Earned calories from exercise? Has anyone tested these?

Question 1 - Does anyone regularly eat their extra earned calories?

Yes. I track all exercise, and above a certain expenditure, I eat it back.

However, I don't use MFP or HRM numbers, I calculate the burn myself, independently. Done that way, it all tracks exactly as one would expect.

Hello, we are the same age and conventional nutrition wisdom states that we should have a harder time keeping weight off in our late 40s. I respectfully disagree. I congratulate you on your loss--that's an incredible accomplishment. I am not a logger or one who calculates out my caloric intake. I think everyone is different. My advice would be to play around with nit only how much you eat, but what you eat, for me, I find I am able to sustain. My weight by actually eating more calories of vegetables, fruits, and proteins, versus more refined carbs. You probably don't want to create too much of a calorie deficit because you could find yourself gaining it back if you go into starvation mode. Just my 2 cents.

I wouldn't log walking as an exercise and also not eat them back, because MFP is already calculating them in. If you would lay in bed all day doing nothing, you wouldn't need much more than maybe 1500 calories just to maintain a healthy weight.

But I also don't really trust all the statistics MFP gives you - you never know whether the amount of calories "burnt" is calculated minus the amount of calories you would have normally burnt (say in one hour you burn 100 cals normally throughout the day, while running you burn 500, but you would have burnt 100 anyways, so you actually just burnt 400 extra calories) or not.

MFP is not calculating in just any level of walking when you pick Sedentary as your non-exercise activity level.
It includes an avg of 1 hr of slow moving daily. So that would account for walking in/out of work, around at work, to/from store, shopping time, ect. Most seem to hit that unless inspired to get up more on their jobs.

But it does NOT include the walking the dog time 30 min daily or such.

Your laying in bed sleeping all day is BMR. BMR x 1.25 is Sedentary.

And correct on the exercise database that MFP and a lot of other sites use, and the formula's machines themselves use, and actually what HRM's report.
None of them take out your resting calorie burn that would have occurred anyway. Because most of them are not reporting calories for the purpose of someone eating them back correctly (yes, MFP could be a real Pal and correct that easily).
So all of them are Gross estimates, not Net estimates.

And actually, when in a diet like using MFP, every hour of your day is already accounted for with an amount of burn. Your Maintenance figure on Goals page divided by 24. That's what you were already expected to burn each hour.
And that's why MFP could handle that easily in the math prior to giving you a figure.

I've followed what MFP has said and I have had success...I don't think too hard about it...I do question some of the calculations for exercise...seems like they are a little low...

1850 - is it TDEE or NET?

TDEE = not eat back. It has included your activities. i.e. You need 1850 each day to maintain your bodily function + the level of exercises yo have included in determining that TDEE.


NET = eat back. i.e. 1850 is what you should HAVE in your body each day. If you eat 1850 but exercise (cal out) 800, that means you are actually at a very low net of 1050.

It seems to be 1850 may be net for you - it is low (I can eat that much for TDEE and I am only 5'3', female!).

And yes, MFP is great for food logging. But for workouts, use your own HRM.

I eat most of mine back and have been losing at a pleasantly steady rate. However, I use my HRM calorie calculations. The ones on MFP are insanely high and inaccurate.