Exercising and additional calories?

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smily1986
smily1986 Posts: 3
in Getting Started
Hi All, I have been trying to loose weight for 4 months with no success, despite eating quite well, and cycling 20-30km a day 5 times a week. My Dr has suggested I try calorie counting as she actually thinks I could be starving myself. How does this work?? My profile is set at 1400 calories a day, when I add exercise, it gives me more calories to eat... Will I loose weight if I eat them as well as the original 1400?? Seems a bit odd to me? Thanks

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  • sijomial
    sijomial Posts: 19,811 Member
    edited March 2015
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    If 1400 is an appropriate goal for weight loss and you are accurate with your food logging then you would expect to lose weight with no exercise.
    Your calorie goal on here assumes you will log your exercise and eat those calories back to keep on track for your weight loss target.

    Worth reading...
    community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/818082/exercise-calories-again-wtf/p1
  • snoringcat
    snoringcat Posts: 131 Member
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    It gives you more calories to eat because you are burning more in exercise. The 1400 set on your profile assumes a level of acivity (set by you). If you do more than this level, you will burn more calories.

    In practice, people tend to eat back only some of their exercise calories because the amount burned per exercise as given by MFP is likely to be a little on the high side, so not eating all of them back gives you a bit of a 'buffer' against going over your calories allowance.

  • smily1986
    smily1986 Posts: 3
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    Fantastic guys - thanks so much for the info :)
  • wolfruhn
    wolfruhn Posts: 3,025 Member
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    I would suggest eating them all back to start with and seeing how you get on. If you're not losing weight then don't eat them all back. Don't do lots of exercise without eating some of them back as your body won't be getting sufficient to deal with the exercise and diet.
  • RoxieDawn
    RoxieDawn Posts: 15,488 Member
    edited March 2015
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    I will just add this make sure that your exercise calories are not over estimated or you can run into eating back too many calories. Not sure how you know what your calorie burn is after exercising but just make sure you do not eat back too many calories.

    The link above is a perfect explanation of all of it. I will just add, exercise calories are over estimated no matter how you track it.

    So if your method says you burned 450, I would only eat back some of them in case it has been over inflated. Just a thought...
  • Machka9
    Machka9 Posts: 24,884 Member
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    If I just go for an hour's walk ... I probably won't eat those calories back.

    If I go for an energetic 2-hour bicycle ride ... I'll probably eat about half of those calories back.
  • wolfruhn
    wolfruhn Posts: 3,025 Member
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    Ah yes missed that, that's a great link should really help you!
  • pcrucifer
    pcrucifer Posts: 71 Member
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    I was in the same boat. Tried to lose weight through exercise and not snacking. For a month my wife told me that it would not work unless I tracked calories consumed. (As usual, she was right.) Then I joined MFP. Based on forum posts like this I also allowed myself to eat back some but not all my exercise calories. And I am more or less on track, losing the 1 pound per week that I set as my goal. Listen to others. They know.
  • 01ninety1995
    01ninety1995 Posts: 5 Member
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    smily1986 wrote: »
    Hi All, I have been trying to loose weight for 4 months with no success, despite eating quite well, and cycling 20-30km a day 5 times a week. My Dr has suggested I try calorie counting as she actually thinks I could be starving myself. How does this work?? My profile is set at 1400 calories a day, when I add exercise, it gives me more calories to eat... Will I loose weight if I eat them as well as the original 1400?? Seems a bit odd to me? Thanks

  • 01ninety1995
    01ninety1995 Posts: 5 Member
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    I had asked my trainer about that when i joined as i was burning 2500 calories or more during my workouts.. Can't log my weight training like i would like, so i would just add the cardio. Cardio input was different each day,500 to 1000 calories burned, but i still wouldn't eat those additional calories.By sticking to the Caloric intake as indicated without eating those additional burned calories, i was able to as of today, drop 17lbs. Started my fitness pal on Feb 12th of this year. As long as your not starving, i would suggest from personal experience to not eat those extra calories. If your hungry, then maybe eat half.. Good luck.. I can't means i won't!
  • smily1986
    smily1986 Posts: 3
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    Thanks guys - good to know not to eat them all - but if I exercise heaps i'll eat some extra :)

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