An objective look at eating "exercise calories"

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  • Lyadeia
    Lyadeia Posts: 4,603 Member
    When I do my PT work or group ex. work that IS my exercise. I don't do more on top of that. When I don't do those things, then I exercise for myself. My HRM normally reads an average of 400 or so, which is technically lower than that if you factor out the calories I would have burned anyway due to BMR.

    Other than my exercise, I actually am sedentary. At home I play video games and watch movies. At work I sit in a car all night long waiting for someone to break the law which in my area of the city, isn't that often. (Which I thank God for...I don't make enough money to be shot at!)
  • stroutman81
    stroutman81 Posts: 2,474 Member
    You always deserved to be stickied. Uh wait, that came out all wrong. Well, you know what I mean.

    Ohhhh, now that's all sorts of naughty!

    lol
  • samcee
    samcee Posts: 307
    Oh this is really interesting, can someone help me work out my magic number??

    I'm 5'2 and weight 128. I'm trying to lose 10 pounds at the moment and doing the 30 day shred exercise 20 minutes everyday.

    The BMR calculator says 1264 calories. So 25% off that is 948 which is the safe deficit?

    So is 948 my number that I need in order to lose weight? If I exercise and lose more weight than this than I'll have to eat back those calories in order to maintain 948? Is this correct?
  • Mindful_Trent
    Mindful_Trent Posts: 3,954 Member
    Oh this is really interesting, can someone help me work out my magic number??

    I'm 5'2 and weight 128. I'm trying to lose 10 pounds at the moment and doing the 30 day shred exercise 20 minutes everyday.

    The BMR calculator says 1264 calories. So 25% off that is 948 which is the safe deficit?

    So is 948 my number that I need in order to lose weight? If I exercise and lose more weight than this than I'll have to eat back those calories in order to maintain 948? Is this correct?
    '
    You want to use your MAINTENANCE calories - NOT your BMR for this calculation. BMR is what you burn lying in bed doing absolutely nothing all day (if you were in a coma). You burn more calories than that by getting up, brushing your teeth, etc. Go to your goals page - you should see a "Normal Daily Calories Burned" number on the top right hand side. That is MFP's estimate of your maintenance calories, based on your height/weight/age/gender and normal daily activity level.
  • samcee
    samcee Posts: 307
    Oh thanks accountant_boi. This is what it says in my goal page. So I should eat 1,200 cals a day? And if I lose calories from exercise I should eat them back to maintain 1,200?


    YOUR DIET PROFILE TARGET
    Calories Burned
    From Normal Daily Activity 1,570 calories/day
    Net Calories Consumed*
    Your Daily Goal 1,200 calories/ day
    Daily Calorie Deficit 370 calories
    Projected Weight Loss 0.7 lbs/ week


    NUTRITIONAL GOALS
    Net Calories Consumed* / Day 1,200 calories/day
    Carbs / Day 165 g
    Fat / Day 40 g
    Protein / Day 45 g

    FITNESS GOALS
    Calories Burned / Week 430 calories/week
    Workouts / Week 3 Workouts
    Minutes / Workout 30 mins
  • Mindful_Trent
    Mindful_Trent Posts: 3,954 Member
    Oh thanks accountant_boi. This is what it says in my goal page. So I should eat 1,200 cals a day? And if I lose calories from exercise I should eat them back to maintain 1,200?

    YOUR DIET PROFILE TARGET
    Calories Burned
    From Normal Daily Activity 1,570 calories/day
    Net Calories Consumed*
    Your Daily Goal 1,200 calories/ day
    Daily Calorie Deficit 370 calories
    Projected Weight Loss 0.7 lbs/ week

    Right - so the first thing you have to remember, is you don't have much to lose. Because of that, you can't expect to lose too quickly. It's simply not as safe for someone without much to lose to aim for a higher deficit. Personally, I'd suggest you drop your goal down to 1/2 lb per week, which would give you a 250 calorie deficit and allow you to eat 1320 calories per day (plus exercise calories). I certainly wouldn't suggest you go any lower than 1200 + exercise - this gives you a deficit of 370 cal/day, for 0.7 pounds lost per week.

    Keep in mind - it's VERY easy to overestimate exercise calories. Because it's easy to overestimate exercise calories, I highly recommend you use a HRM or Bodybugg type device, rather than gym machines or MFP to get your estimates, if possible. Even then, you may want to only eat back 50-75% to allow some room for error.

    In theory, if you knew exactly how much you were burning, you could eat back 100% of exercise calories (since the deficit is already built in), and as long as you stuck to the plan, you would lose weight, but with such a small deficit (either the 370 above or the 250 I recommended) - you don't have a lot of room for error, and this isn't an exact science. Even though MFP estimates you burn 1570/day - some days you may burn a little more, some a little less. All of these are just estimates. There really is no "magic number".
  • kdiamond
    kdiamond Posts: 3,329 Member
    Keep in mind - it's VERY easy to overestimate exercise calories. Because it's easy to overestimate exercise calories, I highly recommend you use a HRM or Bodybugg type device, rather than gym machines or MFP to get your estimates, if possible. Even then, you may want to only eat back 50-75% to allow some room for error.

    In theory, if you knew exactly how much you were burning, you could eat back 100% of exercise calories (since the deficit is already built in), and as long as you stuck to the plan, you would lose weight, but with such a small deficit (either the 370 above or the 250 I recommended) - you don't have a lot of room for error, and this isn't an exact science. Even though MFP estimates you burn 1570/day - some days you may burn a little more, some a little less. All of these are just estimates. There really is no "magic number".

    THIS ^^^^^^^^^^

    I cannot stress how much I have to say this to people!!! Unless you are wearing the BodyBugg for 30 days straight, you will never actually know your maintenance/weight loss numbers for sure. That is why underestimating is always best for trying to lose weight. It took me months of playing around with different calorie amounts (especially since I do very intensive workouts) to find my true maintenance and figure out where I could stop losing/gaining weight on. Its definitely a constant work in progress!
  • samcee
    samcee Posts: 307
    Oooh thank you so much accountant_boi! You are very helpful!!

    Right, I'll follow your advice. It's a bit hard because I was losing a lot of weight in the beginning but it has slowed down an awful lot and I'm still trying to get my head around eating more calories. These past few days I've been eating 1000 calories and exercising so it takes me down to around 700- 800 calories. I don't think thats a good sign. I'll try this method so fingers crossed!
  • jbuffan218
    jbuffan218 Posts: 275 Member
    Saving to my topics
  • ladyhawk00
    ladyhawk00 Posts: 2,457 Member
    Bump
  • gcineas
    gcineas Posts: 121
    bump
  • georgiajuly
    georgiajuly Posts: 126
    Saving to My Topics.
  • kermie79
    kermie79 Posts: 9
    Just so I completely understand because I've been struggling lately with how many calories I really should be eating. MFP says my calories burned from normal daily activity is 1,570 so is that my maintenance calories? If so 20-35% of that would be somewhere between 300-550 calorie deficit which puts me between 1020-1270 calories a day. From reading this topic, it seems if I run 6 miles and burn 550 calories that I really should be eating those calories back because if I didn't my net intake for the day would be between 470-720 per day which seems extremely low to me. Any help I can get on this subject would be greatly appreciated because I fear I'm not losing weight anymore because I'm eating too few calories but am a little nervous to increase my intake as I don't want to gain weight!
  • stroutman81
    stroutman81 Posts: 2,474 Member
    Just so I completely understand because I've been struggling lately with how many calories I really should be eating. MFP says my calories burned from normal daily activity is 1,570 so is that my maintenance calories? If so 20-35% of that would be somewhere between 300-550 calorie deficit which puts me between 1020-1270 calories a day. From reading this topic, it seems if I run 6 miles and burn 550 calories that I really should be eating those calories back because if I didn't my net intake for the day would be between 470-720 per day which seems extremely low to me. Any help I can get on this subject would be greatly appreciated because I fear I'm not losing weight anymore because I'm eating too few calories but am a little nervous to increase my intake as I don't want to gain weight!

    How tall are you and what's your age and weight?
  • kermie79
    kermie79 Posts: 9
    I'm 5'2, 31, 129lbs
  • stroutman81
    stroutman81 Posts: 2,474 Member
    I'm 5'2, 31, 129lbs

    Just so we're clear, your exercise program should be geared towards building/maintaining muscle. Right? It's not just about creating a calorie deficit.

    At your stats, I'd start you at 1300 calories per day of total intake, which assumes that you're doing a mix of strength training and cardio throughout the week. Obviously you'd have to adjust this based on how you respond, but that's where I'd start ya. This also assumes you're not coming off a period of much steeper dieting. If that were the case, I'd probably work you up towards a maintenance intake gradually, say 1800ish or so, and then start dieting with sane deficits (25-30% off of maintenance).
  • kermie79
    kermie79 Posts: 9
    I'm 5'2, 31, 129lbs

    Just so we're clear, your exercise program should be geared towards building/maintaining muscle. Right? It's not just about creating a calorie deficit.

    At your stats, I'd start you at 1300 calories per day of total intake, which assumes that you're doing a mix of strength training and cardio throughout the week. Obviously you'd have to adjust this based on how you respond, but that's where I'd start ya. This also assumes you're not coming off a period of much steeper dieting. If that were the case, I'd probably work you up towards a maintenance intake gradually, say 1800ish or so, and then start dieting with sane deficits (25-30% off of maintenance).

    I think I've really been focused on creating a calorie deficit. It's been a 2 year process of losing weight for me which I've lost a total of 40 lbs. Right now I'm mainly running 4 days a week for my exercise but maybe I'm to the point where I can focus more on building/maintaining muscle and less on actually losing weight? One last question, when you say 1300 total intake does that mean net of exercise calories burned (ie eat 1500 b/c I burned 200 running)? Thanks for all of your help!
  • stroutman81
    stroutman81 Posts: 2,474 Member
    Whenever I tell people a calorie goal, it means it that many calories each day. I don't muddy the waters with net. 1300 factors in a reasonable amount of exercise.
  • mrjason
    mrjason Posts: 61 Member
    Awesome!
  • stroutman81
    stroutman81 Posts: 2,474 Member
    Bump.

    Getting a lot of questions about this in my email.
  • chibacca
    chibacca Posts: 13
    Anything Steve writes sounds like its done for meeeeee!
  • stroutman81
    stroutman81 Posts: 2,474 Member
    Anything Steve writes sounds like its done for meeeeee!

    That's because it is. Don't you know I'm stalking you?

    :p
  • JaneP2011
    JaneP2011 Posts: 65 Member
    Bookmarking - thank you Steve:flowerforyou:
  • spaniel
    spaniel Posts: 468
    bump
  • txbabes1
    txbabes1 Posts: 31
    Lovely post -- bookmarking for later. Thanks!
  • ldon37
    ldon37 Posts: 145 Member
    bumping for later
  • margielewis
    margielewis Posts: 52 Member
    bump
  • JaneP2011
    JaneP2011 Posts: 65 Member

    And you bring up an excellent point about added stress. I'm sure this will come across as overly blunt but it seems many dieters today go bat crap crazy about this stuff. They only see things in binary terms - particular foods are either healthy or horrible, their behavior is either good or bad, they're either successful or they failed, etc, etc. And all this sort of reasoning and perspective does is ramp up anxiety like crazy.

    People are flipping out over 10 calories. And ya know what? I think it hurts them.

    The stress response they're generating by being as anal retentive and psychotic as they are bites them in the *kitten*. Which is why I always recommend people read the book written by Robert Sapolsky called "Why Zebras Don't Get Ulcers." He's a great author and a genius when it comes to the stress response of the body. Humans unfortunately can work themselves up into such a psychological mess about the future by thinking about catastrophic thoughts and building psychological hurdles that are simply impossible to clear and thus, our biology that's really in place to keep us alive winds up going in overdrive in chronic terms.

    Like I've said in numerous places on this forum now - our ability to manage stress is finite. In our body's mind, stress is stress have it be psychological, physical, real, imagined, etc. And when you've relatively small people eating like birds, doing copious amounts of exercise, stressing about work and family which is typical in this culture, and then topping it off with psychotic analysis and concern over diet and exercise - well - things tend to get messed up.

    It's no wonder people are constantly stalling out, really. Granted, I believe more often than not it's a miscalculation on energy intake and expenditure, but still, this is very real.

    Fat loss, sex drive, immune function, you name it and chronic stress will affect it, usually negatively.

    People just need to relax, set realistic expectations, avoid perfectionism, and be patient.

    Just been re-reading this thread and wanted to say that this (^^^the above^^^) is just excellent advice in relation to the psychological aspects of dieting (and life in general actually!). I know that I tend to think I've either done 'good' things or 'bad' t'hings with my diet and that my time frame and expectations are far too short term. Interestingly though, I also tend to forget this rational stuff too often!! Had a blow out on the diet yesterday (anything to do with not eating enough for the previous two days I wonder???) and then this morning I felt awful - really guilty and angry with myself for being so weak! A typical short-termist, emotional response rather than the long-term rational/cognitive one which would be much more realistic and motivating.
    Coming back to this thread and re-reading it just really helped me to get focused again. Thank you so much Steve!:flowerforyou:
  • stroutman81
    stroutman81 Posts: 2,474 Member
    Glad to hear it. We have to start challenging our habitual thoughts. Otherwise, we can perceiving things in ways that are extremely counter-productive. And perceptions tend to drive behavior... so it doesn't take a genius to figure out how or why some people are tripping up.

    Best to you!
  • alb_photog
    alb_photog Posts: 110 Member
    Great thread!
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