Question regarding calories!

kieraleigh486
kieraleigh486 Posts: 5 Member
edited November 2024 in Health and Weight Loss
This may sound silly but when your burning off calories, do you eat the calories burnt? Or is that just a stupid question? I'm currently burning 500-600 calories per day and eating 1300 calories, so my net calories per day is 800 calories after taking away what I've burnt off?? I have an office based job, so other than going to the gym an hour a day, I'm fairly inactive.

Replies

  • Chef_Barbell
    Chef_Barbell Posts: 6,644 Member
    Yes eat exercise calories. That's the way MFP is set up.
  • Hornsby
    Hornsby Posts: 10,322 Member
    Yes, if you are following MFP as it's designed you should be eating back your calories from exercise. Keep in mind that calorie burns are often exaggerated if using MFP so many opt to only eat a portion of the calories back.
  • CafeRacer808
    CafeRacer808 Posts: 2,396 Member
    Hornsby wrote: »
    Yes, if you are following MFP as it's designed you should be eating back your calories from exercise. Keep in mind that calorie burns are often exaggerated if using MFP so many opt to only eat a portion of the calories back.

    Yup, this. Even outside of MFP, calories burned can vary depending on the app you're using to calculate it. I typically eat back 50-70% of my exercise calories.
  • kieraleigh486
    kieraleigh486 Posts: 5 Member
    Thank you! Yeah, I don't really go by the calories burnt using MFP, I go by the calories on the machines at the gym! Appreciate the replies :)
  • chocolate_owl
    chocolate_owl Posts: 1,695 Member
    kieraleigh486 wrote: »
    Thank you! Yeah, I don't really go by the calories burnt using MFP, I go by the calories on the machines at the gym! Appreciate the replies :)

    Even then, be careful. Those can be notoriously inaccurate, especially ellipticals. They also include calories you'd burn if you were at rest, so you end up double-counting a few calories. I'd recommend entering 75% of the calories they claim you burn, and if you struggle to lose weight, decrease that to 50%.
  • Hornsby
    Hornsby Posts: 10,322 Member
    kieraleigh486 wrote: »
    Thank you! Yeah, I don't really go by the calories burnt using MFP, I go by the calories on the machines at the gym! Appreciate the replies :)

    Just remember calorie burns are estimates and are more marketing than reality. If your workouts are consistent, you might think about picking a number (say 1600) and sticking to it for a few weeks and see what happens and adjust if necessary.
  • Tacklewasher
    Tacklewasher Posts: 7,122 Member
    Machines at the gym are pretty bad as well.

    I've got a wrist HRM and a chest HRM. The wrist one is connected to MFP but is consistently 20% higher than what the chest HRM tells me so I try to only eat back ~75%. In the past I've done less (and lost a lot of weight) but I'm being more careful of that lately. I want to do what I can to protect my muscle mass and just lose fat.
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