Calories & Workout question

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ashleydhill777
ashleydhill777 Posts: 15 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
So my calorie budget per day is 1500, and when I work out, like for today, I added 564 calories. Should I shoot to eat all the calories, or stick to the 1500, and leave the exercise calories alone?

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  • qtgonewild
    qtgonewild Posts: 1,930 Member
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    thats pretty much up to you and how you are getting the number of calories burned. i would say it is safe to eat half back. mfp over exaggerates, so if you aren't using a HRM you really dont want to trust that number. Some people eat calories back. some people do not.
  • nomeejerome
    nomeejerome Posts: 2,616 Member
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    If you are using the MFP method, you should eat at least a portion of those exercise calories. Be careful with overestimation on calorie burn through exercise.
  • wanttolose40lbs
    wanttolose40lbs Posts: 239 Member
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    MFP wants to put me on 1200 calories, I think that's too low, so I eat 1500 calories a day and don't eat back any exercise calories. That's just my personal preference.
  • ashleydhill777
    ashleydhill777 Posts: 15 Member
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    Thanks Everyone!! Thankfully, the elliptical tells me how many calories I'm burning at the gym, and I use the Nike app when I walk to let me know the calories burned. I would definitely be in a bad place if I had to guess! :-) I just want to make sure I am not slowly sabotaging my progress my dipping in to those exercise calories.
  • bwogilvie
    bwogilvie Posts: 2,130 Member
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    If you are using the MFP method, you should eat at least a portion of those exercise calories. Be careful with overestimation on calorie burn through exercise.

    This is good advice. For more detail, see this post:
    http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/818082-exercise-calories-again-wtf
  • BlueBombers
    BlueBombers Posts: 4,065 Member
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    I eat my exercise calories back and have never had a problem
  • meshashesha2012
    meshashesha2012 Posts: 8,326 Member
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    i think the MFP way and the TDEE way pretty much works out to be the same (at least it does in my case) so if you're doing the MFP way, make sure to eat back your workout calories.

    those formulas are just based on average so you may need more or less calories depending on your particular body.

    another thing to keep in mind when you're eating back your exercise calories is that you may want to erase the calories that you would have burned during that time by simply being alive as those calories are already taken into account. for instance i know that for me i burn approx 125 an hour just by being alive. if i were eating back my exercise calories then i would subtract that amount from whatever my HRM said i burned
  • TeaBea
    TeaBea Posts: 14,517 Member
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    Thanks Everyone!! Thankfully, the elliptical tells me how many calories I'm burning at the gym, and I use the Nike app when I walk to let me know the calories burned. I would definitely be in a bad place if I had to guess! :-) I just want to make sure I am not slowly sabotaging my progress my dipping in to those exercise calories.

    Ummm...it's still a guess unless you are hooked up to a heart rate monitor (at all times)......Machines, MFP & Aps rely on averages.

    Calorie burns depend upon height, weight, age, gender, & exertion level. The more information the machine, MFP or Ap has....the closer the estimate. The heart rate monitor would compare resting heart rate against exercise heart rate ....that approximates exertion level.

    MFP gives you calories back because you have a deficit built in BEFORE exercise. When you try to lose weight too quickly....you risk losing muscle mass along with fat.
  • ashleydhill777
    ashleydhill777 Posts: 15 Member
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    Thanks Everyone!! Thankfully, the elliptical tells me how many calories I'm burning at the gym, and I use the Nike app when I walk to let me know the calories burned. I would definitely be in a bad place if I had to guess! :-) I just want to make sure I am not slowly sabotaging my progress my dipping in to those exercise calories.

    Ummm...it's still a guess unless you are hooked up to a heart rate monitor (at all times)......Machines, MFP & Aps rely on averages.

    Calorie burns depend upon height, weight, age, gender, & exertion level. The more information the machine, MFP or Ap has....the closer the estimate. The heart rate monitor would compare resting heart rate against exercise heart rate ....that approximates exertion level.

    MFP gives you calories back because you have a deficit built in BEFORE exercise. When you try to lose weight too quickly....you risk losing muscle mass along with fat.

    Oh, I definitely don't want to lose muscle mass. I try to put in the machine as much info as will let me, but exertion level, I'm not sure I've even heard of. I am still pretty new at this, and trying so hard not to "mess up". Can you suggest any articles I can study up on?

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