Not eating the exercise calories........

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desertfox2001
desertfox2001 Posts: 13 Member
in Fitness and Exercise
So today I was about 300 calories under my MFP target of 1750/day allotment.......then I hit the pool with the kids. We have been doing it 3 to for times a week for the last month at night. It is a public pool with a couple lap lanes. After the first week,l of playing around with the kids in the water, I started adding laps before I go play with the kids. Been slowly building up to my goal of 70 laps (1 mile). Tonight I did 54.

So we get home, I am a little hungry. So have a couple eggs. Figured I still had room. So while eating I went to add the swimming. I realized I have been just adding the same thing as the first week, leisurely general swimming, and then I know I have not been adding the entire amount of time in the water. So tonight I added it correctly as Lap swimming light/moderate. And to my surprise it says I burned 900 calories in the hour of laps!!!!! So that still puts me just over 1000 calories short for the day. It is 10:30 at night, I've had 2 eggs and I'm not hungry anymore. There is no way I am going to eat my allotted amount. Heck I have gotten so used to eating 1750cal or just under, I don't know how I am going to add 50% more calories on swim days.....especially since I don't always know if we are swimming until after dinner.

Replies

  • heybales
    heybales Posts: 18,842 Member
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    If willing to go so short and miss goal one day - don't spaz on another day when you can go over, and still likely have a deficit.

    But .....

    You really swam non-stop for 1 solid hour?

    Sadly light/moderate isn't really a swim pace to do calculations on.

    Might compare if you know the distance, though perhaps that's not possible at this point.
    http://www.swimmingcalculator.com/swim_calories_calculator.php

    I got 118 cal for 11.5 min @ 2:37 / 100 yd, attempting the same thing. Couldn't keep away for an hour though, presence was requested.
  • Mr_Knight
    Mr_Knight Posts: 9,532 Member
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    desertfox2001 wrote: »
    So tonight I added it correctly as Lap swimming light/moderate. And to my surprise it says I burned 900 calories in the hour of laps!!!!!

    A rough comparable is a 200 pound person running 8 miles in one hour. Unless you're cardiovascularly capable of performing at that level, you aren't burning anywhere close to that number...
  • desertfox2001
    desertfox2001 Posts: 13 Member
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    I'm gonna break out the dive watch. I believe there is a timer on it so I can get lap times and total time.
  • desertfox2001
    desertfox2001 Posts: 13 Member
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    I like the swim calculator. Having to kinda guess the pace, it came up with 662 cal burned.
  • Ready2Rock206
    Ready2Rock206 Posts: 9,488 Member
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    Whenever I get a number that outrageous - I don't worry about eating all of them. Eat a reasonable portion and don't worry about it.
  • heybales
    heybales Posts: 18,842 Member
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    Rufftimes wrote: »
    I don't input my exercise calories at all. I find it wildly inaccurate, and always in a not so good way. I see so many people on here who are eating their exercise calories and wondering why their not losing weight, then you dig deeper and see something along the lines of, "so and so burned 952 calories doing house cleaning"......no you didn't, and you ate those calories, so you are not eating in deficit. Now I may be exaggerating, but only a bit. It happens all the time here.

    Are you aware of how MFP figures out your base calories?

    Might as well chuck it out the window too rather than figuring out what's wrong with the method.

    Like the people you mention logging cleaning - that's already figured into the base calories - unless that is your day job for 6 hrs.
    People you mention are trying to game the system if they eat them back. I mainly see those people not eating back any exercise, even that stuff you mention that they log - so it really isn't the issue.

    And the problem with low-level calorie burns that are done for long periods of time is the math that is not done from what could be a perfectly correct calorie burn for a workout, and what MFP already accounted for you to burn during that time.

  • cwolfman13
    cwolfman13 Posts: 41,876 Member
    edited July 2017
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    900 calories for an hour of swimming would pretty much be at a competitive level of swimming...I'd wager you were more in the neighborhood of 500-600 or so.

    Also, a one off of not getting enough calories in isn't a big deal...it becomes a bigger deal when you're pretty consistent with your fitness activities and consistently underfeed those activities. This will ultimately result in 1) an overly large calorie deficiency; 2) performance issues; 3) recovery issues which could ultimately play out with nagging injuries that won't go away, etc.

    I used MFP's methodology for a time, but when I became more consistent with what I was doing I just switched to the TDEE method for which an estimate of exercise activity is included in the activity level...so the calories are just there and ate roughly the same calories daily, give or take.
  • collectingblues
    collectingblues Posts: 2,541 Member
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    Another vote for side-eyeing that level of calorie burn. I don't know your height/weight, but for comparison, if I do an hour of decently-paced breaststroke (I prefer breast over freestyle), I'll only burn ~470 calories.
  • lorrpb
    lorrpb Posts: 11,464 Member
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    I agree with the other feedback about the exercise calories. I get 200-300 for about 45 minutes of lap swimming.
    I also wish to ask about your MFP calorie goal. If you've properly set up MFP to calculate a reasonable loss rate, I'm not sure why you are undereating by 300 calories, especially with the level of exercise you seem to be doing, and especially for a male. It seems wiser to at least eat your calorie goal, even if you don't eat back many exercise calories.
  • DX2JX2
    DX2JX2 Posts: 1,921 Member
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    Based on overall volatility I've seen assigned for activity here and elsewhere and specific info from my tracker, I've just started generalizing my exercise calories to keep things simple.

    Unless I know that I'm seriously kicking my butt during a workout, I mentally assign an hour of moderate cardio at about 500 calories (250 for 30 minutes). I define moderate as average heart rate of about 70%-80% of my max.

    I'll count work that involves sustained spikes above 80% (mainly intervals but also short speed work) at about 350 per half hour.

    Light workouts (average HR 65%-70%) I'll assign 400 calories per hour (200 for 30 minutes).

    Works for me so far, I've been eating enough to feel fueled and have still been able to lose steadily.
  • fiddletime
    fiddletime Posts: 1,862 Member
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    I assign about 185 calories per 30 min. I'm short and older but do cardio to 75% of max HR. This seems to work for me to eat back my exercise calories and lose slowly. I decided long ago to find the number myself as mfp had numbers that were too high, for me. I rarely put in the odd bits of exercise I do, like walking or playing an instrument. I tried to, but stopped losing, or gained.
  • deannalfisher
    deannalfisher Posts: 5,600 Member
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    as a swimmer - I'd hesitate to say you even burned 500cal - I'm 5'3", 148 and doing 3000m (1.88 miles) - I burn around 350cal and that is swimming it at a 1:50/100m pace
  • estherdragonbat
    estherdragonbat Posts: 5,283 Member
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    I've been eating back half, but I may need to increase that. I currently have MFP set up for me to lose 1lb/week. Mostly, I'm averaging 1.5, which is amazing... but I'm just under 56 lbs away from goal. In other words, in about 6 lbs, 1.5 is going to start being a bit aggressive. If the rate of loss doesn't sort itself out (and it very well could; we know that the more we lose, the less our bodies require, so assuming I don't adjust my daily calories, I might just settle in with the 'safe' 1lb/wk loss), I'll have to either cut back on the exercise or increase the percentage of calories eaten back.
  • spiriteagle99
    spiriteagle99 Posts: 3,677 Member
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    Some people are much hungrier the day after hard exercise than they are on the day they work out. So if you aren't hungry after your swim, just save the calories for the next day. If you still aren't hungry, don't force yourself to eat, but pay attention to your energy. If you start having a hard time finding the energy to do your laps, then you might need to eat when you aren't hungry, but otherwise, I wouldn't worry about it.
  • kshama2001
    kshama2001 Posts: 27,900 Member
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    desertfox2001 wrote: »
    I like the swim calculator. Having to kinda guess the pace, it came up with 662 cal burned.

    What's your height, weight, and age? If you've got some heft to you, 662 calories an hour doesn't seem out of line at all.
  • desertfox2001
    desertfox2001 Posts: 13 Member
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    kshama2001 wrote: »
    desertfox2001 wrote: »
    I like the swim calculator. Having to kinda guess the pace, it came up with 662 cal burned.

    What's your height, weight, and age? If you've got some heft to you, 662 calories an hour doesn't seem out of line at all.

    5'10", 283 lbs (and It is not from huge muscles

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