Confusion on daily food journal/exercise

meonlybetterDUH
meonlybetterDUH Posts: 25 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
Hello! My question is: Why does my daily calorie number change after I add my exercise for the day? I never consume more than my daily calorie count. Why does this number change when you add your exercise for the day? I want to stick to my daily number, right??? This just confuses me!!!

Replies

  • Deckhand562
    Deckhand562 Posts: 76 Member
    It's because when you add your exercise, it credits (debits?) the calories burned into your daily allotment. I don't put all of my workouts and calories burned into my diary for just this reason. I don't want to mistakenly devour my deficit!
    Hope this helps!
  • meonlybetterDUH
    meonlybetterDUH Posts: 25 Member
    Thank you! I thought maybe that was it. I just want to stick to my calorie count. Every day!
  • middlehaitch
    middlehaitch Posts: 8,486 Member
    MFP works on the NEAT (non exercise activity Thermogenesis) system of calorie counting.

    This means your deficit is built into your basic calories and you are supposed to log and eat back* your exercise calories to maintain the nutrient and energy levels to sustain the exercise you are performing without your daily activities suffering.

    *MFP and most gym machines overestimate calories burnt. It is best to start by eating back 50-75% initially,and adjusting the number up or down so you are losing at the rate you specified when you entered your stats into MFP.

    What use is it doing an hour cardio/ weights when you are too tired to get off the couch the rest of the day?

    Cheers, h.

    NB: if you derived your caloric needs through an on line TDEE estimator, your calories from exercise will have been included in your calorie goal.
  • TeaBea
    TeaBea Posts: 14,517 Member
    edited March 2016
    middlehaitch wrote: »
    MFP works on the NEAT (non exercise activity Thermogenesis) system of calorie counting.

    This means your deficit is built into your basic calories and you are supposed to log and eat back* your exercise calories to maintain the nutrient and energy levels to sustain the exercise you are performing without your daily activities suffering.

    *MFP and most gym machines overestimate calories burnt. It is best to start by eating back 50-75% initially,and adjusting the number up or down so you are losing at the rate you specified when you entered your stats into MFP.

    What use is it doing an hour cardio/ weights when you are too tired to get off the couch the rest of the day?

    Cheers, h.

    NB: if you derived your caloric needs through an on line TDEE estimator, your calories from exercise will have been included in your calorie goal.

    This^

    The benefits of eating back a percentage of calories
    1. Fuels your workouts so maintain a decent performance level
    2. A moderate deficit supports existing lean muscle mass better than a large one
    3. Large deficits can lead to hunger and general irritability. Moderate deficit helps you stay on track

    The benefit of not eating back any calories
    1. Faster "weight" loss. You may lose a larger percentage of lean muscle mass, but at least the scale looks good.
  • WinterSkies
    WinterSkies Posts: 940 Member
    I exercise specifically so that I can eat more :) I'll usually leave myself a buffer of about 100 calories to make up for inaccuracies in counting and exercise estimates, rather than calculating a percent to eat back.

    If you are eating at a large deficit already (e.g. you're down at 1200 calories/day) and you don't eat back your exercise calories, you can actually make yourself sick - bad skin and fingernails, losing hair, etc. I've never done that, but I do know that if I don't eat something after a high-burn exercise session, I am pretty wiped the next day.

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