really? (MFP recommended calorie skepticism)

olehana
olehana Posts: 7
in Health and Weight Loss
Hey all,
I've been using MyPlate / MFP for only a few weeks now to loose weight and get in shape (Summer holiday post graduation fitness - yaaaaay!) but I am a bit skeptical about some of the numbers it has been giving me, and I'm wondering if you all could give me a few suggestions.
I live in a really gorgeous wilderness area, and my main method of hanging out with friends is to go for adventures outside. MFP recommends I consume 1450 calories a day, however I am also supposedly burning around 1,500-2,000 calories hiking or biking on a normal day (5-6 days a week). I am a little skeptical about eating 3500 calories while trying to loose weight, although this is what MFP recommends. I'm wondering if you all think that I should be eating back those couple thousand calories, and if not, how much I SHOULD be eating to healthily loose weight and still stay energized?
All my thanks!
-H

Replies

  • Timshel_
    Timshel_ Posts: 22,834 Member
    Average active person will burn anywhere from 1800 to 2400 calories BMR in a day. Add in that 1500 to 2000 calories you burn with exercise and that isn't unrealistic, but might wanna conform your numbers to make sure you are at caloric deficit to lose weight. Also, burning 1500 to 2000 calories is a pretty huge. A 200 pound person would need to mountain bike over 2 hours for that kinda burn.

    Cheers.
  • olehana
    olehana Posts: 7
    A four hour hike is nothing where I live, and add to it a jump in a lake on the way back to cool down, its a casual day with friends! According to my goals MFP has recommended a net intake of 1450c a day, but eating 3450 still seems crazy. Thank you for the advice :]
    -
    H
  • astartig
    astartig Posts: 549 Member
    A four hour hike is nothing where I live, and add to it a jump in a lake on the way back to cool down, its a casual day with friends! According to my goals MFP has recommended a net intake of 1450c a day, but eating 3450 still seems crazy. Thank you for the advice :]
    -
    H


    it won't kill you to not eat back your exercise calories. there is no guarantee the burn calculated is correct. I'd go with what is comfortable for you to eat. If it were me personally I'd be aiming for 2000 calories on the days I was very active and 1450 on the days I wasn't and see how that works out.
  • jkal1979
    jkal1979 Posts: 1,896 Member
    How are you calculating your exercise calories?
  • endermako
    endermako Posts: 785 Member
    MFP calories burned is highly overstated. I just log my activity but not calories burned on here.
  • songbyrdsweet
    songbyrdsweet Posts: 5,691 Member
    You may have to try a few different calculators and then stick to a given calorie amount for a couple weeks and watch your inches/scale/clothing fit, etc.

    Also, wherever you live sounds awesome. :)
  • olehana
    olehana Posts: 7
    I was using MFP to calculate the lost calories, however I've also checked several online blogs & calculators which have all estimated between 350 and 500 calories per hour (for someone my size & approximate intensity of hiking) which still leaves me with quite a large deficit...

    I definitely don't think I can eat 3500 (healthy) calories a day, but I do want to know what I should aim for.
  • olehana
    olehana Posts: 7
    You may have to try a few different calculators and then stick to a given calorie amount for a couple weeks and watch your inches/scale/clothing fit, etc.

    Also, wherever you live sounds awesome. :)

    I'll definitely do that. Thank you!
    (National parks ftw <3)
  • jkal1979
    jkal1979 Posts: 1,896 Member
    I was using MFP to calculate the lost calories, however I've also checked several online blogs & calculators which have all estimated between 350 and 500 calories per hour (for someone my size & approximate intensity of hiking) which still leaves me with quite a large deficit...

    I definitely don't think I can eat 3500 (healthy) calories a day, but I do want to know what I should aim for.

    MFP is notorious for overestimating exercise calories. A lot of people will eat back anywhere between 25%-75% of their exercise calories.
  • WalkingAlong
    WalkingAlong Posts: 4,926 Member
    I definitely don't think I can eat 3500 (healthy) calories a day, but I do want to know what I should aim for.
    Don't lose much sleep over it. It's not target shooting. :smile:

    Pick a number, try it for a week, see how you feel and what the scale does, readjust as necessary.
  • bymyslf892
    bymyslf892 Posts: 114 Member
    Buy a HRM. Then you will actually KNOW what you burned instead of guesstimating and finding yourself frustrated. You'll know exactly where you stand, and then you can decide how many of those calories you would like to eat back. Honestly if you are eating only when you are hungry and eating healthful food then you should be able to lose easily with your activity level. Happy Hiking!
  • 4ever420
    4ever420 Posts: 4,088 Member
    You really don't have to eat all the calories back the same day. You could save some to eat more on less active days.
  • SoLongAndThanksForAllTheFish
    SoLongAndThanksForAllTheFish Posts: 831 Member
    I'm larger and a guy, and I commonly burn 1,5-3,000 cals in a day on hikes, I never eat all the cals back, but I get close some days, I try to ensure I don't burn my muscle from weightlifting. But the larger the deficit, the more I tend to not get as close to goal. It doesn't really seem to really affect my weight loss either way much, so I think I'm relatively on target, make sure hiking hills is actually hills, if its more of a walk with not much elevation gain, then log it as a walk at a faster pace than you did it. I'd eat back at least 50% of the cals, and make sure your protein is relatively high (1g/lb lean bodymass or more) in an attempt to reduce muscle burn.
  • Jessie24330
    Jessie24330 Posts: 224 Member
    MFP calories burned is highly overstated.

    I second that. I don't own a HRM (yet) but when I put my heart rate as reported by whatever cardio equipment I was using into a heart rate calculator it usually gives a number that is about half of what the machine told me. And MFP is always more than the machine.

    For example, when I do 50 minutes on the elliptical the machine tells me about 615 or so. The heart rate calculator tells me about 395 or so. MFP tells me around 870.

    I am very sure that the numbers I get off the calculator are off a little too but I am pretty sure they are a lot more accurate than the others. By all means, if you feel that what you are being told is accurate then log it that way and eat back a large portion if not all of them. BUT, keep in mind if you don't see any losses in the next few weeks or even see some gains that you are going to need to find a better way of tracking your output.
  • aliakynes
    aliakynes Posts: 352 Member
    You sound like a good candidate to go for the TDEE method: http://scoobysworkshop.com/calorie-calculator/
  • MelodyandBarbells
    MelodyandBarbells Posts: 7,724 Member
    How long have you lived there and participated in these activities? Don't shoot me but I'm finding it hard to believe that you'd even need to lose weight with that level of activity, OR be any kind of stranger to large quantities of food/calories. If your activity level hasn't really changed, you should be able to tell us where you were eating more calories than MFP's current recommendation

    I would actually suggest an activity tracker (steps) over a HRM. I'm not sure your heart rate is consistently high enough during hiking for an HRM to be the appropriate calorie recording tool?

    You could always start with eating half of the suggested MFP hiking calories and go from there. Adjust daily calories up if losing too much weight each week, down if eating not enough.

    Here's some reading on counting your calories accurately. You very well may have been eating close to the recommended amount already:

    http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/1296011-calorie-counting-101
  • olehana
    olehana Posts: 7
    How long have you lived there and participated in these activities? Don't shoot me but I'm finding it hard to believe that you'd even need to lose weight with that level of activity, OR be any kind of stranger to large quantities of food/calories. If your activity level hasn't really changed, you should be able to tell us where you were eating more calories than MFP's current recommendation

    I would actually suggest an activity tracker (steps) over a HRM. I'm not sure your heart rate is consistently high enough during hiking for an HRM to be the appropriate calorie recording tool?

    You could always start with eating half of the suggested MFP hiking calories and go from there. Adjust daily calories up if losing too much weight each week, down if eating not enough.

    Here's some reading on counting your calories accurately. You very well may have been eating close to the recommended amount already:

    http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/1296011-calorie-counting-101

    Hey Janel! Thank you for your tips & suggestions.
    I've grew up in this town, however for the past two years I've been studying at a university away and have, essentially, gotten out of shape. During this time I've only visited home for a few weeks at a time, and I was not consciously recording my diet / exercise with any intention to loose weight so I didn't consciously eat back my calories, just what I was hungry for.

    I was raised on one of the "ultra-healthy-earthy-crunchy-organic-whole-foods" diets that so many random health blogs suggest, but I've always been slightly overweight, even compared to my friends who ate worse & exercised less than I did. It hasn't been a problem for me medically, but I would like to loose weight and get back in shape (hence: the MFP!)

    Thanks for your time!
  • MelodyandBarbells
    MelodyandBarbells Posts: 7,724 Member
    Good luck, Doll! :wink:
  • Azurite27
    Azurite27 Posts: 554 Member
    If these hikes and biking trips are a normal day-to-day activity for you, I would suggest changing your base activity level setting to active and just not logging it as exercise. This should increase your daily calorie goal to account for it. Or as others have said, leave your settings as they are and try eating back 1/2 to start and adjust up or down after a few weeks after your body adjusts to your new intake.
  • sijomial
    sijomial Posts: 19,809 Member
    MFP calories burned is highly overstated. I just log my activity but not calories burned on here.
    Sweeping statement isn't very helpful unfortunately!
    I agree some estimates for some activities seem very high but just remember it's all just estimates and people saying they are inflated don't actually know what the correct number is without access to a sports science lab.

    BTW - don't assume a HRM is more accurate for all activites, it isn't.

    Estimates for walking and running should be plenty accurate enough for use but would recommend cross checking against a few sites as some strange entries have appeared in the MFP database from time to time.

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