Exercise calories? Again? WTF
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Thank you!0
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Bumping again!!0
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This post has been super helpful (and probably confused me even more).
So. I'm currently eating 1200 calories/day and I go to the gym 3 times a week, do 10-15 mins of cardio plus weight and I attend a 45 min spin class once a week. I also work at a supermarket which means I get in 10,000 steps every day I work. Should I be eating back what MFP says I should eat back? Or even 50% of that?
My weight loss has slowed to .5 kilo for the past two weeks and I'm so confused as to why. Before I joined the gym, I was losing at least a kilo a week. Bizarre, but would I lose more weight if I stopped going to the gym and still stuck to my 1200 calories (surely not??)0 -
One question at a time:
SHOULD you eat back calories burned? You'll get lots of people voting both ways, but the better question, CAN you eat back the calories burned, is a definite yes. I eat back every calorie I "earn", and have either lost or maintained my weight as desired for over a year now. True, you'll lose weight faster if you don't, but there's other issues involved as well: feelings of fullness, irritability, fatigue, and more can affect different people to different degrees. YMMV
As to why weight loss slows, it likely has nothing to do with attending the gym or not (though water retention may be a factor). You can't keep the same pace of weight loss up indefinitely without changing some parameter you're following. Your body will slow down over time, and to confound things further you'll experience "fast" weeks and "slow" weeks all along your journey. It's a journey, don't worry so much about the speed along the way.
So if you have to choose, continue going to the gym while losing weight. You're still LOSING weight, and the gym will improve quality of life in general.2 -
I'm definitely going to continue with the gym. I'm loving it, way more than I ever expected; I'm just surprised that my weight loss has slowed since I started at the gym. It's such a bizarre thing. I honestly thought it would fly off, which is probably me being overly optimistic.0
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Did you select Sedentary as the MFP activity level outside of exercise?
When you are obviously not if you did. Got kids?
I'll bet you burn upwards of 2500 calories easily, well, could at least, on most days.
And you are eating 50% of what the body would like to burn. That just doesn't sound good, does it?
You do more, you eat more, you do less, you eat less. When in a diet, a tad less.
If doing all that and only losing 0.5 k a week, what happens if you get sick and can't work or exercise, or go on vacation and no exercise?
How low can you go on the eating level?
What happens when your daily burn drops because of moving around less mass?
The info given is basically getting into the idea of eating as much as you can while still losing weight - to adhere better, get better workouts, have better energy, have less stressed body.
I'm betting you are getting the opposite effects eating as little as you can while being so active.
Just so you are aware, the 1200 is recommended as bare minimum eating level merely to get all nutrients in from average diet for average sedentary woman.
Don't be average, and you aren't sedentary.1 -
Awesome,there goes a bump.
I use an external calculator so I do not eat anything back.
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I've spent two days trying to figure this out! This post is helpful (thank you!), but I am hoping someone will help me with my numbers because that's how confused I've made myself lol:
I work out 5 days a week for about an hour. So my TDEE is 2,563 (BMR is 1,654).
... I should be eating 2,000 calories a day to lose about .5-1lb a week right? Even on rest days? Or should I eat under my BMR on rest days?
Please be kind
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stephownsyou wrote: »I've spent two days trying to figure this out! This post is helpful (thank you!), but I am hoping someone will help me with my numbers because that's how confused I've made myself lol:
I work out 5 days a week for about an hour. So my TDEE is 2,563 (BMR is 1,654).
... I should be eating 2,000 calories a day to lose about .5-1lb a week right? Even on rest days? Or should I eat under my BMR on rest days?
Please be kind
You did the math right for _estimated_ TDEE (always remember, you guessing from 5 rough levels is of course an estimate).
That was taking your average weekly workout - and averaging it out to daily level.
So you eat that daily. Or with deficit daily.
Some days it's literally a bigger deficit, some days less.
If you literally want the exact same deficit daily, then eating levels must change - and that's exactly what MFP does if you log your exercise honestly and eat to daily goal that is given.0 -
Some people find it easier to eat the same every day, regardless what happens in life (workout, couch potato Sunday, etc). Personally, the days I workout I am so much hungrier than other days, so I prefer to vary my daily intake according to exercise.0
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I am also seeking a balance on eating back calories.
I find out late in the day if I leave work on time or get stuck staying late.
So at 6 I either get started on an hour and a half bike ride good for about 1200-1400 calories, or I do a home exercise on treadmill worth 250.
A huge swing
I'm not eating back 1200 calories at 8:00 at night.
I just hit a 40 gr protein shake and call it good.
MFP goes crazy with the calorie feed from Map My Ride. It is way high. It is 20% higher than most calorie burn calculators.
I just punch in 20% of the MMR calories in as a Quick Add meal to keep it slightly realistic.
What is the best way to work around a volatile schedule and 3 days a week having a 1200 calorie burn or not?
I still have 15 lbs of body fat for easy burn access. So I'm getting away with possibly under eating.
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Have a snack at work you start eating on your way out the door depending on what's going to happen.
You might be amazed at how good a workout can be when properly fueled.
And if you might have a good one tomorrow, don't miss having a good post workout snack too, perhaps even beyond the protein shake - because that's not what you burned a lot of on the bike - carbs you did though - and you'll likely want those tomorrow for another good workout.
Doesn't matter how much fat you got as to energy source used - depends on how intense you make the workout. And 1000-1200 in 90 min in pretty good, so likely higher carb usage.0 -
@heybales
Thanks
I try and hit it hard Saturday and easier Sunday
Yesterday was 1:57 time and 17.4 mph average speed so it was fairly intense. I have to stop at least 10 times to cross roads etc. one big long steep bridge to go over 6 lanes of traffic, a few long gradual hills. 35 miles in the foothills of Georgia is work for me.
I bought a box of chocolate coconut cliff bars and a box of GU gel packs yesterday at the bike shop.
Those should help.
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bump. Thanks for the excellent information.
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KittensMaster wrote: »@heybales
Thanks
I try and hit it hard Saturday and easier Sunday
Yesterday was 1:57 time and 17.4 mph average speed so it was fairly intense. I have to stop at least 10 times to cross roads etc. one big long steep bridge to go over 6 lanes of traffic, a few long gradual hills. 35 miles in the foothills of Georgia is work for me.
I bought a box of chocolate coconut cliff bars and a box of GU gel packs yesterday at the bike shop.
Those should help.
Those Clif bars are great post recovery, that desired 4:1 ratio carbs:protein to enhance glucose uptake and storage in muscle studies say can happen better in first 30 min.
But, if no workout that next day that requires it - then not an issue.
Then as you suggest, enhance fat burning by training.
Phrase you'll here from some pro's, train slightly dehydrated, slightly carb low, slightly tired. Then come race day, none of that.0 -
I don't understand any of it! I must be so stupid.1
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Very helpful. This information should be a 'sticky' in the main forums,as I would think these questions come up very often. Thanks for posting it.
AGREED. I can't tell you how many people NEED to read this. I used to not eat back all my cals while being on the suggested 1200 daily limit, so I ended up netting 890-980 cals a day - worked fine for a few months... until I stopped losing coz I continued to work hard in the gym so much that my body started needing more. I've slowly increased and am starting to see them come off again and my body is healthily leaning out while my muscle builds.
I believe this exact issue was why I stopped seeing progress and let myself get so deeply discouraged. I didn't think to re-analyze my information and find the problem I just gave up. This post really helped me understand something I didn't get before. I now know that my 1400/day is fine if Im not exercising but when I do I will need to eat back at least half of them! I always said "no way I just burned those calories, I dont want them back!" But I didnt understand this and now I feel way more prepared!1 -
BUMP
This is soo helpful!0 -
This is brilliant! BUMP!0
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Thanks so helpful.0
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After losing 18lb towards a 30+lb target, not eating back exercise calories, I decided to try it for a week. Calories eaten weighed on digital scale and taken from MFP, calories burned measured by Polar FT4 HRM. In a week I gained 5lbs. So, for me this does NOT work. My minimum daily burn is 500cal, and often is well over 1000. Personally, I'm going back to what worked, and NO, I never felt unwell when my net calories were a couple of hundred. Individuals simply need to find what works for them and stay with it..0
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DavidRocketts wrote: »After losing 18lb towards a 30+lb target, not eating back exercise calories, I decided to try it for a week. Calories eaten weighed on digital scale and taken from MFP, calories burned measured by Polar FT4 HRM. In a week I gained 5lbs. So, for me this does NOT work. My minimum daily burn is 500cal, and often is well over 1000. Personally, I'm going back to what worked, and NO, I never felt unwell when my net calories were a couple of hundred. Individuals simply need to find what works for them and stay with it..
You realize of course you did not gain 5 lbs of fat in 7 days.
Always do the math with water weight fluctuations to confirm that's what they are.
5 x 3500 / 7 days = 2500 calories in surplus each day if this was really fat gain.
Since I'll bet you didn't even eat 2500 calories daily - it obviously could not be fat.
You lose water weight when you go into a diet - you merely gained some of that back.
And the body taking on some extra carbs with attached water your workouts had probably been begging the body to store more of.
Also - Polar FT4 is a cheaper one with bad calorie burn formula compared to better ones - you likely had inflated.3 -
Bump to add a link to SideSteel's excellent video on this topic: http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10503681/exercise-calories-do-i-eat-these-a-video-explanation2
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I generally try to stick to my calorie target regardless of exercise.0
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rsamuelsgold wrote: »I generally try to stick to my calorie target regardless of exercise.
Me too, but I know the extra is available if I actually feel hungry.0 -
rsamuelsgold wrote: »I generally try to stick to my calorie target regardless of exercise.
Me too, but then I know the extra calories are available if I actually feel hungry.0 -
Thank you so much, this information is very helpful. I appreciate you taking the time to assist me0
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