Exercise Calories: On or Off?

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echohwa
echohwa Posts: 15 Member
in Fitness and Exercise
Should one keep exercise Calories on or off in the MFP app?

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  • gvizzle74
    gvizzle74 Posts: 123 Member
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    i'm having this debate with myself right now. when i have them on - i see the green numbers and feel like "it's ok, i can eat more" and i feel like this is slowing my progress. I just switched MFP to maintenance and i'm trying to figure out my maintenance calories (i'm not sedentary but i'm not sure if i'm lightly active or active) - i've decided once i figure out my maintenance calories, i'm going to turn exercise calories off. if i don't see them, i won't be tempted to eat them
  • TeaBea
    TeaBea Posts: 14,517 Member
    edited March 2016
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    echohwa wrote: »
    Should one keep exercise Calories on or off in the MFP app?

    MFP as gave you a calorie deficit BEFORE exercise. So eating back exercise calories ideally gets you back to your original deficit. Larger deficits make it hard for your body to support existing lean muscle mass.

    However, calorie burns are estimates - some people log food accurately (others not so much) - activity level is a range not just 1 number. Lots of estimates to work around.

    So, what most people do is start by eating back a portion of exercise calories (50-75%) and tweak this number as time goes on. If you eat 75% back and are losing slower than the rate you intended, then bump it back to 50%.
  • WilsonFilson
    WilsonFilson Posts: 83 Member
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    Off. I determine my TDEE separately, and based on my goals use a daily average for determining my goal intake.
  • pbee89
    pbee89 Posts: 83 Member
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    How do you turn it off I would love to turn mine off
  • WilsonFilson
    WilsonFilson Posts: 83 Member
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    Goals -> Fitness -> Edit -> Adjust my daily calorie goal - Set to off.
  • ROBOTFOOD
    ROBOTFOOD Posts: 5,527 Member
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    I have it off. I don't track cals. Just eat when hungry.
  • RoxieDawn
    RoxieDawn Posts: 15,488 Member
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    Keep them on. MFP is not TDEE (this is a custom setting), MFP is NEAT not TDEE.

    The above poster that mentioned eating back some of them is correct. IMHO 50% is the range to start with as 75% is a bit high but this will be based on how you are getting these estimations and how you factor them in, so you will have to watch your weight trend and determine the amount to eat back.
  • kristinajeang
    kristinajeang Posts: 63 Member
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    I go mostly by how I feel. I have my baseline set for calorie goal, but if I am still really hungry, I will see where my calories are at and determine if I'm actually hungry. I usually end up with a slightly higher caloric intake if it's a workout day.

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