Calories Earned with Exercise - What do you do?
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When I was using my Polar FT4 I ate most of my calories back to account for variations in tracking but since I got my Fitbit at Christmas I have to be super careful and only eat back what I actually burned working out. I still cut that back a little too. My Fitbit gives me a bigger burn than FT4 ever did. I'm not sure what one is the most accurate but I tend to error on the side of it gave me more calories than it should have.1
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If you feel hungry and had a good workout and have extra calories, eat. If not, don't. Listen to your body first... then let the program dictate what you should do.1
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The way MFP is set up, you're supposed to eat exercise calories back. However, due to overestimation of calories burned, most will do only half of them.
I don't think MFP overestimates calories burned. I just think a lot of people on here aren't looking at the data correctly.
Let's say a calculator has shown me that my TDEE when sedentary is 2400 cal/day - 100 cal per hour
If MFP/Machine/HRM shows 300 cal burned for an hour long workout, you need to keep in mind that 300 cal represents the total burn for the hour. BUT - and this is where I think a lot of people on here get it wrong - I have NOT earned 300 calories of extra food. I have earned a maximum of 200 extra calories. Why? Because I would have burned 100 sitting home and doing nothing. Remember that even with an HRM, it's not calculating "delta above baseline" .. it is calculating "total calories expended during the workout". It is necessary to know your TDEE without the formal exercise, and deduct that from the workout to really know how much extra you have earned.
It would be nice if MFP did this math for you, but it doesn't ...1 -
I do eat most if not all of them on average for the week if not daily, but I'm careful in my attempts to over-estimate calories in and underestimate calories burned in order to maintain a deficit.1
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I hope you don't mind that I tag a question on here...everyone says MFP is overestimating calories burned. I use my Samsung Galaxy S4 Active as my tracker (which doesn't sync). Anyway the treadmill said I burned 1348 calories in an hour and 45 minutes and my phone and MFP was only about 20 calories different or so and MFP was lower. Neither of these take into account incline change. If I only used 1/2 of what MFP said it would be like 400 calories for 1 hour and 45 minutes. Is that correct? I don't usually eat all my calories back anyway, but comparing the treadmill, phone,and MFP...I thought MFP was more accurate. What should I use?
I am 5'10.5 and when I weighed last was 155.81 -
elawoman72 wrote: »
That's only a good tip if you are actually sedentary.
If you have an active lifestyle/job then sedentary is inappropriate.
Remember activity settings and exercise are separate on MFP.
It's not really sensible to deliberately enter inaccurate data into an estimating tool to skew the answer!
Enter your details accurately and truthfully to get a reasonable start point, log your food and exercise as best you can then adjust based on actual results over a significant period of time (a month as a minimum).
It's not as complex as people make it.
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The way MFP is set up, you're supposed to eat exercise calories back. However, due to overestimation of calories burned, most will do only half of them.The way MFP is set up, you're supposed to eat exercise calories back. However, due to overestimation of calories burned, most will do only half of them.The way MFP is set up, you're supposed to eat exercise calories back. However, due to overestimation of calories burned, most will do only half of them.
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lindamkelly2 wrote: »The way MFP is set up, you're supposed to eat exercise calories back. However, due to overestimation of calories burned, most will do only half of them.The way MFP is set up, you're supposed to eat exercise calories back. However, due to overestimation of calories burned, most will do only half of them.The way MFP is set up, you're supposed to eat exercise calories back. However, due to overestimation of calories burned, most will do only half of them.
Most of the time I don't even eat 1200 calories. I never eat the extra calories after exercise. My trainer told me if I eat all of the calories I would only maintain my weight. I'm trying to lose 10 lbs.1 -
elawoman72 wrote: »Hello, all!
I just realized my calories are upped with exercise. You must upgrade to change that feature to change that option.
Do any of you consume the adjusted calories?
when i did mfp, yes...it's the way the tool is designed and it makes perfect sense when you realize that you haven't accounted for exercise activity in your activity level and that that activity should probably be accounted for somewhere...for ya know...recovery and performance and whatnot.1 -
elawoman72 wrote: »
That's only a good tip if you are actually sedentary.
If you have an active lifestyle/job then sedentary is inappropriate.
Remember activity settings and exercise are separate on MFP.
It's not really sensible to deliberately enter inaccurate data into an estimating tool to skew the answer!
Enter your details accurately and truthfully to get a reasonable start point, log your food and exercise as best you can then adjust based on actual results over a significant period of time (a month as a minimum).
It's not as complex as people make it.
This is always what gets me...it took me about 30 seconds on MFP to figure out how the math worked and what was going on...and I'm not exactly brilliant.1 -
I eat some of them back. I don't use MFP's calorie estimates for exercise, though--I go with the numbers on the machines, which are more conservative.1
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I very, very rarely eat all of them back. About half the time I eat half or less back, and around the other half of the time I don't eat any back. Honestly, if I am hungry I eat more and if I'm not hungry I don't force it. I figure it all averages out pretty well over the week anyway, and I am still losing regularly so...1
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I try and bank my exercise calories and feel positive about that choice; quite motivated.1
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lindamkelly2 wrote: »lindamkelly2 wrote: »The way MFP is set up, you're supposed to eat exercise calories back. However, due to overestimation of calories burned, most will do only half of them.The way MFP is set up, you're supposed to eat exercise calories back. However, due to overestimation of calories burned, most will do only half of them.The way MFP is set up, you're supposed to eat exercise calories back. However, due to overestimation of calories burned, most will do only half of them.
Most of the time I don't even eat 1200 calories. I never eat the extra calories after exercise. My trainer told me if I eat all of the calories I would only maintain my weight. I'm trying to lose 10 lbs.
If your calorie goal is based off MFP then your trainer is giving advice about a tool that he is unfamiliar with or doesn't understand. You would have to eat all your exercise calories plus whatever deficit MFP built into your goal in order to be at maintenance. Eating exercise calories puts you at your calorie goal with your deficit built in. All of this is assuming accurate logging and calorie burns.1 -
lindamkelly2 wrote: »lindamkelly2 wrote: »The way MFP is set up, you're supposed to eat exercise calories back. However, due to overestimation of calories burned, most will do only half of them.The way MFP is set up, you're supposed to eat exercise calories back. However, due to overestimation of calories burned, most will do only half of them.The way MFP is set up, you're supposed to eat exercise calories back. However, due to overestimation of calories burned, most will do only half of them.
Most of the time I don't even eat 1200 calories. I never eat the extra calories after exercise. My trainer told me if I eat all of the calories I would only maintain my weight. I'm trying to lose 10 lbs.
If you only have 10 lbs to lose you shouldn't have more than a 250 cal deficit, and it's very unlikely that 1200 minus exercise calories would be even close to that. What are your stats? What are your workouts like? Doesn't sound like much of a trainer to me if he thinks that you need to eat less than 1200 to lose...
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OP I always ate back my exercise calories, even using the MFP estimations, and then when I got my FitBit I felt even more confident doing so. I lost my weight eating 1700-1900 cals and and am now maintaining eating around 2000 or more.1
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I don't because the burns are insane!! And don't allow you to enter relevant information.
For instance: Elliptical, 30 mins gives someone of my stats 269 calories. This doesn't ask what the incline was set at, what resistance it was, or what total distance was. I could go 4 miles at a high resistance and kick some butt, or I go less than 2 miles with zero resistance in 30 minutes.
I solved this by getting a Fitbit and going off of that.1 -
Will it accelerate weight loss if I do not eat those calories back? I am wondering1
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ssmshastry wrote: »Will it accelerate weight loss if I do not eat those calories back? I am wondering
Yes, but you should make sure you're still getting adequate nutrition and it's not affecting your energy too much. Dragging your way through every workout isn't fun.1 -
It depends on how hungry I am and how many calories I have consumed/left to consume. If it gives me an extra 100-150 calories I just leave it. If I have 450-600 calories because I was out shopping all day I might have something a little extra if I'm hungry.0
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