I'm confused about calorie intake and exercise
tracyloibl
Posts: 4 Member
I got a recommended calorie intake after entering all my information in order to lose weight. Where i am confused is, when I add activity on the tracker, it deducts calories from food I've eatten so I get more calories for the day. Doesn't that defeat the purpose of eating the recommended calories and then exercise on top of that, not eatting more? Hopefully this makes sense.
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your calorie goal already has your deficit to lose weight built in. when you exercise, you are burning more so you need to replace that. some people don't trust the calorie burn estimates so only eat back a percentage. but this is the way my is designed. if you didn't eat back your exercise calories, you could end up missing out on the nutrients your body needs to function.1
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My baseline is 1200 calories a day - that's what MFP gave me when I plugged in my stats and said I wanted to lose 2 lbs a week. I'm set to sedentary, so if I eat 1200 calories and sit on my butt all week, I will lose 2 lbs.
If I exercise and burn 200 calories, I can eat 1400 calories and lose 2 lbs.
If I exercise and burn 200 calores and only eat 1200, I've really only eaten 1000 calories.
The exercise calories are extra on top of your allotted amount. The common idea seems to be to eat back around 50% of them to account for MFP overestimating your burn.
So if you burn 200 and MFP says you can eat 1400 instead of 1200, eat 1300 and you will lose weight.
Hope this helps!6 -
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JerSchmare wrote: »The "eat back 50%" is total bull crap.
Never blindly do things like only eat back 50%. People, generally, are not very smart. Don't be a sheep.
Why so angry dude?
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Thank you everyone. It's makes sense now.0
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JerSchmare wrote: »The "eat back 50%" is total bull crap.
Never blindly do things like only eat back 50%. People, generally, are not very smart. Don't be a sheep.
Why so angry dude?
He's right, no matter what his emotionally state is.5 -
NorthCascades wrote: »JerSchmare wrote: »The "eat back 50%" is total bull crap.
Never blindly do things like only eat back 50%. People, generally, are not very smart. Don't be a sheep.
Why so angry dude?
He's right, no matter what his emotionally state is.
I do think he has a point, though the dogmatic tone makes me mistrust it. Personally I do eat all my exercise calories, but I'm conservative about how many minutes I put in.
If you credit yourself generously with every minute you were on that treadmill and make no allowance for slacking, log yourself as cycling at 12mph when you averaged 8, or credit every minute on your feet in the kitchen as "cooking" or "cleaning, light, moderate effort", you could easily overestimate, so I understand why people do the 50% thing. It's not quite "bull crap", just a different approach.4 -
JerSchmare wrote: »The "eat back 50%" is total bull crap.
Never blindly do things like only eat back 50%. People, generally, are not very smart. Don't be a sheep.
Why so angry dude?
+1! I was wondering the same thing....
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CattOfTheGarage wrote: »NorthCascades wrote: »JerSchmare wrote: »The "eat back 50%" is total bull crap.
Never blindly do things like only eat back 50%. People, generally, are not very smart. Don't be a sheep.
Why so angry dude?
He's right, no matter what his emotionally state is.
I do think he has a point, though the dogmatic tone makes me mistrust it. Personally I do eat all my exercise calories, but I'm conservative about how many minutes I put in.
If you credit yourself generously with every minute you were on that treadmill and make no allowance for slacking, log yourself as cycling at 12mph when you averaged 8, or credit every minute on your feet in the kitchen as "cooking" or "cleaning, light, moderate effort", you could easily overestimate, so I understand why people do the 50% thing. It's not quite "bull crap", just a different approach.
Given that one of the issues with self reporting in studies is that most people underestimate their intake and overestimate their activity, I don't see anything wrong with the approach of starting with logging only 50% of exercise and monitoring and adjusting from there is a bad approach at all. I think it's kind of a smart one.
How many active posts are there right now that are some variation of "why am I not losing"? The vast majority of the time it is overestimating burns/ underestimating intake.3 -
JerSchmare wrote: »The "eat back 50%" is total bull crap.
Never blindly do things like only eat back 50%. People, generally, are not very smart. Don't be a sheep.
Why so angry dude?
Did you hear him say what he wrote or see body language? How do you know he's angry? Blunt maybe, but I can't assume anger based on written word.
IMO, eating back 50% without a context basis doesn't do you any favors. It is advised out here on these forums all the time...usually with context, many times without.
And many times just as dogmatically.5 -
Silentpadna wrote: »IMO, eating back 50% without a context basis doesn't do you any favors. It is advised out here on these forums all the time...usually with context, many times without.
And many times just as dogmatically.
That is a very fair point.0 -
CattOfTheGarage wrote: »NorthCascades wrote: »JerSchmare wrote: »The "eat back 50%" is total bull crap.
Never blindly do things like only eat back 50%. People, generally, are not very smart. Don't be a sheep.
Why so angry dude?
He's right, no matter what his emotionally state is.
I do think he has a point, though the dogmatic tone makes me mistrust it. Personally I do eat all my exercise calories, but I'm conservative about how many minutes I put in.
If you credit yourself generously with every minute you were on that treadmill and make no allowance for slacking, log yourself as cycling at 12mph when you averaged 8, or credit every minute on your feet in the kitchen as "cooking" or "cleaning, light, moderate effort", you could easily overestimate, so I understand why people do the 50% thing. It's not quite "bull crap", just a different approach.
I think when it comes to how many calories you burned on the treadmill or cycling or whatever, there's a "god's honest truth" and there's "an estimate I got." They're not the same thing. In another thread, somebody said they burn 1,000 kCal per hour lifting weights. Another person might read that and think anything posted online must be true, just like the kCal number on fitness equipment must be right. What you're talking about is being more realistic about things, not just trusting any estimate, trying to get closer to the truth.
Personally I eat all my exercise calories, too, but, like you, I don't blindly trust whatever number I can find.2 -
Silentpadna wrote: »JerSchmare wrote: »The "eat back 50%" is total bull crap.
Never blindly do things like only eat back 50%. People, generally, are not very smart. Don't be a sheep.
Why so angry dude?
Did you hear him say what he wrote or see body language? How do you know he's angry? Blunt maybe, but I can't assume anger based on written word.
IMO, eating back 50% without a context basis doesn't do you any favors. It is advised out here on these forums all the time...usually with context, many times without.
And many times just as dogmatically.
Eh, mostly I see people suggesting that someone concerned about whether to eat back exercise or not start with eating back 50-75% and then adjust based on results.1 -
lemurcat12 wrote: »Silentpadna wrote: »JerSchmare wrote: »The "eat back 50%" is total bull crap.
Never blindly do things like only eat back 50%. People, generally, are not very smart. Don't be a sheep.
Why so angry dude?
Did you hear him say what he wrote or see body language? How do you know he's angry? Blunt maybe, but I can't assume anger based on written word.
IMO, eating back 50% without a context basis doesn't do you any favors. It is advised out here on these forums all the time...usually with context, many times without.
And many times just as dogmatically.
Eh, mostly I see people suggesting that someone concerned about whether to eat back exercise or not start with eating back 50-75% and then adjust based on results.
"Adjust based on results" is the key.0 -
I think this works differently for all of us, for me example I have 500 exercise cals, I would eat between 200-300 of them, and leave the rest
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