Exercise calories

WW didn't teach me that at all.

Hi folks - I'm working with a personal trainer to get in shape and lose 50 lbs. I post my cardio and have MFP set to add steps via my iPhone. Working with the trainer has increased my condition but I don't seems to be losing weight, matter of fact I might be gaining a little due to increase in muscle tone. With what I have read on this thread I should stick with my cal goal which is 1720 and not "eat" the additional cardio or steps cal additions. Do I have this right?

your calorie targets as per MFP are WITHOUT exercise...thus it is an unaccounted for activity...I'm pretty sure common sense would dictate that you should account for all of your activity somehow...with MFP, that somehow is by logging exercise after the fact. you should have some kind of allowance for estimation error though.

Yi5hedr3 wrote: »

It's simple. ...if you exercise just so you can EAT more, then eat them back. If you exercise to lose weight. Then don't.

you actually don't know how this tool works at all...perhaps you should brush up on how the tool actually works before giving advice.

MFP is designed to eat the exercise calories back.

meiajs wrote: »

hi all, awhile ago when I did weight watchers they didn't encourage u to eat your exercise pts. so now I'm on MFP and I'm wondering if I should not calculate the extra cals/fats I earn? I was successful in losing weight before on WW but I did gain it back. so now I'm just trying to start fresh again. thank you all for helping

You can't really compare WW and MFP, because they don't use the same system (points vs. calorie counting). If you are using MFP, your calorie deficit is calculated for you prior to any exercise you would do, so when you log exercise, those calories are added to your deficit. You need to eat at least most of them back, or your deficit will be too large, and your weight loss will not be at a healthy rate for you.

The people advising in a high-handed manner not to eat exercise calories back many not understand how MFP calculates everything, so it might be causing some confusion on their parts, or they may have had experience with a different sort of program in the past.

MFP is designed so it's only calculating the calories (and a deficit) based on your daily life (work and normal daily activities like grocery shopping). Any purposeful exercise is not factored into your calorie allowance.

The confounding factor here is that the calculations for exercise burns are often overstated. It's best to just eat half or so back. The scale will be your best indicator if this is working for you or not. Some burn calculations (running) are far more accurate than others (zumba), for example. If the scale is moving too quickly, you can eat back a bit more of your burn. Too slowly, eat back a little less.

Give the scale test 6-8 weeks of data to get a real feel for what's working. Most people do really well with eating half back.

MarcyKirkton wrote: »

WW didn't teach me that at all.

Me neither.

The rule of thumb on the WW boards was similar to what it is here; you can eat back your exercise calories ("activity points" on WW) but not all of them, since the WW activity tracker was absurdly over-generous in the amount of points they'd give.

booksandchocolate12 wrote: »

MarcyKirkton wrote: »

WW didn't teach me that at all.

Me neither.

The rule of thumb on the WW boards was similar to what it is here; you can eat back your exercise calories ("activity points" on WW) but not all of them, since the WW activity tracker was absurdly over-generous in the amount of points they'd give.

yep

amswein1 wrote: »

JaredEBrooks wrote: »

Hi folks - I'm working with a personal trainer to get in shape and lose 50 lbs. I post my cardio and have MFP set to add steps via my iPhone. Working with the trainer has increased my condition but I don't seems to be losing weight, matter of fact I might be gaining a little due to increase in muscle tone. With what I have read on this thread I should stick with my cal goal which is 1720 and not "eat" the additional cardio or steps cal additions. Do I have this right?

Correct. you do not eat back your exercise calories to lose weight.
If you do in fact get hungry after an intense workout and you have to eat, then a snack can help. A protein smoothie, or protein in general like Hard boiled eggs, jerky, steamed veggies will help with the feeling of fullness.

Excellent, I made the change in my settings. Appreciate the confirmation and information.

JaredEBrooks wrote: »

amswein1 wrote: »

JaredEBrooks wrote: »

Hi folks - I'm working with a personal trainer to get in shape and lose 50 lbs. I post my cardio and have MFP set to add steps via my iPhone. Working with the trainer has increased my condition but I don't seems to be losing weight, matter of fact I might be gaining a little due to increase in muscle tone. With what I have read on this thread I should stick with my cal goal which is 1720 and not "eat" the additional cardio or steps cal additions. Do I have this right?

Correct. you do not eat back your exercise calories to lose weight.
If you do in fact get hungry after an intense workout and you have to eat, then a snack can help. A protein smoothie, or protein in general like Hard boiled eggs, jerky, steamed veggies will help with the feeling of fullness.

Excellent, I made the change in my settings. Appreciate the confirmation and information.

@JaredEBrooks , Please don't take this advice, it is not correct. Using MFP's settings, you do need to eat back exercise calories, as they are not calculated into your calorie deficit.

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JaredEBrooks wrote: »

amswein1 wrote: »

JaredEBrooks wrote: »

Hi folks - I'm working with a personal trainer to get in shape and lose 50 lbs. I post my cardio and have MFP set to add steps via my iPhone. Working with the trainer has increased my condition but I don't seems to be losing weight, matter of fact I might be gaining a little due to increase in muscle tone. With what I have read on this thread I should stick with my cal goal which is 1720 and not "eat" the additional cardio or steps cal additions. Do I have this right?

Correct. you do not eat back your exercise calories to lose weight.
If you do in fact get hungry after an intense workout and you have to eat, then a snack can help. A protein smoothie, or protein in general like Hard boiled eggs, jerky, steamed veggies will help with the feeling of fullness.

Excellent, I made the change in my settings. Appreciate the confirmation and information.

@JaredEBrooks - Actually it depends on the method your using.

MFP is designed so you lose weight without exercising. For this reason it bases your calorie goal off of what you would burn without exercise and your desired rate of loss per week. Then when you exercise and log them, they get added as calories you can consume so that your deficit doesn't get too large. Too large of a deficit can lead to more lean mass loss than necessary and even has the chance of causing you to binge.

Example:
MFP estimates I burn 1850 calories per day.
My calorie goal for 1 lb per week loss is 1350 per day.
Lets say one day my Fitbit tracks my calorie burn to be 2508.
This gives me an adjustment of 658 calories that is added in my exercise diary to be consumed.
If I don't eat them, my deficit becomes 1158. That's over what is needed for 2 lbs per week loss and I am less than 10 lbs from my goal. The recommended max deficit without doctor supervision is 1000 calories per day for 2 lbs per week loss. 2 lbs per week is aggressive for how little I have to lose and over 2 lbs is just a recipe for trouble.
If I eat them back, my deficit stays at 500 calories for 1 lb per week loss.

~I do eat my exercise calorie burns and I have since I have been using MFP.


Now, if you are using say the TDEE method (requires you to manually change your calorie goal), than your exercise is already included and spread evenly across your week. With this method you wouldn't want to add any extra calories on top of your goal.

MarcyKirkton wrote: »

I certainly don't own expensive trackers. I use the data provided on the system, and do my best to choose the right levels, etc.

Many people don't, and do rely on the calorie counts provided by machines, and MFP. Which is why we advise to only eat back 50-75% of calories burned if using that methodology, and watching scale movement over a 6-8 week period. Then make adjustments as needed.

christinev297 wrote: »

I don't understand why people spend hundreds of dollars on the latest fitness trackers/gadgets, and then turn around and say they don't trust the numbers it's given them..

Perhaps it is because there are so many and they estimate burns differently. The point I was trying to make is that I do trust my Apple Watch more than just the MFP excercise catalogue because it does capture my heart rate. However, I don't yet trust it enough to eat back most of my calories. And, for what it's worth, I won the Apple Watch at a conference. So perhaps you should be a little less judgy.

superhockeymom wrote: »

I don't eat my exercise calories back unless I am hungry. Just don't need them.

Just because you don't feel hungry doesn't mean your body doesn't need the calories. If you are too large of a deficit (exercise calorie burn added to the built-in MFP deficit) you will lose lean muscle mass on top of fat. Do if for a long time and you can lose hair, damage skin and nails, and even your internal organs.