Should I eat my step calories while trying to lose weight?
egsteinlen
Posts: 5 Member
I'm trying to lose weight at 1lbs a week. I use my pixel to track my steps and it's synced to my fitnesspal. I usually have about 5k steps on my days off and around 15k steps on days that I work. If I put my activity level to sedentary (atm it's at lightly active), I should... in my head be able to eat those calories I gain from walking back correct? Or am I making this more complicated for myself lol.
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Replies
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MFP is set up to eat back calories. People vary in how many they eat back-some do all, some start with a percentage and see if they are loosing weight as they are set to. I typically eat most of mine and lost 24 pounds doing it that way. I at least make sure my net is over 1200.2
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Yep, eat your additional calories. The activity setting you choose is meant to be for your normal day to day/work activity, with anything additional on top of that. You're actually around the equivalent of lightly active at 5000 steps (the bar for sedentary is pretty low, around 2500-3000 steps), at 15000 you're into highly active.5
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Why would you eat your out calories if you want to lose weight. Shouldn’t you have a calorie deficiency in order to lose weight?1
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roxyrobitaille wrote: »Why would you eat your out calories if you want to lose weight. Shouldn’t you have a calorie deficiency in order to lose weight?
Yes, you should have a calorie deficit (a reasonable, safe one) to lose.
MFP is set up to give you one, even if you do no exercise.
As you exercise you add back the cals so the deficit remains the same, as having too extreme a deficit is not healthy or sustainable, and can lead to losses of more muscle than necessary.
Asking "why should I eat the cals from exercise if my calorie goal assumes no exercise" is rather like asking "why should I eat a recommended goal of 1500 if I could eat 1000." If you are asking that, you are not thinking about this in a healthy manner.10 -
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The confusion often comes when a person stops thinking of food/calories as fuel. You walked 15k steps and you need fuel to power that activity just like you would need more gas to drive 150 miles than you need to drive 50 miles.
You want to used stored fuel to lose weight but if you try to use it to cover too much of the energy shortage it may stop using fat and use muscle instead. It will also respond with eventually making you feel fatigued. Feeling fatigued is not a sustainable way to lose weight.6 -
Are you eating to a calorie goal set by your tracking device or are you eating to your MyFitnessPal goal?
If using MyFitnessPal goal daily steps are normally part of your activity setting and you are very far from sedentary, even on your low days you are Lightly Active. Don't deliberately under estimate that setting (which would be like deliberately typing the wrong numbers into a pocket calculator and expecting to get the right answer!). A seven day average is fine, you don't need to micro manage it daily.
(Purposeful exercise is separate and added after the event to keep your calorie deficit at the rate you selected with your 1lb/week loss selection.)
If using your tracker's variable daily goal then use it as designed - at least give the device a chance to work correctly.
Yes second guessing tools and using them in a way they weren't designed to be used is complicating things and possibly counter-productive.5 -
Thanks everyone! If I understood correctly I should have my activity level set active because I'm averaging 10k steps a week, and basically just forget about my step calories becuase I already accounted for them with the change in activity level. Still new to this so hopefully I understood correctly.7
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egsteinlen wrote: »Thanks everyone! If I understood correctly I should have my activity level set active because I'm averaging 10k steps a week, and basically just forget about my step calories becuase I already accounted for them with the change in activity level. Still new to this so hopefully I understood correctly.
It is either or. You either increase your activity level which will give you a higher base calorie amount or you eat some or all of your exercise calories derived from steps.
You could even try 2 weeks of one then swap to 2 weeks of the other to compare methods. The "right" way is whatever is easiest for you to use.7 -
It is either or. You either increase your activity level which will give you a higher base calorie amount or you eat some or all of your exercise calories derived from steps.
You could even try 2 weeks of one then swap to 2 weeks of the other to compare methods. The "right" way is whatever is easiest for you to use.
I'll have to try that. Thank you!
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Not to hijack this thread but I have something around the same question. I do not want to eat back my exercise calories in fear that my apple watch may not be accurate. That and honestly I do not be hungry. I think my journal is open if anyone wants to take a look at it. Reason im asking is because I seem to go up and down on the scale and it's so annoying and discouraging.
I do 30min of this walk away the pounds YouTube video three to four times a week. I weigh everything on a food scale and I also drink a gallon of water a day ( jug from hydromate ) Along with doing intermittent fasting 16:8. So my question is am I sabotaging myself from not eating back my calories?0 -
Not to hijack this thread but I have something around the same question. I do not want to eat back my exercise calories in fear that my apple watch may not be accurate. That and honestly I do not be hungry. I think my journal is open if anyone wants to take a look at it. Reason im asking is because I seem to go up and down on the scale and it's so annoying and discouraging.
I do 30min of this walk away the pounds YouTube video three to four times a week. I weigh everything on a food scale and I also drink a gallon of water a day ( jug from hydromate ) Along with doing intermittent fasting 16:8. So my question is am I sabotaging myself from not eating back my calories?
You're right to be suspicious of the calories calculated form activity. They're all calculated on some pretty rough estimates in order to apply to the general population rather than you specifically. That said, they're going to get you into the right ballpark and give you something to build from.
In order to hone in on a calorie burn more specific to you takes a little bit of maths and a little bit of patience. The idea is that via some trial and error you can get a pretty good idea of how many of those activity calories you should eat back.
To do this you start by eating back 50% of the activity calories. Do this for a month or so then take a look at your weigh in results. If you're losing at more or less the predicted rate then congrats you've found your number. Keep eating back 50%. More likely however you'll discover that you're losing weight a little faster or a little slower than expected. If you're rate of loss is less than predicted reduce the % of activity calories you're eating, if you're weight is dropping quicker than expected then you can increase the % of activity calories you're eating and thereby making your weight loss progress easier to maintain.
Each month or so repeat the process, check your actual progress against your expected progress, make any adjustments needed. From there, it's a case of rinse and repeat until you've honed in on your personalised number.
Not eating those extra calories won't cause you to stop losing weight directly as it's only increasing your calorie deficit. However it's not unthinkable (and perhaps even likely) that not eating back activity calories might cause you to be in an unsustainable and overly aggressive calorie deficit which can trigger overeating to compensate.
The walking video will do wonders for your health and fitness but won't really have much of a noticeable on your weight for the most part. Do the videos for fitness not weight loss.
Drinking water (or any fluids really) is important for hydration. There's no magic 'drink this amount' each day number. As long as you're drinking when you're thirsty you'll be fine. If you want to confirm that you're hydrated just check your pee. As long as it's a pale/straw yellow you're all good.
16:8 or any other eating or fasting approach doesn't inherently impact your weight. They can be useful tools for some people who find that eating/not eating at a specific times or in a certain pattern makes it easier for them to manage their calorie intake and maintain the required calorie deficit needed for weight loss.
G'luck4 -
Not to hijack this thread but I have something around the same question. I do not want to eat back my exercise calories in fear that my apple watch may not be accurate. That and honestly I do not be hungry. I think my journal is open if anyone wants to take a look at it. Reason im asking is because I seem to go up and down on the scale and it's so annoying and discouraging.
I do 30min of this walk away the pounds YouTube video three to four times a week. I weigh everything on a food scale and I also drink a gallon of water a day ( jug from hydromate ) Along with doing intermittent fasting 16:8. So my question is am I sabotaging myself from not eating back my calories?
Your diary is not open.
Going up and down on the scale is common. I have done it for 2 years now. Over a long enough period of time though it will continue to go down if you are in a calorie deficit.
Read this:
https://physiqonomics.com/the-weird-and-highly-annoying-world-of-scale-weight-and-fluctuations/
The rest of my advice would pretty much mirror @danp so there is no much point in making you read the same thing twice.
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Thank you so much @Danp and @NovusDies I will definitely follow the advice0
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egsteinlen wrote: »I'm trying to lose weight at 1lbs a week. I use my pixel to track my steps and it's synced to my fitnesspal. I usually have about 5k steps on my days off and around 15k steps on days that I work. If I put my activity level to sedentary (atm it's at lightly active), I should... in my head be able to eat those calories I gain from walking back correct? Or am I making this more complicated for myself lol.
Correct.
Because during setup you are attempting to tell MFP a non-exercise daily activity level.
It has 4 rough levels available.
Obviously we don't burn the same daily. Perhaps a level is correct on a daily average. Perhaps you are right smack in the middle of levels though.
As your steps and daily burn from Pixel probably show - you are very variable and go across all 4 levels.
You are merely allowing MFP to correct itself to a better estimate.
And then it takes off a deficit in order to lose fat.
Still causing you to eat less than you burn.
Take the correction.
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Not to hijack this thread but I have something around the same question. I do not want to eat back my exercise calories in fear that my apple watch may not be accurate. That and honestly I do not be hungry. I think my journal is open if anyone wants to take a look at it. Reason im asking is because I seem to go up and down on the scale and it's so annoying and discouraging.
I do 30min of this walk away the pounds YouTube video three to four times a week. I weigh everything on a food scale and I also drink a gallon of water a day ( jug from hydromate ) Along with doing intermittent fasting 16:8. So my question is am I sabotaging myself from not eating back my calories?
If you are syncing accounts, MFP to Apple - then you are getting a worse effect.
Any activity calories above an Apple Sedentary figure (close to MFP sedentary) are NOT synced over to MFP.
Only the Sedentary figure is synced over.
And workouts you log on Apple sync over. Which you seem to indicate.
And you know the one totally wrong calorie count for a workout? Zero. Absolutely always wrong.
Did you know nutrition labels are allowed to be upwards of 20% off from what's in container - never mind you logging accurately?
Does that mean you'll log food as Zero also since not accurate?
Apply the same logic.
Anyway, Apples method is incorrect and causes the opposite effect - it doesn't appear you burned more, but actually less. Don't sync account.
If you mean you merely used the MFP app to say to use Apple as step source, then MFP is getting a step count and estimating distance and calories.
Could be rough, usually on low side it seems.
But dittos to watch and adjust.0 -
I think everyone tends to make this overly complicated with their graphs and long lectures. If you are hungry, eat them back. If you're not, don't.1
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I think everyone tends to make this overly complicated with their graphs and long lectures. If you are hungry, eat them back. If you're not, don't.
You aware the vast majority of people are here attempting to lose fat gained because they ate when they felt hungry.
And you can cause your body to adapt in negative ways if you have too big a deficit for awhile, and not feel hungry though the body is needing more calories/nutrients.
The lengthy comments is for education and knowledge that many people are lacking.
So....4 -
I think everyone tends to make this overly complicated with their graphs and long lectures. If you are hungry, eat them back. If you're not, don't.
Not everyone has reliable hunger cues that are a guide to when they actually need food. Some people aren't hungry when they need to eat more. And, obviously, lots of people are hungry when they need to eat less.4 -
This is true for me. I get "hunger cues" when I'm stressed/anxious. Over the last month of keeping track of what I'm eating, I find it easier to tell when I'm actually hungry and when I just want to eat because of stress.janejellyroll wrote: »Not everyone has reliable hunger cues that are a guide to when they actually need food. Some people aren't hungry when they need to eat more. And, obviously, lots of people are hungry when they need to eat less.
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Hunger is a physiological state. Anxious is a feeling. Many people confuse their emotions with hunger. The most simplistic explanation being that eating gives instant gratification. This is maladaptive coping. It can be unlearned; babies instinctively understand to eat when they are hungry and stop when they are full. I worked with a professional dietician to understand what actual hunger and satiety feel like vs. boredom, anxiety, sadness, loneliness etc. Because I do shift work where my meal breaks are scheduled, I also had to learn to distinguish if I am truly hungry vs. reaching for food because "it's time to eat" or "everyone else is eating now". Just like the poster above, this is an ongoing thing for me; I still take a mindful moment before reaching for food to decide if I am hungry or if I am responding to an emotional need with thoughts of food.
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In response to the OP: I would not intentionally eat the added activity calories. My reasons are these. I am in a similar activity situation as you. I am mildly active on off days, but tally 12-15K steps a day on workdays. I work in the hospital. If you are like me, the steps are not continuous. You're walking to rooms, doing some work, sitting to chart, and walking some more. In my opinion, the value that MFP estimates for my activity is overestimated for my actual calorie burn. When it asks for minutes of activity, I only put in half a shift or 360 minutes of a 12 hour shift.
My second reason is that a calorie deficit is part of losing weight. Deficits force your body to burn what it already has to produce the needed energy for the additional activity level. If you are going to eat more calories, make sure that your choices are healthy and not sabotaging your efforts.
Best wishes on your journey
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toshjohn30 wrote: »In response to the OP: I would not intentionally eat the added activity calories. My reasons are these. I am in a similar activity situation as you. I am mildly active on off days, but tally 12-15K steps a day on workdays. I work in the hospital. If you are like me, the steps are not continuous. You're walking to rooms, doing some work, sitting to chart, and walking some more. In my opinion, the value that MFP estimates for my activity is overestimated for my actual calorie burn. When it asks for minutes of activity, I only put in half a shift or 360 minutes of a 12 hour shift.
My second reason is that a calorie deficit is part of losing weight. Deficits force your body to burn what it already has to produce the needed energy for the additional activity level. If you are going to eat more calories, make sure that your choices are healthy and not sabotaging your efforts.
Best wishes on your journey
The huge difference with the OP is they are describing their activity tracker counting steps, getting a distance, and getting a very accurate calorie burn from that (the formula for mass & distance for walking/running calorie burn has been researched for decades).
But you are just saying you got a distance/time and taking the calorie burn from a manual entry it sounds like.
Yes - that would be bad idea.
That's why MFP asks for a non-exercise daily activity level to start with. If no activity tracker for MFP to correct itself to, you need to select honestly.
For instance is that 4 x 12 hr days?
Weekly avg would be at least Active daily level. If you know you get around 12-15K on work days, add up all the days and get daily average. Consider Sedentary stops about 4K steps (depending on distance and calories), Lightly active ends it seems 7-8K, Active up to 11-12K, and Very-Active above that.
Then you'd only add intentional exercise workouts to that.
And since MFP would be accounting for each hour of your day to be a pretty decent calorie burn, compared to sedentary or nothing, those exercise calories for sure would need to be knocked down to 1/2 what MFP suggested.
I'm guessing walking isn't the workout ;-)
And then to thinking the exercise is what causes the calorie deficit - you need to read the topic responses to learn how MFP works.0 -
toshjohn30 wrote: »In response to the OP: I would not intentionally eat the added activity calories. My reasons are these. I am in a similar activity situation as you. I am mildly active on off days, but tally 12-15K steps a day on workdays. I work in the hospital. If you are like me, the steps are not continuous. You're walking to rooms, doing some work, sitting to chart, and walking some more. In my opinion, the value that MFP estimates for my activity is overestimated for my actual calorie burn. When it asks for minutes of activity, I only put in half a shift or 360 minutes of a 12 hour shift.
My second reason is that a calorie deficit is part of losing weight. Deficits force your body to burn what it already has to produce the needed energy for the additional activity level. If you are going to eat more calories, make sure that your choices are healthy and not sabotaging your efforts.
Best wishes on your journey
You should not base your weight management on opinions but on facts. You can determine your average daily energy expenditure as soon as you have enough data. Until then estimations are a good place to begin.
I am not sure how a person can sabotage their efforts eating whatever you think unhealthy calories are. Weight loss is determined by an energy equation. If you eat less than you burn you will used stored energy which results in weight loss. Once your basic nutrition is met you do not get any extra health points for eating more nutrient dense food.2 -
Hunger is a physiological state. Anxious is a feeling. Many people confuse their emotions with hunger. The most simplistic explanation being that eating gives instant gratification. This is maladaptive coping. It can be unlearned; babies instinctively understand to eat when they are hungry and stop when they are full. I worked with a professional dietician to understand what actual hunger and satiety feel like vs. boredom, anxiety, sadness, loneliness etc. Because I do shift work where my meal breaks are scheduled, I also had to learn to distinguish if I am truly hungry vs. reaching for food because "it's time to eat" or "everyone else is eating now". Just like the poster above, this is an ongoing thing for me; I still take a mindful moment before reaching for food to decide if I am hungry or if I am responding to an emotional need with thoughts of food.
I think working to avoid emotional eating is a valuable process, but while people are working through this process we're still left with the fact that their hunger cues aren't necessarily going to be the primary guide of whether or not they could eat more.1
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