Are the numbers right?

supervixen
supervixen Posts: 5
edited September 21 in Introduce Yourself
I am new to this site. I am loving it! I really like the calorie and exercise tracker. I have lost 35 pounds on my own so far by watching what I eat and exercising. I am running in the mornings and have been able to keep myself motivated. I have a loving and supportive husband but I workout on my own and it is up to me whether I workout or eat the right foods. Luckily, he loves me just the way I am. I decided to join this site because I really need a support system. No one cares if I don't get up at 6:30am to run or not. No one cares if I eat M&M's or not. I care.... but it would be nice to SHARE successes with others and get encouragement when I need it. Looks like this is a great site for both!

I have 2 questions........

1. After I log my workouts, it gives me extra calories I can eat. Why would I want to eat 2200 that day when I just worked out and am trying to lose weight. Don't I want to still stay within the 1200 calories whether or not I workout?

2. When I log my exercise-ex. running for 45 min. - it says I burned a large amount of calories. The number looks high to me? Do they calculate it by your weight and how fast you ran? I would love to burn that many calories, don't get me wrong! I just want to make sure I am really burning that many calories. I thought I was always burning around 400 calories and this site says I am burning 600 calories.

Thanks!

Replies

  • italy1677
    italy1677 Posts: 26
    Well what you need to understand is that it is already cutting the calories of your diet to have you around your weight loss goal wither or not you exercise. Since it is already cutting you the calories you need cut to lose weight when you do exercise your burning off even more so it lets you eat more, whether or not you eat more as long as you stay in your goals you should lose weight (unless you had it set up so you gain weight).

    As for the excercise if you run faster you burn more calories and if you weigh more you will burn more calories since your doing more weight if you weigh more.
  • fitterpam
    fitterpam Posts: 3,064 Member
    My understanding of the eating your calories thing is that if your body gets less than 1200 calories to maintain, it starts to look at maintaining as much fat as it can (starvation mode) which makes it harder to lose weight in the long term. I do try to eat some of them back, the way I look at it is that I book my regularly scheduled meals into the basic calorie allowance. If I exercise, I can have some of the other things that come up in the course of life. If your calorie allowance is 1200 and you work out and burn 400 calories, your body is only getting 800 for maintenance and could trigger the starvation mode. If you calorie allowance is 1600 and you work out and burn 400 calories, your body is still getting 1200 for maintenance so I wouldn't eat it back if you didn't have to.

    As far as the exercises go, I've heard a lot of people say that the numbers are a little high. I tend to cut my exercise calories by either a half or lower them by a hundred (depending on the number) to adjust for it. You can do that when you enter your minute, just change the calories too. If you want, you can get an HRM (heart rate monitor) and enter the actual calories burned off of that.
  • Azdak
    Azdak Posts: 8,281 Member
    Whether or not to eat exercise calories depends on a a number of things-how much you are eating, how much you are exercising, where you are in the weight loss process, your body fat %.

    If you are only eating 1200 cal/day and trying to run every day, you probably should replace a lot of those calories. You need to fuel your workouts and if you have lost a lot of weight your body may not respond as well to a large calorie deficit.
  • rebel14
    rebel14 Posts: 33
    1) You dont have to consume the calories your exercise adds back to your total, its a gauge and barometer to show you the effectiveness of your workouts against your food consumption. Its like a feel good reassurance your going down the right path of overall healthy eating and physical activity, and the benefits.

    2) Yes, MFP give or take a minor percentage , factors in all your variables of exercise; distance, duration, weight, pace, etc..
    But the accuracy depends on you with information provided. 600 calories sounds about right to me considering just time and possible distance in your question.

    * STAY ON YOUR PATH, SOUNDS LIKE YOUR DOING A WONDERFUL JOB !!
  • SouthernBell86
    SouthernBell86 Posts: 275 Member
    Hi!
    Welcome to MFP! It is a great place to find support, encouragement and a feeling that you aren't doing this thing alone :)

    So, for eating your exercise calories, that is an important part of this plan. 1200 is the bare minimum number of NET calories your body needs to function in a day. If you don't eat your exercise calories, your body will notice you are consistently eating the bare minimum and go into starvation mode, where it holds onto every ounce of fat it can.

    The question of accuracy in exercise calories. Well, it isn't accurate really. It is an estimation, but without a Heart Rate Monitor there is no way to know how many calories you specifically burned. So, it may very well be over for you and your fitness level, but for another person your height and weight it could be under.

    There are a lot of threads that discuss these issues elsewhere in greater detail. Just click on search for Heart Rate Monitor (HRM) and eating exercise calories, and you can get it explained more clearly :)

    Oh! And GREAT JOB on losing the 35 pounds on your own! Obviously you know what you are about, and we at MFP are lucky to have you here!
  • TubOlard
    TubOlard Posts: 43 Member
    I have found that the exercise calories on this site seems to be quite generous. I myself think that several of them are way too high. I usually just use the numbers that the machine I am working on shows that I assume is based on your heart rate, distance and time. I have also done a lot of online research with calculators that seem to be more accurate and less generous than myfitnesspal. I will find myself uses those occasionally and just adjusting the number of calories for a particular exercise on myfitnesspal manually.

    In most instances, I would go with the lower number of calories that you feel that you have burned based on your experience. You won't necessarily hurt yourself by using the lower numbers but if you depend on the exercise that you get just to give you more calories to eat with by using the much higher numbers, you could find yourself in dangerous territory.

    I believe you would be best served to get yourself a good heart rate monitor to keep track of the calories you burn during exercise. I don't have one myself but would like to get one and I think you'll find that by using your heart rate to track the calories you burn will be much closer to the actual calories burned.

    Glad to have you aboard! Good luck with your goals!
  • Mindful_Trent
    Mindful_Trent Posts: 3,954 Member
    Welcome!

    Here are some important posts to read that will answer your questions about eating exercise calories (and other questions you may have as a new user).

    http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/108362-eating-to-fuel-your-body-very-long

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

    http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/6556-the-answers-to-the-questions

    http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/9433-expectations

    http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/10589-for-those-confused-or-questioning-eating-your-exercise-calo
  • MacMadame
    MacMadame Posts: 1,893 Member
    The numbers for calories burned are an estimate based on average people who match the numbers you give it -- weight and age mostly. So they could be right on for you or totally off.

    The most accurate way to know how many calories burned in exercise is to get a good HRM and wear it while you exercise. It's still an estimate but it's based on something that matches closer to the work you are putting out. Also, for running, a good rule of thumb is 100 calories per mile. That will get you in the ballpark, if you don't have a good HRM.

    I found that MFP's numbers for exercise were way too high for most exercises for me but running was way low as my HR really was getting up there when I first started running. Now that I'm in shape, MFP's numbers are still off but in other ways. I just put in what my HRM says into a formula that uses my age, my weight and my estimated VO2 Max.
  • supervixen
    supervixen Posts: 5
    Thanks so much for the ideas and information. I am going to look into getting a HRM. I think that will help with my running also. I guess I was afraid that I wouldn't lose weight eating that many calories but what you all said, made a lot of sense. Thanks again!
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