Do you eat your exercise calories ??
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DavidRocketts wrote: »Measuring exercise and food calories is approximate.
My Garmin only credits me with 87 to 89 % of the calories I burn on the bike. Every time.
That reminds me, I need to pick up new batteries for my Vectors.0 -
Scanning through this, I see many of the people who say they do not eat them back seem to be newer users with few posts. While post numbers don't really tell if a person knows what they are talking about, they at the very least show they have some experience using this tool. I think it is notable that those who have used it for a substantial amount of time pretty much all say eat at lease half of your exercise calorie if not more. I started here opposed to eating them back, and learned after a while that not eating them back not only resulted in excessive muscle loss, but in lack of energy, moodiness, and the like. Eat at least half of them back. If you are then losing on average faster than you intended goal after 3-4 weeks, eat more of them back. If you are losing slower on average after 3-4 week, eat less of them back.9
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I've noticed that on exercise days, I often don't feel hungry enough to eat them all back - my appetite isn't much different than a non-exercise day. So I don't force myself to hit the mark. If I'm a couple hundred calories shy of my goal, I will just lose weight a little bit faster than my goal pace. Since my goal pace is moderate, I'm not worried about having too high a calorie deficit on the exercise days.2
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Absolutely! I've been doing this 4 years and having the extra calorie allowance is part of what makes it easier to keep going.0
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cchhiipp22 wrote: »I've noticed that on exercise days, I often don't feel hungry enough to eat them all back - my appetite isn't much different than a non-exercise day. So I don't force myself to hit the mark. If I'm a couple hundred calories shy of my goal, I will just lose weight a little bit faster than my goal pace. Since my goal pace is moderate, I'm not worried about having too high a calorie deficit on the exercise days.
The problem with saying let your hunger be your guide is that if a person has struggled with weight for a long time, like me, their hunger and satiated sensations are messed up. Experience tells me that means there are times I feel like I am full, when I have not eaten nearly enough to get the nutrients I need, and other time, I feel I am hunger when there is no way I need any more calories or nutrients. Part of the process of getting to a healthy weight is retraining the minds and bodies of people like me to have proper hunger/satiation sensing. Whether that is possible, I am not sure, but I am guessing that it is, but will take a long time since the disordered patterns have been set for many many years. So suggesting, eat only if you are hungry, doesn't do anything to deal with that disordered pattern many of us struggle with. I say eat the appropriate amount of calories even if you are not hungry. It is part of the retraining process.2 -
It really depends on the day. I usually eat about half of them on average.0
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On days that I exercise, I try to close the gap a little, but my stomach is very sensitive to volume changes so I have to be careful. See, I plan to eat at my deficit level. If I've already had breakfast and lunch before I exercise, at dinner time I'm left with quite a few extra calories! While I *could* eat them all back, it would be at risk of giving myself an upset stomach from eating so much in one sitting. So on days I exercise, I let myself have an indulgence like ice cream and generally leave it at that even if I'm still under. It'll give me leeway for the future.0
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struggling to eat my calorie allowance let alone exercise calories0
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rileysowner wrote: »Scanning through this, I see many of the people who say they do not eat them back seem to be newer users with few posts. While post numbers don't really tell if a person knows what they are talking about, they at the very least show they have some experience using this tool. I think it is notable that those who have used it for a substantial amount of time pretty much all say eat at lease half of your exercise calorie if not more. I started here opposed to eating them back, and learned after a while that not eating them back not only resulted in excessive muscle loss, but in lack of energy, moodiness, and the like. Eat at least half of them back. If you are then losing on average faster than you intended goal after 3-4 weeks, eat more of them back. If you are losing slower on average after 3-4 week, eat less of them back.
This was a great post.
Another thing I've noticed is that people get into trouble with this "more is better" thinking. If eating a small side of fries is yummy, then two plates full of them is even better. After a while, people don't like the results, and they change their ways, but underneath it all, a lot of people think the same way. If a moderate deficit means losing weight, then a huge deficit means losing it even faster. If a walk around the block is good, "HIIT" must be great. This is the type of thinking that got people in trouble in the first place.8 -
As a rule I don't, but they're there if something yummy but unplanned comes along
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This is exactly why I follow the TDEE method and have updated my calories based on actual results every 4-6 weeks. All of this is just an estimate. Actual results based on average intake + average weight loss = ~ daily expenditure. From there, I adjust according to my goals.
Example, I eat 2500 calories a day on average. I lose 1 lb a week. 1 = 3500 / 7 day = 500 calorie deficit. My daily average TDEE = 3000 calories.1 -
lynn_glenmont wrote: »Commander_Keen wrote: »rileysowner wrote: »Commander_Keen wrote: »I try not to, the bigger deficit, the bigger the weight loss
And depending on how much you have to lose, the bigger the deficit, the more muscle mass you will lose. Your body can only oxidize so much fat in a day. The less total fat you have, the less percentage of that fat you can burn off. Once your body has burned off the amount of fat it can in a day, it takes the rest from other sources, meaning a bigger deficit is not always a better deficit as the goal is to lose fat not muscle and other lean mass.
Can't you prevent that, by eating, drinking additional protein and lifting weights?
That's only two of the three things that guard against muscle loss - the third being NOT HAVING an excessive and prolonged deficit.
FIFY
Oops! Thank you, nice catch.
I must have been :drinker: my exercise calories.....
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Just to add to the topic, MFP user @vismal spoke about his opinion on this in a YT vid:
https://youtu.be/tTb7lEs_6BU
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Just to add to the topic, MFP user @vismal spoke about his opinion on this in a YT vid:https://youtu.be/tTb7lEs_6BU
bwahaha..That's pretty close to me climbing a mountain - someone once referred to the pouch strapped to my sternum straps (containing clif bloks/clif bars/granola/peanut butter packets/etc) as my "feed bag". I like the term.0 -
I now have a heart rate monitor that attaches to my phone. Using the supplied app (Wahoo fitness) during aerobic activities supposedly gives values that are more accurate than otherwise. Good for running, walking, elliptical training, cycling, etc.
But not swimming! The calorie estimates MFP provides for swimming seem high to me. (717kcals for a 50 minute "vigorous" swim. Well, I thought it was vigorous...)0 -
cwolfman13 wrote: »
So in my scenario, MFP is estimating my maintenance without exercise to be 2,400 calories. Now I go on a nice ride and burn around 600 calories...do I eat them back? Yes...yes I do...
In the summer I was riding for 90 minutes at ~16mph average. MPF said that was 1272kcals. I think that was an overestimate, although I have no proof.
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Just to add to the topic, MFP user @vismal spoke about his opinion on this in a YT vid:https://youtu.be/tTb7lEs_6BU
All that being said, my response:
First, I have very rarely seen people over state their activity level here. I am sure there are some, but the vast majority seem to select sedentary even when they are not. A case in point was a stay at home mom with five little children who set her activity level as sedentary. I am a dad, but even as a dad who worked outside of the house, when I returned home when our one son was small, I was not sedentary. If I was home with five, doing all the chores that are part of that, I definitely would not be sedentary, even lightly active would probably not cover it. So in terms of activity level, while conceivable that there are people who set it based on the exercise they do, I think that is the exception not the rule, at least on MFP.
As for the rest, I more of less agree with him in theory, but the thing is, it is not how MFP is set up. If a person sets their profile up correctly and gets their calorie goal from MFP, the expectation is that they will eat back the calories burned exercising for all the reasons that have been listed in this thread already. Saying, "Don't eat your exercise calories." will be taken by many new users to mean that to do so would be the wrong way to use MFP, and while he does a fairly good job stating if they don't want to eat back exercise calories they should use a different calorie calculation, at the same time, I think too many people would miss that and stick to their 1200 calories not eating back the hundreds of calories extra they burn exercising and thus burn themselves out making long term compliance very difficult.
Finally, there is one advantage to MFP's approach for those who are inconsistent with exercise. Yes, I agree the goal is to have weekly consistency in ones exercise pattern, however, for those starting out, that is often not the case. The carrot (rather than the punishment scenario he presents) is that when they exercise they get more calories. This can lead to more consistent exercise habits that would most definitely benefit from going with a deficit off TDEE.
So for the newbie, stick with MFP's approach and eat at least 50% of your exercise calories back until you are consistent with exercise, then consider other options.4 -
I try not too, but only because my calorie burns are not that high (around 250 cals) and I like to have it as a buffer in case I've underestimated my calories.2
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Jthanmyfitnesspal wrote: »cwolfman13 wrote: »
So in my scenario, MFP is estimating my maintenance without exercise to be 2,400 calories. Now I go on a nice ride and burn around 600 calories...do I eat them back? Yes...yes I do...
In the summer I was riding for 90 minutes at ~16mph average. MPF said that was 1272kcals. I think that was an overestimate, although I have no proof.
I would be around 800-900 calories for that...0 -
Nope... I usually don't.2
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Yes, since that's how the tool is designed and if I didn't I'd probably be netting in the neighborhood of 1300-1400 cals a day. I wouldn't last long before crashing.3
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cwolfman13 wrote: »Jthanmyfitnesspal wrote: »cwolfman13 wrote: »
So in my scenario, MFP is estimating my maintenance without exercise to be 2,400 calories. Now I go on a nice ride and burn around 600 calories...do I eat them back? Yes...yes I do...
In the summer I was riding for 90 minutes at ~16mph average. MPF said that was 1272kcals. I think that was an overestimate, although I have no proof.
I would be around 800-900 calories for that...
So cwolfman13, what are those numbers based on?
It really depends on a person's stats. A 220 pound person doing a 90 minute a 14-16mph ride for 90 minutes will burn substantially more than a 180 pound rider doing the same ride, but 1272 doesn't sound like an outlandish number for an hour and a half of riding at a decent pace.0 -
MFP is designed for you to eat your exercise calories back.
With that said, I do not.
However, the reason I don't eat mine back is because I'm burning maybe 200 - 300 calories a day approximately five times a week through exercise. I have MFP set up to a modest 1 lb a week deficit. The extra 1,500 calories or so I burn through exercise bumps me up to almost a 1.5 lb a week loss, which isn't unreasonable at my size. I could set MFP up to a 1.5 lb a week loss and eat back my exercise calories, but on the days I didn't exercise I would have fewer calories. I'd just prefer it this way where I have the same amount of calories everyday.0 -
jennypapaje wrote: »i don't,but if i go over my calories during the week,i don't worry about it because of the fact i don't eat my exercise calories back.it gives me flexibility with the logging.
This sums up my approach, as well. Currently, I am not eating them because I am just starting back out, pretty much from the start. But, I do consider it a buffer that is there to protect me from a defeating sense of guilt if I have a heavier-calorie day or two. When I get into more intense workouts at a lower weight, this may change and I may need to eat them if I encounter the muscle loss issue. Right now, I don't need them because I have plenty of extra fat from which to draw that fuel...lol.0 -
My dietitian told me to select the option to not count the extra exercise calories in my goal for the day0
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dancingshooz wrote: »My dietitian told me to select the option to not count the extra exercise calories in my goal for the day
That's basically the TDEE method. You average out your exercise calories add them to your base calorie allowance, then set that as your goal. Your allowance is higher in that case than what MFP gives you to lose whatever amount you picked. It doesn't mean you don't count your exercise calories, it only means that you don't count them day to day.1 -
TABSterling wrote: »Yes! I eat my exercise calories. Well, sort of...
I use a fitness tracker (w/chest strap heart rate monitor) for my calorie burn. I find to be extremely accurate. I use my calorie burn to gauge how hard I'm working (compared to my average burn) and supplement extra calories based on the type of my workout. On heavy/intense weight lifting days, I use exercise calories to add lean protein. On days I run, I use calories for nutrient-dense carbohydrates. I agree with others that I still try to end the day with an overall calorie deficit but you need to put back what you take out, so I allow some extra calories, eaten responsibly, on workout days!
I TRY not to use exercise calories as an opportunity to eat more cookies but I will say the holiday season was difficult. Every day is a new day. Happy to get back on track!
I so hear you about those cookie calories!
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Just to add to the topic, MFP user @vismal spoke about his opinion on this in a YT vid:https://youtu.be/tTb7lEs_6BU
Is this supposed to be some kind of argument against eating food to replace the calories you burn with exercise? This lady doesn't have extra weight to lose, it looks like what she's doing works pretty well for her.0 -
rileysowner wrote: »cwolfman13 wrote: »Jthanmyfitnesspal wrote: »cwolfman13 wrote: »
So in my scenario, MFP is estimating my maintenance without exercise to be 2,400 calories. Now I go on a nice ride and burn around 600 calories...do I eat them back? Yes...yes I do...
In the summer I was riding for 90 minutes at ~16mph average. MPF said that was 1272kcals. I think that was an overestimate, although I have no proof.
I would be around 800-900 calories for that...
So cwolfman13, what are those numbers based on?
It really depends on a person's stats. A 220 pound person doing a 90 minute a 14-16mph ride for 90 minutes will burn substantially more than a 180 pound rider doing the same ride, but 1272 doesn't sound like an outlandish number for an hour and a half of riding at a decent pace.
Primarily my Garmin 510 with HRM and speed and cadence sensor stacked against other sources and formulas, as well as four years of experience.
1200ish calories doesn't sound outlandish IMO at all depending on the individuals stats.0
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