Extra calorie allowances through exercise?

DyanaHagan · July 2019

Hi there! I have been using MFP for about a month now, and so far, so good! I've lost about 10 lbs and I am eating low fat, healthy meals with plenty lean meats, fruits and vegetables, and whole grains.

My question is this: When I work out (I walk) MFP adds the amount of calories I burned to the amount I can eat for the day. For example: I set my goal at 1350. Through exercise, MFP calculates that I can eat 1500 for the day instead, since I burned calories. If I do eat the extra allowed calories, will this cause my weight to stay the same, or will I still lose at the same rate?

Thanks in advance for any help!

Panini911 · July 2019

congrats on your loss, that's quick progress!

MFP is designed to have you eat back your exercise calories. The calorie goal it gives you (based on your input of height, gender, weight, rate of loss and activity level) assumes NO purposeful exercise. so calories to eat to lose at the requested rate.

Exercising increases the deficit, which can lead to not eating enough to properly fuel your body.

However, all of this assumes accurate weighing and logging of all foods. And accurate measurement of exercise calories. Depending on quantity of those exercise calories earned and accurateness of logging, some people opt to not eat them. If it's a few hundred calories it may just wash out inacurate logging. But that isn't how the app was designed to work. Some people find the estimated exercise calories are too high so eat a portion (because while the full number given may be wrong, 0 is equally wrong).

Your rate of loss is about 2lb/week or more (depending if you mean 4 or 5 weeks ish). That's aggressive, how much do you have to lose in total?

http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10503681/exercise-calories-do-i-eat-these-a-video-explanation/p1

kuksabs · July 2019

Congratulations on your 10lb weight loss in a month.

Eating back those calories which was burned doing exercises has never worked for me. If I eat back those calories MFP calculated, I easily gain the weight that I had lost within no time.

DyanaHagan · July 2019

Thanks so much for your response Panini! It makes sense. I have about more 63 lbs to lose. I notice that when I first start a weight loss program the pounds drop off much quicker in the beginning. How are you doing on your journey?

DyanaHagan · July 2019

Thanks Kuksabs! I was afraid of that! I think what may work (I am going to try it) is just eating slightly more on days I exercise.

nighthawk584 · July 2019

I just started here and using the app yesterday and I think that the NET calories after exercise is a little hookey. I am not even paying attention to that because I know it will not help in weight loss and to achieve my goal.

Panini911 · July 2019

DyanaHagan wrote: »

Thanks so much for your response Panini! It makes sense. I have about more 63 lbs to lose. I notice that when I first start a weight loss program the pounds drop off much quicker in the beginning. How are you doing on your journey?

there is often a quick water weight drop initially before things stabilize, very normal.

I've lost all the weight i had planned plus an extra 10-15 and am now trying to transition into maintenance. Took me a bit over a year to lose 55 or so pounds (most of the time was on the last 15 though - those are very slow)

AnnPT77 · July 2019

nighthawk584 wrote: »

I just started here and using the app yesterday and I think that the NET calories after exercise is a little hookey. I am not even paying attention to that because I know it will not help in weight loss and to achieve my goal.

Underfueling and losing weight aggressively fast will not help your health, your energy level, or your body composition.

Putting it another way: Losing weight too slowly is frustrating. Losing weight too fast is a health risk. I know which of those I'd prefer as my on-ramp to a healthy weight management plan, since we are intended to start based on what MFP estimates, then adjust after 4-6 weeks of real-world experience.**

MFP is designed to estimate our activity level before exercise (NEAT, or non-exercise activity thermogenesis), not our total all-day calorie burn including exercise (TDEE, or total daily energy expenditure). MFP estimates NEAT, and deducts an allowance so it believes we'll lose weight at the rate we pick (pound a week, or what have you).

Therefore MFP intends that we log and eat back exercise calories, to keep that same loss rate. It's just math. Simple math.

But do as you wish, of course.

** Which worked fine for me, with a loss of about 50 pounds in less than a year, and 3 years at a healthy weight since.

Strudders67 · July 2019

My experience is that MFP's calculation for walking is fairly accurate. The exercise calories that MFP gives for exercises on gym equipment such as cross-trainer/elliptical, treadmill etc tends to be overstated.

The suggestion you'll read, often, on this forum is to follow what MFP says for about 6 weeks then see how quickly you're losing weight. If it's in line with your goal, your tracking is accurate. If you're losing much slower than planned, you may need to adjust how many exercise calories you eat.

A lot of people eat 50-75% of the exercise calories they're given. I adjust the 'time exercised' in MFP until I get the number of calories that the cross-trainer said I'd burned. Then I eat my exercise calories. If I didn't, I'd be very hungry on the 1200 calories that I'm allocated each day!

VegjoyP · July 2019

I never ate back calories by MFP and will not. I got a Fitbit which is linked to MFP. My estimates changed Dramatically. MFP over estimates a lot IMO. Its based on a scale that is way to general for most people. I stick to a same amount regardless unless I KNOW I neefd more. Just my experience, my body is nowhere near the burn rate they calculate.

Some people do great with the calorie eat back. I look at exercise and nutrition as independant. This way I avoid fluctuations, stay much more consistant and steady

Lillymoo01 · July 2019

kuksabs wrote: »

Congratulations on your 10lb weight loss in a month.

Eating back those calories which was burned doing exercises has never worked for me. If I eat back those calories MFP calculated, I easily gain the weight that I had lost within no time.

This is normally a result of inaccurate logging for most people, either with the calories going in and/or the calories going out. If what you are doing works for you and you are losing at a healthy rate (no more than 10% of your body weight) there really is no need to change your approach. If it stops working then tightening up your logging will be advantageous.

lg013 · July 2019

DyanaHagan wrote: »

Thanks so much for your response Panini! It makes sense. I have about more 63 lbs to lose. I notice that when I first start a weight loss program the pounds drop off much quicker in the beginning. How are you doing on your journey?

That might be water weight

.

PAV8888 · July 2019

Lillymoo01 wrote: »

This is normally a result of inaccurate logging for most people, either with the calories going in and/or the calories going out. If what you are doing works for you and you are losing at a healthy rate (no more than 10% of your body weight) there really is no need to change your approach. If it stops working then tightening up your logging will be advantageous.

I'm assuming you typo'ed @Lillymoo01 and added an extra zero to the 1% of your body weight per week you were planning to type!

Lillymoo01 · July 2019

PAV8888 wrote: »

Lillymoo01 wrote: »

This is normally a result of inaccurate logging for most people, either with the calories going in and/or the calories going out. If what you are doing works for you and you are losing at a healthy rate (no more than 10% of your body weight) there really is no need to change your approach. If it stops working then tightening up your logging will be advantageous.

I'm assuming you typo'ed @Lillymoo01 and added an extra zero to the 1% of your body weight per week you were planning to type!

10% of your body weight a week would be just a little ... well a lot ... too much hee hee. That is what you get when you should be studying but looking at the forums at the same time. Thanks for pointing it out. I really am not that crazy.

nooboots · July 2019

Panini911 wrote: »

congrats on your loss, that's quick progress!

MFP is designed to have you eat back your exercise calories. The calorie goal it gives you (based on your input of height, gender, weight, rate of loss and activity level) assumes NO purposeful exercise. so calories to eat to lose at the requested rate.

Exercising increases the deficit, which can lead to not eating enough to properly fuel your body.

However, all of this assumes accurate weighing and logging of all foods. And accurate measurement of exercise calories. Depending on quantity of those exercise calories earned and accurateness of logging, some people opt to not eat them. If it's a few hundred calories it may just wash out inacurate logging. But that isn't how the app was designed to work. Some people find the estimated exercise calories are too high so eat a portion (because while the full number given may be wrong, 0 is equally wrong).

Your rate of loss is about 2lb/week or more (depending if you mean 4 or 5 weeks ish). That's aggressive, how much do you have to lose in total?

http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10503681/exercise-calories-do-i-eat-these-a-video-explanation/p1

Surely its only aggressive if its a big proportion of the OPs weight?

If I lose at 2lb a week (I wish) then it wouldnt even be 1% of my body weight. I wouldnt consider that aggressive.

PAV8888 · July 2019

nooboots wrote: »

Panini911 wrote: »

Your rate of loss is about 2lb/week or more (depending if you mean 4 or 5 weeks ish). That's aggressive, how much do you have to lose in total?

Surely its only aggressive if its a big proportion of the OPs weight?

If I lose at 2lb a week (I wish) then it wouldnt even be 1% of my body weight. I wouldnt consider that aggressive.

We know the OPs TDEE ESTIMATE doesn't exceed 2500 since MFP is proposing 1500 as an eating goal. Just on the basis of this long term deficit should probably be closer to 500 than 1000.

Then there is the confirmation request getting asked: "how much do you have to lose in total"? If the answer is 200+lbs instead of less than 50 there can be a revision as to whether 2lbs a week is as aggressive of a rate.

1% of body weight IS pretty aggressive. 0.25 to 0.75% not as much.

I know that the site and most easy to find guidelines all talk about weight loss per week.

But as with many recommendations we're given (or tools that are easy to use such as BMI) lbs per week are used because they're easy to grasp, quantity, and evaluate.

What drives the loss and the effects of the loss are deficit, size of deficit relative to TDEE, duration, and available fat stores. All things that are much harder to measure than lbs.

Extra calorie allowances through exercise?

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