What with all the calories that I burn?

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fitdragon484
fitdragon484 Posts: 46 Member
edited October 2017 in Health and Weight Loss
I burned 800 calories today. And my calorie intake per day is 1200.
So what now, should I eat it all back?

Replies

  • janejellyroll
    janejellyroll Posts: 25,763 Member
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    You're burning 800 additional calories a day through exercise? How are you measuring that?

    If you're truly burning 800, then you will want to eat at least some of those back. But some methods of estimating calorie burn wind up giving you inflated numbers.
  • fitdragon484
    fitdragon484 Posts: 46 Member
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    janejellyroll wrote: »
    You're burning 800 additional calories a day through exercise? How are you measuring that?

    If you're truly burning 800, then you will want to eat at least some of those back. But some methods of estimating calorie burn wind up giving you inflated numbers.

    Thanks. Yes I know I shouldn't trust all this machines and applications with the calories. But what if I burn 500 for example?
  • DawnOfTheDead_Lift
    DawnOfTheDead_Lift Posts: 753 Member
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    A standard starting point is to only eat back half and adjust based on your results.
  • pinuplove
    pinuplove Posts: 12,874 Member
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    draganana484 wrote: »
    janejellyroll wrote: »
    You're burning 800 additional calories a day through exercise? How are you measuring that?

    If you're truly burning 800, then you will want to eat at least some of those back. But some methods of estimating calorie burn wind up giving you inflated numbers.

    Thanks. Yes I know I shouldn't trust all this machines and applications with the calories. But what if I burn 500 for example?

    Then you should eat more. Track carefully and let results be your guide.

    Severely under-eating for an extended period can and will lead to a whole host of unpleasant physical and mental effects. Fuel your body.
  • heybales
    heybales Posts: 18,842 Member
    edited October 2017
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    Since MFP gave you an eating level based on daily activity level with NO exercise you selected, it's trying to help you learn a life lesson regarding weight control.

    You do more, you eat more.
    You do less, you eat less (that's the gotcha as ones get older generally).

    In a diet, a tad less in either case, by a reasonable amount to be successful.

    So if you really did burn 500 more (some methods of estimating are more accurate than others) - you'd eat 500 more - and you'd still have the exact same deficit for weight loss.

    Faster is not better, wasn't gained fast for fat, don't attempt to lose fast or it won't all be fat sadly.
    You'll regret the muscle loss later and sooner usually.

    Also depends on where the 800 came from.

    If that is the adjustment from 3rd party tracker - that was MFP trying to correct itself to a better estimate.
    You could have purposely (because you knew you'd sync tracker) or uninformed selected an activity level well below your reality.

    That could even be an adjustment with no exercise done yet - merely you moving a whole lot more than you guessed when selecting an activity level on MFP.

    Which means it's probably very valid unless your device is badly seeing extra steps, and/or badly seeing extra distance - which means inflated calorie burn.

    If that was your device that reported an 800 cal burn for a workout - how long have you had device, what is it exactly, and what was workout done?

    If that adjustment was some workout, some increased activity, same questions on the workout.

    Oh - that 1200 is for when your daily activity exactly matches the level you selected.
    If you selected Sedentary and you weren't - then that's not the goal.
  • cwolfman13
    cwolfman13 Posts: 41,874 Member
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    If you actually burned 500 or 800 calories, you would eat back 500 or 800 calories...if it's accurate.
  • fitdragon484
    fitdragon484 Posts: 46 Member
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    Now I am really confused
    The application sink the 4miles walking and calculates the calories, which is a number of 400.I know that's a lot for walking, and now I know I shouldn't trust it. And the rest of the calories were calculated this morning on the treadmill. I had a 20 min gym workout that I didn't even put on the list of exercises or calories.
    I really want to do this right, so I don't eat any calories back, because I am not sure if I should,and now even if I want to eat the calories back, I don't know how much :neutral:
    I came to idea to ask the question because when I came back from my 4 miles walk I looked little bit pale.
  • kgirlhart
    kgirlhart Posts: 4,997 Member
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    You should eat at least some of the exercise calories back. How many you eat back is up to you. You can start out by eating them all back and after about 4 weeks if you are not losing at your desired rate you know you are overestimating exercise calories and you should eat back less. A lot of people will start by eating half of the exercise calories back. After about 4 weeks if you are losing faster than expected you know you can eat more of them if you are losing slower than expected you should eat less of them.
  • Spliner1969
    Spliner1969 Posts: 3,233 Member
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    pinuplove wrote: »
    draganana484 wrote: »
    Now I am really confused
    The application sink the 4miles walking and calculates the calories, which is a number of 400.I know that's a lot for walking, and now I know I shouldn't trust it. And the rest of the calories were calculated this morning on the treadmill. I had a 20 min gym workout that I didn't even put on the list of exercises or calories.
    I really want to do this right, so I don't eat any calories back, because I am not sure if I should,and now even if I want to eat the calories back, I don't know how much :neutral:
    I came to idea to ask the question because when I came back from my 4 miles walk I looked little bit pale.

    Are you looking for a concrete answer? Then eat half. Give it a few weeks and assess up or down from there. Trust the process.

    Walking 4 miles can burn 400 calories, it just depends on your current physical condition, your age, height, weight, how fast you walk, whether or not it's up hill, down hill, etc. etc. too many factors to get an accurate amount. My suggestion is the same as @pinuplove , start with half of those calories, which would put you at 1400 and watch the weight loss. If you start losing more than 2lbs per week, eat more of them back. But you are going to need to not adjust it except every few weeks. Eating back half of those calories and then adjusting every 3-4 days isn't going to be helpful. If, after say 2-4 weeks you are losing at the rate you set in MFP then don't change anything and continue to eat half of the calories back.
  • heybales
    heybales Posts: 18,842 Member
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    draganana484 wrote: »
    Now I am really confused
    The application sink the 4miles walking and calculates the calories, which is a number of 400.I know that's a lot for walking, and now I know I shouldn't trust it. And the rest of the calories were calculated this morning on the treadmill. I had a 20 min gym workout that I didn't even put on the list of exercises or calories.
    I really want to do this right, so I don't eat any calories back, because I am not sure if I should,and now even if I want to eat the calories back, I don't know how much :neutral:
    I came to idea to ask the question because when I came back from my 4 miles walk I looked little bit pale.

    But you aren't really wanting to do it right if you aren't eating back any extra calories.

    So from any estimates - do you really think zero, as in big fat 0 - is the most correct estimate?

    Did you know food labels can be up to 20% inaccurate by law - ready to chuck logging food out the window?
    Or that sugar content in fruit changes depending on ripeness and therefore calories changes, or vegetables depending on growing differences.

    That's actually not a lot for walking depending on your stats. And a database entry is for level walking.
    Did you have incline, or outside with hills?
  • DX2JX2
    DX2JX2 Posts: 1,921 Member
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    draganana484 wrote: »
    I came to idea to ask the question because when I came back from my 4 miles walk I looked little bit pale.

    FYI - looking pale isn't really a 'physical symptom' you generally have to act upon. It's more important to gauge items more closely related to your calorie levels. Things like energy levels, dizziness, fatigue, etc. If you only looked pale but otherwise felt fine, then I wouldn't sweat it too much. Keep doing what you're doing.
  • NorthCascades
    NorthCascades Posts: 10,968 Member
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    Calories from walking ~= your body weight in pounds / 3 * miles walked.
  • fitdragon484
    fitdragon484 Posts: 46 Member
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    NorthCascades wrote: »
    Calories from walking ~= your body weight in pounds / 3 * miles walked.

    270 calories, sounds more reasonable... Thank you
  • sijomial
    sijomial Posts: 19,811 Member
    edited October 2017
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    DawnOfTheDead_Lift wrote: »
    A standard starting point is to only eat back half and adjust based on your results.

    That would only make sense if you believed the estimates were double the reality.
    There's plenty of high estimates around (including some from the MFP exercise database) but double?

    Especially if someone has selected the fastest rate of loss deliberately under-estimating exercise calories isn't a good idea. Better IMHO to start with reasonable estimates and adjust downwards if required.
  • sijomial
    sijomial Posts: 19,811 Member
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    draganana484 wrote: »
    Now I am really confused
    The application sink the 4miles walking and calculates the calories, which is a number of 400.I know that's a lot for walking, and now I know I shouldn't trust it. And the rest of the calories were calculated this morning on the treadmill. I had a 20 min gym workout that I didn't even put on the list of exercises or calories.
    I really want to do this right, so I don't eat any calories back, because I am not sure if I should,and now even if I want to eat the calories back, I don't know how much :neutral:
    I came to idea to ask the question because when I came back from my 4 miles walk I looked little bit pale.

    "Doing it right" would be using the tool as designed.
    Your weight loss over an extended period of time gives you the best feedback on whether your food and exercise logging is reasonable.
  • cwolfman13
    cwolfman13 Posts: 41,874 Member
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    draganana484 wrote: »
    Now I am really confused
    The application sink the 4miles walking and calculates the calories, which is a number of 400.I know that's a lot for walking, and now I know I shouldn't trust it. And the rest of the calories were calculated this morning on the treadmill. I had a 20 min gym workout that I didn't even put on the list of exercises or calories.
    I really want to do this right, so I don't eat any calories back, because I am not sure if I should,and now even if I want to eat the calories back, I don't know how much :neutral:
    I came to idea to ask the question because when I came back from my 4 miles walk I looked little bit pale.

    That's not doing this right. Yes, estimating energy expenditure can be tricky and there is an element of trial and error...but eating none back isn't how to do this right and is far less accurate than eating some.

    There are a lot of ways of dialing in your energy expenditure...there are a lot of formulas and whatnot on-line...and from there, you adjust per your actual real world results.

    Eating none back isn't a good idea...if you're eating 1200 calories and did burn 800 calories (which I can easily do on a longer bike ride) it would be the exact same thing as just eating 400 calories.
  • fitdragon484
    fitdragon484 Posts: 46 Member
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    There are definitely a few things to think about.
    Thank you all!
  • MegaMooseEsq
    MegaMooseEsq Posts: 3,118 Member
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    sijomial wrote: »
    DawnOfTheDead_Lift wrote: »
    A standard starting point is to only eat back half and adjust based on your results.

    That would only make sense if you believed the estimates were double the reality.
    There's plenty of high estimates around (including some from the MFP exercise database) but double?

    Especially if someone has selected the fastest rate of loss deliberately under-estimating exercise calories isn't a good idea. Better IMHO to start with reasonable estimates and adjust downwards if required.

    I don't disagree that this is likely the better course, but given how reluctant many people are to eat *any* exercise calories back, 50% seems like a reasonable compromise.
  • Seffell
    Seffell Posts: 2,222 Member
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    I've always eaten 100% of my calories and never had an issue. But I never burned 800 cals a day. 30min stationary bike burns 120cals for me. 30 min walking 100 cals etc. 800 is a huge number.

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