Eating back exercise calories with fitbit flex

Thank you in advance!
When I signed up with MFP I put in that I want to lose 1lb a week and that I was sedentary with 0 planned workouts a week. I did this because even though I work in a restaurant My schedule varies from 2 days to 5 days a week so I didn't want to overeat calories on my slower weeks. That is also why I put in 0 workouts just I case I can't get them in (I've been doing 4-5 a week).

I know when I work out I need to eat those calories back. My question is I also have a fitbit flex linked to MFP, do I need to eat the fitbit earned calories as well? I'm a little confuse on that part.

Thank you again for your help!

Replies

LinnySquare

Hi,
Can you explain why one needs to eat the exercise calories back? I've planned everything around not doing so--it's the only way I can reasonably work up enough of a calorie deficit to lose 2 lbs/week. Just posted a question about how to set MFP so it DOESN'T add the calories I burn through exercise back into my food allowance, but now I'm very confused. Would appreciate help understanding so I can make a determination about which way to play this.
Thanks!

StaciMarie1974

Jujubee, if your MFP plan is based on Sedentary then certainly feel free to eat the Fitbit calories if you feel you need to. Your MFP plan has your deficit built in, based on normal activity of a sedentary person. So if you move more, you can eat more without taking away from that deficit. And the more active you are, the more fuel your body needs.

LinnySquare, the MFP plan is based on created a deficit without exercise. So if you burn more calories, your body likely needs more fuel.

Branstin

The calorie number that MFP generates already included a calorie deficiency. Go to MY HOME > GOALS and you will see the breakdown of your profile. When you burn calories, you are creating a bigger calorie deficiency which may not give your body enough calories to do its job. Since the calorie burned on machines and gadgets tend to be overestimated, try eating back at least half.

Jujubee952

Thank you! I've been trying to figure it out and I got confused. So I would still be okay if I don't eat those as I'm set to 1 lb a week correct? (sometimes it gives me 700-800 and that's just too much)

StaciMarie1974

My honest opinion, yes. I think when you have a more extreme weight loss goal (like 2 pounds per week) then its more important to eat the exercise calories back.

If you're earning 700-800 extra per day, though, you're not sedentary. In reality the label doesn't matter as long as you are eating enough. Judge how you feel. If your energy levels are good, you're steadily losing weight, keep at it. If you have days where you feel more hungry than usual, don't fight it. I notice if I'm super-active one day I notice it in my appetite the next.

I work a desk job, and admittedly I'm fairly lazy by nature. But I want to be more active - so I set MFP for lightly active and I make sure to move enough in the day that I earn SOME extra calories from the Fitibt connection. I figure that's one way to make sure that I'm at least lightly active. MFP gives me 1450 to start with per day, and I tend to end the day with 50-150 extra unused calories - eating around 1400-1600. I tend to get 10k-12k steps per day.

Thank you! I've been trying to figure it out and I got confused. So I would still be okay if I don't eat those as I'm set to 1 lb a week correct? (sometimes it gives me 700-800 and that's just too much)

TeaBea

Hi,
Can you explain why one needs to eat the exercise calories back? I've planned everything around not doing so--it's the only way I can reasonably work up enough of a calorie deficit to lose 2 lbs/week. Just posted a question about how to set MFP so it DOESN'T add the calories I burn through exercise back into my food allowance, but now I'm very confused. Would appreciate help understanding so I can make a determination about which way to play this.
Thanks!

MFP gave you a calorie deficit BEFORE exercise. That way people who can't/won't exercise still lose weight.

The reason you eat calories back......too few calories (regularly) does not allow your body to support lean muscle very well. Healthy weight loss is about reducing body fat %....not just a number on the scale.

If you have 75+ pounds to lose.....2 pounds a week is appropriate. 2 pounds a week for someone with less than 50 pounds to lose is really aggressive (= muscle loss).....adding workouts (without fuel).....is even more muscle loss.

LH85DC

Another thing that you need to make sure of when you're using a Fitbit is that you don't double-count your exercise. I can't tell from your original post whether you're adding exercise on MFP and letting Fitbit give you adjustments? For example, don't input running as an exercise on MFP if you also wore your Fitbit for that activity, or the system could be giving you double the calories. So you would only enter exercises on MFP that Fitbit isn't good at counting (weights, biking, etc) or activities for which you don't wear your Fitbit (swimming, etc).

If you're sure that you aren't double-dipping on exercise calories, then you should feel free to eat some or all of them. Give it a try for a few weeks, and see whether it slows your weight loss more than you want. Both MFP and Fitbit are just tools- you have to make some adjustments to get the most out of them.

Jujubee952

The only exercise I enter into MFP is any aerobics or Calisthenics I do. I also take my fitbit off while I do these just to make sure I'm not "double counting" I'm not sure how accurate it would track those and I don't want it to add steps from me using the weights. I wasn't sure if it was ok to wear it while doing those so I erred on the side of caution. When I do any walking (I haven't started jogging yet but that is next!) I do NOT put that in as the fitbit does count that.

DrJenO

I found when I first started using my fitbit flex that it overestimated the amount of calories it gave me back to eat, by 100-200 per day (going by what the dashboard said; the net MFP calories was the number I went by). After a while, it "learned" me better, and now the MFP net and the fitbit dashboard net are virtually identical.

You might give it a few weeks to adjust.

ETA: I have MFP set to lightly active, based on my activities @ work. I would consider the same, w/ you being a waitress.

DrJenO

The only exercise I enter into MFP is any aerobics or Calisthenics I do. I also take my fitbit off while I do these just to make sure I'm not "double counting" I'm not sure how accurate it would track those and I don't want it to add steps from me using the weights. I wasn't sure if it was ok to wear it while doing those so I erred on the side of caution. When I do any walking (I haven't started jogging yet but that is next!) I do NOT put that in as the fitbit does count that.

Make sure you note the times correctly when logging those extra calories on MFP. It will overwrite your fitbit data for the times you give it.

Hannah_Hopes

Hi,
Can you explain why one needs to eat the exercise calories back? I've planned everything around not doing so--it's the only way I can reasonably work up enough of a calorie deficit to lose 2 lbs/week. Just posted a question about how to set MFP so it DOESN'T add the calories I burn through exercise back into my food allowance, but now I'm very confused. Would appreciate help understanding so I can make a determination about which way to play this.
Thanks!

Just going to leave this here for you...
http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/818082-exercise-calories-again-wtf

FireOpalCO

I log everything on the FitBit site and the only thing I log on MFP is food and water. Everything carries over from FitBit and I'm less prone to have double entry issues.

You can log non-step based activity on the FitBit site very easily.