Am I consuming too many calories??

KBurkhardt08
KBurkhardt08 Posts: 141 Member
edited November 24 in Food and Nutrition
I think I tend to have a lot of calories each day but I also exercise a lot each day. For example, Today my food will total 2000 calories but I've also burned over 1200 from exercise so it still makes me 400 under my calorie goal. Does this sound okay? Or am I eating too much even though I'm still under on calories?

Replies

  • ecjim
    ecjim Posts: 1,001 Member
    1200 cals sounds like a lot of exercising - If you want to loose weight adjust your cals so you loose 1 maybe 2 lbs per week . 2000 might be the right number, maybe you need less. - Eastcoast Jim
  • KBurkhardt08
    KBurkhardt08 Posts: 141 Member
    malibu927 wrote: »
    How did you determine you burned 1200 calories exercising?

    I track it with my Fitbit. I usually workout about 2 and a half hours a day. I'd show you a picture but I don't know how to do that here.
  • KBurkhardt08
    KBurkhardt08 Posts: 141 Member
    edited January 2018
    Resistive wrote: »
    Some crazy math going on here...

    What do you mean? I'm not an idiot. I know how to add. For example, yesterday I worked out twice... The first one was 75 min and I burned 624. The second was 69 min and I burned 693 calories. Which is over 1200 burned. My calories on myfitnesspal are set to 1250. So if I'm rounding everything... Which I was.. 1250+1200(calories burned)=2450-2000(food I consumed)= 450 which is pretty close to what I said. I didn't realize you needed me to be so specific.
  • KBurkhardt08
    KBurkhardt08 Posts: 141 Member
    ecjim wrote: »
    1200 cals sounds like a lot of exercising - If you want to loose weight adjust your cals so you loose 1 maybe 2 lbs per week . 2000 might be the right number, maybe you need less. - Eastcoast Jim

    I think I have it set to one pound now but I'll take a look at it. I realize it's a lot of exercise but I enjoy exercise classes. I go to one at lunch and one after work and that way it doesn't seem like too much.
  • ForecasterJason
    ForecasterJason Posts: 2,577 Member
    How intense is the exercise you were doing? It is possible that your Fitbit may be overestimating your calories burned while exercising.
  • KBurkhardt08
    KBurkhardt08 Posts: 141 Member
    ForecasterJason wrote: »
    How intense is the exercise you were doing? It is possible that your Fitbit may be overestimating your calories burned while exercising.

    I personally feel like they are high intensity. Like kickboxing and bootcamp. Before the Fitbit I had a polar watch with chest strap and they seem to be pretty close. If anything the Fitbit seems like it's less then what the polar watch said.
  • gaby_gz1988
    gaby_gz1988 Posts: 18 Member
    I’ve been wondering about this too. I eat close to 2000 and feel like I may be eating too much. My Fitbit also says I burn close to the same amount of calories as you, but sometimes it messes up on me, so I don’t know if I should really trust it all of the time. I never know if I should eat back exercise calories or not for this same reason..
  • nutmegoreo
    nutmegoreo Posts: 15,532 Member
    What is your weight actually doing, and how long have you been tracking?

    I can lose 2lb/week on 1700 calories. I'm short and in my forties, but at the time I was doing that I was swimming 4-5 times per week, kickboxing 1-2 times per week, and weight lifting 3 times per week.

    If you are active, and tracking everything accurately, I don't see a problem. Monitor it over time, and adjust up or down based on results. But give yourself 4-6 weeks before making changes. Changing too soon can muddy the waters with regard to what is actually working for you.
  • TavistockToad
    TavistockToad Posts: 35,719 Member
    KBurkhardt08 wrote: »
    I think I tend to have a lot of calories each day but I also exercise a lot each day. For example, Today my food will total 2000 calories but I've also burned over 1200 from exercise so it still makes me 400 under my calorie goal. Does this sound okay? Or am I eating too much even though I'm still under on calories?

    What do the scales say?

    Are you losing weight? Are you hungry a lot? Do you have enough energy to do all the classes?
  • amusedmonkey
    amusedmonkey Posts: 10,330 Member
    Hard to know if it's too many until you have more data points. If you like what you're doing keep at it and keep eating the way you're eating, and after a month or so re-evaluate. If you're losing at an acceptable rate then you're fine. If you're losing too slow or too fast you can adjust your calories up or down. No tracker is 100% accurate, but you can make it work accurately for you by watching your progress.
  • leahraskie
    leahraskie Posts: 260 Member
    I suppose you need to take your BMR in to account with that, I know fitbit tracks that. Just working regularly at my lab job and BMR it tracks me around 1800-2000 calories burned in a day total, I think it over tracks steps a lot so it overcompensates calories burned. If that was actually true i'd be melting weight off :D:D that isn't the case at all.
  • sijomial
    sijomial Posts: 19,809 Member
    Just based on the numbers then no, under-cutting your goal by a large amount is clearly not the idea. The idea is to get close to your goal.
    Why would you think 2000 calories is too much for someone who is exercising a lot?

    But what are your actual results over an extended period of time?

    Weight going up/down/staying the same?
    Good energy levels?
    Hungry, not hungry?

  • whitpauly
    whitpauly Posts: 1,483 Member
    Fitbit calculate your calories used for the whole day,,you'd burn calories laying on the couch binge watching Netflix,it's only the extra calories you burn with exercise that you're supposed to eat back,I doubt you burn almost 700 calls with 70 minutes of exercise ,I walk/run for 120 minutes sometimes and only get an extra 350 to 400 burn for it
  • jaquieduck
    jaquieduck Posts: 14 Member
    edited January 2018
    whitpauly wrote: »
    Fitbit calculate your calories used for the whole day,,you'd burn calories laying on the couch binge watching Netflix,it's only the extra calories you burn with exercise that you're supposed to eat back,I doubt you burn almost 700 calls with 70 minutes of exercise ,I walk/run for 120 minutes sometimes and only get an extra 350 to 400 burn for it

    MFP does a calorie a adjustment if it's synced to your fitbit, it doesn't add the TOTAL calories the fitbit says you burned; only what's over and above normal activity. She specifically stated "from exercise" so she it not looking at the total burned, just the ones from her exercise.
    What each person burns during exercise is going to depend a great deal on their size and many other factors. I am not sure how you could be burning only 350 calories in two full hours of running/walking, but maybe you don't have as much weight to move around, or there's some other factors causing you to burn fewer calories. Both MFP and fitbit calculate that I burn around 300 calories in just one hour of fast paced walking. When I was running, I could do a 5k in 40 minutes, and that would burn about 350 calories.
    To the OP, I have the same problem as you, I think the calorie adjustment for the fitbit is too high, so personally, I try to leave 300-500 calorie each day, which means I eat about 1700 per day (m6 exercise is not as intense as yours).
  • nutmegoreo
    nutmegoreo Posts: 15,532 Member
    jaquieduck wrote: »
    whitpauly wrote: »
    Fitbit calculate your calories used for the whole day,,you'd burn calories laying on the couch binge watching Netflix,it's only the extra calories you burn with exercise that you're supposed to eat back,I doubt you burn almost 700 calls with 70 minutes of exercise ,I walk/run for 120 minutes sometimes and only get an extra 350 to 400 burn for it

    MFP does a calorie a adjustment if it's synced to your fitbit, it doesn't add the TOTAL calories the fitbit says you burned; only what's over and above normal activity. She specifically stated "from exercise" so she it not looking at the total burned, just the ones from her exercise.
    What each person burns during exercise is going to depend a great deal on their size and many other factors. I am not sure how you could be burning only 350 calories in two full hours of running/walking, but maybe you don't have as much weight to move around, or there's some other factors causing you to burn fewer calories. Both MFP and fitbit calculate that I burn around 300 calories in just one hour of fast paced walking. When I was running, I could do a 5k in 40 minutes, and that would burn about 350 calories.
    To the OP, I have the same problem as you, I think the calorie adjustment for the fitbit is too high, so personally, I try to leave 300-500 calorie each day, which means I eat about 1700 per day (m6 exercise is not as intense as yours).

    Again, go by what your weight is actually doing over a period of time. I find my FitBit to underestimate by about 200 calories per day. If I were to leave extra on top of that, I would be compromising nutrition and strength.

    Actual results trump whatever the gadgets and programs say.
  • BecMarty14
    BecMarty14 Posts: 351 Member
    I try to leave a few hundred calories most days.
    At first I felt super hungry, but I 've spread out meals more and made sure to get some protein at each meal.
    I'm still searching for more pure protein sources.
  • TavistockToad
    TavistockToad Posts: 35,719 Member
    RebeccaMartineau14 wrote: »
    I try to leave a few hundred calories most days.
    At first I felt super hungry, but I 've spread out meals more and made sure to get some protein at each meal.
    I'm still searching for more pure protein sources.

    Why bother asking MFP for a calorie goal if you take no notice of it?
  • KBurkhardt08
    KBurkhardt08 Posts: 141 Member
    sijomial wrote: »
    Just based on the numbers then no, under-cutting your goal by a large amount is clearly not the idea. The idea is to get close to your goal.
    Why would you think 2000 calories is too much for someone who is exercising a lot?

    But what are your actual results over an extended period of time?

    Weight going up/down/staying the same?
    Good energy levels?
    Hungry, not hungry?

    I was just concerned because I lost a lot of weight a couple of years ago but I think I was usually around 1600-1700 calories a day. I was running but still not burning as many calories as I am now. I only really started paying attention to calories again at the beginning of January so I don't have a lot of data to go off of. I've lost a few pounds. I seem to have enough energy. But I'm one of those people that tends to always be hungry.

    Sometimes I think it's my desk job tricking me into hunger. Haha.
  • KBurkhardt08
    KBurkhardt08 Posts: 141 Member
    whitpauly wrote: »
    Fitbit calculate your calories used for the whole day,,you'd burn calories laying on the couch binge watching Netflix,it's only the extra calories you burn with exercise that you're supposed to eat back,I doubt you burn almost 700 calls with 70 minutes of exercise ,I walk/run for 120 minutes sometimes and only get an extra 350 to 400 burn for it

    Ya I don't pay attention the the calories they're giving me for just being alive. Seems like too many. But 700 didn't seem too crazy since my heart rate is usually around 170 the whole time. Do you track your calories with Fitbit? How do you only get 350?
  • KBurkhardt08
    KBurkhardt08 Posts: 141 Member
    From what I can tell I think I need more time to see if what I'm doing is working. I've lost a few pounds but it's hard to know if that's from what I'm doing it water weight. I'm going to continue going off of what the Fitbit says I burn during workouts. I won't eat all of them back to make sure I'm good to go.
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