Exercise calories burned as part of BMR

This article from Runner's World might help you - it explains (although in the context of running, it's universally applicable) the difference between total calories burned (which includes those you'd burn anyway due to your BMR) and net calories burned (the extra calories used up due to exercise).

http://www.runnersworld.com/article/0,7120,s6-242-304-311-8402-0,00.html

Yes! It is! Absolutely!

This is one of the most misunderstood things on here, I think. And my theory is that this is the reason why people claim to not lose as much weight (or not lose at all or even gain!) when they eat back their exercise calories- because they don't subtract the calories that they would have burned just by existing, they end up actually *overeating* when they go to eat back those exercise calories!

I've explained this a few times, so I'll copy and paste here just so that you (and any one else!) can see how this all works out

Do you have a HRM? If you don't, and the calorie burns are estimates, I'd eat probably only about half of my exercise calories back just to be safe.

If you do, you can safely eat all of them back minus the ones that you would have burned if you were just at rest. So you'll have to do some math first to subtract the ones that you can't eat back.

When you are doing nothing- resting, not exercising, you are still burning calories! A small amount, mind you, but you are. Those calories that you burn throughout the day if you were totally at rest is what makes up your BMR. When MFP calculates how much you need to eat each day in order to lose weight, it is using your BMR.

So what happens when you exercise is you burn more calories- but some of those calories you would have burned anyways just by existing. And since MFP has already accounted for those calories, you don't want to eat them back.

The best way to figure this is out is if you have a HRM, but you can do it from just your BMR too. What you need to do is wear your HRM for 10 minutes while you are just lying around doing nothing. Make sure that nothing happens to get your heart rate up. Don't walk around, don't read/watch something intense, just sit calmly and quietly. At the end of the 10 minutes, see how many calories it says you burned.

Alternatively, if you don't have a HRM, use the BMR tool on MFP and see what it tells you your BMR is. Now, that is over the course of the day, so you will want to break it down to a smaller increment (you can do it in minute intervals or 10 minute intervals). So if you want to do the 10 minute to be consistent, whatever it tells you your BMR is divided by the number of 10 minute intervals in a day (144). Just remember, the BMR tool won't be as accurate as a HRM.

Once you have this number, you can do your workouts as usual. Once you've finished your workouts, this is when it is time for more math.

What the aim of all this is is to subtract the number of calories you would have burned anyways at rest from your total burned during the workout so that you can see exactly how many you should eat back. Take however many minutes you worked out and divide by 10 (since I'm going to stick with the 10 minute theme). So if you worked out for 1 hour, the answer is 6. If you worked out for an uneven number of minutes, don't round up or down, keep the decimal. Then, multiple that number by the number you already figured out that you burn at rest in 10 minutes. Then, subtract that number from the total that you burned working out, and you have how many calories you should eat back.

Here's an example from one of my actual workouts. According to my HRM, I burn between 17 and 19 calories every 10 minutes at rest (you can do this over the course of a few days and then average them to get a more accurate number), so we'll say 18 (average).

I worked out for: 33 minutes. My HRM said I burned: 282 calories.

33 / 10 = 3.3
3.3 * 18 = 59.4
282 - 59.4 = 222.6

So you eat back 222 calories (at this point, you can round).

If I were to eat back all 282 calories, I'd actually be over my calories for the day by 60.

My theory is that most people who claim they can't eat back their exercise calories and still lose weight are actually doing it wrong. If you don't do these calculations, you WILL be overeating when you exercise!

The way I like to do it is to log as exercise what my HRM said I burned, but then "quick add" the calories that I subtract, so that I know I can't eat them. You could just subtract them from the total burned calorie amount and log it that way too, though.

Hope this helps!

I dont think you would gain much weight by being over by 60 cals a day

That was just an example, it obviously can vary. Especially if you don't have a HRM, you could be easily eating a few hundred calories over. The MFP calculations don't take into consideration how hard you worked! And no, one day wouldn't hurt you, but if you ate 60 calories over every day, it would certainly slow your weight loss! My point is to say that people will claim eating back their exercise calories hurts them, and prevents them from losing. In reality, I believe that more often than not, it is their own miscalculations (or lack of calculations altogether) that is hurting them. So when they stop eating their exercise calories back, they see a more dramatic weight loss, and claim that eating back exercise calories is bad. And it is true, they are losing more weight than they were before- but the reason for that is simply that they were doing it wrong in the first place!

A lot of what makes MFP work so well is accuracy. If you are estimating your food portions and not weighing/measuring it out, it isn't going to work as well. The more accurate you are- with everything- the better. If you make the decision to have a more leisurely day and eat more than normal but less than maintenance, or not be as accurate as possible, then that's perfectly fine. But if you are trying really hard to follow the plan you've set out for yourself and find it not working as well as it should be, then the results of overeating by 60 calories is going to be really frustrating, and you aren't going to have any idea what you are doing wrong. Which leads you to be more likely to come to rash conclusions (e.g. eating back exercise calories is bad, or this MFP thing doesn't work at all), because you don't have all the information that you need to make this work and help yourself. Personally? I'm a perfectionist, and I'm all about being as clear and accurate as possible. So being over by 60 calories, by accident, and not knowing it, is exactly the kind of thing that would really bother me.

Great post!!! )

bump

bump! very informative!