I don't add my exercise on my diary on purpose.
LeastIGotChicken
Posts: 6 Member
I'm new to MFP and started my journey around three weeks ago, so far down 12 pounds. I purposefully do not add exercise onto my diary, despite exercising for 45m-1h every other day. My reason for doing this is that I don't feel like I want to eat more in a day just because I exercised that day. I also haven't seen anywhere else recommend you increase your calories by the amount you burnt in exercise. Admitedly I'm new and am willing to listen why I'm wrong. Thanks.
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Replies
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MFP is designed for you to eat a portion of your exercise calories back. So depending on how many additional calories you are adding through exercise, you might be setting yourself up for weakness and increased muscle loss. What are your stats, how much do you eat daily, and how much do you burn through exercise?6
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Do log exercise. The key to sustaining life long habits is to do something you can maintain long term. When you exercise your appetite may increase so you'll need more food. Remember this is a marathon not a sprint.5
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vespiquenn wrote: »MFP is designed for you to eat a portion of your exercise calories back. So depending on how many additional calories you are adding through exercise, you might be setting yourself up for weakness and increased muscle loss. What are your stats, how much do you eat daily, and how much do you burn through exercise?
I'm 5ft8 male 280lbs since last weigh. Eating around 1700 calories. Not great at working out calories burnt but online trackers tell me around 600-800 calories burnt in exercise.0 -
When you burn more, you can eat more. I always eat back about 50% of my calories just to account for inaccuracies in my logging. You'll get burnt out if you don't fuel your body!5
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LeastIGotChicken wrote: »vespiquenn wrote: »MFP is designed for you to eat a portion of your exercise calories back. So depending on how many additional calories you are adding through exercise, you might be setting yourself up for weakness and increased muscle loss. What are your stats, how much do you eat daily, and how much do you burn through exercise?
I'm 5ft8 male 280lbs since last weigh. Eating around 1700 calories. Not great at working out calories burnt but online trackers tell me around 600-800 calories burnt in exercise.
Most people eat about 50-80% of their exercise calories back due to inaccuracies in machines and activity counters. I definitely suggest doing so because you're netting way below what a male should be eating a day. Assuming you are burning 600, you are netting only 1100 calories. A male should at least be at 1500.
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vespiquenn wrote: »LeastIGotChicken wrote: »vespiquenn wrote: »MFP is designed for you to eat a portion of your exercise calories back. So depending on how many additional calories you are adding through exercise, you might be setting yourself up for weakness and increased muscle loss. What are your stats, how much do you eat daily, and how much do you burn through exercise?
I'm 5ft8 male 280lbs since last weigh. Eating around 1700 calories. Not great at working out calories burnt but online trackers tell me around 600-800 calories burnt in exercise.
Most people eat about 50-80% of their exercise calories back due to inaccuracies in machines and activity counters. I definitely suggest doing so because you're netting way below what a male should be eating a day. Assuming you are burning 600, you are netting only 1100 calories. A male should at least be at 1500.
Thanks, unfortunately the thing I struggle with most is going to fast, and the fear of overeating. Although It sounds as if it's a pretty bad mistake to not eat at least 50% of my calories burnt so I'll try to do that from now.3 -
Just because you log them doesnt mean you have to eat them. I eat my normal 1200 cals even if i burn 500 calories so by the end of the day ill still have those 500 cals left over. You dont have to eat them back3
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ericatoday wrote: »Just because you log them doesnt mean you have to eat them. I eat my normal 1200 cals even if i burn 500 calories so by the end of the day ill still have those 500 cals left over. You dont have to eat them back
Please do not follow this advice OP. Start by eating a percentage back and use your data to adjust as needed.
Someone eating their normal 1200 and burning 500 in exercise is netting 700/day. Unless under medical supervision, this is not safe.21 -
Everyone's covered it, but I'll just add that other calculators usually work from TDEE, which does include your exercise, it just includes it up front. MFP works off of the NEAT method, so your calories are calculated without any exercise until you add it after you've done it. So other calculators usually do increase your calories by the amount you exercise, you just don't see it the same way you do on MFP. It's important to fuel your body appropriately.3
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I always add my exercise except normal daily living, such as walking, house cleaning, etc. I never eat my exercise calories!
I don't want to maintain, I WANT TO LOSE WEIGHT! But do whatever YOU need to do to keep on track.
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I don't have a choice. My Fitbit puts it in there...and I like that. It's a satisfying feeling seeing how much I possibly burnt
With that said, I never eat into my exercise calories burnt2 -
SugarySweetheart wrote: »I always add my exercise except normal daily living, such as walking, house cleaning, etc. I never eat my exercise calories!
I don't want to maintain, I WANT TO LOSE WEIGHT! But do whatever YOU need to do to keep on track.
I don't think you understand how MFP works. Eating your exercise calories keeps you at the deficit you asked for. Also, faster weight loss is not necessarily better.7 -
I personally eat back the majority of my exercise calories because I've found my body responds best to that and allows changes to happen. If my deficit is too big then it'll pump the brakes and release that weight when it's good and ready.4
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LeastIGotChicken wrote: »I'm new to MFP also, been a month, I'm logging everything and not seeing results, so I like that idea, thank you1
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@ericatodayericatoday wrote: »Just because you log them doesn't mean you have to eat them. I eat my normal 1200 cals even if i burn 500 calories so by the end of the day ill still have those 500 cals left over. You dont have to eat them back
What you've shared as advice leaves you eating only 700 cals for your body to run on each day! That's very little to expect your body to stay healthy at.
You're correct you don't have to eat them back but eating at 1200 cals you likely might want to consider rethinking your own plan for your energy and health's sake.
Think of it as driving a car on fumes.. it doesn't run as well and it will run out gas just as any of do if we don't fuel properly but continue to workout.4 -
I didn't add exercise in on my first round with MFP. I had bad knees and was loosing weight so I could get a hernia repair then both knee replacements. I was riding the bike an average of 30 minutes a day. My weight loss tracked almost exactly my calorie deficit without adding in the bike. I got the work done and it's all fine. I'm tracking my activity with the fitbit dashboard and extra calories are showing up in MFP but there's no way I'm going to take those extra calories. Also my treadmill work is on an incline and I take my fitbit off when I ride the bike. Once I learned the right way to eat I can't bring myself to take in more calories than I need just for the sake of doing it. I don't even want to eat that much - I just ignore the exercise. My food-exercise net has been less than 400 calories a day. I think it must be BS, I just got back on MFP (I didn't bother counting when I was doing my surgeries or rehab) and would love to see the kind of weight loss those numbers indicate - that would be like 3 or 4 pounds a week.0
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FWIW - I'm 6-3 and was 281 when I started MFP. My first calorie goal was 1710 calories which would help me lose two pounds a week. As I lost weight I adjusted that number to continue the weight 2 lb loss and it worked great. But I started having problems when my calorie intake got below 1450 - I just had to each more so I adjusted for 1.5 lbs of weight loss per week. It was amazing how well everything tracked with adding in exercise. Maybe as my exercise routines increase in intensity (I'm going to start pushing up to my cardio range HR soon) I'll need to add in more calories based on exercise.
Good luck and like others have mentions carefully count calories - weigh and measure everything. We have a portable scale we take with us when we go out to eat.
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ericatoday wrote: »Just because you log them doesnt mean you have to eat them. I eat my normal 1200 cals even if i burn 500 calories so by the end of the day ill still have those 500 cals left over. You dont have to eat them back
I did this same thing for about 3 weeks and I'm 6'1" and was 240 pounds at the time. Some days I would burn 800-900 calories. I found it easy and I never felt weak. I did it at my own risk though. I would never tell someone else they should try it. I'll admit it was dumb for me to do it, but I got great results.1 -
ericatoday wrote: »Just because you log them doesnt mean you have to eat them. I eat my normal 1200 cals even if i burn 500 calories so by the end of the day ill still have those 500 cals left over. You dont have to eat them back
This is por advice because you burn extra energy and a portion of those exercise calories are meant to refuel you.
Erica, if your daily goal is 1200 , you burn 500, that means you are netting 700 calories a day, and setting yourself up to lose muscle mass because you'll lose too quickly.3 -
SugarySweetheart wrote: »I always add my exercise except normal daily living, such as walking, house cleaning, etc. I never eat my exercise calories!
I don't want to maintain, I WANT TO LOSE WEIGHT! But do whatever YOU need to do to keep on track.
I don't think you understand how MFP works. Eating your exercise calories keeps you at the deficit you asked for. Also, faster weight loss is not necessarily better.
This 'cause well said, and true.3 -
I don't use MFP to calculate my daily calorie intake I use the macro guidelines from IIFYM and those figure in workout calories. I can see how this might not work for everyone since you have to commit to working out the days 2 , 3, 4 whatever days a week you put in as workout days but I feel the calorie but I rather my estimated burn be incorporated instead of estimated by MFP. So basically I use MFP to make sure I hit my entered calories and macros and ignore the "workout calories" otherwise I'll be way over.0
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My MFP is set for 1200 calories a day. I do calisthenics in the pool ( because of bad knees and back) 5-6 days a week at 1.5 hours per day..about 855-900 calories burnt per exe rcise bout. I do not eatback my exercise calories this only maybe 60 of them.BUT I am on HMR Decision Free MEDICALLY SUPERVISED diet. I have lost 34 pounds since March 22 of this year. I just recently added MFP back because I got a Garmin and it helps track with MFP. Also, HMR has its own app. So, I have multiple apps and people tracking me. Weight loss this fast is awesome but ONLY Medically Supervised...just my 2 cents
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I started out at 270, 5'5.5". I'm 181 now. I eat back all of my exercise calories. This has worked very well for me. But some people can't eat back their exercise calories. Everyone is different. But when I read these posts, I always wonder if the poster has tried the MFP formula to see if it works BEFORE deciding that she shouldn't eat back her exercise calories.1
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I started at 418lbs. Under my Dietitian and drs guidelines I started at 2k calories a day as my max. I see both monthly. It's been 4 months. I'm now eating 1800 calories daily, regardless of my calories burned. I average around 600-800 calories burned 3-4 times a week that I don't eat back. This is time spent a the gym, not my total throughout the day. I usually have some sort of a snack when I get back from the gym around 100-150 calories. My diary is open to the public to view if you'd like to take a look. I'm down 68.8lbs as of yesterday(day 120). I feel like it's not for everyone doing it this way. It's someth
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SugarySweetheart wrote: »The lot of you don't even realize the "SOUND advice", as you put it, you give is only your OPINION not Nutritionists and Bariatric Surgeon's True Facts to weight loss. YOU may believe what you want, but "your SOUND advice" will only work for 7% of the people following it. So your way probably won't even work for you NOR the people you're dispensing it to.
I eat all of my fitbit calories burned/daily adjustment while LOSING weight. Because I entered into MFP that I want to LOSE weight. So MFP gives me the number to LOSE weight, even while increasing my calorie goal based on activity.
If I ignored my additional calories I would be eating 1600 calories regardless of whether I had a lazy day with around 5,000 - 6,000 steps or a more active day with 10,000+ steps as well as exercise separate from my steps. With my adjustments I eat an average that's around 1900-2000/day and LOSE weight. Those additional 400 calories a day don't make me maintain or gain.
If you understood the NEAT method, you would understand why eating exercise calories maintains your deficit. And if you read enough threads on MFP, you'll see that the experienced users eat their exercise calories in order to appropriately fuel their bodies. Some of them might use the TDEE method, but they're still eating their exercise calories with that method. No idea where your 7% comes from. It's all about a calorie deficit; eating your exercise calories keeps you in a deficit (assuming you are logging as accurately as you can and adjusting based on real world results).
Yup, I'm losing at exactly the rate predicted by my fitbit. I average 2000 calories and am losing 1.5lbs per week.1 -
LeastIGotChicken wrote: »I'm new to MFP and started my journey around three weeks ago, so far down 12 pounds. I purposefully do not add exercise onto my diary, despite exercising for 45m-1h every other day. My reason for doing this is that I don't feel like I want to eat more in a day just because I exercised that day. I also haven't seen anywhere else recommend you increase your calories by the amount you burnt in exercise. Admitedly I'm new and am willing to listen why I'm wrong. Thanks.
There are two ways to use MFP. MFP is set to use NEAT so if using MFP as it is set, you should eat back your some or all of your exercise calories. However, if you use the TDEE method, calculate your TDEE less 10-20% for weight loss then eat that each day but do not log your exercise calories. Once you have lost the weight you want, eat to your calculated TDEE but not over or under to maintain. I use the TDEE method and the only caveat is to set your activity level correctly. Personally, I find the TDEE method easier.
RE comment Fitbit - Fitbit and other activity trackers can be set to not send data to MFP. I've used a lot of activity trackers (currently using Apple Watch) and activity apps. While they can send exercise data to MFP, I have them set so they can't. The only thing I have set is MFP sends my calorie intake to Health.1 -
I log mine but do not eat them back.
I log just for record, it wouldn't hurt for you to do that, too.0 -
MFP is designed to eat back your exercise calories - some eat only a portion of them back, as the mfp calorie counts for exercise may be a bit high.
I have lost 33 lbs. using mfp as it is designed and I have lost it SAFELY and SLOWLY. For me, it was dead on with calories and exercise, beginning with a 2 lb/week loss, then 1 lb/week, and finally 1/2 lb/week. Losing faster than this is not recommended unless you are under a medically supervised diet.
There are a lot of knowledgeable people on this website. Some are doctors, personal trainers, teachers, and many others who have life experience of safe weight loss and have lost and maintained their weight for many years. Their advice is well worth listening to.2 -
Not sure weather or not I should be eating my exercise calories back, I have 1400 calories a day and work out at the gym burning anything between 350 and 500 calories depending on what I'm doing. Should I be eating more? It's so hard to find the right balance0
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