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MyFitnessPal Community

The new kid has a question...

jskyjse

Hi everyone!
I've done some reading in the community and have a question I hope someone will educate me about.

When I exercise for the day and burn 300 calories I'm supposed to eat those 300 calories in addition to my daily allotment???

Wouldn't I just eat the daily allotment of calories so that the exercise calories go towards additional deficit?

I'm happy to eat them, just want to make sure I understand why it would or wouldn't be beneficial.

Thanks,
Sherry

Replies

mattalscott

Most people eat half of them back, remember the body needs food for fuel, I don't eat any of them back but that's because I workout at the end of the day about an hour or 2 before I go to bed. So, with that being said it's all about your routine. If you exercise first thing in the morning or before dinner then most definitely eat at least half back.

monty619

I suggest you don't track calories burned because there is no way you can really do that accurately. just track consumption and be aware of how much cardio you do or time you put in at the gym.

michelleb176

You have it right, it would be better not to eat them (you will reach your goal quicker) but depending on your goal it's nice to have those extra calories you could consume in a pinch and stay on track. If you don't eat them you are ahead of your goal for the day. The app gives you a daily amount of calories for your weight loss goal if you work out or not. Any exercise will offset the food calories consumed by the calories you have burned off. So if I am going to dinner that night knowing I will go over my 1200 food calorie intake for the day, I better workout to give me some extra calorie wiggle room that way I am able to eat more calories for the day (the calories I worked hard to burn off). I hope that helps. Good luck!

Liftng4Lis

Yes, MFP is designed so you eat back exercise calories. Remember that most are over exaggerated, so the majority eat back have to account for overestimations.

JimFsfitnesspal

I do not understand why they do it but here is what I read in an article in the help & support website.

They use your exercise & daily activity level to calculate your BMR (basal metabolic rate... how many calories you need to function). You have already told them your exercise for the week when you do that step so they consider any extra exercise as a calorie deficit you need to pay for to maintain health. In their eyes, you must eat those calories.

What they do not consider is that people LOVE to enter their exercise. We need diet (nutrition really) AND exercise to lose weight, gain muscle, get healthy, prevent injury, and live better.

Personally I went back and changed mine to sedentary so that it does not include my exercise. I like tracking my fitness work and like to use that data. Does not really matter to me about eating back calories from exercise to me because I usually have to make sure I hit my minimum.

brianpperkins

MFP sets a deficit based on your weekly loss goal. It does not include exercise in the calculations. To remain at the deficit set, you're expected to eat back the calories from exercise.

Using TDEE, exercise is factored into the calculations before hand.

A bigger deficit will result in faster weight loss but faster is not always the safest or most healthy way to lose weight.

JimFsfitnesspal

brianpperkins wrote: »

MFP sets a deficit based on your weekly loss goal. It does not include exercise in the calculations. To remain at the deficit set, you're expected to eat back the calories from exercise.

Using TDEE, exercise is factored into the calculations before hand.

A bigger deficit will result in faster weight loss but faster is not always the safest or most healthy way to lose weight.

That is just not true.

http://myfitnesspal.desk.com/customer/portal/articles/410332-how-does-myfitnesspal-calculate-my-initial-goals-

brianpperkins

JimFsfitnesspal wrote: »

brianpperkins wrote: »

MFP sets a deficit based on your weekly loss goal. It does not include exercise in the calculations. To remain at the deficit set, you're expected to eat back the calories from exercise.

Using TDEE, exercise is factored into the calculations before hand.

A bigger deficit will result in faster weight loss but faster is not always the safest or most healthy way to lose weight.

That is just not true.

http://myfitnesspal.desk.com/customer/portal/articles/410332-how-does-myfitnesspal-calculate-my-initial-goals-

MFP uses NEAT (NON EXERCISE ACTIVITY THERMOGENISIS) calories ... by definition not inclusive of exercise calories. My mention of TDEE is in a different paragraph. Paragraphs separate ideas.

Perhaps you should bother to read the links you post.

"When you create your profile, we ask you for your age, height, weight, gender, and normal daily activity level. We use these factors to determine the calories required to maintain your current weight. We also ask how much weight you would like to lose or gain per week, and with this goal in mind we subtract calories (for weight loss) or add calories (for weight gain) to determine your daily calorie and nutrient goals." - the link you provided. Note, exercise calories are not used in calculating the goal. Height, weight, age, gender, activity level.

In later paragraphs of the link you posted it says " We do not account for additional exercise outside of your reported daily activity level, until you log exercise to your diary under the "Cardiovascular" section" and "Because your daily calorie goal already accounts for your intent to gain or lose weight at a particular rate, you can achieve your goal by eating the specified number of calories per day, with no additional exercise required. If you do exercise, then your daily calorie goal will increase for the day, to stabilize your weight loss or weight gain at the rate you initially specified." Notice exercise is not needed nor is it in the initial daily caloric goals.

If one wants to include exercise in their daily totals, there are other calculators that use TDEE (Total daily energy expenditure) rather than MFP's NEAT. Using TDEE, one does not eat back exercise calories because they've included them in the initial setup.

jskyjse

Thanks everyone! I think I have a better understanding of how to handle this now.