Can Borrow exercise calories

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benalexe
benalexe Posts: 19 Member
in Getting Started
So I am at a 1500 cal a day plan. On Tuesday I went to spin so I had like 700 exercise calories extra. Yesterday I was getting hungry during the day but I knew I did not have enough calories to sustain the day so I ended up not eating anything extra so I did not go in the negative. Is there a way to bank some of the calories for extras like weight watchers does? My wife keeps trying to convince me to do ww because there are so many “free items”. I have had sucesss several years ago with mfp I lost 50. But put most back. Now trying again

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  • TavistockToad
    TavistockToad Posts: 35,719 Member
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    benalexe wrote: »
    So I am at a 1500 cal a day plan. On Tuesday I went to spin so I had like 700 exercise calories extra. Yesterday I was getting hungry during the day but I knew I did not have enough calories to sustain the day so I ended up not eating anything extra so I did not go in the negative. Is there a way to bank some of the calories for extras like weight watchers does? My wife keeps trying to convince me to do ww because there are so many “free items”. I have had sucesss several years ago with mfp I lost 50. But put most back. Now trying again

    as above, look at your weekly goal.
  • CyberTone
    CyberTone Posts: 7,337 Member
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    On the mobile app, navigate to Nutrition > Calories > Net > Week View. You can set the week to start on a seven day rolling average, or set to start on a specific day of the week.

    Here is an example of the "Weekly Nutrition Settings" set to Monday.

    I am 56, 5'8", 150lbs at maintenance and have my Net Calorie goal set to MFP Active which gives me 2400 Calories per day.

    ulhah3cd9rw3.jpg
  • benalexe
    benalexe Posts: 19 Member
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    This is helpful. So right now it says I am 7169 under my weekly goal. Is that good Tom too much under?
  • benalexe
    benalexe Posts: 19 Member
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    Also what is the difference between total and net. By the way I hate seeing a Day that I govern over my allocated calories.
  • TavistockToad
    TavistockToad Posts: 35,719 Member
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    benalexe wrote: »
    This is helpful. So right now it says I am 7169 under my weekly goal. Is that good Tom too much under?

    Depends how much you're going to eat over the next 3 days...
  • Nikion901
    Nikion901 Posts: 2,467 Member
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    benalexe wrote: »
    Also what is the difference between total and net. By the way I hate seeing a Day that I govern over my allocated calories.

    Net is your intake less exercise calories (if you have exercise calories coming in to the app, or posting exercise to the exercise diary)
  • CyberTone
    CyberTone Posts: 7,337 Member
    edited January 2018
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    benalexe wrote: »
    This is helpful. So right now it says I am 7169 under my weekly goal. Is that good Tom too much under?

    Take the number "under" and divide by number of days left to log to get the average net Calories per day left.

    Assuming you have logged 4 full days (Mon thru Thu) and you have 3 full days left (Fri thru Sun):

    7169 Cals / 3 days left = 2390 Cals per day average for each remaining day (Fri, Sat, Sun) to meet your Goal.

    You can Net 2390 Cals per day for the next three days and still meet your weekly goal.

    Total Calories = Food logged

    Net Calories = Food logged - Exercise logged
  • littlebabekitty
    littlebabekitty Posts: 390 Member
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    Yes! I do it all the time. If you have excess green calories because of exercise you are supposed to eat them. MFP already takes the required calories to loose the lbs you need for the week so extra calories in green are for you.

    Yes you can bank them because the calories are weekly calculated , as the others have explained above.
    So for that day you had consumed all calories you could have eaten the 700 extra because they were excess exercise calories.

    You dont starve yourself girl.
  • LW3380
    LW3380 Posts: 118 Member
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    Thanks so much for this! I'm going out tonight and was worried about going over my limit but carrying out the above calculations I can relax a little and enjoy my noodles knowing the whole week has gone down the pan o:)
  • ladyhusker39
    ladyhusker39 Posts: 1,406 Member
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    On a side note, 700 calories seems kind of high for a spin class.
  • AnnPT77
    AnnPT77 Posts: 32,758 Member
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    ladyhusker39 wrote: »
    On a side note, 700 calories seems kind of high for a spin class.

    That's about what my bike reports for my spin class. My heart rate monitor says less than half as much as the bike - 300ish. Even though there are sweat puddles on the floor, I log the HRM numbers. That's just me, though. ;)
  • bee_bee8
    bee_bee8 Posts: 96 Member
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    AnnPT77 wrote: »
    ladyhusker39 wrote: »
    On a side note, 700 calories seems kind of high for a spin class.

    That's about what my bike reports for my spin class. My heart rate monitor says less than half as much as the bike - 300ish. Even though there are sweat puddles on the floor, I log the HRM numbers. That's just me, though. ;)

    I also find the calorie burn estimates on most gym machines (treadmill, elliptical, stationary bike...) are always much higher than what my HRM indicates. By like hundreds of calories. I too go with the HRM numbers, I think it has to be more accurate :-)
  • benalexe
    benalexe Posts: 19 Member
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    Spin class ahain today. Another
    AnnPT77 wrote: »
    ladyhusker39 wrote: »
    On a side note, 700 calories seems kind of high for a spin class.

    That's about what my bike reports for my spin class. My heart rate monitor says less than half as much as the bike - 300ish. Even though there are sweat puddles on the floor, I log the HRM numbers. That's just me, though. ;)

    I use a heart rate monitor during spin. This was today’s.
    9btw9v0hzt8j.jpeg


    Now for the week I have over 2600 call left.

    37b9fsaujc1a.jpeg



  • sijomial
    sijomial Posts: 19,811 Member
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    I would be very dubious of those high calorie burns.
    You would have to be a pretty serious cyclist pushing really hard for the full hour to hit that amount of calories - especially when your average HR is pretty low. Interval training such as Spinning tends to pull down the average burn compared to constant high effort.

    Does your bike report power (watts) at all? If it does and showing an average of approx 250 watts then you are putting some serious work in.
  • AnnPT77
    AnnPT77 Posts: 32,758 Member
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    benalexe wrote: »
    Spin class ahain today. Another
    AnnPT77 wrote: »
    ladyhusker39 wrote: »
    On a side note, 700 calories seems kind of high for a spin class.

    That's about what my bike reports for my spin class. My heart rate monitor says less than half as much as the bike - 300ish. Even though there are sweat puddles on the floor, I log the HRM numbers. That's just me, though. ;)

    I use a heart rate monitor during spin. This was today’s.
    9btw9v0hzt8j.jpeg

    Now for the week I have over 2600 call left.

    37b9fsaujc1a.jpeg

    Clearly, we are of very different sizes or HR ranges. 50:16 spin last week at AHR 135 MHR 155 got me 289 calories per Polar set at 120 pounds, which would equate to about 360 calories for 1:03. Actual HRmax (tested) is about 180bpm, 48bpm AM resting.

    Sounds like you have a decent number of calories banked for the weekend, regardless ;) , unless you ate a bunch of the exercise calories along the way (you've posted gross rather than net so we can't tell).

    Best wishes!
  • sec818
    sec818 Posts: 6 Member
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    How do I get MFP to NOT add back in the calories I've burned/entered for exercise?? Correct me if I'm wrong, but burn more calories than you eat and you lose weight - which is my goal, LOL
  • shadow2soul
    shadow2soul Posts: 7,692 Member
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    @sec818

    You burn calories 24/7. Exercise is a very small portion.
    The calories you burn at complete rest (BMR) account for the majority of the calories you burn in a day. After that daily activity and a very small portion comes from exercise.

    MFP estimates your BMR + daily activity from what you told them when you set up your account. It does NOT include exercise in it's calculation. It then subtracts your selected deficit for weight loss to give you a call in goal to eat and lose at WITHOUT exercise.
    Exercise increases your daily burn. To remain at the same deficit you have to eat some of those calories back.

    If your deficit is too large it can lead to a binge, fatigue, and will result in your body using lean body mass for fuel as well as fat.

    Recommendation is to start by only eating 50% and adjusting based on actual results over say 4-6 weeks.
    Examples:
    Person eats 50% back and is aiming for 2 lb per week loss. At the 6 wk mark they have averaged 3 lb per week loss. They should increase the amount they eat back.

    Person eats 50% back and is aiming for 1.5 lb per week loss. At the 6 wk mark they are averaging 1 lb per week loss. They should cut back a little bit on what they eat back.

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