I don't feel right eating exercise calories....

You can try the TDEE method. Where you eat a constant amount everyday but it factors in your weekly exercise. You can get a calorie estimate as to your daily goal on the site below. Just make sure to be honest about how much exercise you do:

http://scoobysworkshop.com/calorie-calculator/

When you do it this way, you never eat back your exercise calories (unless you have a week where you went completely exercise crazy and did like double what you usually do). However you may notice your daily calorie goal is higher than what MFP sets it at when you mark yourself as "Sedentary".

GuessIgottalog wrote: »

cwolfman13 wrote: »

GuessIgottalog wrote: »

WinoGelato wrote: »

GuessIgottalog wrote: »

Wow! Lots of info here! Thanks!
So my TDEE is 1750 because I am 5"9 and am a sedentary office worker.
I have MFP set to 1300 cals a day and some days, mostly weekends I go over to about 1800-2000.
I walk 30 min each day at work ( so 5 days)
I lift weights for 30min 2 to 3 times a week.
I do 2 other cardio sessions a week like elliptical, skating, sledding, exercise bike. 30min to 1 hour depending on how much fun im having lol.

TDEE 1750 - 1300 = 450 deficit.
2000 weekend calories - 1750 TDEE = 250 surplus

450*5 days = 2250 deficit
250x2 days = 500 surplus
NET deficit for week is 1750
Exercise calories - 1000 (pure guestimate)
Weekly deficit of 2750

I shouldn't eat exercise calories, should I??????
I am barely set up to lose a pound of weight a week and sometimes I even screw up more!
This math i did is an eye opener that I need to work harder!

It seems like you are mixing up two different approaches. MFP and TDEE work off of two different formulas, and it seems like you might be trying to combine them.

You reference a TDEE of 1750 for a sedentary office worker, but then go on to describe your exercise routine. Where did you get 1750 from? If it was from a TDEE calculator online, it should have included your exercise estimates in it. TDEE is the Total Daily Energy Expenditure and should include exercise in your estimate. Then you would take an appropriate deficit from that (either subtract calories or take a percentage deduction) and then DON'T log and eat back exercise calories.

You also reference what you have MFP set to. MFP is a NEAT calculation - it estimates what your maintenance calories would be excluding exercise, takes a deduction from that based on the rate of loss you select, and then provides you a goal. If you exercise, you should eat back some of those calories if you are following the MFP method.

Pick one or the other - but not both.

Thanks. I want to use the TDEE method. I was told to just enter how most of my days were and unfortunately that is office worker so sedentary and for that my TDEE is 1750 so I am knocking off 450 calories to get a deficit.

If you're using the TDEE method, you're supposed to include your exercise activity in your activity level...and thus wouldn't be sedentary regardless of whether you work in an office or not. I'm a desk jockey...I also cycle a lot and lift...I'm far from sedentary.

Ive heard if you sit on your *kitten* 8 hours a day and sleep 8 hours a night, but you run a marathon 3 times a week, you are still sedentary. Its about your lifestyle not your exercise regimen.

That is the case with NEAT (the myfitnesspal method) as you take account of the marathon running by logging it as exercise. It is not true for TDEE, where there is no distinction between "activity" and "exercise", it's all included in your basic calorie goal.

malibu927 wrote: »

GuessIgottalog wrote: »

cwolfman13 wrote: »

GuessIgottalog wrote: »

WinoGelato wrote: »

GuessIgottalog wrote: »

Wow! Lots of info here! Thanks!
So my TDEE is 1750 because I am 5"9 and am a sedentary office worker.
I have MFP set to 1300 cals a day and some days, mostly weekends I go over to about 1800-2000.
I walk 30 min each day at work ( so 5 days)
I lift weights for 30min 2 to 3 times a week.
I do 2 other cardio sessions a week like elliptical, skating, sledding, exercise bike. 30min to 1 hour depending on how much fun im having lol.

TDEE 1750 - 1300 = 450 deficit.
2000 weekend calories - 1750 TDEE = 250 surplus

450*5 days = 2250 deficit
250x2 days = 500 surplus
NET deficit for week is 1750
Exercise calories - 1000 (pure guestimate)
Weekly deficit of 2750

I shouldn't eat exercise calories, should I??????
I am barely set up to lose a pound of weight a week and sometimes I even screw up more!
This math i did is an eye opener that I need to work harder!

It seems like you are mixing up two different approaches. MFP and TDEE work off of two different formulas, and it seems like you might be trying to combine them.

You reference a TDEE of 1750 for a sedentary office worker, but then go on to describe your exercise routine. Where did you get 1750 from? If it was from a TDEE calculator online, it should have included your exercise estimates in it. TDEE is the Total Daily Energy Expenditure and should include exercise in your estimate. Then you would take an appropriate deficit from that (either subtract calories or take a percentage deduction) and then DON'T log and eat back exercise calories.

You also reference what you have MFP set to. MFP is a NEAT calculation - it estimates what your maintenance calories would be excluding exercise, takes a deduction from that based on the rate of loss you select, and then provides you a goal. If you exercise, you should eat back some of those calories if you are following the MFP method.

Pick one or the other - but not both.

Thanks. I want to use the TDEE method. I was told to just enter how most of my days were and unfortunately that is office worker so sedentary and for that my TDEE is 1750 so I am knocking off 450 calories to get a deficit.

If you're using the TDEE method, you're supposed to include your exercise activity in your activity level...and thus wouldn't be sedentary regardless of whether you work in an office or not. I'm a desk jockey...I also cycle a lot and lift...I'm far from sedentary.

Ive heard if you sit on your *kitten* 8 hours a day and sleep 8 hours a night, but you run a marathon 3 times a week, you are still sedentary. Its about your lifestyle not your exercise regimen.

For MFP, yes you would be sedentary as it's based on your daily life without exercise. But TDEE includes exercise, so you would not be sedentary unless you didn't exercise at all.

Yes...and then you would account for exercise after the fact when you log it and get additional calories to cover that activity...just for clarification as the OP seems to be having trouble grasping this.

GuessIgottalog wrote: »

WinoGelato wrote: »

GuessIgottalog wrote: »

Wow! Lots of info here! Thanks!
So my TDEE is 1750 because I am 5"9 and am a sedentary office worker.
I have MFP set to 1300 cals a day and some days, mostly weekends I go over to about 1800-2000.
I walk 30 min each day at work ( so 5 days)
I lift weights for 30min 2 to 3 times a week.
I do 2 other cardio sessions a week like elliptical, skating, sledding, exercise bike. 30min to 1 hour depending on how much fun im having lol.

TDEE 1750 - 1300 = 450 deficit.
2000 weekend calories - 1750 TDEE = 250 surplus

450*5 days = 2250 deficit
250x2 days = 500 surplus
NET deficit for week is 1750
Exercise calories - 1000 (pure guestimate)
Weekly deficit of 2750

I shouldn't eat exercise calories, should I??????
I am barely set up to lose a pound of weight a week and sometimes I even screw up more!
This math i did is an eye opener that I need to work harder!

It seems like you are mixing up two different approaches. MFP and TDEE work off of two different formulas, and it seems like you might be trying to combine them.

You reference a TDEE of 1750 for a sedentary office worker, but then go on to describe your exercise routine. Where did you get 1750 from? If it was from a TDEE calculator online, it should have included your exercise estimates in it. TDEE is the Total Daily Energy Expenditure and should include exercise in your estimate. Then you would take an appropriate deficit from that (either subtract calories or take a percentage deduction) and then DON'T log and eat back exercise calories.

You also reference what you have MFP set to. MFP is a NEAT calculation - it estimates what your maintenance calories would be excluding exercise, takes a deduction from that based on the rate of loss you select, and then provides you a goal. If you exercise, you should eat back some of those calories if you are following the MFP method.

Pick one or the other - but not both.

Thanks. I want to use the TDEE method. I was told to just enter how most of my days were and unfortunately that is office worker so sedentary and for that my TDEE is 1750 so I am knocking off 450 calories to get a deficit.

As suspected, you are conflating the two approaches.
Use a TDEE Calculator like Scoobys Workshop, with estimates of your actual exercise, to calculate your TDEE. Choose an appropriate deficit for the amount of weight you have to lose (have you said what that is?)
Eat that amount of calories each day, don't log exercise, or at least, don't eat back exercise calories burned. This is best for people who exercise regularly and with fairly consistent calorie burns.

OR....

Use MFP set up with the selection of Sedentary for an Office job, let MFP calculate a calorie goal based on the rate of loss you select (again, make sure it's appropriate for the total amount you have to lose), then log and eat back at least some of those exercise calories.

Regardless of which method you choose - the total calories you consume and the results you get should be the same. One is a bottom up approach, the other is top down. As long as you are consistent and don't mix them up (as I think you have been up to this point), follow it for several weeks, then adjust based on the actual results you get.

JeromeBarry1 wrote: »

The simplest way to see if one is "under-eating" is to divide this morning's weight by your weight a week ago. If the answer is less than .99, you're under-eating. One week of under-eating won't kill you or even damage your metabolism. However stacking several consecutive weeks on top of each other of under-eating will cause your NEAT to decline, and severely under-eating for several weeks causes long-term metabolic changes in response to this severe famine. The science has shown that calorie deficits greater than 500 per day for 8 weeks cause NEAT to decline by about 10%, and then NEAT can be restored by a week of maintenance-level eating. The science has not defined the bounds of severely damaging deficits, although The Biggest Loser has given us a wealth of data that it happens in that range of self-abuse.

I don't know that it's quite that simple. Weight gain and loss is not linear and it's not always just cals in/ cals out. (*waits for the collective gasp*) Day to day fluctuations can be huge. Weigh daily, and look at weekly revolving trends - that's a good way to measure success.

I'm hovering around goal and have been doing a pretty damn good job of staying under my calorie limit for the last three months... But my weight - it's a freaking yoyo. I can be up 5pounds in a day because I'm irregular and last night I had eaten french fries and pizza (damn salt). I can be up a few pounds for a few days because of a workout, or it's "that time of the month", or whatever other BS reason my body weight decides to spike. But then the next day after a good workout and a great bathroom break and I'm two pounds under goal. WTH? The general trend, over the long term is down.

A week at a glance is a good yardstick, but if you're only weighing once a week, and you catch a bad day, then you could change your approach needlessly.

Case in point... Look at my 7 day, 30 day, and 90 day numbers. If I changed based on a week, I'd be cutting my cals.. but I won't... because overall, the process IS, in fact, working.

I end up eating mine. But, I feel the same way

StarGazerPicTaker wrote: »

JeromeBarry1 wrote: »

I don't know that it's quite that simple. Weight gain and loss is not linear and it's not always just cals in/ cals out. (*waits for the collective gasp*) Day to day fluctuations can be huge. Weigh daily, and look at weekly revolving trends - that's a good way to measure success.

I'm hovering around goal and have been doing a pretty damn good job of staying under my calorie limit for the last three months... But my weight - it's a freaking yoyo. I can be up 5pounds in a day because I'm irregular and last night I had eaten french fries and pizza (damn salt). I can be up a few pounds for a few days because of a workout, or it's "that time of the month", or whatever other BS reason my body weight decides to spike. But then the next day after a good workout and a great bathroom break and I'm two pounds under goal. WTH? The general trend, over the long term is down.

I will say that I've honestly always been a big proponent of cals in/cals out for overall weight loss. Its a good part of the reason I'm not a big fan of daily weigh ins. That being said, I do acknowledge that the fluctuations can be huge even within just one day. Hehehe! The great bathroom break! I was in a weight loss competition last year at work and was constipated for almost a week before the final weigh in days. I still was the day I weighed in. I weighed and things broke lose that night. They had another weigh in the next day, I asked and they let me weigh in again and I lost almost 6 pounds!

1234newman wrote: »

I try not to eat up to the full value of the exercise calories. However I like the promise of more food as a reward for exercising.

Cue->behaviour->reward, which ensures continuation of the healthy for heart and wellbeing exercise behaviour.

So gain and consume those exercise calories they are good for you in other important ways.

I've done more exercising JUST so I could have more food!! But even if I eat the exercise calories back I'm still under 1200 calories a day, even if it's only 50+

ishyramirez1224 wrote: »

1234newman wrote: »

I try not to eat up to the full value of the exercise calories. However I like the promise of more food as a reward for exercising.

Cue->behaviour->reward, which ensures continuation of the healthy for heart and wellbeing exercise behaviour.

So gain and consume those exercise calories they are good for you in other important ways.

I've done more exercising JUST so I could have more food!! But even if I eat the exercise calories back I'm still under 1200 calories a day, even if it's only 50+

Why are you aiming under the recommended minimum calorie target?

CattOfTheGarage wrote: »

If your car does more miles, it needs more fuel. Everyone understands that. Why is it so hard to understand when it comes to your body?

I love this analogy, but the problem is that we don't have that magic stopper that stops us from overfuelling our gas tanks when it comes to feeding our bodies. And we don't have the magic "low gas" light that makes it clear our tank is getting empty.

Instead, we gain weight when we overfuel, and we have all sorts of weird reactions when we underfuel (lose weight, brittle bones, lose hair, lose appetite, energy).

People don't know their bodies well enough to self regulate, so they get caught up in do's and don'ts and pseudoscience. They start to think they need to cleanse, or starve, or feel like they need to punish themselves into being healthy. When in reality.. we just need to fill our tanks (with decent gasoline) only to full (or a bit less), and drive more. Some people decide to stick with regular gas (eat what you want), some like to upgrade to the next level (watching macros and focusing on 'healthier' foods) and some like to switch to premium gas (ultra clean eating/paleo/keto/specialized diets) - but in the end - as long as your body is getting enough gas, it will go where you tell it.

Just like a car runs better when you don't run it to empty, the human body does the same. We've just forgotten what that looks like and feels like.

Jruzer wrote: »

CattOfTheGarage wrote: »

If your car does more miles, it needs more fuel. Everyone understands that. Why is it so hard to understand when it comes to your body?

To be fair to people, I think many of them think that they've got plenty of fat that can provide the energy they need. And this is kinda sorta true, in the short run. In the long run it's a great way to lose lean muscle, reduce NEAT, and just generally feel crappy. I don't think there's a good understanding that there's a limited amount of energy one can pull fro their fat stores.

You're absolutely right. I think that's the piece that's usually missing.

And yet we all know that "starving yourself" is a negative thing. I suppose the difficulty is in defining the difference between that and a healthy deficit.

sunsweet77 wrote: »

I don't eat any exercise calories back but I am trying to lose. I go to bed most nights with 1,000 calorie deficit after logging all food and exercise.[/

How do you know your daily deficit?

dkhuebner0722 wrote: »

I don't exercise alot so I don't eat my calories back. I've been steadily losing since I started about a month ago. I measure and weigh everything and always seem to have calories left at the end of the day

But MFP is designed so that you would lose weight, at the rate you selected, even if you don't exercise at all. So you don't need to have calories left at the end of the day, the deficit is built into your goal. What rate of loss did you select when you set up MFP, and are you losing at that rate, or faster or slower?