Exercise calories - do I eat these? A video explanation.
Replies
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so linking your fitbit to MFP is that TDEE you mentioned right? And I should not consume those extra calories I burned throughout the day? Should i just add in my walk (like 60 min walk and however many calories my fitbit says I burned?)
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so linking your fitbit to MFP is that TDEE you mentioned right? And I should not consume those extra calories I burned throughout the day? Should i just add in my walk (like 60 min walk and however many calories my fitbit says I burned?)
Fitbit is giving a TDEE value when you look at it's calories burned (unless looking at a workout, which is already in the TDEE).
Fitbit sends that TDEE over to MFP, that does math to correct itself.
And then take a deficit.
That Calorie Adjustment you see on Exercise Diary is that correction, so that MFP can maintain the deficit you selected.
So yes you would eat it back until proved it's way wrong (like tons of extra distance from false steps, or you take tons of daily steps and the distance ends up way inflated).
No you don't log the walk because it's already in the TDEE figure - Total Daily Energy Expend - that's everything.0 -
Here's a brief and simple explanation.
This video was approved by mod team before posting and this is a non monetized channel. I only mention for TOU/disclosure purposes. @psuLemon
Thank you for this straight forward explanation. Now I understand why my weight loss over time does not tally with my calorie consumption.0 -
Thanks for that video. Now I understand what was happening when I added in my fitbit activity. It added a few hundred calories to my day which I didn't understand so I removed the syncing.
I have 100lbs to lose and losing about 1.5lb a week. I don't 'eat' my calories for the activities that I do. I can see now that if I did intense exercise that I would have to eat more calories for energy but right now my exercise is getting 10K steps in and a few days of the bike in and out of the gym.
Here's what I don't understand and feeling dumb that I'm missing something here. For those of you who exercised and burned 250 calories and then ate those calories, doesn't that mean you didn't get the advantage of burning calories to lose weight? Is the idea to just get the weight reduction from the calories you are eating which is now less and the working out is not for the calories burned (since you eat them) but for the benefit of the healthy side effects of working out? I always thought the losing weight is to reduce calories and exercise more but if you are eating all the calories you worked off, how does it work?0 -
Thanks for that video. Now I understand what was happening when I added in my fitbit activity. It added a few hundred calories to my day which I didn't understand so I removed the syncing.
I have 100lbs to lose and losing about 1.5lb a week. I don't 'eat' my calories for the activities that I do. I can see now that if I did intense exercise that I would have to eat more calories for energy but right now my exercise is getting 10K steps in and a few days of the bike in and out of the gym.
Here's what I don't understand and feeling dumb that I'm missing something here. For those of you who exercised and burned 250 calories and then ate those calories, doesn't that mean you didn't get the advantage of burning calories to lose weight? Is the idea to just get the weight reduction from the calories you are eating which is now less and the working out is not for the calories burned (since you eat them) but for the benefit of the healthy side effects of working out? I always thought the losing weight is to reduce calories and exercise more but if you are eating all the calories you worked off, how does it work?
Running too large a calorie deficit isn't a good thing. In addition to increased hunger and lethargy, it can impact your hair, nails, monthly cycle, mood, and likely some other stuff (including the intensity of your workouts). Basically, to lose 1/2lb per week, you need to run a 250-calorie average daily deficit. How you get there—diet, exercise, or combo—makes no difference for weight loss. It can make a huge difference for overall fitness, muscle preservation, etc. The thing is, when you're getting a good workout in, if you don't up your calorie intake, you'll be running too high a deficit. Note: not talking about a 15-minute trip to the corner supermarket; eat back or don't eat back those 60-odd calories, nobody cares. A 500-calorie two-hour walk? Totally different story.
Me personally, I set my calorie goal for less aggressive than the maximum and eat back at least half my exercise calories, keeping the other half as a cushion against guesstimates—I log my strength training under cardio and get told I burn about 200 calories per hour; no clue if that's right, but I eat back 100 and the weight is dropping. The bread I buy at my bakery may not follow the same recipe as the bread I select from the MFP database and the calories could vary, etc.0 -
estherdragonbat wrote: »Thanks for that video. Now I understand what was happening when I added in my fitbit activity. It added a few hundred calories to my day which I didn't understand so I removed the syncing.
I have 100lbs to lose and losing about 1.5lb a week. I don't 'eat' my calories for the activities that I do. I can see now that if I did intense exercise that I would have to eat more calories for energy but right now my exercise is getting 10K steps in and a few days of the bike in and out of the gym.
Here's what I don't understand and feeling dumb that I'm missing something here. For those of you who exercised and burned 250 calories and then ate those calories, doesn't that mean you didn't get the advantage of burning calories to lose weight? Is the idea to just get the weight reduction from the calories you are eating which is now less and the working out is not for the calories burned (since you eat them) but for the benefit of the healthy side effects of working out? I always thought the losing weight is to reduce calories and exercise more but if you are eating all the calories you worked off, how does it work?
Running too large a calorie deficit isn't a good thing. In addition to increased hunger and lethargy, it can impact your hair, nails, monthly cycle, mood, and likely some other stuff (including the intensity of your workouts). Basically, to lose 1/2lb per week, you need to run a 250-calorie average daily deficit. How you get there—diet, exercise, or combo—makes no difference for weight loss. It can make a huge difference for overall fitness, muscle preservation, etc. The thing is, when you're getting a good workout in, if you don't up your calorie intake, you'll be running too high a deficit. Note: not talking about a 15-minute trip to the corner supermarket; eat back or don't eat back those 60-odd calories, nobody cares. A 500-calorie two-hour walk? Totally different story.
Me personally, I set my calorie goal for less aggressive than the maximum and eat back at least half my exercise calories, keeping the other half as a cushion against guesstimates—I log my strength training under cardio and get told I burn about 200 calories per hour; no clue if that's right, but I eat back 100 and the weight is dropping. The bread I buy at my bakery may not follow the same recipe as the bread I select from the MFP database and the calories could vary, etc.
Thanks Estherdragon, I think I'm understanding it better now. In my head I was dividing up weight loss thinking half would be from reducing the calories (can't believe how much I must have been eating before) and half from now exercising and moving more. It's the X amount of deficit FOR THE DAY NO MATTER WHICH COMBO makes more sense. Once I've lost more weight and can do more intense exercising then I'll have to watch/increase the calories.1 -
Thanks for that video. Now I understand what was happening when I added in my fitbit activity. It added a few hundred calories to my day which I didn't understand so I removed the syncing.
I have 100lbs to lose and losing about 1.5lb a week. I don't 'eat' my calories for the activities that I do. I can see now that if I did intense exercise that I would have to eat more calories for energy but right now my exercise is getting 10K steps in and a few days of the bike in and out of the gym.
Here's what I don't understand and feeling dumb that I'm missing something here. For those of you who exercised and burned 250 calories and then ate those calories, doesn't that mean you didn't get the advantage of burning calories to lose weight? Is the idea to just get the weight reduction from the calories you are eating which is now less and the working out is not for the calories burned (since you eat them) but for the benefit of the healthy side effects of working out? I always thought the losing weight is to reduce calories and exercise more but if you are eating all the calories you worked off, how does it work?
MFP will give me a target of around 2000 calories per day to lose 1 Lb per week...that is before any deliberate exercise is performed. This means that MFP is estimating my non exercise maintenance calories to be 2500 (500 calorie per day deficit). If I exercise and burn 350 calories and didn't account for that, my deficit would increase to 850 calories. I can eat them back and still maintain my 500 calorie deficit eating 2350 calories because my maintenance calories of 2500 would have also increased to 2850 and 2850-2350=500 calorie deficit still.2 -
Thanks cwolfman13, I think I get it0
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Here's a brief and simple explanation.
This video was approved by mod team before posting and this is a non monetized channel. I only mention for TOU/disclosure purposes. @psuLemon
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=67USKg3w_E4
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Great video thank you! I have a fairly active job. Usually burn average 1500 daily. Set my goal to 1450 cals per day. How many of my active cals should I be eating back do you think? I'm usually stuffed on 1450 lol so no idea how I am going to fit more in. Also, any goods in particular I need to use the exercise cals on or not? Thanks very much 😀.0
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Great video thank you! I have a fairly active job. Usually burn average 1500 daily. Set my goal to 1450 cals per day. How many of my active cals should I be eating back do you think? I'm usually stuffed on 1450 lol so no idea how I am going to fit more in. Also, any goods in particular I need to use the exercise cals on or not? Thanks very much 😀.
to meet your goal and assuming the burn is correct, and that is above and beyond your RMR cals, you would eat all of them! cals burned are just estimates so most people suggest eating 50-75% of them0 -
As an example say MFP gives you 1450 calories to lose 1 lb/week, and you plan on exercising 5x/week for an average of 400 cals per workout. well MFP will tell you to eat 1450 on the days you don't work out and 1850 on the days you do whereas a "professional" or TDEE calculator may tell you to eat 1700 every day regardless if you workout.
So for the week, MFP will have you eat 12,150 (1450*2+1850*5) whereas doing it the other way will have you eat 11,900 (1700*7) almost the same number of cals for the week (250 dif). The issue in not following MFP is if you don't work out the full 5 days or burn more or less than planned. If that is the case you may lose more or less than your goal, whereas MFP will have you lose your goal amount regardless of how much you actually workout.
What many MFPers do is take the low 1450 and not eat back exercise calories which is wrong, if you are not eating them back then your daily activity level should reflect the higher burn with would be covered in the 1700/day above.
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Great video thank you! I have a fairly active job. Usually burn average 1500 daily. Set my goal to 1450 cals per day. How many of my active cals should I be eating back do you think? I'm usually stuffed on 1450 lol so no idea how I am going to fit more in. Also, any goods in particular I need to use the exercise cals on or not? Thanks very much 😀.
It sounds like you don't mean 1500 in TDEE then, but 1500 extra.
How was that number obtained - it needs to be a good estimate?
As explained - deficit should be off the total burned - whether you average that from weekly total aka TDEE method, or you do it daily with MFP method.
Obviously if you are way more active than the MFP activity level you selected, or you are working out and not accounting for it - there is 1 huge massively wrong answer - and that is not counting any of the extra and not eating anything back.
You'll regret that sooner and later.1 -
how does this work when you are tracking step cals from a Fitbit and then also exercise? so u eat all those calories or no?0
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smilingmomma wrote: »how does this work when you are tracking step cals from a Fitbit and then also exercise? so u eat all those calories or no?
I let my Fitbit handle all my step and exercise info (so if it doesn't pick up my weight training, I log the workout on the Fitbit app) and then I have the Fitbit and MFP synced with the negative calorie adjustment enabled. It does take a couple of weeks for all the programs to understand each other for some reason, but yes I let Fitbit change my MFP calories and I eat whatever calories it tells me I have.
Your Fitbit will not double credit you, if that's what you're worried about. If you take 2000 steps while doing a cardio workout, Fitbit will take into consideration the calories you got from the steps, and will only credit you the extra calories you get from the cardio, above and beyond what it already gave you for the steps. I hope that makes sense!0 -
Bump!
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Bump redux
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Bumping again!1
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Hi the video was great just one question can I bank excersise calories for the wkend when I might not excersise and if I can how do I do that0
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dietnowcuddles wrote: »Hi the video was great just one question can I bank excersise calories for the wkend when I might not excersise and if I can how do I do that
Sure.
Look at your weekly total rather than daily.
You usually just don't want to do some big unreasonable deficit 5-6 days mere to have a massive binge or pigout on 1-2 days.
But if you have a reasonable deficit in the first place, adding 50 more daily to have an extra 250-300 on a weekend day isn't bad.
Shoot, skip breakfast and have smaller lunch on that same day and have even an extra 300-500 for dinner fun!0 -
@Bosatch87 This is the BEST explanation for if you should eat back exercise calories or not.1
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Thank you very much0
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You’re welcome!0
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Bump!0
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Thank you!0
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I watched video- I have my FitBit sync to myfitnesspal. I am trying to lose 10lbs workouts daily. I decided to turn off the added exercise calories, but now maybe it seems I should be using this feature..and then if I feel hungry use those "added" calories. Im at 144, trying to get to 135.
I turned off thinking i need to keep myself ij calorie deficit, but I also know my body needs to replenish. I wish i had a personal chef and coach lool0 -
zumbagirl72 wrote: »I watched video- I have my FitBit sync to myfitnesspal. I am trying to lose 10lbs workouts daily. I decided to turn off the added exercise calories, but now maybe it seems I should be using this feature..and then if I feel hungry use those "added" calories. Im at 144, trying to get to 135.
I turned off thinking i need to keep myself ij calorie deficit, but I also know my body needs to replenish. I wish i had a personal chef and coach lool
Yep, things in context.
Comments about the database possibly being inflated calorie burn, or the way the math works causing that to occur, doesn't apply to those Adjustments which are not from an exercise database, but are merely the difference between Fitbit seeing daily activity and total calorie burn, and MFP's estimate of daily burn no exercise and activity level you selected.
You could do no workouts, be very active in reality getting many steps and lots of distance and calories burned, but then Select Sedentary on MFP - and as expected you'd get a big adjustment.
Of course if you had selected the correct MFP level - you'd get none.
I'd warrant most people if they did that, higher eating level because of guessed correct level at the start - would never see an adjustment and the question and confusion would never come up.
I'll comment - only 10 lbs to lose, hope you selected the 250 cal deficit, or else body will rebel pretty quick with an extreme diet being attempted with big deficit.
And not counting increased daily activity and workouts over your MFP selected activity level is adding to your deficit - when you disable as you did.1 -
If I don't eat back the extra exercise calories allotted, is that bad for any reason? Now that my body is used to a set # of calories, I just don't feel like eating more just because I exercised. I play 2-3 hours of tennis a day.0
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Sactowriter wrote: »If I don't eat back the extra exercise calories allotted, is that bad for any reason? Now that my body is used to a set # of calories, I just don't feel like eating more just because I exercised. I play 2-3 hours of tennis a day.
Losing weight too fast (more than briefly) is bad, not healthful.
If you're eating enough calories that you're not losing too fast, it's fine not to account for the exercise calories separately. (IMO, "too fast" is more than 0.5-1% of current body weight per week, with bias toward the lower end of that range unless severely obese and under close medical supervision for deficiencies or complications.)
The MFP basic method is to account for exercise calories when we do the exercise. The other method is to eat a fixed number of calories daily, which essentially averages in exercise calories with other calories. Either method can work. The main point of the OP is to explain the MFP approach, I believe.0
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