Exercise and calories

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ruth14213
ruth14213 Posts: 21 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
So when you excercise it gives you extra calories. There is no way I can make up all those calories in a day. Any suggestions

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  • juggernaut1974
    juggernaut1974 Posts: 6,212 Member
    edited February 2015
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    How many exercise calories are you earning and how are you determining it? Most people believe MFP's estimates of calorie burns are excessive, so suggest eating only 50-75% of them.

    Unless you're running a marathon daily, it's nothing a couple spoonfuls of peanut butter or a serving or two of ice cream can't fix.
  • markjacobs1987
    markjacobs1987 Posts: 162 Member
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    I wouldn't worry about tracking calorie burn. If you're losing between 1-2 lbs a week and don't feel like your bonking during the day you're fine.
  • RodaRose
    RodaRose Posts: 9,562 Member
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    The usual suggestion is that MFP overestimates exercise. Some people eat half or less back, depending.
  • ruth14213
    ruth14213 Posts: 21 Member
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    Thanks for the tips. I'm actually calculating from fitness equipment at gym. Pretty comparable but I do agree MFP does overestimate. But also over estimates food calculations too. Just sticking to becoming a healthier me! Thanks again for the helpful tops
  • bwogilvie
    bwogilvie Posts: 2,130 Member
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    Yes, as everyone has said, MFP overestimates calories burned during exercise.

    To take a concrete example: my fancy-schmancy Garmin GPS/HRM watch estimated my calorie burn from a 4-mile run today at 418 calories (150-lb., 47-year-old male). MFP estimates 480, which is 62 calories more; otherwise put, it's 15% higher than the HRM (whose results match fairly well with my actual weight change).

    And that's running, where MFP is reasonably accurate. Let's try cycling. On my last outdoor ride last year, I went 22.2 miles in 81 minutes; my Garmin Edge cycle computer/HRM estimated calories burned at 682. MFP's database, on the other hand, estimates 1117 calories. That's 435 calories, well more than my daily deficit back then, and an overestimate of 64%!

    Still, I'm not sure why you find it hard to eat the calories. If you're like most of us, you gained weight because it was easy to eat more than you needed. Why is it so hard now?
  • TimothyFish
    TimothyFish Posts: 4,925 Member
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    Professional cyclists burn 8000 calories a day and yes, they eat enough to replace those. So, I doubt any of us average folk can say we can't eat enough in a day.
  • cheshirecatastrophe
    cheshirecatastrophe Posts: 1,395 Member
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    Chris Pratt has some great instructions on how to eat enough. :)

    Plus you get to look at Chris Pratt.
  • bwogilvie
    bwogilvie Posts: 2,130 Member
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    TimothyFish wrote: »
    Professional cyclists burn 8000 calories a day and yes, they eat enough to replace those. So, I doubt any of us average folk can say we can't eat enough in a day.

    Yes, but they have professional nutritionists plying them with high-calorie, easily digestible carbs. And they often rehydrate with IVs.

    The last time I burned 3000 calories on a bike ride (last August 23, the Deerfield Dirt Road Randonnee), I ended up 1000 calories under my daily goal, which already had a 250-calorie deficit built in. It really can be hard to eat that much. On Oct. 13, 2013, I did a 111-mile ride in the Berkshire Hills of Massachusetts and burned an estimated 4,284 calories per my Garmin Edge 800. I only ate 3260 that day, so I was around -1000 calories net for the day. I had been carb-loading for a couple of days before that, though, and I made up the rest in the next few days.

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