Confused

jessicagrieshaber
jessicagrieshaber Posts: 167 Member
in Getting Started
So I have always been a fitness and nutrition fiend, but let myself slip up (pretty bad) post-graduation of college. I ate out at restaurants all the time, and drank too much beer. Anyways, I'm back on track now but I'm sort of confused how this site works.

If my goals are set at losing 1lb/week and MFP tells me that I have 1370 calories a day, does that already include the deficit? So when I workout and burn, say, 300 calories, it goes up to 1670? And then I can eat 1670 for that day and still lose weight?

Also, if I work at a pharmaceutical company and sit at my desk about half the day and am walking around or on my feet in the lab the other half of the day, but work out 5-6 times a week, would that make me lightly active or active?

Thanks for your help.

Replies

  • maizerage66
    maizerage66 Posts: 367 Member
    If you're using MFP's calculators to estimate your calories, then yes you are allowed to eat more when you exercise because exercise calories are not factored in. MFP bases it off of the absolute minimum you should eat if you didn''t work out, so you need to eat more if you do end up working out. But the problem with MFP is that they really overestimate calories burned, so you should eat about 50-75% of those calories back. As far as activity level, I've always been a little confused about that too so I always go with what I think and see how I do and adjust from there. You seem to be on your feet walking around all day so that would be lightly active, while working out most of the week which is moderately active. So go with moderate, see if it works, and adjust if you need to. Best of luck!
  • 4legsRbetterthan2
    4legsRbetterthan2 Posts: 19,590 MFP Moderator

    If my goals are set at losing 1lb/week and MFP tells me that I have 1370 calories a day, does that already include the deficit? So when I workout and burn, say, 300 calories, it goes up to 1670? And then I can eat 1670 for that day and still lose weight?

    yes that is correct

    Also, if I work at a pharmaceutical company and sit at my desk about half the day and am walking around or on my feet in the lab the other half of the day, but work out 5-6 times a week, would that make me lightly active or active?

    I would say lightly active or active. All these calculations are estimations based on compiled information so set your goals and stick to them and test them out for yourself. You can adjust your calories in time (1-2 months) based on your actual progress.

    This is a good read for beginners:

    http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/1080242-a-guide-to-get-you-started-on-your-path-to-sexypants

    ETA: sorry, forgot the question about exercise calories - as said above yes, you should be eating them back, but try to be realistic about your logging them because MFP wayyyyy overestimates burns from exercise. If you like to do cardio a HRM can be helpful.

    ~Best wishes
  • BigT555
    BigT555 Posts: 2,067 Member
    yes to all your questions, but like maizerage66 said only eat 1/2 - 3/4 of calories burned

    as for the lightly active/active setting, i would go with lightly active, but keep in mind that these numbers are estimates and need to be adjusted based on your own body. eat the amount of calories MFP tells you to for a month or so, and based on your results and future goals you can raise or lower the number from there i.e. say your setting is for 1 lb/week loss, and after a month you lose 6 lbs, which is 1.5 lb/ week, from there raise your calorie intake by 250 which would negate the extra .5 lb/week
  • earlnabby
    earlnabby Posts: 8,171 Member
    What he (maizerage66) said ^^^^. The only thing I would do differently: I set my activity level based on the non-logable activity (your daily life without workouts). If you will include 5 workouts a week and not log them separately, I would set for Moderately active. If you plan to log your workouts as separate activity, then I would go lightly active.
  • gabrielleelliott90
    gabrielleelliott90 Posts: 854 Member
    Yes I believe it does include the deficit. You can eat the 1670 calories you burnt, you would still lose weight, just log in the amount you burn, and the amount MFP tells you to eat, eat it and you should still lose your weight. It's just eating back the calories you burned. Don't worry about it, you will be okay.
  • jessicagrieshaber
    jessicagrieshaber Posts: 167 Member
    Thank you everyone for all of the insight!! I think I finally get it now haha
  • Allup2Me78
    Allup2Me78 Posts: 589 Member
    I have a sit down desk job but I workout 4-5 times a week for about 30 min..Nothing hardcore. Am I sedentary or lightly active based on Mfp's calculations? I I choose Sedentary, I eat back exercise calories right?...& Not lightly active correct? I'm confused!
  • kc5grw
    kc5grw Posts: 12 Member
    I have a sit down desk job but I workout 4-5 times a week for about 30 min..Nothing hardcore. Am I sedentary or lightly active based on Mfp's calculations? I I choose Sedentary, I eat back exercise calories right?...& Not lightly active correct? I'm confused!

    Yes, the way I understand it you set it based on your normal daily routine. I pretty much drive a desk 5 days a week so I set mine as sedentary as well even though I walk 3+ miles 5 or more days a week. An activity tracker such as a Fitbit linked to your MFP account is a great help too in keeping your calorie budget in sync with your actual activity level
  • RosieWest8
    RosieWest8 Posts: 185 Member
    I have a sit down desk job but I workout 4-5 times a week for about 30 min..Nothing hardcore. Am I sedentary or lightly active based on Mfp's calculations? I I choose Sedentary, I eat back exercise calories right?...& Not lightly active correct? I'm confused!

    Yes, set your activity level as 'sedentary'. Even if you know you'll going to workout multiple days a week I'd set it at sedentary. If you incorporate your workouts into your 'activity level' then you shouldn't log them really....they're counting double that way really. So, for me at least, it makes more sense to set the activity level at sedentary or lightly active (depending on if you have a desk job or a job where you are walking around) and then just know that you should log your workouts. And it's true that the calorie estimator on MFP for exercise is waaaay off. I got a Polar HRM (not a super expensive one, I think I paid $40) so I knew what my avg. heart rate was during the time I was working out. Then just used a couple sites to calculate my calories burned (which usually gave me more or less the same number) and took the avg. of that and manually changed the calories burned for MFP to get a more accurate count. And then eat those cals back (or most of them).
  • tuaam
    tuaam Posts: 5
    I weigh approx. 75 kilos and on the days I walk with a little jogging for and hour I have estimated burning about 300 calories. On the days I go to the gym I burn approximately 250 calories on the elliptical trainer then workout with weights for about an hour. I have yet to get a good estimate of how many calories I burn doing my weight routine, so I estimate about 200 calories. If anyone has a better idea or source for weight training calories please post.

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