Calorie count

Options
sweetsassylisa
sweetsassylisa Posts: 7 Member
in Getting Started
Ok do you guys add your burned calories to the calories you have left? I keep seeing in and out but I'm not getting it????

Replies

  • quiksylver296
    quiksylver296 Posts: 28,442 Member
    Options
    Not sure what you are asking. Do people eat back their exercise calories? Usually. And most eat only a portion of them, 50-75%, to guard against inaccuracies.
  • HeidiCooksSupper
    HeidiCooksSupper Posts: 3,831 Member
    Options
    If you are talking about exercise calories, then yes IF you have set your activity level to sedentary or are doing the exercise on top of all you usual activity (e.g. a roofer who also runs may set at active and add exercise calories for the running). Many people have found that MFP overestimates the calories that exercise burns so only "eat back" half their exercise calories. Others who exercise a little like me don't add any calories because I have my calories set to 1 pound down and hope the exercise oonches that a little.

    Basically, the choice is up to you for how many if any of your exercise calories you eat back. The two main mistakes people make are overestimating how many calories they are actually burning and over eating or, at the other extreme, doing heavy exercise but not eating back any so not eating enough to stay healthy.
  • sweetsassylisa
    sweetsassylisa Posts: 7 Member
    Options
    Yes that is what I was asking thanks.
  • malibu927
    malibu927 Posts: 17,565 Member
    Options
    http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10503681/exercise-calories-do-i-eat-these-a-video-explanation
  • jakeyweasel
    jakeyweasel Posts: 1 Member
    Options
    My exercise calories only appear in my diary from time to time but not everytime I exercise........anyone got any ideas why that would be?
  • Rickster1967
    Rickster1967 Posts: 485 Member
    Options
    I'm not eating back any of the calories burned by exercise

    that's because I'm trying to eat my daily basal metabolic rate (minus a bit) and create deficit by moving more

    hoping this will provide a long term sustainable way of life

    so if I eat 2300 and do 400 cals exercise I get net 1900 and don't need the nutrition so no need to eat more
  • narspips
    narspips Posts: 48 Member
    Options
    I hardly ever eat back my exercise calories - but that's mostly because I don't exercise very much at all (i.e. no more than 2 15-minute walks most days, and some days not even that), and because my deficit is very small (around 250 calories). On the very rare occasions when I'll do something like a short jog or a longer walk, I put the calories in, but I try not to eat back all of them as I've heard the figures are likely to overestimate. I never seem to earn more than 150 from exercise and given that I occasionally go over my calories, I figure it balances out.

Categories