How many calories do you gain per day through exercise?
miratps
Posts: 141 Member
For maintainers/former crazy exercisers, how many calories do you 'gain' from your daily exercise and/or just walking about?
For those who exercised liked crazy during weight loss but calmed it back when they hit maintenance, how did you do it? (I'm struggling with this currently)
For those who exercised liked crazy during weight loss but calmed it back when they hit maintenance, how did you do it? (I'm struggling with this currently)
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Replies
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300-350
I suggest that you still exercise while maintaining as it helps a lot !2 -
healthy491 wrote: »300-350
I suggest that you still exercise while maintaining as it helps a lot !
Oh definitely just don't want to keep up a crazy number. According to my adjustments etc. I was doing 1200 minimum a day and never ate any of it back, that was fine during the summer/for 6 or 7 months but now I need to maintain for the rest of my life and need to be realistic. I got lucky I had no injuries and little got in the way but I have to be realistic and be more reasonable. I know it's good but I have no intention of being an athlete so I shouldn't need to bust my body up now I've hit my goal0 -
Of purposeful exercise, 280.
Of me not being a lump for 16 hours, 900.3 -
Fitbit calorie adjustment is usually somewhere between 600 and 1600 calories (activity level is set to sedentary.) Yes I eat all or most of them back. I don't decide beforehand I just eat what I'm hungry for and allow the rest to bank to cover logging errors and potential overages. A lot of that adjustment is just quick walks (10 to 15 minutes) during the day on my work breaks.0
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High for me was about 2000 calories per day on exercise/activity now about 1000/day. You just have to find time to do what you need do to keep fit. Exercise is great for maintenance and is the best predictor of keeping the weight off, but it's primarily for other health benefits. Find what works for you and that you can enjoy for a lifetime.0
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Curious why you weren't eating back exercise cals while losing OP? How much weight did you lose and how fast did you lose it? What were your net calories? How do you measure your exercise calories burned?
I would think for maintenance you would want to calculate your appropriate TDEE/maintenance calories and eat up to that level, not so much focusing on how many cals you earn from exercise. If you want to still use the MFP NEAT method where your cal goal is calculated without exercise factored in and you eat back exercise cals, that's fine, but I would still calculate your TDEE so you know what the top of your range should be.
My personal experience, I've always eaten back all my cals, first when I was using MFP estimates and then when I was using FitBit adjustments. I get about 15k steps/day and do circuit training with light weights 3 times a week, so I changed my activity level to Active on MFP so that my baseline target was a bit higher and my adjustments were not so large and inconsistent. I'm 5'2 and maintaining at 120 with a TDEE of 2200, for what it's worth.2 -
Depends on the day and exercise but between 300 - 700 calories Some peak days at 1000 very occasionally0
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From intentional exercise... I probably average 300 cals per day, or so. Some days it could be 1000, other days it could be 0.
From just regular life... hard to pin down, but something in the neighborhood of 500 cals per day.
As for the "how I did it" part... I do basically the same things now that I did then... I just eat a little more than I was. Most of the exercise I do is done because I enjoy it. I adjust my diet/intake based on my weight. So the cals out side of the equation has changed very little for me. The cals in side has.0 -
Ashtanga Yoga 90 minutes daily; probably around 300 calories. Yes of course I eat them back - its bloody hard work!0
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I exercise 6 or 7 days a week, the majority is mostly cycling or cycle related cardio plus 3 strength sessions a week.
My exercise calories vary enormously from day to day - zero on a rare complete rest day to even more rare c. 4500 (nine hour cycle).
Also varies enormously from season to season - 100+ miles a week in summer and very little outdoors cycling in winter.
My highest ever week was over 10,000 exercise calories.
I didn't exercise to lose weight, I lost weight to get healthier and fitter. But exercising gave me a much higher and easier to sustain calorie allowance when losing weight - eating well and a good amount of food while losing slowly was my aim.
I exercise more at maintenance than when losing weight as my capabilities are higher and my goals are higher. Crucially I really enjoy my exercise!6 -
I honestly have no idea. I don't know how accurate the machines are. I compared my stationary bike with my HRM 2 years ago and it was 100% spot on though, so that's about 300-400 a day, plus a 3 miles walk (some uphill) so maybe another 200. Guessing 500-600 is probably what I burn when I go to the gym too (1.5-2h of walking uphill.. machine says 700 to 900). Then some days I end up walking 12 miles or something, sometimes hiking, so it can be more.
Then whatever I burn cooking, running errands etc. So with one rest day a week (which I honestly don't typically take)... probably 600 a day in average or something? I maintain around 2200-2300 (I've been eating closer to 2300 for 2 weeks and my clothes fit the same thankfully).
I'd still be overweight if I didn't exercise frankly. And yeah I exercise way more now than I did when losing overall (mostly I can go faster/longer. I mostly do cardio though, hate weights, although I might pick them up again soon).
I don't eat exercise calories, I just use TDEE-15% or something and don't sweat it (too much) when I go over if there's a special occasion or I'm hungrier and just try to average under 2200 most weeks (losing too much will never be an issue for me).0 -
Hi
Interesting question, I do not even have a answer in my case.
When I started working on losing the weight I was on 1800 calories a day. As I lost weight I added exercise and stayed at 1800 calories. Now at Maintenance I eat a1800 Calories a day of food and either a treat of around 200 calories or a Large Apple or other fruits.
When I started this journey I was not doing anything and had a hard time walking anywhere. Now 2 years and 9 months later I am hitting 10K steps + per day and 3 miles + per day and am doing maintenance. I still weight daily since I do not let daily fluctuations bother me and I still log it in Hard Copy form using a Small Ledger Book
I eat Three meals per day, three snack per day and include 12 ounces of vegetables and Three pieces of fruit per day.
FWIW my In expensive FitBit Zip says I have done 9642 steps so far and 1360 calories as of 9AM. I suspect it is overestimating my Calorie burn
Bottom line for me is that I use the scale to see how much I can eat to a certain extent.
Have a Good Day and Good Luck
Roger1 -
Of purposeful exercise, 280.
Of me not being a lump for 16 hours, 900.
I'm a little confused by this answer. Is 900 your BMR or BMR+non-exercise activity? Pro-rated to awake hours?
Purposeful exercise gives me 300.
Being awake & moving around gives me 250 on top of BMR (20%).
BMR ~ 1240.
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Of purposeful exercise, 280.
Of me not being a lump for 16 hours, 900.
I'm a little confused by this answer. Is 900 your BMR or BMR+non-exercise activity? Pro-rated to awake hours?
Purposeful exercise gives me 300.
Being awake & moving around gives me 250 on top of BMR (20%).
BMR ~ 1240.
I don't mean to answer for this poster (and I hope she will step in to correct me if I'm wrong), but I think that she means that she has increased her TDEE by about 900 calories by being more active in her daily life instead of laying around watching TV or something. One would not generally qualify this as "exercise" as intended by MFP, but it is probably the best way to increase your overall calorie burn.
I bought my husband a fitbit for Christmas two years ago. He started using it this March, and just aims to get 12,000 steps/day in his normal activity. He has since lost almost 20lbs simply by doing this and nothing else. He doesn't make a point of exercising or monitoring his diet. It just forces him to pay more attention to how much he is moving throughput the day.2 -
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lporter229 wrote: »Of purposeful exercise, 280.
Of me not being a lump for 16 hours, 900.
I'm a little confused by this answer. Is 900 your BMR or BMR+non-exercise activity? Pro-rated to awake hours?
Purposeful exercise gives me 300.
Being awake & moving around gives me 250 on top of BMR (20%).
BMR ~ 1240.
I don't mean to answer for this poster (and I hope she will step in to correct me if I'm wrong), but I think that she means that she has increased her TDEE by about 900 calories by being more active in her daily life instead of laying around watching TV or something. One would not generally qualify this as "exercise" as intended by MFP, but it is probably the best way to increase your overall calorie burn.
I bought my husband a fitbit for Christmas two years ago. He started using it this March, and just aims to get 12,000 steps/day in his normal activity. He has since lost almost 20lbs simply by doing this and nothing else. He doesn't make a point of exercising or monitoring his diet. It just forces him to pay more attention to how much he is moving throughput the day.
Zyxst specified purposeful exercise separately, and I took that to mean 900 was non-exercise activity. The non-exercise activity increase is nowhere near that for me, hence confusion.
Activity multipliers
1.2 = sedentary (little or no exercise)
1.375 = light activity (light exercise/sports 1 to 3 days per week)
1.55 = moderate activity (moderate exercise/sports 3 to 5 days per week)
1.725 = very active (hard exercise/sports 6 to 7 days per week)
1.9 = extra active (very hard exercise/sports 6 to 7 days per week and physical job)
To gain 900cal from activity, one would have to have a high BMR (or at least what seems high to me) and an extreme amount of activity. E.g. at a BMR=1500, going from sedentary to very active <800 cal.0 -
Usually between 950-1,000 extra calories0
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lporter229 wrote: »Of purposeful exercise, 280.
Of me not being a lump for 16 hours, 900.
I'm a little confused by this answer. Is 900 your BMR or BMR+non-exercise activity? Pro-rated to awake hours?
Purposeful exercise gives me 300.
Being awake & moving around gives me 250 on top of BMR (20%).
BMR ~ 1240.
I don't mean to answer for this poster (and I hope she will step in to correct me if I'm wrong), but I think that she means that she has increased her TDEE by about 900 calories by being more active in her daily life instead of laying around watching TV or something. One would not generally qualify this as "exercise" as intended by MFP, but it is probably the best way to increase your overall calorie burn.
I bought my husband a fitbit for Christmas two years ago. He started using it this March, and just aims to get 12,000 steps/day in his normal activity. He has since lost almost 20lbs simply by doing this and nothing else. He doesn't make a point of exercising or monitoring his diet. It just forces him to pay more attention to how much he is moving throughput the day.
Zyxst specified purposeful exercise separately, and I took that to mean 900 was non-exercise activity. The non-exercise activity increase is nowhere near that for me, hence confusion.
Activity multipliers
1.2 = sedentary (little or no exercise)
1.375 = light activity (light exercise/sports 1 to 3 days per week)
1.55 = moderate activity (moderate exercise/sports 3 to 5 days per week)
1.725 = very active (hard exercise/sports 6 to 7 days per week)
1.9 = extra active (very hard exercise/sports 6 to 7 days per week and physical job)
To gain 900cal from activity, one would have to have a high BMR (or at least what seems high to me) and an extreme amount of activity. E.g. at a BMR=1500, going from sedentary to very active <800 cal.
I don't particularly care for the multipliers. Daily tracking is far more accurate.0 -
lporter229 wrote: »Of purposeful exercise, 280.
Of me not being a lump for 16 hours, 900.
I'm a little confused by this answer. Is 900 your BMR or BMR+non-exercise activity? Pro-rated to awake hours?
Purposeful exercise gives me 300.
Being awake & moving around gives me 250 on top of BMR (20%).
BMR ~ 1240.
I don't mean to answer for this poster (and I hope she will step in to correct me if I'm wrong), but I think that she means that she has increased her TDEE by about 900 calories by being more active in her daily life instead of laying around watching TV or something. One would not generally qualify this as "exercise" as intended by MFP, but it is probably the best way to increase your overall calorie burn.
I bought my husband a fitbit for Christmas two years ago. He started using it this March, and just aims to get 12,000 steps/day in his normal activity. He has since lost almost 20lbs simply by doing this and nothing else. He doesn't make a point of exercising or monitoring his diet. It just forces him to pay more attention to how much he is moving throughput the day.
Zyxst specified purposeful exercise separately, and I took that to mean 900 was non-exercise activity. The non-exercise activity increase is nowhere near that for me, hence confusion.
Activity multipliers
1.2 = sedentary (little or no exercise)
1.375 = light activity (light exercise/sports 1 to 3 days per week)
1.55 = moderate activity (moderate exercise/sports 3 to 5 days per week)
1.725 = very active (hard exercise/sports 6 to 7 days per week)
1.9 = extra active (very hard exercise/sports 6 to 7 days per week and physical job)
To gain 900cal from activity, one would have to have a high BMR (or at least what seems high to me) and an extreme amount of activity. E.g. at a BMR=1500, going from sedentary to very active <800 cal.
Non-exercise, activity calories are really hard to nail down. For me, I basically did this:
TDEE - BRM - intentional exercise = non-exercise cals. That's a little oversimplified, but given the issues around estimating these things, I figured it was good enough for this conversation.
My TDEE is, on average around 2500 cals, assuming an average of 350 exercise cals. Calculated BMR is around 1650.
2500 - 1650 - 350 = 500.
That's for me. I'm sure that number can vary fairly significantly based on job, lifestyle, etc etc.0 -
Curious why everyone is so concerned with figuring out the different contributors to the TDEE?1
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Not concerned. Just saw a comment that I didn't understand. I'm sure it's a misunderstanding on my part.0
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WinoGelato wrote: »Curious why everyone is so concerned with figuring out the different contributors to the TDEE?
Me too.
Also curious about the fascination people have with calculations/calculators in general once they have real data from a period of logging.2 -
WinoGelato wrote: »Curious why everyone is so concerned with figuring out the different contributors to the TDEE?
It's actually pretty nice to know. I know some active people who NEVER exercise but can eat more than people who exercise because they're just so active all the time.
There's a lot of emphasis on exercise on MFP but really, activity is what matters the most. If you're on your feet for 5 hours, you'll still burn more calories than if you jog for 30 minutes.1 -
WinoGelato wrote: »Curious why everyone is so concerned with figuring out the different contributors to the TDEE?
It's actually pretty nice to know. I know some active people who NEVER exercise but can eat more than people who exercise because they're just so active all the time.
There's a lot of emphasis on exercise on MFP but really, activity is what matters the most. If you're on your feet for 5 hours, you'll still burn more calories than if you jog for 30 minutes.
It depends what you mean by "matters most". If you mean for weight loss then for many (most?) people yes because they don't really exercise much anyway (i.e. under 500 cals per day), but if you mean for optimal health then no, vigorous exercise wins every time for the added health benefits.2 -
WinoGelato wrote: »Curious why everyone is so concerned with figuring out the different contributors to the TDEE?
It's actually pretty nice to know. I know some active people who NEVER exercise but can eat more than people who exercise because they're just so active all the time.
There's a lot of emphasis on exercise on MFP but really, activity is what matters the most. If you're on your feet for 5 hours, you'll still burn more calories than if you jog for 30 minutes.
No I get that - and I'm one of those people who has a pretty high TDEE because my NEAT is high from daily activity more so than rigorous exercise. I was just confused why people were trying to pinpoint the specific number from non-exercise activity and looking at the multipliers. I actually thought the OP asked the question, but I see now it was just a point that was raised in response to someone else's post.
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my daily exercise comes in around 800cal. its 5600cal per week on average used through exercise. mostly cycling
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For me, purposeful exercise is doing a workout video for 30-60 minutes every other day depending on how much time I have.
Me not being a lump is me pacing back and forth while watching movies/tv shows online instead of sitting on my butt. It's about 10 hours a day at a slow walk, something like 2 mph, though I expect to be told I have exercise bulimia because only a crazy person would pace around for 10 hours instead of sitting around.
My BMR is 1250ish between the info from MFP and Fitbit. If I didn't do my walking all day, I'd be stuck with 1400 - 1500ish calories a day to eat and I would probably go back to be morbidly obese.
ETA: My Fitbit walking goal is 30k steps and 10 miles. I hit them every day.5 -
I normally run 10km a few times a week and 5km the other days. I count it as 500cals for the 10km and 250 for the 5km, not sure how accurate that is, but it's usually what i assume.0
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I have a pretty high variance on exercise calories. A lifting session I estimate is 80-100 cals. I don't bother eating that back, it's my cushion for the days were I don't stay 'in bounds'.
Running burns about 80 cals per mile at my weight. I always run at least 3 miles, long runs have gotten up to 15 miles. Those I eat back or there'd be some serious crashing and burning eventually, LOL.0
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