How many sports calories do you eat back? And what counts as sports?

Tatarataa
Tatarataa Posts: 178 Member
edited November 2024 in Getting Started
I find it quite difficult to determine my caloric goal to lose weight....I am usually more sedentary and sitting around a lot (new mum..., but try to incorporate as much exercise as possible. If I exercise it is usually at a low level and includes things like water exercise, walking the mall at a higher pace or walking/running in place at home or slow cycling on an exercise bike while watching a movie.My low level "exercise" often adds up over the day to 3-4 hours. I heard quite often that MFP overestimates the calories burnt at exercise-so I was wondering how many I should eat back and how to keep track of it in order not to eat too much or too little? What are your experiences and advices? Many thanks!

Replies

  • Sued0nim
    Sued0nim Posts: 17,456 Member
    Walking and stepped based is measured through my fitbit and automatically adjusts my MFP calories ...I eat them all ..because over time they've proved accurate

    Proper workouts I'll eat back half of my HRM as I do some cardio plus calisthenics plus progressive weights

  • amcadams7
    amcadams7 Posts: 1
    You will get answers all over the place with this one. However, simplest advice is to make sure that you are adding more protein and water to your diet for each exercise. The more exercise I do, the more protein I add. This will not make you bulk up but rather keep the body in shed mode vs conservation mode. Also be aware that the more you cut, the more it will affect your mood. I found that I am more edgy when I cut to much. There are other website that you can calculate calorie to exercise amounts. I found that I would look at both and adjust the calories burned here to what I felt was the true amount. Usually they happened to be about the same. Hope this helps and keep going!
  • Machka9
    Machka9 Posts: 26,047 Member
    How much of what I've burnt through exercise do I eat back?

    None ... on low exercise days.

    About half ... on higher exercise days.
  • 999tigger
    999tigger Posts: 5,235 Member
    Do the basics right , set yourself a reasonable target (MFP works ot out for you) weigh and log all your food to create an accurate deficit. Keep it on sedentary.

    Exercise, then log activity that you wouldnt normally otherwise do in day to day life. Start with eating back at the most 50% and if you arent hungry then its up to you whether you eat back at all. Monitor the scale and adjust accordingly.
  • jessupbrady
    jessupbrady Posts: 508 Member
    This is a great thread that discusses this very question and goes in such depth it's worth reading:
    http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/818082/exercise-calories-again-wtf/p1
  • sijomial
    sijomial Posts: 19,809 Member
    A simple way to look at it is....
    How have you been accounting for your exercise in the last few weeks?
    What have been your weight loss results over that period?

    If it's working - carry on. If it's not working adjust either your daily calorie goal or the proportion of your exercise calories eaten.
  • yesimpson
    yesimpson Posts: 1,372 Member
    After nearly a year of trying different things, I decided to set my MFP calorie goal myself as the one they gave me was too low, so I don't count walking as exercise. I aim to do as much as reasonably possible but I don't log it. I eat all of my exercise calories back, but I only count it as exercise if I have to change my bra or shoes. So a couple of hours of shopping doesn't count, but a hike would. Gym yes, pilates no.
  • CharlieBeansmomTracey
    CharlieBeansmomTracey Posts: 7,682 Member
    yesimpson wrote: »
    After nearly a year of trying different things, I decided to set my MFP calorie goal myself as the one they gave me was too low, so I don't count walking as exercise. I aim to do as much as reasonably possible but I don't log it. I eat all of my exercise calories back, but I only count it as exercise if I have to change my bra or shoes. So a couple of hours of shopping doesn't count, but a hike would. Gym yes, pilates no.
    just wondering why you wouldnt count shopping(say if its like more than 2 hrs of walking like in a mall) or pilates? its still exercise especially if its not something you do day in and day out.not bashing just really curious.

  • yesimpson
    yesimpson Posts: 1,372 Member
    CharlieBeansmomTracey wrote: »
    yesimpson wrote: »
    After nearly a year of trying different things, I decided to set my MFP calorie goal myself as the one they gave me was too low, so I don't count walking as exercise. I aim to do as much as reasonably possible but I don't log it. I eat all of my exercise calories back, but I only count it as exercise if I have to change my bra or shoes. So a couple of hours of shopping doesn't count, but a hike would. Gym yes, pilates no.
    just wondering why you wouldnt count shopping(say if its like more than 2 hrs of walking like in a mall) or pilates? its still exercise especially if its not something you do day in and day out.not bashing just really curious.

    Simply because for pilates, I don't feel I have any way of realistically calculating the calories burnt, which I wouldn't expect to be much, so I don't bother.

    With walking round a shopping centre, it's just because I don't find it strenuous; it's a leisurely pace, I might pause a lot etc. Compared to 2 hours hiking, I don't feel tired at all. When I raised my calorie goal I wanted something which averaged out my sedentary work life and my more active weekends, so I just set it at 1850 and decided to ignore walking.

    I guess not counting these things allow me a margin of error for the times food I've logged actually has more calories than I thought. It probably doesn't make a lot of sense to other people, but it seems to work out OK for me so I've just stuck with it :)
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