24 Member
in Fitness and Exercise
Hi everyone,

First time poster! I'm a little confused about this system, I've been using the diary for a few days now and every time I do any exercise I get extra calories to eat?

Can anyone explain the logic behind that? surly that's counter-productive to eat through my exercise?

Any comments, highly appreciated!

Replies

  • nick1109
    nick1109 Posts: 174 Member
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    When you do exercise you burn calories but you should be eating at your goal 'net calories' that you set on MFP. So you eat back the calroies you burned during exercise if this takes you under your net goal.

    Eg- you want to loose weight and set your daily calories 2000kcals to do so (giving roughly a 500kcal daily deficit and 3500kcal deficit per week thus roughly 1lbs loss a week in weight). In a given day you eat 2000kcals. If you go and exercise and you burn 300 calories giving you a net intake of 1700kcals. Becuase you've set you weight loss intake goal at 2000kcals a day you must eat back those 300kcals in order to give yourself the calorie deficit you want (around 500 in this eg).

    Not doing so will mean you may loose too much too quickly, it may run you down and in extreme cases stop your body performing normal daily bodily functions or loose too much muscle with the fat loss.

    Hope this helps
  • Elleinnz
    Elleinnz Posts: 1,661 Member
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    Here is some information that clearly explains it much better than I can - good luck - and yes -= eat your exercise calories!!

    http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/10665-newbies-please-read-me-2nd-edition
  • Insathius
    Insathius Posts: 24 Member
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    Brilliant, clearing the fog of confusion! thanks for all the advice!
  • julie1916
    julie1916 Posts: 5 Member
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    Saying that yesterday I walked nearly 10 miles and burned an additional 1,000 calories (I walk at 4mph) - so I didnt eat all my additional calories as I just wasn't hungry enough to do it. I did however ensure I had a balanced day eating and ate every 2 hours smaller amounts as this works for me and stops me getting hungry !

    Another point is that clearly I cannot exercise like this every day so I also look at my eating on a weekly basis as well as daily, so its not too obsessive every minute ! so the calories can be spread a little over a few days.

    For me its about changing habits so this comes naturally and my portions are naturally smaller and walking somewhere is my first thought.

    Having failed a few times, I am actually enjoying this method so fingers crossed its successful !!

    Good luck with your endeavours!
  • 3dogsrunning
    3dogsrunning Posts: 27,167 Member
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    Basically MFP does not account for exercise when setting your calorie goal. There is already a calorie deficit, so if you ate the recommended goal, you would lose weight without exercise. For a number of reasons, it is suggested to keep a moderate deficit o when you exercise, you create a larger deficit so MFP suggests you eat them.

    It tends to cause a lot of confusion around here because most other calorie calculators include exercise so you would not "eat them back" in those cases. You'll often see people say my nutritionist/trainer/etc told me not to eat them back. That's because they have already accounted for them, MFP does not.
  • Insathius
    Insathius Posts: 24 Member
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    Ah! ok, so the goal it sets is already below what I need day-to-day and to ensure I don't burn too fast / pass out / hurt myself it adds the calories back on that I burn extra to ensure a healthy amount of weight loss?
  • IronSmasher
    IronSmasher Posts: 3,908 Member
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    Ah! ok, so the goal it sets is already below what I need day-to-day and to ensure I don't burn too fast / pass out / hurt myself it adds the calories back on that I burn extra to ensure a healthy amount of weight loss?

    Yes!


    I can't express how happy I am that there are some new people that seem to be getting it.
    A new hope in a bleak, dark world.
  • Elleinnz
    Elleinnz Posts: 1,661 Member
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    Ah! ok, so the goal it sets is already below what I need day-to-day and to ensure I don't burn too fast / pass out / hurt myself it adds the calories back on that I burn extra to ensure a healthy amount of weight loss?

    Yep - you got it in one....

    Now having said that I normally only eat back about 75% of my exercise calories - especially if I did not wear my HRM as MFP numbers are a bit high in my experience..
  • wcasie
    wcasie Posts: 299 Member
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    I am one who can't eat my exersize calories back. I won't lose if I do. I would recommend eating the calories back and if you don't lose don't eat the calories back. I fell off the wagon and got run over by it a few time, but this time I am going to measure myself as well. I figured that the scale might not go down but that doesn't mean my body isn't changing! Good luck and feel free to add me if you want more friends!
  • Hannah7783
    Hannah7783 Posts: 54 Member
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    Ah! ok, so the goal it sets is already below what I need day-to-day and to ensure I don't burn too fast / pass out / hurt myself it adds the calories back on that I burn extra to ensure a healthy amount of weight loss?

    Yep - you got it in one....

    Now having said that I normally only eat back about 75% of my exercise calories - especially if I did not wear my HRM as MFP numbers are a bit high in my experience..



    Yes, I find this too. So I tend to eat back 50-75% of my calories, and only if I am hungry do I eat back any more. Hope this hasn't confused you even more!
  • Yogi_Carl
    Yogi_Carl Posts: 1,906 Member
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    Ah! ok, so the goal it sets is already below what I need day-to-day and to ensure I don't burn too fast / pass out / hurt myself it adds the calories back on that I burn extra to ensure a healthy amount of weight loss?

    Yes!

    I can't express how happy I am that there are some new people that seem to be getting it.
    A new hope in a bleak, dark world.

    I wish to register that I also felt a little leap of hope when I read this; only a little, mind!

    All the best on your endeavours Insathius!
  • Insathius
    Insathius Posts: 24 Member
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    Yeah, I think the site is a little over cautious or perhaps I've set my goal too low - but the amount of "available" calories I have at the end of the day are insane!

    Think it is a case of just being sensible and listening to your body, I found back in 2009 when I was fit enough to be doing 10k runs that I just craved the kind of food my body needed and I'd eat what I needed rather than what I wanted.

    As long as your listening to your body correctly I think it's easy to manage!
  • 3dogsrunning
    3dogsrunning Posts: 27,167 Member
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    Me too. I always underestimate. I choose slower paces and intensities and sometimes don't put in the whole time. I also try to be very honest. It's great to log a 1000 calorie burn but if i didn't break a sweat (or do something lower intensity for hours) I probably didn't burn that much considering a hour long run won't burn 1000 cals for me.
  • chrishgt4
    chrishgt4 Posts: 1,222 Member
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    This is not the way this post should have gone.

    First you ask the question - then people respond with the explanation - then people respond saying that they never eat exercise calories back because it's voodoo - then OP gets mad and defensive (And also still doesn't understand the calculations involved) and an argument ensues.

    Can we please get back to the natural order...

    Seriously though - OP - you got it in one. It's just a maths thing...
  • Yogi_Carl
    Yogi_Carl Posts: 1,906 Member
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    I think also you may have days where you may burn an extra say 6 - 900 calories, especially doing anything cardio, and you find there is no way you are going to eat back all of those calories in one day and you either spread them over the week/fortnight or only eat back say a half of them and you will be fine; maybe even lose a little more as a bonus.

    As you say, the real work is getting back to listening to your body's needs.

    Welcome to the pack!
  • DreamOfSunshine
    DreamOfSunshine Posts: 911 Member
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    Ah! ok, so the goal it sets is already below what I need day-to-day and to ensure I don't burn too fast / pass out / hurt myself it adds the calories back on that I burn extra to ensure a healthy amount of weight loss?

    Yep - you got it in one....

    Now having said that I normally only eat back about 75% of my exercise calories - especially if I did not wear my HRM as MFP numbers are a bit high in my experience..



    Yes, I find this too. So I tend to eat back 50-75% of my calories, and only if I am hungry do I eat back any more. Hope this hasn't confused you even more!

    Sorry to quote so many people, but for me this works as well. Once I had a week being under 1200 net ( not eating back exercise calories ) and I stopped losing. Once I upped them and started eating 50-70% of them back - WHOp - back on track :)
  • Insathius
    Insathius Posts: 24 Member
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    Welcome to the pack!

    Thanks :D
  • geebusuk
    geebusuk Posts: 3,348 Member
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    This site does tend to over-estimate calories burnt too.
    When I had a lot to lose I was happy to have a big deficit, but the lower I got the more I paid attention to making sure I was eating 'about right'.
    I found back in 2009 when I was fit enough to be doing 10k runs
    Not trying to pick holes - but you list running at 10mph for 30 mins in your exercise.
    That's 80% of a 10k and if you'd carried on at that pace, you'd have got 2nd pace in the last 10k I did!

    Mentioned because that sort of thing also helps explain the bigger numbers.
  • scruffykaz
    scruffykaz Posts: 317 Member
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    Yeah, I think the site is a little over cautious or perhaps I've set my goal too low - but the amount of "available" calories I have at the end of the day are insane!

    Think it is a case of just being sensible and listening to your body, I found back in 2009 when I was fit enough to be doing 10k runs that I just craved the kind of food my body needed and I'd eat what I needed rather than what I wanted.

    As long as your listening to your body correctly I think it's easy to manage!

    I've got quite a high calorie amount too but I'm also quite heavy. I have found that if I don't eat enough calories, I don't lose, I need to increase the amount I eat in order to be able to start losing again. I am sure there is somebody on here that can explain the science-y bits of it but that's just how it works for me. I also eat some of my exercise calories back because I found that when I wasn't I just wasn't losing...
  • DreamOfSunshine
    DreamOfSunshine Posts: 911 Member
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    I am sure there is somebody on here that can explain the science-y bits of it but that's just how it works for me. I also eat some of my exercise calories back because I found that when I wasn't I just wasn't losing...

    I find this article very useful :)

    http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/654536-in-place-of-a-road-map-2-0-revised-7-2-12

    It's all math :)

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