Why does myfitnesspal add exercise calories back

munchordm wrote: »

This is like saying hey, you excercised so now you can eat more.

Yup, that's the point. The goal is to make the number MFP gives you a net caloric intake, so you want to reach 1200 net calories. If you only eat 1200 calories and burn 400, then your net is only 800, which is not too good.

If you selected a certain amount of weight loss per week, such as one pound per week, those Calories are already subtracted from your maintenance Calories, so if you want to maintain a one pound per week weight loss rate, then you should eat back at least a portion of those Calories earned from Cardiovascular activities/exercises.

You can find the official response on the MFP Help pages...
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Because your daily calorie goal already accounts for your intent to gain or lose weight at a particular rate, you can achieve your goal by eating the specified number of calories per day, with no additional exercise required. If you do exercise, then your daily calorie goal will increase for the day, to stabilize your weight loss or weight gain at the rate you initially specified.

Reference:

https://myfitnesspal.desk.com/customer/en/portal/articles/410332-how-does-myfitnesspal-calculate-my-initial-goals-

I have been using MFP for about 1 year now. I am down about 50lbs. I have noticed that if I eat back my calories regularly I will level out and quit loosing. I can't reference the article except in my memory but I have read that your bodies over all goal is to maintain your current status, overweight/underweight whatever and that is the ultimate reason why there is so much trouble loosing or even gaining if you are prone to be under weight. Now this isn't my claim just what I have noticed and experienced in my own journey.

k9subsea wrote: »

I have been using MFP for about 1 year now. I am down about 50lbs. I have noticed that if I eat back my calories regularly I will level out and quit loosing. I can't reference the article except in my memory but I have read that your bodies over all goal is to maintain your current status, overweight/underweight whatever and that is the ultimate reason why there is so much trouble loosing or even gaining if you are prone to be under weight. Now this isn't my claim just what I have noticed and experienced in my own journey.

I'm afraid there's no science to that. What's really happening is that exercise calorie burns are estimates, and generally rather high. If you don't adjust them down to a sensible level based on your data, then you're likely going to wipe out a large part (or all of) your deficit.

munchordm wrote: »

In my opinion, im exercising to get rid of calories and burn fat. It just seems weird to me. Me personally, Im not going to excercise and then eat more.

Exercise, eat more food and lose weight, how can anyone be against that?

Say mfp says to eat 1500 to lose 1 pound. 1 pound being a 500 calorie deficit a day.

Say your energy used in a day is 2000 and you eat 1500 creating a deficit of 500 and likely losing 1 pound a week.

If you exercise and burn 2500 in a day but still eat 1500 you have created a 1000 cal deficit and will likely lose 2 pounds.

If your goal is to lose 1 pound a week then losing 2 is exceeding your goal

My understanding is this can be bad for several reasons such as not fuelling your body sufficiently, not getting enough protein, burning muscle instead of fat.

I think these issues become worse closer to your goal weight

munchordm wrote: »

When you input your excercise, the app adds those burned calories back to the total. Why?? I thought the idea was to burn more calories in a day than you eat. This is like saying hey, you excercised so now you can eat more.

What everyone above says is correct about MFP, but after awhile you will know what is best for you (to eat more or less). Personally, I use my Fitbit calorie burn and subtract 500 from that to know what my average daily intake should be. For example, if I burn 2,000 per day based on my activity I could probably eat a daily average of 1,500 (I eat more somedays and less on others and track my daily average in MFP). However, when my gross is 1,500 MFP will show my net anywhere from 1,000-1,100 so I don't necessarily agree you have to hit 1,200 since not everyone would lose weight at 1,200 net if their calories out isn't high enough. If you don't have a Fitbit use a TDEE calculator and subtract the deficit you want and start there. You likely will be able to eat a bit more than the goal MFP sets and still lose weight depending on activity. I don't pay too much attention to the daily net because I believe MFP is likely overestimating my calorie burn, but I do use my Fitbit as a guide.

One of the main reasons I exercise is so I can eat more

Pretty basic.

When you set up your profile on MFP, you enter your stats, activity level, and how much you want to lose per week and MFP spits out a number that should give you a deficit to hit your goal. MFP assumes you will do no exercise outside of the activity level you entered.

Lets take someone who maintains their weight on 2000 cals per day, and wants to lose 1lb per week. That would take a 500 cal deficit.

2000 - 500 = 1500 calorie intake to lose 1lb per week.

Now let's say that person now mixes in a run 4 days per week that burns 300 calories.

2000cal maintenance + 300 exercise = a new maintenance of 2300 cals.

So for this person to lose 1lb per week.

New Maintenance of 2300 - 500 = 1800 calorie intake to lose 1lb per week.

MFP is giving you the exercise calories back in order to keep you at the same deficit to meet the goal you entered.

The more you have to lose, the less important exercise calories can be due to the energy stores on your body. The closer you get to goal weight, the less energy stores you have on your body so those exercise calories become more important as you need the fuel from the food.

Most on MFP (myself included) recommend to start at eating back ~50% of your exercise calories and adjust from there based on hunger, rate of loss, etc... as it's all an estimate and in many cases MFP will overestimate calorie burns from exercise.

You are not the only person who uses MFP. I use it too, and I'm not trying to lose weight, I'm maintaining. I regularly run half marathons, and just yesterday went biking 140 kilometers. Imagine if I didn't eat back my exercise calories!