Exercise calories

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cambridgestylist
cambridgestylist Posts: 37 Member
in Getting Started
Hi! I'm new to MFP.

I have a lot of weight to lose. My goal right now is to walk 3x a day for a half hour at a 3 mile an hour pace. It's a lot of walking for me. I have gotten really out of shape.

When I log all my walking, my food diary adds a lot of exercise calories, probably because I am very heavy right now. It looks like too much food to eat and still lose weight.

So my question is, should I be eating the extra calories? If anyone can help me out it would be great. Thank you.

Replies

  • Jruzer
    Jruzer Posts: 3,501 Member
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    That's how MFP is designed to be used, yes.
  • TR0berts
    TR0berts Posts: 7,739 Member
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    When you set up your MFP account, it gave you a Calorie allotment to lose x lbs per week with no exercise included. As such, when you exercise and burn more Calories, you (generally) should make up those Calories.

    That said, many people find the Calorie burns given by MFP to be a bit overestimated. So they'll eat around half of what MFP gives them. In your case, you're walking 4.5 miles a day - if you actually meet your goal. You'll get a bit of Calories, but I'm not sure just how many - and I don't know if the MFP estimation is accurate or close or anything.

    I guess I'd say to try to eat most of the Calories MFP gives you for now and monitor your weight over the next few weeks. If your weight loss is close to what it should be*, then keep on this path. Otherwise, adjust as necessary.


    * For example: if you're set to lose 2 lb per week, and you lose 7-10 lb over 4 weeks? I'd say that's probably close enough. Less than 7? OK - eat fewer of your exercise Calories. More than 10? Instead of eating most of your exercise Calories, eat them all.
  • cambridgestylist
    cambridgestylist Posts: 37 Member
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    Thank you! I lost a lot of weight on Weight Watchers a long time ago, and I always used my activity points. I don't know why the extra calories make me nervous!
  • pdo27789
    pdo27789 Posts: 120 Member
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    Many people have complex thoughts on this subject, but many seem to be around 50% eat rate or so.

    I don't bother with the math though. I let the scale tell me what to do. If I lose weight too fast, I eat more. Too slow, I eat less. I weigh myself weekly so that I don't over react to changes.

    I started walking at first too. 7+ months later I'm almost 44lbs down and running 3 days a week. Baby steps add up! You'll see :)
  • rsclause
    rsclause Posts: 3,103 Member
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    If you are logging accurately and the exercise is not overestimated you should be fine. I generally found calorie burns that machines calculate are inflated the most. When I was walking I would use my headphones for music or podcasts. I also used Runtastic to calculate the calories my fitness walks because it put speed and distance into it. Runtastic syncs to MFP as well. I now use Runtastic for running and FitBit for general activity tracking. I love to drink wine, scotch and beer so that's what I use my exercise calories for. I found that I could still lose and drink if I ran 30 miles a week.
  • oocdc2
    oocdc2 Posts: 1,361 Member
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    cambridgestylist wrote: »
    Thank you! I lost a lot of weight on Weight Watchers a long time ago, and I always used my activity points. I don't know why the extra calories make me nervous!

    When you actually do eat your exercise calories (and, I recommend eating 50% - 75% back), and find you're still losing weight, you'll stop being nervous. :smile:

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