Spare calories?

slaustin295
slaustin295 Posts: 6 Member
edited November 14 in Goal: Maintaining Weight
Hi all I'm after some advice if possible please? I log all my food & have a FitBit to log my exercise (I am a fitness instructor and work full time so I am very active) at the end of every day I have anywhere between 150 - 900 calories left at the end of the day. I currently don't want to waste these on just eating for the sake of it so it leave them. I am happy with my weight having lost just under 5 stone & kept it off for the past 7 years but I wonder if I ate all my allocation everyday would I then achieve the "predicted" weight in 5 weeks? Any advice would be great as I am about to begin teaching 2 more classes a week and I just wondered what effect that is going to have on my body. Cheers

Replies

  • KarenJanine
    KarenJanine Posts: 3,497 Member
    MFP calculate your baseline calorie allowance without including exercise. Therefore when you workout you are credited with extra calories. It is intended that you eat these back to ensure you are fuelling your workouts. Failure to do so could potentially lead to fatigue and burn out in the long run. To allow a margin of error in exercise calorie estimation, eating back 50-75 % of the exercise calories is a good starting point.
  • InspoAdam
    InspoAdam Posts: 17 Member
    Agree with the above. I would say that you should listen to your body. If you feel long term fatigue, you are not consuming enough calories and should gradually up your intake (personally, I would add protein). If you feel fine, then I wouldn't worry about it.
  • steff274
    steff274 Posts: 227 Member
    Spare calories are there if you need them I eat a fair few of mine back am also very active a short person like me to maintain a fairly low weight of 105 pounds gets 2010 calories if I don't eat a fair bit back I will continue losing.. I am averaging between 2300 and 2500.. I have a active job and enjoy going to the gym.. Just being nosy what classes do you teach? :D my absolute favourite is body attack it helps that the instructor is totally fab!! ;)
  • sijomial
    sijomial Posts: 19,809 Member
    Don't assume that estimates are that accurate. Apart from food and exercise logging accuracy issues people do have a natural variance from the average figure that is all that estimates can provide. My numbers are always out by about 300cals a day.

    Go by your actual weight results over a period of weeks to find your true calorie balance.
    Are you losing weight by not eating your "spare calories"?
    If not then they aren't "spare". :)
  • mymodernbabylon
    mymodernbabylon Posts: 1,038 Member
    You can take an average of a months worth of data and figure out your typical TDEE burn. Then use that number to eat every day (disconnect with MFP and put it as your manual goal). If you start losing, it's too low. Start gaining, it's too high. Bob's your uncle!
  • StaciMarie1974
    StaciMarie1974 Posts: 4,138 Member
    There is estimation in all the calculators, even Fitbit & MFP. So the only way to really know? Try it and see what happens.

    Personally I found that when I hit maintenance, I need to eat at/above what Fitbit shows I have burned. Otherwise I lose weight. But its not something I stress over every day. I have a goal weight range. I eat what I want. Somedays I'm a little low (which to me means 1400-1700) and other days a little high - had major desert 2x this past weekend LOL. Anyhow, if I drop to the low end of my range, I make certain to eat more for a while. If I get too high, I can drop my calories.
  • slaustin295
    slaustin295 Posts: 6 Member
    C
    steff274 wrote: »
    Spare calories are there if you need them I eat a fair few of mine back am also very active a short person like me to maintain a fairly low weight of 105 pounds gets 2010 calories if I don't eat a fair bit back I will continue losing.. I am averaging between 2300 and 2500.. I have a active job and enjoy going to the gym.. Just being nosy what classes do you teach? :D my absolute favourite is body attack it helps that the instructor is totally fab!! ;)

    Cheers for your help guys I have stayed exactly the same weight this week so I will continue to log & try & introduce more protein throughout the day. I eat most of my calories after 8pm I don't know if that makes any difference?
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