Calories inaccurate for weightloss?

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sysam
sysam Posts: 1 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
I'm working to lose a few pounds because I'm a runner and would like to improve my time. MFP tells me that I need 1200 if I'm sedentary, in order to lose weight. But yesterday when I logged my 2 hour bike ride and 1 hour run, it went all the way up to 2700. Is it always accurate with exercise? I feel like it is allowing me wayyyy to many calories. Also, on days that I just do about an hour of Hiit/circuit training, it's more like 1700-1800 but I still feel like that's too high to lose weight. I'm 125 pounds. Any help, suggestions, comments, etc.!?
Thanks :)

Replies

  • rybo
    rybo Posts: 5,424 Member
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    Exercise estimates are usually inflated. Many suggest eating back half. Personally if you are a pretty consistent exerciser I like picking a set amount to eat daily that accounts for activity level and not worry about adding back for each exercise session. Then use a longer term trend to adjust up/down as needed
  • 4legsRbetterthan2
    4legsRbetterthan2 Posts: 19,590 MFP Moderator
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    Exercise estimates are usually inflated.

    agreed

    there are also others ways to try to track your activity. If you have a gps sport watch that can track those things it probably can tell you your calories burned. If not, I used to use runkeeper, free app, to track runs and that was pretty in line with my watch and fitbit. I believe mapmyrun (another free app, never personally used but heard good things) has a mapmyride version of it too for tracking cycling. If you find something that works for you you can just manually enter the calories burned in MFP instead of using the ones it calculates.
  • thatdesertgirl777
    thatdesertgirl777 Posts: 269 Member
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    I like to eat the same calories everyday. So I figure out my weekly TDEE (what I burn in a week) from a few other online calculators, adding in my activity level and how many workouts I do on average. Then I subtract 500 a day (to lose a pound a week). Then I created a custom goal through MFP (for me that's about 1400 calories). When I log exercise I just count the workout as 1 calorie. This sounds more complicated than it is, and works well for me.
  • OrangeKicker
    OrangeKicker Posts: 4 Member
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    Why are you set to sedentary if you are doing 3 hour workouts? 1500 additional calories from 3 hours of activity equates to 500 calories an hour, which does not seem unreasonable for moderately hard biking and running, even at your size. The only way to know if it's too high to lose weight is to look at results. You can guess all day, but results don't lie. Also, if you are 125#, how tall are you? How much are you trying to lose?
  • StaciMarie1974
    StaciMarie1974 Posts: 4,138 Member
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    Because MFP assumes 'activity level' does NOT include exercise.

    @OrangeKicker do you use a heart rate monitor to gauge your calorie burn for running, biking? If so rely more on those #s than an online estimator. Keep in mind that if you cut your calories too low you could damage your running/biking training.
    OrangeKicker wrote: »
    Why are you set to sedentary if you are doing 3 hour workouts? 1500 additional calories from 3 hours of activity equates to 500 calories an hour, which does not seem unreasonable for moderately hard biking and running, even at your size. The only way to know if it's too high to lose weight is to look at results. You can guess all day, but results don't lie. Also, if you are 125#, how tall are you? How much are you trying to lose?

  • quiksylver296
    quiksylver296 Posts: 28,442 Member
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    thatdesertgirl777 wrote: »
    I like to eat the same calories everyday. So I figure out my weekly TDEE (what I burn in a week) from a few other online calculators, adding in my activity level and how many workouts I do on average. Then I subtract 500 a day (to lose a pound a week). Then I created a custom goal through MFP (for me that's about 1400 calories). When I log exercise I just count the workout as 1 calorie. This sounds more complicated than it is, and works well for me.

    I do the same. Trying to eat back exercise calories is like trying to hit a moving target, and I hate it. I end the day with lots of calories still to eat, because I work out after work. I just set my calories at 1960, and don't add back exercise calories. I do work out very consistently. If your exercise is not consistent, this method won't work.
  • malibu927
    malibu927 Posts: 17,565 Member
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    OrangeKicker wrote: »
    Why are you set to sedentary if you are doing 3 hour workouts? 1500 additional calories from 3 hours of activity equates to 500 calories an hour, which does not seem unreasonable for moderately hard biking and running, even at your size. The only way to know if it's too high to lose weight is to look at results. You can guess all day, but results don't lie. Also, if you are 125#, how tall are you? How much are you trying to lose?

    The activity level on MFP does not account for exercise, which is why it gets logged separately.

    OP, everything is an estimate, and many have found that these numbers are off. Start with eating back 50% of those calories. Judge your loss after a month and adjust how many you eat back if you're losing faster or slower than expected, while making sure you still log your food as accurately as possible.
  • OrangeKicker
    OrangeKicker Posts: 4 Member
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    @StaciMarie1974 You're right - I personally use the TDEE method, so that is where my mind is. I do not consume "extra" exercise calories, because I figured my TDEE to include workouts. I used to eat too little for training, and have spent much of my past marathon training cycles injured. For me at least, I need the consistently higher intake to make my workouts better, not just eating more on the days I am more active.

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