do I log my exercise or not??

Options
Havasufalls
Havasufalls Posts: 53 Member
in Fitness and Exercise
Had a insightful convo with a fellow mfp last night and he doesnt log his workouts so that he wont eat those calories back-which makes sense-im just a lil confused-when u put your weight and goals-mfp automatically calculates what your deficit should be-correct? How many other people dont log their work outs? And would this help or hurt me in the beginning of my weight loss journey??

Replies

  • malibu927
    malibu927 Posts: 17,565 Member
    Options
    The way MFP is set up, your calories do not include exercise, therefore it should be logged and some of those calories eaten back. Not logging/eating them can create a larger deficit, but that can lead to greater muscle loss, and if you aren't hitting 1200 net calories, a possible lack of nutrients that can lead to health problems.
  • AsISmile
    AsISmile Posts: 1,004 Member
    Options
    malibu927 wrote: »
    The way MFP is set up, your calories do not include exercise, therefore it should be logged and some of those calories eaten back. Not logging/eating them can create a larger deficit, but that can lead to greater muscle loss, and if you aren't hitting 1200 net calories, a possible lack of nutrients that can lead to health problems.

    This.
    MFP is made in a way that people can lose weight without exercising. If you don't eat back some (50-75%) of your exercise calories you can become malnourished. It is the net calories, not gross calories, that count.
  • Lottiotta
    Lottiotta Posts: 162 Member
    Options
    When you exercise your body needs more fuel, and that means you get hungry. Being hungry a lot or going "over" on your calories do not make for a happy brain or a sustainable food-exercise situation for many people (like me).

    If I work out and then don't eat some protein and aim for my calorie goal, I feel terrible for a day or two - or I overeat the next day, totally spoiling the deficit I worked so hard on the day before.

    But! Obviously it works for the MFPer you spoke to, and that's cool. :) If you tried it and it didn't suck and it was instead helpful and you mostly lost fat and not muscle, I see no issue. You know better than us!
  • allanthfc
    allanthfc Posts: 41 Member
    Options
    How do you know how many cals to log though?

    I've been on insanity for the last 7 weeks and haven't been logging it or taking it into account.
  • DR2501
    DR2501 Posts: 661 Member
    Options
    I don't eat back calories on here, but then I don't use MFP's 'net' calorie system either. The reason for this is the exercise burns on here are massively over stated for some exercises, and also I want to keep my calorie intake at a specific level, rather than the uncertainty that comes in by eating back different burns each day. In a way though, I do eat back calories as I use TDEE and this includes exercise calories (but at a fixed level).

    I just found my TDEE using scooby's calculator, set my daily level manually at my chosen deficit and left it at that. Simple.
  • Becca_250
    Becca_250 Posts: 188 Member
    Options
    Exactly as everyone has said before me, I'm on 1250 calories currently and I run 3-5 times a week burning anything from 300-900 each time. As MFP has already calculated a 500 calorie deficit, plus the exercise calories would mean my body would only get 350-950 calories on those days, definitely not healthy nor sustainable long term. So on exercise days I eat a bit more, maybe a banana or protein bar in the afternoon and something extra for dinner. The general consensus on the forums is to eat back half the calories (to account for inaccuracies in the exercise logging) but to be honest I just go with my body, sometimes I'll eat more and sometimes less. I also like to track my exercise so I can see how I'm improving which is always a great motivator for me to push myself a bit harder. Obviously different things work for different people, just thought I'd share my own experience :smile:
  • arcana7609
    arcana7609 Posts: 212 Member
    Options
    I swim and this calculator seems ridiculous. It has me burning 1981 calories for 105 minutes of leisure swimming.is there anything more accurate out there?
  • Soundwave79
    Soundwave79 Posts: 469 Member
    edited August 2015
    Options
    allanthfc wrote: »
    How do you know how many cals to log though?

    I've been on insanity for the last 7 weeks and haven't been logging it or taking it into account.


    You could follow the recommended eating plan included with Insanity or go to the TDEE method and use that with MFP. I do alot of the Beachbody programs and I use TDEE. Basically this way I don't have to worry about logging accurate calorie burns for my workouts. I just log them as 1 calorie burned and eat my recommended TDEE intake for the day. If I'm not losing weight I'll drop my calorie intake 100 cals per day for a week and see if that gets the scale moving. Eventually you find the sweetspot. If you start dropping to much weight just up your daily intake 100. It's a trial and error process but after a few weeks you'll start to see exactly where the threshold is. There is no accurate way to track what you're burning doing circuits like Insanity has because it's not steady state cardio. If you use an HRM it would give you a number to work with but it could be up to 25% off. Typically when I was using an HRM I would burn 450-500 calories for a 45 minute Insanity workout. I would eat back about 60% of it and I was losing weight just fine. But I didn't want to keep playing the guessing game so I switched to TDEE.
  • RiverMelSong
    RiverMelSong Posts: 456 Member
    Options
    I don't eat back my exercise calories because I have no idea how much I'm actually burning; I don't have a hrm or anything and the mfp/machine burns seem ridiculously high. I eat 1400-1500 calories per day (which for me is the same as TDEE - 20%) and work out 5-6 days per week (45 mins cardio, 30 mins strength). My weight loss is slow but steady, averaging 1lb per week.
  • Pinnacle_IAO
    Pinnacle_IAO Posts: 608 Member
    Options
    I never understood why some don't eat back those exercise calories.
    Is this a race?
    I always ate my exercise calories and lost close to that magic 1 pound week after week.
    After losing 100 pounds over 2 years, I maintained it for almost 3.

    My goals were never mere weight loss but peak fitness and optimal health in addition to weight loss.
    And that means fueling the body!
    I eat around 4000 calories daily to maintain, and 1800 or so of those are exercise calories.

    I could not reach my goals without proper food intake, and further, it'd be miserable.

  • sijomial
    sijomial Posts: 19,811 Member
    Options
    Think ahead to when you get to goal weight....
    How will you maintain if you don't take exercise into account?

    It's not a race to lose weight quickly.

Categories