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Calorie intake newbie question

bmayhugh42
bmayhugh42 Posts: 2 Member
edited November 2024 in Health and Weight Loss
So I have the garmin vivoactive hr watch. I downloaded this app and it asked me for my information which I provided how much weight I wanted to lose in what timeframe. Based on the calories it allows me per day if I do cardio as well it ups the total calories. I want to know if I were to workout a second time in order to eat a high calorie diet does that mean if I fall within the adjusted calorie intake I will still lose that weight in that time frame?

Replies

  • Blitzia
    Blitzia Posts: 205 Member
    Assuming that the watch estimates your calories accurately, then yes, you can eat those calories and still achieve your weight loss goals in the same time frame.

    The caveat is that the estimate may or may not be accurate. A general rule of thumb people use is to eat back half their exercise calories. You of course want to monitor your weight loss over time to see if that's a good estimate. If you're losing weight too quickly, you need to eat back more calories; losing weight too slowly and you should eat back fewer.

    I'm not super familiar with that watch though. Does it give you an all day estimate for calories burned, or is it like... you put it on before a run and it tells you that you burned 300 calories on your run? If it's the second, then yes, start by eating back some of those calories or all if you're confident in the number it's giving you. If it's like a fitbit and you wear it all day and it tells you that you burned 2400 calories today (for example) then it's harder to parse out your exercise calories from that and try to add them on to your MFP calorie goal.
  • CrazyMermaid1
    CrazyMermaid1 Posts: 359 Member
    I have that watch and it constantly overestimates the calories burned. Be very careful
  • sarahbelle5150
    sarahbelle5150 Posts: 31 Member
    I do not eat my active calories. Unless they are quite high and I know I've burned a lot. Then I might eat a few.
  • TimothyFish
    TimothyFish Posts: 4,925 Member
    CrazyMermaid1 wrote: »
    I have that watch and it constantly overestimates the calories burned. Be very careful

    You might want to take a look at this study: http://gadgetsandwearables.com/2016/03/23/fitness-tracker-calories/

    According to it, Garmin underestimates calories. If you are finding that it overestimates calories that might be an indication that you are eating more than you think rather than the device actually overestimating calories. I'm not saying that it would be impossible for it to overestimate, but if you are judging based on your weight rather than a metabolic chamber then there is more than one possibility and the study gives us an idea of which is more likely.
  • NorthCascades
    NorthCascades Posts: 10,968 Member
    Blitzia wrote: »
    A general rule of thumb people use is to eat back half their exercise calories.

    The idea behind this is that all fitness tools are perfectly accurate when it comes to calories, but they double them to make you feel good. Clever people discovered the rouse and if you just divide by 2 you'll have perfect accuracy.
  • bmayhugh42
    bmayhugh42 Posts: 2 Member
    Much appreciated. Thank you all
This discussion has been closed.

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