More exercise = more food?

alarmed123 · January 2017

Who ignores this? I want to eat what I'm suppose to eat with the calories that they give you before the exercise. Do you guys eat the extra calories or do you just ignore them?

Saskia1549 · January 2017

I gotta eat after I work out or I'd pass out but I was kinda wondering the same! I'm on 1300 calories right now and find it's kinda impossible to achieve unless I use the gym which I happily do daily anyway

kimny72 · January 2017

If you told MFP you want to lose 1 lb per week, your calorie goal already includes your deficit to lose that weight. You are expected to eat some of your exercise calories back. It's important to fuel your body and your workouts, and losing weight too fast you risk losing more muscle than you need to.

MFP (and most gym machines) tend to overestimate calorie burns, so many people eat back half to be safe and adjust if they need to.

Having said that, if you aren't using a food scale and your logging is at all sketchy, not eating your exercise calories may be providing you wiggle room to cover up logging errors.

It really comes down to how much weight you are losing. If you are consistently losing weight faster than expected, eat more

cwolfman13 · January 2017

It is the way the tool is designed as your calorie target is for weight loss without any exercise...exercise activity is unaccounted for activity...common sense would dictate that it should be accounted for somewhere.

Let's say MFP gives me 1,900 calories to lose about 1 Lb per week...this means my maintenance calories without exercise are somewhere around 2,400.

Let's say I go on 2 hour bike ride and burn around 1,000+ calories (which is fairly normal when I'm in cycling season)...at this point I'm only leaving my body with 900 calories to support my existence and other day to day stuff...this is bad...very bad. I could eat those 1,000 calories for a total of 2,900 calories and still lose the same 1 Lb per week because in accounting for that activity, my maintenance number would have jumped to 3,400 calories and 3,400 - 2,900 = 500 calorie deficit still.

That said, it depends on what you're doing...more vigorous and or longer training bouts are going to require fuel...it's essential to recovery as well as fitness performance and fitness gains. If you're just doing some light activity like walking or 30 minutes on the elliptical or something, it's not nearly as important because you're not really stressing the body as much.

NorthCascades · January 2017

alarmed123 wrote: »

Who ignores this? I want to eat what I'm suppose to eat with the calories that they give you before the exercise. Do you guys eat the extra calories or do you just ignore them?

The number it tells you (including exercise) is what you're supposed to eat, to lose weight at the pace you said you wanted when you signed up and filled out your profile.

alarmed123 · January 2017

I put down that I want to lose 2lbs a week. I lost a lot of weight before this app and I stopped losing so I'm barely learning how to use it. It says 1200 cals a day and I'm always slightly under. Starting to go on my walks and doing up to 7ish miles a day. My cals went up significantly that I got a bit scared lol just trying to understand.

NorthCascades · January 2017

Calories are energy. Food contains energy, you eat it and your body digests it to unlock the stored chemical energy so you can use it later. When you exercise, you "burn" some of that energy. Also, when you're not exercising, you still burn energy. That's because your heart beats 24/7, your heart is a muscle; you never stop breathing, your brain is controlling the show, all of this takes energy, and for the most part this is what your BMR is about.

It sounds like you need about 2,200 calories a day to function. And you're eating 1,200 or so in a day. That leaves you a deficit of 1,000 calories per day, and you're making it up mostly with the fat stored in your body. (Also by cannibalizing your muscle tissue.) Because a pound of fat is about 3,500 calories, this deficit gets you 2 lbs per week. Which is about as fast as most people can lose weight safely, but that changes from person to person.

Now, calories are energy. Just like gasoline. Let's say you need 1 tank of gas per week to drive to and from work; this is your heart beat and stuff. Now one day you decide to go for a scenic drive; this is exercise. Your scenic drive used up more gas, and if you don't fill your tank (eat) to make up for the driving you did, you'll run out of gas and get stuck on the side of the road.

It's slightly harder to recognize in people than cars. Instead of breaking down, people feel lethargic, lose muscle mass, in extreme cases their hair can fall out, but we don't just collapse on the side of the road the minute we hit E. But that isn't the point. The point is that doing more things uses more energy.

ajw101788 · January 2017

alarmed123 wrote: »

Who ignores this? I want to eat what I'm suppose to eat with the calories that they give you before the exercise. Do you guys eat the extra calories or do you just ignore them?

You want to stay with in the recommend calories before exercise anything after that means you have extra calories.

alarmed123 · January 2017

So I'm suppose to eat 1k more calories on top of my recommended calories... I'm extremely full, just had dinner and it's 6pm. I don't know how I could force myself to eat 1k for the rest of the day. How does one do it?

Ready2Rock206 · January 2017

alarmed123 wrote: »

So I'm suppose to eat 1k more calories on top of my recommended calories... I'm extremely full, just had dinner and it's 6pm. I don't know how I could force myself to eat 1k for the rest of the day. How does one do it?

What are you doing go burn 1,000 calories? That would take me hours in the gym. I also wonder how accurate your logging is if you're extremely full on only 1200 calories.

alarmed123 · January 2017

Never once did I say I burned 1k calories lol I burned 665 and walked for 138mins.

alarmed123 · January 2017

I said I had 1k left

Ready2Rock206 · January 2017

So you're extremely stuffed on 800 calories? I'm still going with logging accuracy issues. And if you are really only eating 800 a day you are not eating what you're supposed to eat. It sounds like you're not understanding how MFP is meant to be used. You should eat your full calorie goal plus at least a portion of your exercise calories.

beccahun1 · January 2017

Some days I exercise just so I have the extra calorie space to eat more. Some days it matters and some days it doesn't. If you are eating healthy and satisfying your body then there's no NEED to eat the extra calories if you don't want to. It just means you'll lose weight a little faster than you'd planned when you set up your profile.

sullus · January 2017

alarmed123 wrote: »

Never once did I say I burned 1k calories lol I burned 665 and walked for 138mins.

Well generally speaking, you can't eat all of your calories back. You have to figure out how many 'extra' calories you earned. Example below is as if I burned 665 in 138 minutes:

First: A quick scan of HRM margin of error in the google seems to indicate that you can pretty much count on the HRM having about a 10% margin of error. So, right off the bat you should start at about 600 on that burn, not 665. Maybe 720 or so, because it wasnt clear on which direction the margn of error is.

Second: HRM measure total burn. They do not measure what you burned above and beyond not exercising. Scooby calculator says my TDEE is 2600, so when I'm not exercising I burn 108 calories an hour. 138 mins is 2.3 hours, meaning I would have burned 250 calories or so just going about my day.

So this all works out to the fact that I would have only earned about 350 - 470 (depending on the direction of the margin of error) 'extra' calories from a 665 calorie burn. And if it's a casual or easy walk, I've likely earned even less.

Please note that all math is ballpark, because I can't be arsed.

People on here generally say the rule of thumb is to eat half your exercise calories back. Seems a good rule of thumb.

If you're looking for a precise answer, calculate your TDEE, get a firm grip on your HRM's margin of error, and adjust accordingly.

kimny72 · January 2017

alarmed123 wrote: »

So I'm suppose to eat 1k more calories on top of my recommended calories... I'm extremely full, just had dinner and it's 6pm. I don't know how I could force myself to eat 1k for the rest of the day. How does one do it?

Does this happen every day? How long have you been eating at this level and what has your weight been doing in that time?

Somedays you might not be hungry and eat less, other days you eat more. But if you are feeling full 1000 cals under your goal every day, there is either something wrong, or you are eating more than you think. 1200 cals is the bare minimum for women. And for an active woman who isn't very short or small, eating less than 1200 cals should not leave you feeling so full you couldn't eat another thing on a regular basis.

JeromeBarry1 · January 2017

alarmed123 wrote: »

Who ignores this? I want to eat what I'm suppose to eat with the calories that they give you before the exercise. Do you guys eat the extra calories or do you just ignore them?

I ignore the calories earned from exercising, but I exercise before breakfast, and right after exercising I have breakfast which is a bunch of protein and fat and carbs and over 600 calories. For all my body knows, I'm replacing the energy burned from the exercise.

jenwil1999 · January 2017

I'd like to second the idea that your logging might be more inaccurate than you think. For example, 1 tbl of oil is 120 calories. If you sauté some veggies, you might easily add an extra 100-200 calories if you don't measure your oil precisely.

If you don't already, I recommend getting a scale ($20) and weighing everything in grams. Grams are more precise than ounces for most people because 0.1 oz = 3 grams. If I see 2.15 ounces, that looks pretty close to 2 ounces, but it's actually 6 grams difference. But seeing 60 vs 66 grams will make me far more careful with my numbers. In the case of oil above, that 6 grams is 43 extra calories!

Having said that, if your log is accurate, then you'll definitely need to eat back some of your workout calories. I also find half to be pretty accurate for me.

More exercise = more food?

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