"Eat back half your exercise calories"
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WinoGelato wrote: »Well, I would not eat my calories back since I think it defeats the purpose of using exercise as a tool to increase caloric deficit - but who am I to dictate this approach to everyone? I would still advise eating half rather then eating back all of them, just in case that there would be an overestimation... let's not forget that the goal here is to maintain a deficit! This is one reason why I am planning to get a fitness watch ASAP to help me understand my body better
Also... I prefer to enter as my calorie goal my TDEE since that way I see the calories needed to maintain. The calories left (the green number) then represents my deficit, which motivates me a lot more. I think it makes more sense and helps me understand my body better; just make sure your recalculate your TDEE for every 5lbs lost and also be sure to have a sensible tool to calculate your body fat % to ensure best possible accuracy. P.S. I also take my measurements!
All in all, just make sure that whatever you're doing is working and that you're losing on the scale! It's all about making it work for you. We can all share our experiences and motivate each other no matter what. I'm sure there are people that don't eat them back, some people that eat them all back or only half back, and all of those people could still lose weight!
If you are using the MFP method, which uses a NEAT estimate, exercise is excluded. Your calorie goal is set at a deficit such that even if you do no exercise at all, you should lose weight. That is why if you do exercise, you should eat back at least a portion of those calories, to avoid having too large of a deficit which can result in loss of lean muscle, as well as other potential adverse effects.
Calculating your goal from your TDEE has exercise calories factored in, so no, you wouldn't necessarily eat back the exercise adjustment. Most people using the TDEE method log the exercise activity and the duration but manually adjust to 1 calorie when it is logged.
You are conflating two different methods - so please don't suggest that eating back exercise calories defeats the purpose.
Your TDEE doesn't include your workouts... it includes your level of daily activities. For example, are you doing a desk job or do you work standing up and moving all day long. Your BMR is what your body needs just to function (breathing, digesting, etc).
You are incorrect. @WinoGelato is correct.6 -
WinoGelato wrote: »Well, I would not eat my calories back since I think it defeats the purpose of using exercise as a tool to increase caloric deficit - but who am I to dictate this approach to everyone? I would still advise eating half rather then eating back all of them, just in case that there would be an overestimation... let's not forget that the goal here is to maintain a deficit! This is one reason why I am planning to get a fitness watch ASAP to help me understand my body better
Also... I prefer to enter as my calorie goal my TDEE since that way I see the calories needed to maintain. The calories left (the green number) then represents my deficit, which motivates me a lot more. I think it makes more sense and helps me understand my body better; just make sure your recalculate your TDEE for every 5lbs lost and also be sure to have a sensible tool to calculate your body fat % to ensure best possible accuracy. P.S. I also take my measurements!
All in all, just make sure that whatever you're doing is working and that you're losing on the scale! It's all about making it work for you. We can all share our experiences and motivate each other no matter what. I'm sure there are people that don't eat them back, some people that eat them all back or only half back, and all of those people could still lose weight!
If you are using the MFP method, which uses a NEAT estimate, exercise is excluded. Your calorie goal is set at a deficit such that even if you do no exercise at all, you should lose weight. That is why if you do exercise, you should eat back at least a portion of those calories, to avoid having too large of a deficit which can result in loss of lean muscle, as well as other potential adverse effects.
Calculating your goal from your TDEE has exercise calories factored in, so no, you wouldn't necessarily eat back the exercise adjustment. Most people using the TDEE method log the exercise activity and the duration but manually adjust to 1 calorie when it is logged.
You are conflating two different methods - so please don't suggest that eating back exercise calories defeats the purpose.
Your TDEE doesn't include your workouts... it includes your level of daily activities. For example, are you doing a desk job or do you work standing up and moving all day long. Your BMR is what your body needs just to function (breathing, digesting, etc).
You are incorrect. @WinoGelato is correct.
This.
If you chose sedentary for TDEE, then there are no workouts included. But if you workout then you are not sedentary.
Generally TDEE is calculated by the following multipliers
Little or No Exercise: TDEE = 1.2 x BMR
Light Exercise/Sports 1 to 3 Times Per Week: TDEE = 1.375 x BMR
Moderate Exercise, Sports 3 to 5 Times Per Week: TDEE = 1.55 x BMR
Heavy Exercise, Sports 6 to 7 Times Per Week: TDEE = 1.725 x BMR
Very heavy exercise (e.g., physical job; training 2x/day): TDEE = 1.9 x BMR1 -
3dogsrunning wrote: »WinoGelato wrote: »Well, I would not eat my calories back since I think it defeats the purpose of using exercise as a tool to increase caloric deficit - but who am I to dictate this approach to everyone? I would still advise eating half rather then eating back all of them, just in case that there would be an overestimation... let's not forget that the goal here is to maintain a deficit! This is one reason why I am planning to get a fitness watch ASAP to help me understand my body better
Also... I prefer to enter as my calorie goal my TDEE since that way I see the calories needed to maintain. The calories left (the green number) then represents my deficit, which motivates me a lot more. I think it makes more sense and helps me understand my body better; just make sure your recalculate your TDEE for every 5lbs lost and also be sure to have a sensible tool to calculate your body fat % to ensure best possible accuracy. P.S. I also take my measurements!
All in all, just make sure that whatever you're doing is working and that you're losing on the scale! It's all about making it work for you. We can all share our experiences and motivate each other no matter what. I'm sure there are people that don't eat them back, some people that eat them all back or only half back, and all of those people could still lose weight!
If you are using the MFP method, which uses a NEAT estimate, exercise is excluded. Your calorie goal is set at a deficit such that even if you do no exercise at all, you should lose weight. That is why if you do exercise, you should eat back at least a portion of those calories, to avoid having too large of a deficit which can result in loss of lean muscle, as well as other potential adverse effects.
Calculating your goal from your TDEE has exercise calories factored in, so no, you wouldn't necessarily eat back the exercise adjustment. Most people using the TDEE method log the exercise activity and the duration but manually adjust to 1 calorie when it is logged.
You are conflating two different methods - so please don't suggest that eating back exercise calories defeats the purpose.
Your TDEE doesn't include your workouts... it includes your level of daily activities. For example, are you doing a desk job or do you work standing up and moving all day long. Your BMR is what your body needs just to function (breathing, digesting, etc).
You are incorrect. @WinoGelato is correct.
This.
If you chose sedentary for TDEE, then there are no workouts included. But if you workout then you are not sedentary.
Generally TDEE is calculated by the following multipliers
Little or No Exercise: TDEE = 1.2 x BMR
Light Exercise/Sports 1 to 3 Times Per Week: TDEE = 1.375 x BMR
Moderate Exercise, Sports 3 to 5 Times Per Week: TDEE = 1.55 x BMR
Heavy Exercise, Sports 6 to 7 Times Per Week: TDEE = 1.725 x BMR
Very heavy exercise (e.g., physical job; training 2x/day): TDEE = 1.9 x BMR
Well I guess that's true! I didn't see it like that. I did select sedentary since I work a desk job and log my workouts separately since they vary in frequency and intensity. That would be important for me to mention next time!0 -
Example- I teach ballet for 3 hours on Fridays, mfp database says that I burn 900 calories doing that. There is NO WAY I burn that much in the 3 hours even though I'm constantly moving. 450 calories is a possibility.1
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WinoGelato wrote: »Well, I would not eat my calories back since I think it defeats the purpose of using exercise as a tool to increase caloric deficit - but who am I to dictate this approach to everyone? I would still advise eating half rather then eating back all of them, just in case that there would be an overestimation... let's not forget that the goal here is to maintain a deficit! This is one reason why I am planning to get a fitness watch ASAP to help me understand my body better
Also... I prefer to enter as my calorie goal my TDEE since that way I see the calories needed to maintain. The calories left (the green number) then represents my deficit, which motivates me a lot more. I think it makes more sense and helps me understand my body better; just make sure your recalculate your TDEE for every 5lbs lost and also be sure to have a sensible tool to calculate your body fat % to ensure best possible accuracy. P.S. I also take my measurements!
All in all, just make sure that whatever you're doing is working and that you're losing on the scale! It's all about making it work for you. We can all share our experiences and motivate each other no matter what. I'm sure there are people that don't eat them back, some people that eat them all back or only half back, and all of those people could still lose weight!
If you are using the MFP method, which uses a NEAT estimate, exercise is excluded. Your calorie goal is set at a deficit such that even if you do no exercise at all, you should lose weight. That is why if you do exercise, you should eat back at least a portion of those calories, to avoid having too large of a deficit which can result in loss of lean muscle, as well as other potential adverse effects.
Calculating your goal from your TDEE has exercise calories factored in, so no, you wouldn't necessarily eat back the exercise adjustment. Most people using the TDEE method log the exercise activity and the duration but manually adjust to 1 calorie when it is logged.
You are conflating two different methods - so please don't suggest that eating back exercise calories defeats the purpose.
Your TDEE doesn't include your workouts... it includes your level of daily activities. For example, are you doing a desk job or do you work standing up and moving all day long. Your BMR is what your body needs just to function (breathing, digesting, etc).
No.
You are correct about BMR.
NEAT (non exercise activity thermogenesis) is your BMR plus the day to day activity excluding exercise. That's what the MFP calculations use.
TDEE (total daily energy expenditure) is the sum of BMR, NEAT and the exercise you do as well.
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Well, I would not eat my calories back since I think it defeats the purpose of using exercise as a tool to increase caloric deficit - but who am I to dictate this approach to everyone? I would still advise eating half rather then eating back all of them, just in case that there would be an overestimation... let's not forget that the goal here is to maintain a deficit! This is one reason why I am planning to get a fitness watch ASAP to help me understand my body better
Also... I prefer to enter as my calorie goal my TDEE since that way I see the calories needed to maintain. The calories left (the green number) then represents my deficit, which motivates me a lot more. I think it makes more sense and helps me understand my body better; just make sure your recalculate your TDEE for every 5lbs lost and also be sure to have a sensible tool to calculate your body fat % to ensure best possible accuracy. P.S. I also take my measurements!
All in all, just make sure that whatever you're doing is working and that you're losing on the scale! It's all about making it work for you. We can all share our experiences and motivate each other no matter what. I'm sure there are people that don't eat them back, some people that eat them all back or only half back, and all of those people could still lose weight!
Many of us do not use exercise as a tool to increase caloric deficit. Rather, we use it to improve our strength, cardiovascular health, physique, and/or overall fitness
Well, I obviously exercise for all of these other reasons... but it would still be counterproductive to me, even almost building an unhealthy relationship toward food (for me at least) to workout with the goal of increasing my food intake...1 -
Well, I would not eat my calories back since I think it defeats the purpose of using exercise as a tool to increase caloric deficit - but who am I to dictate this approach to everyone? I would still advise eating half rather then eating back all of them, just in case that there would be an overestimation... let's not forget that the goal here is to maintain a deficit! This is one reason why I am planning to get a fitness watch ASAP to help me understand my body better
Also... I prefer to enter as my calorie goal my TDEE since that way I see the calories needed to maintain. The calories left (the green number) then represents my deficit, which motivates me a lot more. I think it makes more sense and helps me understand my body better; just make sure your recalculate your TDEE for every 5lbs lost and also be sure to have a sensible tool to calculate your body fat % to ensure best possible accuracy. P.S. I also take my measurements!
All in all, just make sure that whatever you're doing is working and that you're losing on the scale! It's all about making it work for you. We can all share our experiences and motivate each other no matter what. I'm sure there are people that don't eat them back, some people that eat them all back or only half back, and all of those people could still lose weight!
Many of us do not use exercise as a tool to increase caloric deficit. Rather, we use it to improve our strength, cardiovascular health, physique, and/or overall fitness
Well, I obviously exercise for all of these other reasons... but it would still be counterproductive to me, even almost building an unhealthy relationship toward food (for me at least) to workout with the goal of increasing my food intake...
It isn't necessarily working out to increase food intake. Some of us take the approach of fuelling our bodies for our workout. I want to lose weight and improve fitness. You can do both but you need to balance them.1 -
3dogsrunning wrote: »WinoGelato wrote: »Well, I would not eat my calories back since I think it defeats the purpose of using exercise as a tool to increase caloric deficit - but who am I to dictate this approach to everyone? I would still advise eating half rather then eating back all of them, just in case that there would be an overestimation... let's not forget that the goal here is to maintain a deficit! This is one reason why I am planning to get a fitness watch ASAP to help me understand my body better
Also... I prefer to enter as my calorie goal my TDEE since that way I see the calories needed to maintain. The calories left (the green number) then represents my deficit, which motivates me a lot more. I think it makes more sense and helps me understand my body better; just make sure your recalculate your TDEE for every 5lbs lost and also be sure to have a sensible tool to calculate your body fat % to ensure best possible accuracy. P.S. I also take my measurements!
All in all, just make sure that whatever you're doing is working and that you're losing on the scale! It's all about making it work for you. We can all share our experiences and motivate each other no matter what. I'm sure there are people that don't eat them back, some people that eat them all back or only half back, and all of those people could still lose weight!
If you are using the MFP method, which uses a NEAT estimate, exercise is excluded. Your calorie goal is set at a deficit such that even if you do no exercise at all, you should lose weight. That is why if you do exercise, you should eat back at least a portion of those calories, to avoid having too large of a deficit which can result in loss of lean muscle, as well as other potential adverse effects.
Calculating your goal from your TDEE has exercise calories factored in, so no, you wouldn't necessarily eat back the exercise adjustment. Most people using the TDEE method log the exercise activity and the duration but manually adjust to 1 calorie when it is logged.
You are conflating two different methods - so please don't suggest that eating back exercise calories defeats the purpose.
Your TDEE doesn't include your workouts... it includes your level of daily activities. For example, are you doing a desk job or do you work standing up and moving all day long. Your BMR is what your body needs just to function (breathing, digesting, etc).
You are incorrect. @WinoGelato is correct.
This.
If you chose sedentary for TDEE, then there are no workouts included. But if you workout then you are not sedentary.
Generally TDEE is calculated by the following multipliers
Little or No Exercise: TDEE = 1.2 x BMR
Light Exercise/Sports 1 to 3 Times Per Week: TDEE = 1.375 x BMR
Moderate Exercise, Sports 3 to 5 Times Per Week: TDEE = 1.55 x BMR
Heavy Exercise, Sports 6 to 7 Times Per Week: TDEE = 1.725 x BMR
Very heavy exercise (e.g., physical job; training 2x/day): TDEE = 1.9 x BMR
Well I guess that's true! I didn't see it like that. I did select sedentary since I work a desk job and log my workouts separately since they vary in frequency and intensity. That would be important for me to mention next time!
Then that isn't TDEE.
That is the same principal MFP is based on, which is why you log your exercise on the day you do it.0 -
WinoGelato wrote: »WinoGelato wrote: »Well, I would not eat my calories back since I think it defeats the purpose of using exercise as a tool to increase caloric deficit - but who am I to dictate this approach to everyone? I would still advise eating half rather then eating back all of them, just in case that there would be an overestimation... let's not forget that the goal here is to maintain a deficit! This is one reason why I am planning to get a fitness watch ASAP to help me understand my body better
Also... I prefer to enter as my calorie goal my TDEE since that way I see the calories needed to maintain. The calories left (the green number) then represents my deficit, which motivates me a lot more. I think it makes more sense and helps me understand my body better; just make sure your recalculate your TDEE for every 5lbs lost and also be sure to have a sensible tool to calculate your body fat % to ensure best possible accuracy. P.S. I also take my measurements!
All in all, just make sure that whatever you're doing is working and that you're losing on the scale! It's all about making it work for you. We can all share our experiences and motivate each other no matter what. I'm sure there are people that don't eat them back, some people that eat them all back or only half back, and all of those people could still lose weight!
If you are using the MFP method, which uses a NEAT estimate, exercise is excluded. Your calorie goal is set at a deficit such that even if you do no exercise at all, you should lose weight. That is why if you do exercise, you should eat back at least a portion of those calories, to avoid having too large of a deficit which can result in loss of lean muscle, as well as other potential adverse effects.
Calculating your goal from your TDEE has exercise calories factored in, so no, you wouldn't necessarily eat back the exercise adjustment. Most people using the TDEE method log the exercise activity and the duration but manually adjust to 1 calorie when it is logged.
You are conflating two different methods - so please don't suggest that eating back exercise calories defeats the purpose.
Your TDEE doesn't include your workouts... it includes your level of daily activities. For example, are you doing a desk job or do you work standing up and moving all day long. Your BMR is what your body needs just to function (breathing, digesting, etc).
No.
You are correct about BMR.
NEAT (non exercise activity thermogenesis) is your BMR plus the day to day activity excluding exercise. That's what the MFP calculations use.
TDEE (total daily energy expenditure) is the sum of BMR, NEAT and the exercise you do as well.
Thanks for the precision! I did select sedentary since I work a desk job and log my workouts separately since they vary in frequency and intensity. That would be important for me to mention next time, I wouldn't want to confuse anyone.3dogsrunning wrote: »Then that isn't TDEE.
That is the same principal MFP is based on, which is why you log your exercise on the day you do it.
Anyway, my point was... I'd rather see the NEAT as my calorie goal because then the calories left (green number) represents my deficit.0 -
This is my second day of MFP . After exercising this morning and burning 450 calories I was shocked to learn I was to make up those calories to meet my goal of 1200 . Now I'm happy to hear ( if I understand right) I only need to eat 1/2 of those calories burned. I think I can handle that to feel good.1
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3dogsrunning wrote: »Well, I would not eat my calories back since I think it defeats the purpose of using exercise as a tool to increase caloric deficit - but who am I to dictate this approach to everyone? I would still advise eating half rather then eating back all of them, just in case that there would be an overestimation... let's not forget that the goal here is to maintain a deficit! This is one reason why I am planning to get a fitness watch ASAP to help me understand my body better
Also... I prefer to enter as my calorie goal my TDEE since that way I see the calories needed to maintain. The calories left (the green number) then represents my deficit, which motivates me a lot more. I think it makes more sense and helps me understand my body better; just make sure your recalculate your TDEE for every 5lbs lost and also be sure to have a sensible tool to calculate your body fat % to ensure best possible accuracy. P.S. I also take my measurements!
All in all, just make sure that whatever you're doing is working and that you're losing on the scale! It's all about making it work for you. We can all share our experiences and motivate each other no matter what. I'm sure there are people that don't eat them back, some people that eat them all back or only half back, and all of those people could still lose weight!
Many of us do not use exercise as a tool to increase caloric deficit. Rather, we use it to improve our strength, cardiovascular health, physique, and/or overall fitness
Well, I obviously exercise for all of these other reasons... but it would still be counterproductive to me, even almost building an unhealthy relationship toward food (for me at least) to workout with the goal of increasing my food intake...
It isn't necessarily working out to increase food intake. Some of us take the approach of fuelling our bodies for our workout. I want to lose weight and improve fitness. You can do both but you need to balance them.
This.
I don't workout to increase my food intake. I eat to fuel my fitness.3 -
WinoGelato wrote: »WinoGelato wrote: »Well, I would not eat my calories back since I think it defeats the purpose of using exercise as a tool to increase caloric deficit - but who am I to dictate this approach to everyone? I would still advise eating half rather then eating back all of them, just in case that there would be an overestimation... let's not forget that the goal here is to maintain a deficit! This is one reason why I am planning to get a fitness watch ASAP to help me understand my body better
Also... I prefer to enter as my calorie goal my TDEE since that way I see the calories needed to maintain. The calories left (the green number) then represents my deficit, which motivates me a lot more. I think it makes more sense and helps me understand my body better; just make sure your recalculate your TDEE for every 5lbs lost and also be sure to have a sensible tool to calculate your body fat % to ensure best possible accuracy. P.S. I also take my measurements!
All in all, just make sure that whatever you're doing is working and that you're losing on the scale! It's all about making it work for you. We can all share our experiences and motivate each other no matter what. I'm sure there are people that don't eat them back, some people that eat them all back or only half back, and all of those people could still lose weight!
If you are using the MFP method, which uses a NEAT estimate, exercise is excluded. Your calorie goal is set at a deficit such that even if you do no exercise at all, you should lose weight. That is why if you do exercise, you should eat back at least a portion of those calories, to avoid having too large of a deficit which can result in loss of lean muscle, as well as other potential adverse effects.
Calculating your goal from your TDEE has exercise calories factored in, so no, you wouldn't necessarily eat back the exercise adjustment. Most people using the TDEE method log the exercise activity and the duration but manually adjust to 1 calorie when it is logged.
You are conflating two different methods - so please don't suggest that eating back exercise calories defeats the purpose.
Your TDEE doesn't include your workouts... it includes your level of daily activities. For example, are you doing a desk job or do you work standing up and moving all day long. Your BMR is what your body needs just to function (breathing, digesting, etc).
No.
You are correct about BMR.
NEAT (non exercise activity thermogenesis) is your BMR plus the day to day activity excluding exercise. That's what the MFP calculations use.
TDEE (total daily energy expenditure) is the sum of BMR, NEAT and the exercise you do as well.
Thanks for the precision! I did select sedentary since I work a desk job and log my workouts separately since they vary in frequency and intensity. That would be important for me to mention next time, I wouldn't want to confuse anyone.3dogsrunning wrote: »Then that isn't TDEE.
That is the same principal MFP is based on, which is why you log your exercise on the day you do it.
Anyway, my point was... I'd rather see the NEAT as my calorie goal because then the calories left (green number) represents my deficit.
When you set up MFP did you put in that you wanted to lose weight? How much? At what pace? 1 lb/week? If so, the goal MFP gave you, even with sedentary already has a deficit built in. For example if you selected 1 lb/week, the goal MFP gave you is already a 500 cal deficit from your NEAT. If you exercise more, and burn 200-400 or even more calories, then you are creating an even larger deficit. While that may sound good, faster weight loss yada yada yada, by creating too big of a deficit you risk losing lean muscle, fatigue, hair loss, brittle nails, etc. You really should be aiming to hit the number MFP provided, as a Net goal, not to dramatically be under it.
Also for what it's worth, I have a desk job too, but after working to become more active and getting a FitBit, when I realized I averaged 10k steps/day (now 15k) then I changed my activity level as that's definitely not sedentary.1 -
This is my second day of MFP . After exercising this morning and burning 450 calories I was shocked to learn I was to make up those calories to meet my goal of 1200 . Now I'm happy to hear ( if I understand right) I only need to eat 1/2 of those calories burned. I think I can handle that to feel good.
Potentially, but people with a goal of 1200 are already at the lowest recommended calorie goal for women. If you are accurately logging your food intake with a digital scale, and the exercise estimates are accurate, then even if you only ate back 225 of those calories you'd still be netting under 1000 cals for the day which is likely too low for long term sustainability.1 -
3dogsrunning wrote: »Well, I would not eat my calories back since I think it defeats the purpose of using exercise as a tool to increase caloric deficit - but who am I to dictate this approach to everyone? I would still advise eating half rather then eating back all of them, just in case that there would be an overestimation... let's not forget that the goal here is to maintain a deficit! This is one reason why I am planning to get a fitness watch ASAP to help me understand my body better
Also... I prefer to enter as my calorie goal my TDEE since that way I see the calories needed to maintain. The calories left (the green number) then represents my deficit, which motivates me a lot more. I think it makes more sense and helps me understand my body better; just make sure your recalculate your TDEE for every 5lbs lost and also be sure to have a sensible tool to calculate your body fat % to ensure best possible accuracy. P.S. I also take my measurements!
All in all, just make sure that whatever you're doing is working and that you're losing on the scale! It's all about making it work for you. We can all share our experiences and motivate each other no matter what. I'm sure there are people that don't eat them back, some people that eat them all back or only half back, and all of those people could still lose weight!
Many of us do not use exercise as a tool to increase caloric deficit. Rather, we use it to improve our strength, cardiovascular health, physique, and/or overall fitness
Well, I obviously exercise for all of these other reasons... but it would still be counterproductive to me, even almost building an unhealthy relationship toward food (for me at least) to workout with the goal of increasing my food intake...
It isn't necessarily working out to increase food intake. Some of us take the approach of fuelling our bodies for our workout. I want to lose weight and improve fitness. You can do both but you need to balance them.
This.
I don't workout to increase my food intake. I eat to fuel my fitness.
Yep. I workout for 40 to 60 minutes every morning and walk 15 to 20K steps daily. Another 5'3", 108 pound woman may be able to maintain on 1400, but I still lose weight at 1700 calories and need to eat more due to my activity level. Today I did my usual morning hour workout but then I walked for five hours in the city and got 35,000 steps. Unfortunately my appetite wasn't present today so I only ate 1688 calories and still had over 1000 calories left to eat for maintenance. I know I'm going to feel the effects of that tomorrow and will probably be a bottomless pit. I think it's more unhealthy to fear food, exercise calories, or fueling your body adequately than it is to exercise for a purpose of being able to eat more.0 -
I use my real exercise time to have a system of record for that. I have been maintaining for 8 months and now eat back most. I only ate back half when I was losing and it seems reasonable.
Many devices over estimate the calories used for some set of data. YMMV.
If the math makes more sense like that to you have a happy.0 -
bendis2007 wrote: »Here is a study out of Ball State. They took 6 of the top fitness trackers and measured them against oxygen consumption (one of the most accurate ways to measure true calories burned). They were all over-estimating calories burned as much as 122%.
http://www.wthr.com/story/31285468/sometimes-your-fitness-tracker-lies-a-lot-fitbit-jawbone-garmin-ifit-misfit-accuracy
As a rule for me, I always log my workouts but it's because I like to see that I get in exercise 5 days a week. You can of course put your workouts in the "notes" section of the diary so that it doesn't enter the calories into your daily calorie total. I make it a rule to try and never eat my exercise calories back. If you do eat them back, I would recommend eating less than half back as this study indicates there is a gross over-estimation. I also set my calories at a sedentary lifestyle. It's taken some getting used to but when I measure my food and eat my daily calorie allowance maybe eating back about 25% of the exercise calories, I do show 1-2 pound weight loss each week. It does work, it just sucks because even with trackers and technology it's very hard to know accurately how many calories YOU burn when you do certain activities and factor that in with eating.
If you set your parameters on MFP, you should know about how many calories you want to consume each day and follow that relatively easy without looking at the overall "Net calories" at the top once you've input your workouts. Use your stats and to find your resting basal metabolic rate. From there you would multiply by 1.2 if mildly active or more if you are very active. That will give you a pretty good estimation of what you need to eat to maintain so eating less than that should help you to see the number on the scale go down.
To answer your final question - aside from the study (which I'm sure has it's own shortcomings but is a good baseline for highlighting the errors with some of these trackers) just from being on MFP and the amount of people who note that they are eating 1200 calories, working out an hour everyday burning upwards of 4500 calories or more per day (highly unlikely) and yet show NO change in their weight it makes me think that they are either under-estimating what they eat, or they go off the tracker and over-estimate how many calories they actually burn during a workout and mistakenly eat too much to allow for any weight loss.
Here is a more detailed study: https://ijbnpa.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12966-015-0314-1
Personally, I use a Surge, which was not studied. I used to use the One. If I'm not mistaken, the Surge uses the same technology as the Ultra, which under-estimates calorie burn when I run (a common exercise for me):Validity for energy expenditure
The criterion measures for energy expenditure assessed in kilocalories was indirect calorimetry [15, 29, 34, 35, 39, 40, 45], direct calorimetry [31], accelerometry (ActiGraph GT3X+ with a conversion equation [50] to estimate kilocalories [35] and BodyMedia SenseWear [33]), and self-reported data using a questionnaire [41]. Generally, regardless of the criterion used, energy expenditure was under-estimated for the Classic [29, 31, 39, 41], One [33, 35], Flex, Ultra [29, 34] (for running, elliptical, and agility drills [40]), Zip [33, 35], UP [33, 35](for agility drills [40]), and UP24 [45]. When correlations were reported, they ranged widely [15, 29, 34, 35, 45]. A few studies indicated energy expenditure was over-estimated compared to indirect calorimetry: the Ultra during walking [40], the Zip across a variety of laboratory-based activities [35], the Flex during several combined activities (sedentary, aerobic, and resistance exercises) [45], and the UP during running [40].0 -
I don't exercise all at once, my exercise calories get added in bibs and bobs all throughout the day. The numbers in my exercise column keep going up all day, each bit of exercise doesnt get added to a separate column every time i work out, so there is no need to track anything in my head OP, i have no idea why you would think this.
If someone was going to eat half of their exercise calories back, they would look at the number on their home page, which for example says 600 exercise calories earned, they would then eat back 300 calories. Absolutely no mental arithmetic needed.0 -
3dogsrunning wrote: »WinoGelato wrote: »Well, I would not eat my calories back since I think it defeats the purpose of using exercise as a tool to increase caloric deficit - but who am I to dictate this approach to everyone? I would still advise eating half rather then eating back all of them, just in case that there would be an overestimation... let's not forget that the goal here is to maintain a deficit! This is one reason why I am planning to get a fitness watch ASAP to help me understand my body better
Also... I prefer to enter as my calorie goal my TDEE since that way I see the calories needed to maintain. The calories left (the green number) then represents my deficit, which motivates me a lot more. I think it makes more sense and helps me understand my body better; just make sure your recalculate your TDEE for every 5lbs lost and also be sure to have a sensible tool to calculate your body fat % to ensure best possible accuracy. P.S. I also take my measurements!
All in all, just make sure that whatever you're doing is working and that you're losing on the scale! It's all about making it work for you. We can all share our experiences and motivate each other no matter what. I'm sure there are people that don't eat them back, some people that eat them all back or only half back, and all of those people could still lose weight!
If you are using the MFP method, which uses a NEAT estimate, exercise is excluded. Your calorie goal is set at a deficit such that even if you do no exercise at all, you should lose weight. That is why if you do exercise, you should eat back at least a portion of those calories, to avoid having too large of a deficit which can result in loss of lean muscle, as well as other potential adverse effects.
Calculating your goal from your TDEE has exercise calories factored in, so no, you wouldn't necessarily eat back the exercise adjustment. Most people using the TDEE method log the exercise activity and the duration but manually adjust to 1 calorie when it is logged.
You are conflating two different methods - so please don't suggest that eating back exercise calories defeats the purpose.
Your TDEE doesn't include your workouts... it includes your level of daily activities. For example, are you doing a desk job or do you work standing up and moving all day long. Your BMR is what your body needs just to function (breathing, digesting, etc).
You are incorrect. @WinoGelato is correct.
This.
If you chose sedentary for TDEE, then there are no workouts included. But if you workout then you are not sedentary.
Generally TDEE is calculated by the following multipliers
Little or No Exercise: TDEE = 1.2 x BMR
Light Exercise/Sports 1 to 3 Times Per Week: TDEE = 1.375 x BMR
Moderate Exercise, Sports 3 to 5 Times Per Week: TDEE = 1.55 x BMR
Heavy Exercise, Sports 6 to 7 Times Per Week: TDEE = 1.725 x BMR
Very heavy exercise (e.g., physical job; training 2x/day): TDEE = 1.9 x BMR
See this is why I thought that I had done this by picking out my TDEE when I signed up on MFP. I didn't know about NEAT. Unless I am more active than I NORMALLY am I don't adjust and add in or eat back any regular exercise calories burned because I already figured them in. If I counted again I would double dip and eat too much. Otherwise, if my exercise frequency increased on a regular basis I would go in and readjust my activity level for MFP calculations.
Edited typos0 -
I pre-log my food for the whole day. I pretty much know the type and length of exercise I am going to do every day although I don't log it until I do it. I factor in some extra calories. If my exercise doesn't end up being enough I may exercise more or adjust pre-logged food entries. I usually exercise in the morning or early enough that I am not done eating for the day.
I log the whole exercise time because I want a record of minutes I exercised.
I don't think it is hard to figure out half of the calories earned from exercise unless you log a lot of really random stuff and exercise very late in the day0 -
I think people overthink this way too much.
Currently I have an apple watch which adds more cals when I exercise more. When I used MFP in the past, I logged my exercise using the MFP database.
Both times I've lost weight as I expect - if I'm tight with my logging and stick to my daily cals (and for me that includes eating more when I exercise) then I will lose weight. If I get slack with recording or consistently eat more then I lose slowly or not at all.
In my opinion, the better strategy is to treat all these numbers as estimates - which they are. E
at up to or around your daily calorie goal including exercise*, then see how your body responds. If you don't lose weight as expected, then that says that some part of the equation is out. If might be a medical conditions which meals you are burning less that expected or you it might be that logging is too rough and ready. For whatever reason, you need to change something - I would drop 100 cals or so off my daily goal (and keep eating more when I exercise) and test that out.
* this might mean adding your exercise into MFP daily based on the MFP calculation or it might mean finding a calorie goal from some other system, which almost always includes more cals if you are more active.1
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