Do you eat your workout calories ?

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uleano
uleano Posts: 1 Member
in Fitness and Exercise
If am shooting for 2 pounds a week and 1,200 calories a day. When I plug in my workouts,
I " get" more calories. Can use them or am a sabotaging my weight loss?
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Replies

  • NorthCascades
    NorthCascades Posts: 10,968 Member
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    uleano wrote: »
    If am shooting for 2 pounds a week and 1,200 calories a day. When I plug in my workouts,
    I " get" more calories. Can use them or am a sabotaging my weight loss?

    "Maybe"
  • RuNaRoUnDaFiEld
    RuNaRoUnDaFiEld Posts: 5,864 Member
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    TavistockToad wrote: »
    Eat them, exercise calories taste the best.

    Perfectly said.
  • brynnelizabeth2222
    brynnelizabeth2222 Posts: 1 Member
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    Yes! As long as your average "net" calories remain at or below your daily calorie goal set by MFP you will lose weight (if you are honest about your activity level when first setting up your account:)). I find the weekly calorie view under the nutrition section helpful to ensure I'm on track for the week. It's especially helpful when I've had a not so great eating day because it tells you how many calories you are below your weekly calorie goal too!
  • AnvilHead
    AnvilHead Posts: 18,344 Member
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    Great informative discussion about it here from a knowledgeable trainer: http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10503681/exercise-calories-do-i-eat-these-a-video-explanation/p1
  • edlanglais5
    edlanglais5 Posts: 172 Member
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    Asher_Ethan wrote: »
    Yes. But be careful. Mfp has some ridiculously high calorie burns in the database.

    Yes indeed. I only give myself partial credit for what the database wants to award me. Maybe 65%
  • sosteach
    sosteach Posts: 260 Member
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    You can. I choose not to because I don't totally trust the database numbers and I have a lot of weight to lose so I eat my 1200 and I am golden.
  • ucalegon
    ucalegon Posts: 43 Member
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    Surprised to see so many yes's on here! My understanding was that the going is wisdom states MFP's exercise databases heavily overestimate how many calories you burn exercising, and that activity trackers are also frequently way off. As a result, I personally don't eat back exercise calories except on rare occasions, and on those rare occasions I try not to eat back more than 30% of those exercise calories.
  • Somze
    Somze Posts: 33 Member
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    AnvilHead wrote: »
    Great informative discussion about it here from a knowledgeable trainer: http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10503681/exercise-calories-do-i-eat-these-a-video-explanation/p1

    Insightful video ^^

    I have eating all or a part of my exercise calories and have been steadily losing weight. Some calorie burn rates seem way high and I don't trust them, so I would either not eat them back or eat part of them back after doing some research online.
  • NorthCascades
    NorthCascades Posts: 10,968 Member
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    ucalegon wrote: »
    Surprised to see so many yes's on here! My understanding was that the going is wisdom states MFP's exercise databases heavily overestimate how many calories you burn exercising, and that activity trackers are also frequently way off. As a result, I personally don't eat back exercise calories except on rare occasions, and on those rare occasions I try not to eat back more than 30% of those exercise calories.

    You shouldn't be surprised, MFP was designed for people to eat back their exercise calories to lose weight - that's how the math is set up.

    It's true that the database here is very generous. People have different strategies for estimating what they've burned, but over time you figure out what works. Extreme precision isn't required, we all have a record of what we ate, what we think we burned, and our weight over time, so we can adjust things as we go.
  • Machka9
    Machka9 Posts: 25,052 Member
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    ucalegon wrote: »
    Surprised to see so many yes's on here! My understanding was that the going is wisdom states MFP's exercise databases heavily overestimate how many calories you burn exercising, and that activity trackers are also frequently way off.

    Only if you select higher exercise intensities. For example, I always select Bicycling 16-19 km/h. Yesterday's 50 km ride averaged about 20 km/h, but nevertheless, I went with the 16-19 km/h choice as always.

    Same with my walking intensity ... I walk one level faster than what I record.

    But that's why I go with a percentage ... 50% for less exercise and nearly 100% when I do a lot of exercise. I need fuel for the longer rides, but can get away with less fuel for a short walk.

  • BeccaLoves2lift
    BeccaLoves2lift Posts: 375 Member
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    In general I'm not hungry enough to eat back my exercise calories.
  • JennyNelson2
    JennyNelson2 Posts: 9 Member
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    No.
  • sadmaker
    sadmaker Posts: 19 Member
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    Asher_Ethan wrote: »
    Yes. But be careful. Mfp has some ridiculously high calorie burns in the database.

    Pick up a heart rate monitor to avoid all these inexact measurements. Been using the polar ft7 for years and now don't work out with it
  • NorthCascades
    NorthCascades Posts: 10,968 Member
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    @sadmaker A heart rate monitor will give you exact measurements of your heart rate and does not measure calories at all. If you want to know how many calories you've burned, a pair of dice is as good as an HRM.
  • cwolfman13
    cwolfman13 Posts: 41,868 Member
    edited June 2017
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    uleano wrote: »
    If am shooting for 2 pounds a week and 1,200 calories a day. When I plug in my workouts,
    I " get" more calories. Can use them or am a sabotaging my weight loss?

    Why do you think MFP would be trying to trick you?
    ucalegon wrote: »
    Surprised to see so many yes's on here! My understanding was that the going is wisdom states MFP's exercise databases heavily overestimate how many calories you burn exercising, and that activity trackers are also frequently way off. As a result, I personally don't eat back exercise calories except on rare occasions, and on those rare occasions I try not to eat back more than 30% of those exercise calories.

    It's the way the tool is designed, so not sure why it would be a surprise. Your calorie target doesn't include any exercise in your activity level...exercise is unaccounted for activity...obviously, the more active you are, the higher you energy (calorie) requirements would be.

    Personally, I wouldn't and never have used the exercise data base...but there are numerous ways to determine a somewhat accurate calorie expenditure if one is willing to pursue them. My Garmin 500 is close enough for my cycling.

    MFP would give me around 1900 calories to lose about 1 Lb per week (before exercise)...I ride quite a bit and usually do a 30 mile ride on the weekends...I burn over 1,000 calories on a 30 mile ride...if I just ate the 1900, I'd basically be starving my body by only essentially feeding it 900 calories after my exercise...no bueno!

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