So what happens with the calories I burn exercising?

Sorry for the silly question, I just calculated my TDEE which is 2052, my goas on MFT is to eat 1460 a day.
What happens if in the evening I burn lets say 150 calories on my cross trainer? Is it best to eat the calories or shall I let it be? You talk about not going over your target too much..so what shall I do? thanks

Replies

  • albertabeefy
    albertabeefy Posts: 1,169 Member
    Sorry for the silly question, I just calculated my TDEE which is 2052, my goas on MFT is to eat 1460 a day.
    What happens if in the evening I burn lets say 150 calories on my cross trainer? Is it best to eat the calories or shall I let it be? You talk about not going over your target too much..so what shall I do? thanks
    You'll get many different answers to this depending on people's goals, ideas, and what works best for an individual.

    Personally, I tend to eat 50-60% of my exercise calories back, otherwise I don't recover from workouts as fast. But I'm old. :smile:
  • Caaja
    Caaja Posts: 45 Member
    Sorry for the silly question, I just calculated my TDEE which is 2052, my goas on MFT is to eat 1460 a day.
    What happens if in the evening I burn lets say 150 calories on my cross trainer? Is it best to eat the calories or shall I let it be? You talk about not going over your target too much..so what shall I do? thanks
    You'll get many different answers to this depending on people's goals, ideas, and what works best for an individual.

    Personally, I tend to eat 50-60% of my exercise calories back, otherwise I don't recover from workouts as fast. But I'm old. :smile:


    thanks for your answer! I usually dont feel like eating straight after exercising but if I get a little hungry later and its not too late I eat the whole lot :D
  • It takes 3500 calories BURNED to lose 1lb. for example:
    if you ate 2800 cal a day x7days = 19600 calories consumed a week
    if you burned 3200 cal a day x 7days = 22,400 calories burned a week
    22,400 -19600=2,800 net burned for the week it's not quite a lb lost but it's .8 lost


    How do you know what you burn a day? look up BMR and enter your body data. I know all the pills and stuff the world promotes sound great, none of them work, they only increase the amounts of calories burned a day by small amounts and supress your appetite, but if you don't know your basic calorie intake or your basic burn a day, nothing can help you manage the outcome. I explain this to say that I have lost 45lbs in 6 months and I work out roughly twice a week, but walk 3 miles 3 days a week in the summer............hope this helps.................the bigger the caloric deficit the more weight you loose ( eat enough to be full and nourished)
  • It depends on which method you are following. You know your TDEE and you know your MFP goals, but which are you following? Are you doing a TDEE-x% or are you doing MFP method? They are based on different models. If your consumption is based on TDEE, then your exercise is most likely (unless you specifically didn't include it) included in your calorie goals...which means you don't eat them back. If your consumption is based on MFP, then your exercise calories are not included and you should be eating them (or at least a good portion of them) back.

    If you're using the MFP method, it doesn't matter when you eat those exercise calories back. You can do it at breakfast and then you are committed to doing that exercise at some point. Or, you can wait until after you exercise and calculate what you should eat back. You can eat them whenever you want. Just be careful when using MFP's exercise calories because they are usually too high.

    IMO, if you are unsure of your calorie burn during exercise, you should either get an HRM so you know what to eat back, or use the TDEE method so that you don't have to eat anything back.

    I hope that helps and doesn't make it more confusing.
  • Sorry for the silly question, I just calculated my TDEE which is 2052, my goas on MFT is to eat 1460 a day.
    What happens if in the evening I burn lets say 150 calories on my cross trainer? Is it best to eat the calories or shall I let it be? You talk about not going over your target too much..so what shall I do? thanks

    I NEVER eat my calories back, this is only because I want to lose weight fast. If you want to lose weight your calorie intake should be a minus number. You need to subtract your BMR from your calorie intake per day. This is your Basal Metabolic Rate. This is the amount of calories you burn in a day doing nothing at all. You can calculate it here http://www.bmi-calculator.net/bmr-calculator/. Once this has been subtracted and the calories used during exercise. I'd your net calorie intake isn't a - you won't have lost weight for that day. To average a loss of 1lb per week you should have a deficit of -500 calories per day. To lose 2lbs you need a deficit of -1000 and so on. One lb of fat is 3500 calories so this needs to be burnt n order to lose it. Hope this helps
  • I NEVER eat my calories back, this is only because I want to lose weight fast. If you want to lose weight your calorie intake should be a minus number. You need to subtract your BMR from your calorie intake per day. This is your Basal Metabolic Rate. This is the amount of calories you burn in a day doing nothing at all. You can calculate it here http://www.bmi-calculator.net/bmr-calculator/. Once this has been subtracted and the calories used during exercise. I'd your net calorie intake isn't a - you won't have lost weight for that day. To average a loss of 1lb per week you should have a deficit of -500 calories per day. To lose 2lbs you need a deficit of -1000 and so on. One lb of fat is 3500 calories so this needs to be burnt n order to lose it. Hope this helps

    No offense to the person who wrote this, but this is some of the worst advice I have ever seen on MFP. There is a lot of bad information out there, but this is absolutely the worst. This is not how the body works. At all.

    She did get the 3500 calories = 1 lb of fat right, though. So good job there.

    BMR = how many calories (units of energy) your body uses for necessary bodily function (kidneys, lungs, heart, etc). This is what they feed you from a tube if you're in a coma. If your body continuously NETS less than this number, your metabolism is going to slow down because your body is going to try to find more efficient ways to sustain itself, or it will quit working. Those are the only options. It doesn't care that you're trying to lose weight. Its going to eat away at your muscle and other lean body mass so that it can save the fat because fat actually requires more energy to burn.

    NET'ing negative calories means that you are not giving your body enough energy to do those vital things listed above and you also aren't giving your body the energy to do the normal living things like getting up to go to the bathroom, or driving yourself to work, or, you know, actually eating or exercising. You are depleting all of the good stuff and very little of the fat you want to get rid of.

    BMR is only slightly important in weight loss. It's only importance is to set a minimum barrier for which most people should not go under for a long period of time.

    TDEE (Total Daily Energy Expenditure) is your BMR + all of things that distinguish you from a person in a coma (ex, going to the bathroom, eating, exercising, typing on your computer, etc.). This is where you want to have a deficit. Most people are going to have a TDEE of 2000+. If you eat at a small deficit from TDEE (10-20%), then you still have the energy to do the things that life requires and you can lose weight. Oh, and by the way, you can actually eat. Most girls can actually lose weight by eating somewhere between 1500 and 2000 calories. I eat ~1700 and am losing 1.5 lbs/wk.

    Of course, you could take the earlier poster's idea and try to eat almost nothing, but why in the world would anyone WANT to do that when there are options that not only LET you eat, but actually ENCOURAGE eating. Food is good. Why the hell would we want to avoid it? Once you get to your goal weight, you're planning on eating, right? Might as well get to your goal by doing what you need to do when you get there, right?

    Random number example here:

    Her method:
    Eat 1400 (She doesn't say what to eat, just that BMR and exercise should net negative 500 - 1000)
    - BMR 1200 (We'll just make the numbers round)
    +200 calories
    -700 calories exercise (what you'd have to earn through exercise just to get to 1 lb/wk)
    -500 calories (which she seems to think is 1/7 of an lb of fat, but isn't because you've lost LBM*, lowered your metabolism, and hindered future weight loss)

    *Muscle is 'use it or lose it' when you're at a deficit. It costs the body 3500 calories to burn 1 lb of fat, but it only costs ~600 calories to burn 1 lb of muscle. If your body is looking for a way to become more efficient, guess what it's going to do. Yep. Burn muscle instead of/in addition to fat.

    Less radical method:
    2100 TDEE (fairly conservative #)
    -1700 calories eaten (~20% deficit)
    400 calories that are burned from somewhere within the body to fuel your life. If you are doing weight training, then it's going to mostly be fat. If you aren't, then it will be a combination of fat and muscle.

    So, we can eat almost nothing and make our bodies less efficient, or we can feed our bodies and encourage weight loss as fat loss by eating more and doing weight training...which doesn't include trying to burn obscene amounts of calories in the gym.

    Have you ever heard of the acronym KISS? Keep It Simple, Stupid. One of these ways is easy. One of them is hard...and doesn't work for very long. Take your pick.

    Edit: well, the nice way I lined all of those equations didn't work out...I'll make it neater...
  • fyoufat
    fyoufat Posts: 85
    say if 1500 a day equals the amnt you would like to loose a week, then eat a net of 1500 calories. so if you work out 200 of those:
    1500-200=1300 so you could tech. eat 200 extra calories and theoretically stil loose the same amnt of weight you want to.
  • patentguru
    patentguru Posts: 312 Member
    Sorry for the silly question, I just calculated my TDEE which is 2052, my goas on MFT is to eat 1460 a day.
    What happens if in the evening I burn lets say 150 calories on my cross trainer? Is it best to eat the calories or shall I let it be? You talk about not going over your target too much..so what shall I do? thanks
    You'll get many different answers to this depending on people's goals, ideas, and what works best for an individual.

    Personally, I tend to eat 50-60% of my exercise calories back, otherwise I don't recover from workouts as fast. But I'm old. :smile:


    Old at 47? Only if you give into that mindset. I eat back calories too, but my goal is not to just lose fat but also maintain muscle. I would like to weigh the same but with more muscle less fat. Depends on your goals.
  • Old at 47? Only if you give into that mindset. I eat back calories too, but my goal is not to just lose fat but also maintain muscle. I would like to weigh the same but with more muscle less fat. Depends on your goals.

    To be fair, that also depends on how you count your calories burned. If counting through MFP calculations, 50% should be about right since they overestimate so much. 50% of HRM calories might mean that they are holding over calories for something else or they don't trust their intake estimates. There are a lot of variables...which is what makes this so much better than the cookie cutter methods...of course, it also makes it more difficult to ask/answer questions. I love seeing all of the different approaches to good sense weight loss/fat loss/muscle gain/maintenance/whatever I'm forgetting. I hate the bad advice. It's like a plague here sometimes.
  • tigersword
    tigersword Posts: 8,059 Member
    Sorry for the silly question, I just calculated my TDEE which is 2052, my goas on MFT is to eat 1460 a day.
    What happens if in the evening I burn lets say 150 calories on my cross trainer? Is it best to eat the calories or shall I let it be? You talk about not going over your target too much..so what shall I do? thanks

    I NEVER eat my calories back, this is only because I want to lose weight fast. If you want to lose weight your calorie intake should be a minus number. You need to subtract your BMR from your calorie intake per day. This is your Basal Metabolic Rate. This is the amount of calories you burn in a day doing nothing at all. You can calculate it here http://www.bmi-calculator.net/bmr-calculator/. Once this has been subtracted and the calories used during exercise. I'd your net calorie intake isn't a - you won't have lost weight for that day. To average a loss of 1lb per week you should have a deficit of -500 calories per day. To lose 2lbs you need a deficit of -1000 and so on. One lb of fat is 3500 calories so this needs to be burnt n order to lose it. Hope this helps
    No. This is called anorexia. Your net calories should equal your calorie goal, and should never be a negative number.
  • RllyGudTweetr
    RllyGudTweetr Posts: 2,019 Member
    If you're using MFP's numbers for your BMR/TDEE, you're supposed to eat your calories back; that's how their NEAT calculation method works. There's already a built-in deficit to the calories the site "allows" per day based on your weight loss goals. This is especially true if you list your activity level as "sedentary" or otherwise don't account for your typical daily activities.
  • HotrodsGirl0107
    HotrodsGirl0107 Posts: 243 Member
    Sorry for the silly question, I just calculated my TDEE which is 2052, my goas on MFT is to eat 1460 a day.
    What happens if in the evening I burn lets say 150 calories on my cross trainer? Is it best to eat the calories or shall I let it be? You talk about not going over your target too much..so what shall I do? thanks

    I NEVER eat my calories back, this is only because I want to lose weight fast. If you want to lose weight your calorie intake should be a minus number. You need to subtract your BMR from your calorie intake per day. This is your Basal Metabolic Rate. This is the amount of calories you burn in a day doing nothing at all. You can calculate it here http://www.bmi-calculator.net/bmr-calculator/. Once this has been subtracted and the calories used during exercise. I'd your net calorie intake isn't a - you won't have lost weight for that day. To average a loss of 1lb per week you should have a deficit of -500 calories per day. To lose 2lbs you need a deficit of -1000 and so on. One lb of fat is 3500 calories so this needs to be burnt n order to lose it. Hope this helps

    Wow... this is horrible information and bordering on ED behavior. You never want to net a negative number sorry but that is just dangerous advice. Your body needs food for energy and vital organ function. Please people do not take this advice. Is it dangerous and stupid to think that starving yourself is any way to go about losing weight. Take it from someone who has had an ED in the past and now lives with permanent damage to the heart . Your body doesn't care that you want to lose weight if you don't feed your body what it needs it will start shutting down .
  • albertabeefy
    albertabeefy Posts: 1,169 Member
    Old at 47? Only if you give into that mindset. I eat back calories too, but my goal is not to just lose fat but also maintain muscle. I would like to weigh the same but with more muscle less fat. Depends on your goals.
    Was joking about being old, thus the smiley face. I cycle between mass-building and weight-loss/maintenance phases. During mass-building I eat a slight caloric excess ... During weight-loss I eat a deficit, and during maintenance .... obviously I eat maintenance, LOL.
  • Hi guys! Im really sorry, and want to apologise for my post! This is what I have been lead to believe, after seeing all your shocked comments and making a post of my own for help, I have done research into BMR and calorie deficit and I've educated myself about it. So thankyou! If you all hadn't have told me I was wrong I would have been eaten far too less calories per day.
    Also I haven't got an eating disorder or anything I was just silly and naive and took other people's advice as being correct when it wasn't.
    Just to emphisise, I'm really sorry! And I truly thought I was helping
  • JessicaJoanJarvis
    JessicaJoanJarvis Posts: 80 Member
    It takes 3500 calories BURNED to lose 1lb. for example:
    if you ate 2800 cal a day x7days = 19600 calories consumed a week
    if you burned 3200 cal a day x 7days = 22,400 calories burned a week
    22,400 -19600=2,800 net burned for the week it's not quite a lb lost but it's .8 lost


    How do you know what you burn a day? look up BMR and enter your body data. I know all the pills and stuff the world promotes sound great, none of them work, they only increase the amounts of calories burned a day by small amounts and supress your appetite, but if you don't know your basic calorie intake or your basic burn a day, nothing can help you manage the outcome. I explain this to say that I have lost 45lbs in 6 months and I work out roughly twice a week, but walk 3 miles 3 days a week in the summer............hope this helps.................the bigger the caloric deficit the more weight you loose ( eat enough to be full and nourished)

    really interesting! big thanks! :happy:
  • Caaja
    Caaja Posts: 45 Member
    thanks everybody, will have a better look at what you wrote later, I have a poorly boy at home, thank you for your comments!! x
  • Caaja
    Caaja Posts: 45 Member
    right im back! :) thanks everybody I think I will stick to eating the burnt calories, unless im not hungry! :D
  • HelllYeaHH
    HelllYeaHH Posts: 56 Member
    this is a very good read:

    http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/3047-700-calories-a-day-and-not-losing

    Also check the sticky "Newbies please Read ME 2" forum link: http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/10665-newbies-please-read-me-2nd-edition the articles may seem a bit long but they're VERY interesting and helped me a lot.
  • RllyGudTweetr
    RllyGudTweetr Posts: 2,019 Member
    Hi guys! Im really sorry, and want to apologise for my post! This is what I have been lead to believe, after seeing all your shocked comments and making a post of my own for help, I have done research into BMR and calorie deficit and I've educated myself about it. So thankyou! If you all hadn't have told me I was wrong I would have been eaten far too less calories per day.
    Also I haven't got an eating disorder or anything I was just silly and naive and took other people's advice as being correct when it wasn't.
    Just to emphisise, I'm really sorry! And I truly thought I was helping
    Glad to hear you're reading up on it. Hope folks' response to your post wasn't too virulent for you.
  • By calorie intake in maintenance is 1450 so...I exercise to eat!!!! W/out exercise, I find it hard not to go over my calories for the day w/out being hungry!!! I ma small, short and 53 yrs old so... the calculation for cals to maintain is low. Oh well, this is how it is. I eat all the cals burned!!!!
  • psuLemon
    psuLemon Posts: 38,431 MFP Moderator
    Sorry for the silly question, I just calculated my TDEE which is 2052, my goas on MFT is to eat 1460 a day.
    What happens if in the evening I burn lets say 150 calories on my cross trainer? Is it best to eat the calories or shall I let it be? You talk about not going over your target too much..so what shall I do? thanks

    I NEVER eat my calories back, this is only because I want to lose weight fast. If you want to lose weight your calorie intake should be a minus number. You need to subtract your BMR from your calorie intake per day. This is your Basal Metabolic Rate. This is the amount of calories you burn in a day doing nothing at all. You can calculate it here http://www.bmi-calculator.net/bmr-calculator/. Once this has been subtracted and the calories used during exercise. I'd your net calorie intake isn't a - you won't have lost weight for that day. To average a loss of 1lb per week you should have a deficit of -500 calories per day. To lose 2lbs you need a deficit of -1000 and so on. One lb of fat is 3500 calories so this needs to be burnt n order to lose it. Hope this helps

    Fast weight loss leads to fast muscle loss, which leads to taking a longer time to hit an ideal goal. The less muscle you have, the less definition you will have and the less tight your body will be. So if you want to achieve your goal in your profile, you should change your thinking. Slower weight loss, aka concentrating on fat loss, will allow you to achieve the bikini body you want. Ideally, you want to maximize fat loss and minimize muscle loss. Like I always said, fuel your body burn the fat. The link below is a demonstration of why you want to optimize muscle retention. She is 20 lbs heavier than she was to start and the results speak for themselves. BTW, it's a lot easier to maintain your muscle than grow new lean body mass.


    http://www.nerdfitness.com/blog/2011/07/21/meet-staci-your-new-powerlifting-super-hero/