exercise calories explained

1234568

Replies

  • aeg176
    aeg176 Posts: 171 Member
    great post! it covers everything. thank you!
  • Fuzzith
    Fuzzith Posts: 6 Member
    bump :wink:
  • KatieHPhoto
    KatieHPhoto Posts: 37 Member
    So after eating well throughout the day and exercising, my net is normally around the 600 mark daily, which means I'm under-eating? :S

    Eating back the calories burnt will seem like I'm over-eating...

    30442035.png
    Created by MyFitnessPal.com - Nutrition Facts For Foods
  • jacksonpt
    jacksonpt Posts: 10,413 Member
    So after eating well throughout the day and exercising, my net is normally around the 600 mark daily, which means I'm under-eating? :S

    Eating back the calories burnt will seem like I'm over-eating...

    Taken at face value, yes you're under eating. How does 600 cals seem like sufficient fuel for everything you ask your body to do? Digest food, pump blood, breath, clean the house, run errands, work, exercise, etc etc etc.
  • RTDice
    RTDice Posts: 193 Member
    bump
  • happpyhappyjoyjoy
    happpyhappyjoyjoy Posts: 44 Member
    Bump
  • YamRector
    YamRector Posts: 74 Member
    bump
  • pauliuuus
    pauliuuus Posts: 1
    Hey guys, if you are looking for great products to lose or gain weight, check out my google + channel https://plus.google.com/u/0/116152037336376653346/posts/p/pub it has a lot of great products with professional reviews and direct links to order it :)
  • Makes total sense. Thank you for taking the time to explain it!
  • changing4life
    changing4life Posts: 193 Member
    save for later!!!
  • I'm sure you got it, but I just want to check. When you say you are active that means your body burns those calories in a normal day for you. If you do nothing your body is still going to burn around 2000. I am 6'0" and weigh 199lbs. I go to school most of the day and work in an office so I sit around and do nothing most of the day if I don't work out. So I choose sedentary. Doing NOTHING, my body will still burn over 2000 calories just to sustain my life. Those 2420 calories in your example are being burned just doing whatever. I am going to say that if you sit in bed the whole day you will still burn close to 2000 just because of your body's metabolism. You burn almost 500 calories during 8 hours of sleep.

    You should not consider time spent in the gym as part of your lifestyle if you are also tracking your workouts with this app. You should leave it as "how your day is without the gym." If you are a mailman and walk around every day a lot then you have a highly active lifestyle. If you are saying you are highly active because you go to the gym AND track your individual workouts, then you are double counting calories.

    The safest bet, if you use the app to keep tabs on your exercises, is to just leave it as sedentary. This essentially puts the number of calories your body will burn just keeping you alive and awake with minimal activity. For me, 2410 calories is a "net zero" meaning I will neither gain nor lose weight. That is what I would burn if I sat on this forum all day and did nothing else. From there I can adjust my calorie goal for how many lbs I would like to lose or gain, and tracking my workouts will not count double into the equation. I do not live a sedentary life, but I feel that doing it this way is much more accurate. Changing to higly active will bump me to a 2990 allowance before weight goals. So that assumes I am burning an additional 500 calories than I would just sitting around all day, but I don't always burn 500. I may burn more or less depending on the day. Since your activity level is really all relative it is best to just say you are sedentary and go from there.

    The only real way to know what you can burn in a day is to go and have tests done on you. Your body's metabolism adjusts to your activity level. So if you are highly active you are going to burn more calories even on days you don't do anything.
  • imzadi481
    imzadi481 Posts: 86 Member
    Thanks for this post OP, made everything clear!
  • diadia1
    diadia1 Posts: 223 Member
    Thank you!!!

    Quick question: I set mine as active, I work out 6 days a week doing weights and cardio.

    If for some reason I miss a workout, does that mean I should eat less that day?

    Assuming you set it to active BECAUSE you workout 6 days a week, then it kind of depends how often it happens. If it's only every once in a while, then no, I wouldn't worry about it. If its every week, then yes (and you should probably change it from active to something less active).

    If you set it to active because you have an active job/life, but log your workouts separately, then no you don't. MFP will adjust automatically based on your logged workouts.

    thanks for this explanation!
  • Christi132
    Christi132 Posts: 67 Member
    Great post!
  • yeah i would so but resting day should be light cardio like just pop in do 20 mins it wont hurt
  • prettyface55
    prettyface55 Posts: 508 Member
    This is very clear and good to know, thank you!!
  • kit_liu
    kit_liu Posts: 22 Member
    Thanks for a clear explanation. Now I wont guilty when I eat back my exercise calories in my sedentary life.
  • Siansonea
    Siansonea Posts: 917 Member
    What is this "exercise" you speak of? :huh:
  • mode42
    mode42 Posts: 16 Member
    bump
  • Mr_Knight
    Mr_Knight Posts: 9,532 Member
    So, with all that said... how do we know if we should be eating back exercise calories or not? Well, it comes down to how you setup
    your profile.

    I disagree with this. It's fine in theory, but in practise it is a complete disaster. IMO the right answer for most newcomers to MFP is to set their MFP to sedentary and NOT eat back their exercise calories.

    This is because most people with significant amounts of weight to lose are in poor physical condition. This means their exercise will burn relatively few calories to begin with, because The Universe doesn't give a flying fig how "hard" it feels, it only cares how far and how fast you go. Which means, in the real world, people are vastly over-estimating their burned calories. Which in turn means they are setting themselves up for a stall moment they eat them back.

    IMO the best advice is to ignore exercise calories until you're running 5km at a time, 2-3x a week, or equivalent.

    So - set activity level to sedentary, do not eat back exercise calories, and get on a C25K type program. Revisit once running 5k three times a week (or equivalent).
  • Hildy_J
    Hildy_J Posts: 1,050 Member
    What is this "exercise" you speak of? :huh:

    It's a variable some people choose to bring into the weight-loss equation which impacts quite heavily on the error margin - best not to bother. :wink:
  • rushfive
    rushfive Posts: 603 Member
    THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU !!!!!!!!!!!!
  • Siansonea
    Siansonea Posts: 917 Member
    What is this "exercise" you speak of? :huh:

    It's a variable some people choose to bring into the weight-loss equation which impacts quite heavily on the error margin - best not to bother. :wink:

    Bleah. I was never a stellar algebra student, I'm certainly not going to throw another variable into my equation. :drinker:
  • Mr_Knight
    Mr_Knight Posts: 9,532 Member
    What is this "exercise" you speak of? :huh:

    Let me 'splain.

    No, there is too much, let me sum up.

    Exercise** is something people do so they can rationalize eating more, and then express righteous indignation when their weight loss stalls, which allows them to follow further anonymous advice to eat even more.

    **MFP Edition
  • evdenapoli
    evdenapoli Posts: 164 Member
    Good post.

    Another thing to add about setting your weekly goal, most MFP users set their weekly loss goal much to aggressively say 2 lbs/week when it should really only be 1lb.

    Not to hijack the thread, but to add to it, the following pertains to goal setting based on how much you have to lose:
    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.

    Tks for this!!
  • pukekolive
    pukekolive Posts: 237 Member
    Bump for later - great explanations! I have always set my own calorie goal (customize) but eat back half my exercise caloires - activity level set at sedentary as I am lucky to move much at work.

    I fitness walk and strengthtrain as regularly as I can but find my biggest aid to 'scale loss' is to tweak my protein level to 25-30% of my calories and keep it there consistently - this is where my 'sweetspot' is.

    I wish everyone the best results on MFP as possible - it is a great tool and a great community!
  • Siansonea
    Siansonea Posts: 917 Member
    What is this "exercise" you speak of? :huh:

    Let me 'splain.

    No, there is too much, let me sum up.

    Exercise** is something people do so they can rationalize eating more, and then express righteous indignation when their weight loss stalls, which allows them to follow further anonymous advice to eat even more.

    **MFP Edition

    It All Makes Sense Now™! :drinker:
  • Marymoe138
    Marymoe138 Posts: 68 Member
    Thanks for this! Perfect explanation!!
  • Just a quick question.... I'm 6ft5 215lbs and go running 2-3 times a week and burn off 600 cals a time as well as doing weights on the other days. I have set my fitness level as active even though I have a desk job and I have it also set that I want to lose 1.5lb a week.

    So, I've put all that into to MFP and it's come up with 2,230 a day. As I've put active as my fitness level am I right in thinking I shouldn't be logging exercise? So I aim for 2230 cals a day, shouldn't this vary between the days I run and the days I don't? Or does it take into account the non running days.

    I love running and don't want to give it up.
  • erickirb
    erickirb Posts: 12,294 Member
    Just a quick question.... I'm 6ft5 215lbs and go running 2-3 times a week and burn off 600 cals a time as well as doing weights on the other days. I have set my fitness level as active even though I have a desk job and I have it also set that I want to lose 1.5lb a week.

    So, I've put all that into to MFP and it's come up with 2,230 a day. As I've put active as my fitness level am I right in thinking I shouldn't be logging exercise? So I aim for 2230 cals a day, shouldn't this vary between the days I run and the days I don't? Or does it take into account the non running days.

    I love running and don't want to give it up.

    No. If you want it to vary by day then chose sedentary and log your exercise and eat those cals back. The way you are doing it essentially averages your low, high, and no cals burned for the week divided by 7 so you eat the same everyday to achieve the same weekly weight loss. So you are eating more on days you don't workout and less on days you do then if you logged exercise and were set at sedentary
This discussion has been closed.