Exercise = more calories per day ???

KristynLezoche
KristynLezoche Posts: 6 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
I have mentioned before that I have used weight watchers as long as I could remember, as WW and MFP are similar, I feel as though I am eating way more with MFP & I noticed when I workout that the amount of calories I am allowed to have per day increases..is this normal? It makes me nervous because I desperately want to get on the right track again and want to make sure I'm doing this right!

Replies

  • Kalikel
    Kalikel Posts: 9,603 Member
    Yes, the more you burn, the more you need...and can eat! :)

  • juggernaut1974
    juggernaut1974 Posts: 6,212 Member
    KristynLezoche wrote: »
    I have mentioned before that I have used weight watchers as long as I could remember, as WW and MFP are similar, I feel as though I am eating way more with MFP & I noticed when I workout that the amount of calories I am allowed to have per day increases..is this normal? It makes me nervous because I desperately want to get on the right track again and want to make sure I'm doing this right!

    Yes, because the goal MFP originally gives you assumes no exercise. So when you exercise, you should eat back some of those calories in order to properly fuel that additional activity.
  • janejellyroll
    janejellyroll Posts: 25,763 Member
    MFP gives you a calorie goal that assumes you won't be doing any exercise. When you exercise, you get additional calories so that your overall deficit doesn't become too large and to ensure you have energy for all your activities. Assuming that the calorie burn is calculated correctly, you can eat these calories and still be at a deficit (because your original goal already put you at a deficit).

    Be aware that many people have found that the calorie burns in the database are exaggerated, so they don't eat all the calories back (many people eat 50-75% of the calories back). Depending on how you are determining how many calories you burned, you may want to experiment with what works for you.
  • mbaker566
    mbaker566 Posts: 11,233 Member
    Kalikel wrote: »
    Yes, the more you burn, the more you need...and can eat! :)

    this is a good portion of why i run.
  • KristynLezoche
    KristynLezoche Posts: 6 Member
    Evennnnn like today I did about a 10 min walk somewhere and realized my calories went up
  • VintageFeline
    VintageFeline Posts: 6,771 Member
    moyer566 wrote: »
    Kalikel wrote: »
    Yes, the more you burn, the more you need...and can eat! :)

    this is a good portion of why i run.

    This. My new found love of all things peanut butter make running pretty essential!
  • urloved33
    urloved33 Posts: 3,323 Member
    this is how I see it.
  • bukowski_shine
    bukowski_shine Posts: 70 Member
    Yes.
  • RiseHigher
    RiseHigher Posts: 64 Member
    I've got a smaller frame and MFP exaggerates for me. I use it to track food and find my Fitbit closer to my actual rate of loss for activity.
  • alt5057
    alt5057 Posts: 62 Member
    Just like in Weight Watchers where when you exercise you can earn more points, in MFP you can earn more calories. Most people only eat back a portion of their exercise calories though because they tend to be overestimates. So if you do eat back all of your exercise calories and are not seeing results, try only eating half of them back.
  • callsitlikeiseeit
    callsitlikeiseeit Posts: 8,626 Member
    why do you think i work out every day? LOLOLOL

    i only eat back about half though, to help compensate for miscalculations.
  • Liftng4Lis
    Liftng4Lis Posts: 15,151 Member
    YES, MFP is designed so you earn and EAT back exercise calories. Most eat half to accommodate miscalculations in both logging and overestimations of exercise.
  • PinkPixiexox
    PinkPixiexox Posts: 4,142 Member
    You probably are eating more on MFP than you are on WW. I did WW's for 4 months and had to stop because it was eventually too aggressive for me. My PT and I picked the plan apart and worked out I'd been eating around 1100 calories per day as per the 'leaders' instruction. On MFP, I eat 1500 in total each day. I don't eat back my exercise calories because they are all accounted for in that 1500 (I worked out my allowance using a TDEE method - not using MFP).

    You've been given some great advice so I won't add to that. I always like to speak up when I see WW mentioned Hehe! :)

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