Calories and exercise

thinerme1
thinerme1 Posts: 7
in Introduce Yourself
I am just returning to MFP and I didn't really get into it last time. I have been struggling to lose anything for awhile now. But I am really trying to be diligent with this website and a garmin vivofit. Anyway my question is when I exercise and I get extra calories for that, does it make sense to eat all those calories or isn't that the purpose of exercising to get a deficit?
An example I earned 812 calories from exercise yesterday. I usually stay around 1200 calories eating and mfp changed my goal to 2012. I don't know if I am eating enough to lose or if I should eat more.

I also don't get the way it reads 1200 goal +1148 food -812 exercise 336 net?

Any help would be great for this newbe. Thanks

Replies

  • pplastics
    pplastics Posts: 135 Member
    Some people eat back their exercise calories, some do not.

    I eat most of mine back.....I consider it one of the benefits of exercise!

    If the MFP calculator puts you at eating 2012 each day, and you are only eating 1200, that may be too low to be sustainable. You need to eat at a level you can live with every day. You also don't want to eat too low, as it can cause side effects such as muscle loss, hair loss, etc. If you are going to use a 1200 goal, I would definitely eat back the exercise calories.

    The MFP diary does add back in the calories you input for exercise. If you are only eating 1148 worth plus exercising 800, that is considered the same as if you only ate 336 for the whole day. That is extremely unhealthy!!


    It is more healthy, and a more likely way to achieve success, to follow MFP calories goals for your height, weight, age and activity level. One other thing, be very careful with regards to how many exercise calories MFP calculates for you, as they are generally on the high side. 800 calories burned sounds like a lot to me, but it depends on what you were doing, your weight, amount of time spent, etc.

    Good luck! Remember to try and find a reasonable plan that can be carried out long term.
  • 999tigger
    999tigger Posts: 5,235 Member
    Up to you whether you eat back. Weight loss is a secondary benefit as opposed to fitness.

    Rule of thumb to stay in deficit you can eat up to half back.
  • MscGray
    MscGray Posts: 304 Member
    MFP already builds in a deficit when it gives you the allotted cals for the day. When you exercise and log that exercise MFP recommends eating those cals back (since the weight loss deficit is already built in...and failing to eat back at least SOME of those exercise cals may put you at extremely low level of cals consumed....it may start to affect your performance etc). I guess it is worth mentioning also, that MFP has extremely exaggerated values assigned to working out (if you use the numbers that they give when you plug in your exercise of choice and length of time done). I rely on my heart rate monitor to figure out my cals burned and eat back the majority. If you use MFP numbers you may want to eat back half to 3/4 only. hope that helps!
  • MscGray
    MscGray Posts: 304 Member


    I also don't get the way it reads 1200 goal +1148 food -812 exercise 336 net?



    with your goal being 1200 and you consuming 1148 and then exercising 812 of those off you are left with technically consuming 336 cals.....so basically after exercise cals are taken into consideration you only consumed 336 additional cals for the day. I hope that makes sense :)
  • ghosthackexe
    ghosthackexe Posts: 181 Member
    I eat half of them back as well since cal counts and burns might not always be accurate it leaves room for error
  • PaytraB
    PaytraB Posts: 2,360 Member
    1200 goal +1148 food -812 exercise 336 net

    Any help would be great for this newbe. Thanks

    Your goal is to reach 1200 calories NET. This means your 1200 + eating back your exercise calories to give you a NET of 1200 calories. So the line above would read "1200 goal +1960* food - 812 exercise 1148 net", which would mean "your goal is 1200 calories, you've eaten 1960 calories but exercised 812 calories of it away, therefore your net is 1148 calories".
    *1960 = 1148 (eaten food) + 812 (eating back your exercise calories worth of food)

    That said, MFP usually overestimates calories burned so you may want to eat back 1/2 to 3/4 of your workout calories instead of all of it. Either way, make sure you get enough nutrition and food.
  • Tree72
    Tree72 Posts: 942 Member
    In order to lose weight, you want a deficit, but not too large of one or it can start to affect your energy levels, performance in exercises, and even your overall health.

    For example, if you want to lose one pound a week, you need to have a total deficit of 500 calories per day. So if your activity tracker tells you that your total calorie burn for the day is 2500, then you'd need to eat 2000 to maintain that deficit of 500. The MFP database does tend to have high calorie burns for most activities, but if you're using an activity tracker it should be much more reliable.
  • thinerme1
    thinerme1 Posts: 7
    Thanks everyone. IT sounds like I may not be eating enough. I sink my vivofit w/heart rate monitor to mfp to get my exercise calories.

    Sometimes my vivofit website and my mfp website do read different numbers. Think I will try to eat a few more calorie but it sure seems like a lot of food.
  • thinerme1
    thinerme1 Posts: 7
    can't spell sync. LOL
  • TeaBea
    TeaBea Posts: 14,517 Member


    I also don't get the way it reads 1200 goal +1148 food -812 exercise 336 net?



    with your goal being 1200 and you consuming 1148 and then exercising 812 of those off you are left with technically consuming 336 cals.....so basically after exercise cals are taken into consideration you only consumed 336 additional cals for the day. I hope that makes sense :)

    This!^

    MFP gave you a deficit BEFORE exercise. That way people who can't/won't exercise still lose weight. Eating calories back helps to ensure that the deficit is not too large.

    Really large deficits make it hard for your body to support lean muscle. If you want to lose fat as opposed to fat+muscle....you need fuel for your workouts.

    As other posters state MFP calorie guestimates are pretty generous, but your at the lowest minimum (allowed) already so even eating 75% you're still likely to lose weight.
  • kcjchang
    kcjchang Posts: 709 Member
    It all come down to energy in/energy out. If you are not losing fat you are not creating a high enough of a deficit. Although exercising has many benefits, it is not the most efficient way of losing fat. As other have pointed out, estimate of calories expended is all over the map and I found MFP to overestimate and me underestimate my intake. If you are a female, there is the added complication due to water gain. See http://www.bodyrecomposition.com/adjusting-the-diet/. His articles are very helpful. Personally, I try not to eat it all back and underestimate calories expended from my exercise.
  • squishycatmew
    squishycatmew Posts: 151 Member
    As a general rule I don't aim to eat back my exercise calories, because I consider the calories MFP and even my Fitbit give me to be vastly overestimated, so I leave them as a buffer for days when staying in my calorie limit just isn't going to happen. We've had a lot of events/out-of-town guests lately, meaning a lot of eating out, and I think the fact that I don't normally eat back my exercise calories is why I've still managed to lose a little despite going WAY over several times. But I also have a custom set calorie goal and generally play around with the MFP settings. I think the general advice is to eat about about half of your exercise calories, if you're going to do so, to mitigate the effects of overestimating burn.
  • Drevious
    Drevious Posts: 69 Member
    My goal is 1200 too! I try to exercise every day and then I eat back some of the calories to try to get to the weight loss sweet spot of -500 deficit total. Honestly, eating the same amount of calories every day will cause you to plateau eventually. I like to switch it up as well as do different things at the gym, it helps a lot!
  • thinerme1
    thinerme1 Posts: 7
    Clearly I am doing something wrong. I feel like I counted every morsel of food and exercised everyday and I lost 1/2 lb. A little disappointed. But I will not give up, will try eating more of my exercise calories this week and see if that is the problem.
  • TeaBea
    TeaBea Posts: 14,517 Member
    Clearly I am doing something wrong. I feel like I counted every morsel of food and exercised everyday and I lost 1/2 lb. A little disappointed. But I will not give up, will try eating more of my exercise calories this week and see if that is the problem.

    If you've got 10-15 pounds to lose - 1/2 pound is good progress.

    Weight loss won't be linear. One week you could lose nothing & the next week Bam!...you've lost weight.

    Plus - sodium, hormones, time of day. All these things mess with the scale. Sometimes comparing measurements is a better indicator of progress.
  • thinerme1
    thinerme1 Posts: 7
    Thanks TeaBea you are right. Sometimes it just gets so overwhelming. Most of the time I go by the way my clothes feel and I did LOSE weight so that is a good thing.

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