Do you eat exercise calories in maintenance?

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Replies

  • sijomial
    sijomial Posts: 19,811 Member
    @RovP6

    My exercise is my biggest variable though. From days at zero to a day at 2,664 just this month.
    I can also estimate my net calorie expenditure with a high degree of accuracy.
  • PrairieTurtle
    PrairieTurtle Posts: 5 Member
    I haven't tracked calories burned since January and just stuck to total calories consumed each day. I hit my target weight in May and still wasn't counting calories burned. What happened - no surprise - was I lost another 7 pounds by not counting heavy yard work, dragging furniture around, walking from the train to work and back, etc. I don't even belong to a health club. Working out? That would be cutting all the the grass front & back, plus the grass in my neighbor's and my culvert. I've gained a couple of pounds back by treating myself to deep dish pizza & an occasional Dairy Queen, but in my opinion, weighing yourself regularly once a week ought to help you figure out what ratio of calories in to calories out works for you. The scale doesn't lie and not everyone is going to fit perfectly into formulas. If you stay on top of your weight and calories, you'll be able to figure out how many extra calories you can east in a day or week to maintain the weight you want. The beauty about calories is they don't lie. You just have to find that balance for yourself and eat enough to compensate for what you burn off. You'll get there. It's just tweaking.
  • DickAich
    DickAich Posts: 9 Member
    You just have to find that balance for yourself and eat enough to compensate for what you burn off. You'll get there. It's just tweaking.

    I agree. You have to account for at least heavy exercise. I tried tracking yard work, walking the dog, mowing the lawn, etc. but it was too much effort and it was just a guess on the tracker, anyway. I bumped my listing to "slightly active" and only tracked what I did at the gym. That's still a bit of a guess (are the machines accurate? tracking resistance work?) but it is something and it is a variable that happens or not. The proof is in what the scale says. Still losing? Add some food. Gaining weight? Cut out some food.

    I am struggling a bit myself. I was holding well for a while, now I seem to be losing weight but it is fat not muscle (according to the InBody 570 scan). That isn't bad, but I wanted to hold my weight AND lose fat.

    :) Never satisfied.