Good or Bad Tip, DO NOT TRACK EXERCISE ?

I got some advice from a friend she told me that it is best to not track exercise in MFP and instead just exercise and think of it as a bonus.. I thought hey that is smart... but I wanted to know what most people here do?

Do you track your exercise?

Replies

  • Woodster83
    Woodster83 Posts: 71 Member
    I track as I find it motivates me to keep working, plus I find it interesting to see.

    I set my goal to 1lb a week tho, maybe do that and don't track exercise? It'll prob even out if you do 3-5 sessions a week.
  • amblight
    amblight Posts: 350 Member
    I sort of track it, but very conservatively. I only track stuff that actually gets my pulse going, and is considered an actual workout (so no, I don't track vigourous cleaning etc.), and even that I list as 'light' and for a conservative amount of minutes. I have a graph in excel where I do 'projected loss' for the week based on net cal, and so far it's not too far off, so it fits me well doing it this way.
  • SezxyStef
    SezxyStef Posts: 15,267 Member
    I track it here but put in one calorie...because I use TDEE method not neat.

    If you are using the NEAT method MFP uses then the point of tracking the exercise is to know how many "extra" calories you should eat to fuel your next workout..

    We all know the estimates here are a bit overstated therefore most recommend 50-75% of them back.
  • Branstin
    Branstin Posts: 2,320 Member
    I track my food, exercise, and water on this site. My advice is to try it both ways and see which one works for you.
  • Clash1001
    Clash1001 Posts: 85 Member
    Personally, I track it but don't eat all of my exercise calories back - I don't have a hrm and the calorie burns on the mfp database seem to be on the high side.

    That said, if I've spent seven hours hiking up a mountain I know I need more food than I would on a 'normal" day, so will eat to compensate, if I've spent 30 minutes at a steady-slow pace on the cross trainer, I know there is less leeway and will eat closer.

    I think whether you choose to eat back exercise calories or not (and personally, I always eat back some) it's never a bad idea to keep an eye on patterns and what exercise you're actually doing.
  • Maleficent0241
    Maleficent0241 Posts: 386 Member
    I switched to the TDEE method, so I no longer track in here at all. I keep a notebook for exercises just to see my progression, but don't worry about calories burned.