trying to understand

sjacobs425 · September 2013

i was reading a thread about not eating enough and i'm trying to grasp the concept of all this. so here goes and i'm up for any help. i'm also reading another website that another poster gave me, but this is weighing all me all morning.

i have set my daily goal to 1400. i want to lost 2-3 a week. i'm in the gym doing 30 cardio/45-60 machines and every other 45-60 min of cardio.

here's what i don't understand.. if i workout and it shows

goal 1400 food was 1267 exercise was 831 net 436

IS THIS GOOD??

in my mind it is because i was below where i needed to be but i'm reading people say you have to eat what you exercise... good God i don't know if i can. i thought i was to burn what i eat....???? help anyone please!

palmerar · September 2013

Click on the search button in the message boards, type "eating back exercise calories" go through the posts about eating back exercise calories. There are probably hundreds of message boards about eating back exercise calories. I'm not trying to be rude, I am just letting you know that this question has been answered on here before. In short, a caloric deficit is set up with your daily calorie goal in MFP, so you should eat back exercise calories, your daily goal should be to have as close to 0 calories as possible remaining at the end of the day.

nomeejerome · September 2013

Read this and all of the links in it:

http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/1080242-a-guide-to-get-you-started-on-your-path-to-sexypants?page=1#posts-16625920

cwolfman13 · September 2013

Your MFP calorie goal is NOT a maintenance level of calories...it is a huge deficit from maintenance already and when you set your activity level, it is supposed to be WITHOUT exercise. With MFP, you account for your exercise activity after the fact when you log it...then you're supposed to eat those calories back (or some portion to account for estimation error). Not only did yoiu under shoot your calorie goal by undereating, you also exercised on top of that, making a mamoth sized calorie deficit. Ultimately what this leads to is burning off a bunch of your muscle and other LBM which in turn, slows your metabolism (the more LBM you have, hte faster your metabolism).

In summary, no...it is not good.

4legsRbetterthan2 · September 2013

so the way MFP does net calories is to show you what you ate out of your daily allotment when you cancel out the exercise, so the way they get this # is 1400+831 = 2231 (what MFP think you should have eaten for the day - your goal plus exercise) so if you take out 1267 since that what you ate (2231 - 1267 = 946 calories) then it says you were under what you should have eaten by 946 calories so the net is 1400 - 946 = 436

hopefully that all made sense

basically it depends on how you are setting up your calorie goal as to wether you should be eating back your exercise and should look at net calories or ignore it
If you are following the MFP reccomendations on calories then you are probably way to low
If you made your own calories properly be TDEE calculations then you should be sticking to your goal daily reguardless of exercise.

Your goal of 1400 makes me think you are probably following MFP so you should be eating back exercise if you can

allshebe · September 2013

If you eat somewhere between your base calorie assignment and assignment + exercise you should do fine. Try to net at least 1200 calories per day (calories eaten minus exercise calories burned). You don't have to hit the mark exactly every day, but it's fairly well accepted that you need 1200 calories per day to obtain minimum levels of nutrients. Also, exercise estimates tend to run high, so eating back ALL your exercise calories everyday doesn't always work.

SezxyStef · September 2013

Okay are you 75lbs overweight??? if so 2lbs a week is good..otherwise lower that number.

Goal of 1400 burning 1267 and netting 436 is not good.

As for those burns how are they calculated? HRM with chest strap or by the machine???? if by the machine they are too high.

Eat back your exercise calories (at least 50% of them) ensure you are getting the correct number.

jyfairy · September 2013

goal 1400 food was 1267 exercise was 831 net 436

IS THIS GOOD??

NO

from all that I have read on here your net should never be below 1200 calories because your body thinks it is starving, in fact if your goal was 1400 that is what your net should have been after excersice.

You should probably eat more on the days that you are going to burn that many calories. It is bad when you put all that effort into it but do not see the results.

MinnieInMaine · September 2013

No, not good at all.

It can be really confusing because we always hear "eat less than you burn" but what you may not realize is that you burn calories ALL day long.. Not sure what link your friend gave you but you need to be aware of BMR. This is your basal metabolic rate, which is an estimate of the # of calories your body burns just doing basic functions - heart beating, digestion, etc - as if you were in a coma.

I'm not sure how much weight you have to lose as your ticker doesn't indicate but unless you've morbidly obese (need to lose 75 or more pounds), 2-3 pounds per week is very unrealistic. See below.

Here is a great guideline for setting weekly weight loss goals:
If you have 75+ lbs to lose 2 lbs/week is ideal,
If you have 40-75 lbs to lose 1.5 lbs/week is ideal,
If you have 25-40 lbs to lose 1 lbs/week is ideal,
If you have 15 -25 lbs to lose 0.5 to 1.0 lbs/week is ideal, and
If you have less than 15 lbs to lose 0.5 lbs/week is ideal.

Also not sure where you came up with 1400 per day but if that's what MFP gave you for a goal, it already includes a calorie deficit so trying to eat a lot less than that is too much of a deficit to be healthy.

ETA: See link posted above

sjacobs425 · September 2013

thank you, after i posted i started searching more in depth. i'm beginning to understand. someday i won't be a newbie :embarassed:

sjacobs425 · September 2013

thank you, ugggh it's just seems sacreligious LOL to burn it and then eat it... but i understand.

RGv2 · September 2013

thank you, ugggh it's just seems sacreligious LOL to burn it and then eat it... but i understand.

Also, you'll need to mess around with how many exercise calories you eat back. How do you estimate your burn?

HRM?
MFP?
Machine?

MFP and Machine can be grossly overexagerated. I only eat back ~50% of my MFP estimate.

sjacobs425 · September 2013

for the record i have over 100 lbs to lose.

so i'm really trying to get this down pat. i'm re learning everything... and i want to do it right finally.

No, not good at all.

It can be really confusing because we always hear "eat less than you burn" but what you may not realize is that you burn calories ALL day long.. Not sure what link your friend gave you but you need to be aware of BMR. This is your basal metabolic rate, which is an estimate of the # of calories your body burns just doing basic functions - heart beating, digestion, etc - as if you were in a coma.

I'm not sure how much weight you have to lose as your ticker doesn't indicate but unless you've morbidly obese (need to lose 75 or more pounds), 2-3 pounds per week is very unrealistic. See below.

Here is a great guideline for setting weekly weight loss goals:
If you have 75+ lbs to lose 2 lbs/week is ideal,
If you have 40-75 lbs to lose 1.5 lbs/week is ideal,
If you have 25-40 lbs to lose 1 lbs/week is ideal,
If you have 15 -25 lbs to lose 0.5 to 1.0 lbs/week is ideal, and
If you have less than 15 lbs to lose 0.5 lbs/week is ideal.

Also not sure where you came up with 1400 per day but if that's what MFP gave you for a goal, it already includes a calorie deficit so trying to eat a lot less than that is too much of a deficit to be healthy.

ETA: See link posted above

sjacobs425 · September 2013

i'm following the MFP when i plug in my time on elliptical or treadmill. it's always more than what the machine shows. when i do the machines (planet fitness) i always plug my weight so it gives me a truer picture of calories burned. any advice on how to calculate?

thank you, ugggh it's just seems sacreligious LOL to burn it and then eat it... but i understand.

Also, you'll need to mess around with how many exercise calories you eat back. How do you estimate your burn?

HRM?
MFP?
Machine?

MFP and Machine can be grossly overexagerated. I only eat back ~50% of my MFP estimate.
[/quote]

MinnieInMaine · September 2013

Both MFP calorie burn estimates and cardio machine are usually overestimated. In my experience, comparing what my HRM (heart rate monitor) says vs the machines, the treadmill is only slightly overestimates but the elliptical can be overestimating by up to 30%.

You can override what MFP gives you for burns. When you plug in the time, click over into the next box that shows the calories, delete what's there and input the number the machine gives you, if not a slightly lower one to be on the safe side.

So that burn of 831 in your example may be actually a bit closer to 500 or 600 calories in reality.

RGv2 · September 2013

i'm following the MFP when i plug in my time on elliptical or treadmill. it's always more than what the machine shows. when i do the machines (planet fitness) i always plug my weight so it gives me a truer picture of calories burned. any advice on how to calculate?

thank you, ugggh it's just seems sacreligious LOL to burn it and then eat it... but i understand.

Also, you'll need to mess around with how many exercise calories you eat back. How do you estimate your burn?

HRM?
MFP?
Machine?

MFP and Machine can be grossly overexagerated. I only eat back ~50% of my MFP estimate.

[/quote]

I'm entering 50% of my time. 60 min = 30 min entered. You can mess around with it from there.

trying to understand

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