Adjusted calories or no??
oct232010
Posts: 9 Member
Is it better to have the calorie adjuster on or off if you're doing cardio every day??
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Replies
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You should eat those calories earned exercising. How do you calculate the calories for your exercise? And for what exercise?3
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I use a Garmin watch to track my training. Started this past week training for a half marathon. Also walking and biking. Using watch to track.0
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Is it better to have the calorie adjuster on or off if you're doing cardio every day??
I would suggest you have it off. You shouldn't eat the calories back from any form of exercise especially if your goal is weight loss. Burning calories has so many variables it's impossible to get an accurate amount of calories burned via exercise and therefore you run the risk of over eating and then wondering why you are not losing weight.
Don't count it but if you find yourself slightly hungry thanks to the exercise then maybe adjust the calories eaten instead, i.e. give yourself an extra 100 calories on exercise day.
Good luck.4 -
Do you have your Garmin synched to MFP? If so, it will automatically factor in your exercise calories, leaving you with the calorie deficit estimated to provide the weight loss rate asked for in your profile setup.
You then follow that goal for 4-6 weeks (comparing the same relative point in different monthly cycles if a premenopausal female), then adjust to get a sensible, sustainable actual average weight loss rate, based on your own experiential data.
If your Garmin is not synched to MFP, then you will want to have set your "activity level" in the profile based on daily life *before* exercise (job, chores, etc.). You then add the exercise calories, again to keep the same weight loss rate as in your set-up. (This is how MFP is designed to work. It can be used in other ways, but this is the designed-in expectation.)
If you got your calorie goal from somewhere other than MFP . . . well, then the answer depends.
Letting exercise increase your weight loss rate can be fine if not trying to lose weight aggressively fast to start with, and doing modest amounts of exercise. In contrast, setting an aggressive weight loss rate and increasing deficit with lots of exercise on top of that is a recipe for burnout or health risk. Variations in between those extremes are a crapshoot. Losing too slowly can be frustrating, but losing too fast increases health risk . . . I know which side of that I'd prefer to err on, to start, but others' mileage varies.
Personally, I ate pretty much every single exercise calorie (they taste the best! 😉) through about a year of weight loss (obese to healthy weight), and for 5 years of maintenance since. I use different estimating methods depending on the exercise, but one of them is my Garmin.
ETA: If you have fitness or athletic performance goals . . . underfueling exercise is a good way NOT to achieve them. 😉)
Best wishes!5 -
simonthompson6516 wrote: »Is it better to have the calorie adjuster on or off if you're doing cardio every day??
I would suggest you have it off. You shouldn't eat the calories back from any form of exercise especially if your goal is weight loss. Burning calories has so many variables it's impossible to get an accurate amount of calories burned via exercise and therefore you run the risk of over eating and then wondering why you are not losing weight.
Don't count it but if you find yourself slightly hungry thanks to the exercise then maybe adjust the calories eaten instead, i.e. give yourself an extra 100 calories on exercise day.
Good luck.
I can guarantee that an estimate of zero calories burned from exercise is not accurate. Therefore you run the risk of undereating and wondering why your workouts are suffering, why you're always tired, why you're irritable, why you catch every cold and flu that's going around, why, eventually, you start losing your hair ...
Edited to add missing word.12 -
You should not eat back exercise calories if you are trying to lose weight. As already stated earlier, it can be very inaccurate and potentially derail your weight loss goals (assuming that is your goal). The easiest technique, and one I used to drop 40 lbs, is to calculate your TDEE. Once you have that calorie number knock off 10% and eat only those calories. TDEE takes your activity into account, so you won't be eating back exercise calories. Here are the links to a couple decent TDEE online calculators - https://www.damnripped.com/tdee-calculator/ & https://legionathletics.com/tdee-calculator/. The thing to understand is this will get you into the ballpark. After several weeks you will be able to zero in on the calorie deficit that provides your weight loss goals. For me I was trying to lose a 1 lb a week. One pound of fat equals 3500 calories. During my initial weeks into a calorie deficit I was only losing a half a pound so I knew I had to knock off another 1750 calories/week (250 a day). It took me about a month to really nail down my TDEE. Moreover, as you get leaner and/or more active your TDEE will increase, so you have to continually adjust your calories, or you may find yourself in a very aggressive deficit, which can be extremely difficult to sustain. For reference, I do a LOT of cardio. I cycle approximately 500-600 miles a month and also mix in steel mace and Indian club functional workouts. I've been following the TDEE method for almost two years now. It helped me drop 40 lbs initially, and now over the last 16 months it has helped me maintain my current weight and 11% body fat.3
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You should not eat back exercise calories if you are trying to lose weight. As already stated earlier, it can be very inaccurate and potentially derail your weight loss goals (assuming that is your goal). The easiest technique, and one I used to drop 40 lbs, is to calculate your TDEE. Once you have that calorie number knock off 10% and eat only those calories. TDEE takes your activity into account, so you won't be eating back exercise calories. Here are the links to a couple decent TDEE online calculators - https://www.damnripped.com/tdee-calculator/ & https://legionathletics.com/tdee-calculator/. The thing to understand is this will get you into the ballpark. After several weeks you will be able to zero in on the calorie deficit that provides your weight loss goals. For me I was trying to lose a 1 lb a week. One pound of fat equals 3500 calories. During my initial weeks into a calorie deficit I was only losing a half a pound so I knew I had to knock off another 1750 calories/week (250 a day). It took me about a month to really nail down my TDEE. Moreover, as you get leaner and/or more active your TDEE will increase, so you have to continually adjust your calories, or you may find yourself in a very aggressive deficit, which can be extremely difficult to sustain. For reference, I do a LOT of cardio. I cycle approximately 500-600 miles a month and also mix in steel mace and Indian club functional workouts. I've been following the TDEE method for almost two years now. It helped me drop 40 lbs initially, and now over the last 16 months it has helped me maintain my current weight and 11% body fat.
This is pretty much what long-term, successful users of MFP's method recommend. Use the MFP calculator to get a ballpark figure and adjust based on results.4 -
If you use MFP to calculate your caloric goals then you should eat back exercise calories ... it is how the system is intended. MFP does not include deliberate exercise when setting intake goals so failing to eat them back can result in undereating and significantly larger deficits.
If you go elsewhere and use a TDEE calculator, then deliberate exercise IS included in the caloric intake goal so there is no need to then adjust intake daily.
In both situations you are in fact accounting for calories burned from deliberate exercise when setting intake amounts and deficit levels.6 -
You should not eat back exercise calories if you are trying to lose weight. As already stated earlier, it can be very inaccurate and potentially derail your weight loss goals (assuming that is your goal). The easiest technique, and one I used to drop 40 lbs, is to calculate your TDEE. Once you have that calorie number knock off 10% and eat only those calories. TDEE takes your activity into account, so you won't be eating back exercise calories. Here are the links to a couple decent TDEE online calculators - https://www.damnripped.com/tdee-calculator/ & https://legionathletics.com/tdee-calculator/. The thing to understand is this will get you into the ballpark. After several weeks you will be able to zero in on the calorie deficit that provides your weight loss goals. For me I was trying to lose a 1 lb a week. One pound of fat equals 3500 calories. During my initial weeks into a calorie deficit I was only losing a half a pound so I knew I had to knock off another 1750 calories/week (250 a day). It took me about a month to really nail down my TDEE. Moreover, as you get leaner and/or more active your TDEE will increase, so you have to continually adjust your calories, or you may find yourself in a very aggressive deficit, which can be extremely difficult to sustain. For reference, I do a LOT of cardio. I cycle approximately 500-600 miles a month and also mix in steel mace and Indian club functional workouts. I've been following the TDEE method for almost two years now. It helped me drop 40 lbs initially, and now over the last 16 months it has helped me maintain my current weight and 11% body fat.
MFP takes bmr and normal activity level into account. Purposeful exercise is added.
TDEE takes bmr, normal activity, AND purposeful exercise into account.
Either way you're eating exercise calories back.
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OP anyone telling you not to eat back exercise calories is frankly wrong. You need energy to fuel those workouts. Where does that energy come from??? Drumroll please....
FOOD!
you will have to play around to see what works for you, because yes, some people overestimate calories burned which can lead to overeating. However, exercise is for health and diet is for weight loss. So eat back, some or all of those exercise calories. Personally, I deduct about 20% is my error margin and then I eat it them back depending on how hungry I am. Sometimes I eat them back same day and sometimes I eat them back the next day.
Plenty of people in maintenance (or who are successfully still losing) are offering you sound advice and some new people are tossing out the notion that no one should eat exercise calories back because somehow you won’t lose weight if you do that. It’s nonsense. I’ve lost almost 30 lbs doing exactly that 😂6 -
Is it better to have the calorie adjuster on or off if you're doing cardio every day??
Sounds like you have premium account and option to disable.
Garmin is sending the workouts with it's estimate of calorie burn to MFP.
It can be good at some estimates - running and walking.
Garmin then sends a total daily burned including the exercise, and your other daily activity.
MFP already had an estimate of daily burn from you guessing from 4 activity levels that had NO exercise in them.
Then it subtracts for weight loss and gives an eating goal.
So you already trust that?
And then the adjustment is taking in to account the workouts it knows about, and the daily burn given by Garmin, and MFP is correcting itself to that daily burn. Which is 1000's of levels when you think about it.
So after correction, subtract for weight loss, new eating goal.
All you are doing is trusting MFP to trust Garmin.
Do you trust your guess of 4 activity levels with no exercise, or Garmin's estimate being on you of activity level and exercise?
That's the question.
Guess what - both may need adjustment - but to think exercise doesn't count somehow is just foolish, and to think increased daily activity doesn't count is just foolish.
If you don't think it counts, then why in the world is there 4 levels to choose from.
Be aware many new to using this site have no clue how it works - so they reference other sites how they work. And they have no clue how syncing works, so they skip including it.
To those that think exercise calories can't be absolutely accurate (not sure how 0 is more correct, just foolish) - food logging is not either - so frankly that should not be attempted either and logged as 0.
Pick a number floating in the air that has no bearing on you individually and see what happens.
Or use the numbers that are for you as an individual and at least narrow in on what has best chance of being right, then adjust from there.
Which has shorter time to adjust from?4 -
SharpWellbeing wrote: »lynn_glenmont wrote: »simonthompson6516 wrote: »Is it better to have the calorie adjuster on or off if you're doing cardio every day??
I would suggest you have it off. You shouldn't eat the calories back from any form of exercise especially if your goal is weight loss. Burning calories has so many variables it's impossible to get an accurate amount of calories burned via exercise and therefore you run the risk of over eating and then wondering why you are not losing weight.
Don't count it but if you find yourself slightly hungry thanks to the exercise then maybe adjust the calories eaten instead, i.e. give yourself an extra 100 calories on exercise day.
Good luck.
I can guarantee that an estimate of zero calories burned from exercise is not accurate. Therefore you run the risk of undereating and wondering why your workouts are suffering, why you're always tired, why you're irritable, why you catch every cold and flu that's going around, why, eventually, you start losing your hair ...
Edited to add missing word.
I can guarantee I didn't say you burn zero calories so please don't put words into my mouth.
If the person has used an online calculator to determine calories part of that calculator is to determine activity level, if you then add back in an estimated level of calories that you think you've burned because of inaccurate readings on a watch or phone then you're likely over eating.
Do you know much about energy expenditure and the amount of individual variables involved? If you do then you'll know that there is no accurate way of determining expenditure, hell, it isn't even accurate to determine calorific requirements, it's all based on equations and estimations but we have a better understanding of requirements then we do of expenditure.
As I also quite CLEARLY stated in my original post. If you find yourself hungry then you work out the calories around it, you don't work to an imaginary figure because a watch/phone/device says you've burned x number of calories so you can now eat them back.
MFP's activity level determination does NOT include exercise which is why with MFP you get additional calories to account for that activity...which is why you end up undereating if you don't account for some measure of those calories.
Some other online calculators are TDEE calculators and DO include exercise...in which case you wouldn't want to eat additional calories...they are already accounted for with a TDEE calculator.
That said, it's 6 of 1...you either account for them with MFP by eating more or you account for exercise with TDEE by having a higher starting number.
I'd wager most people just use MFP to calculate their calorie targets...which isn't TDEE...MFP is a NEAT method calculator where your activity level is just based on your day to day hum drum...ie, me sitting at my desk job. I have a 25 mile ride scheduled for later this afternoon...I would need to account for that activity somewhere. If I'm set to sedentary on MFP per my desk job and then go ride 25 miles, I'm not sedentary and thus eat an estimate of my energy expenditure to account for that additional activity.8 -
cwolfman13 wrote: »SharpWellbeing wrote: »lynn_glenmont wrote: »simonthompson6516 wrote: »Is it better to have the calorie adjuster on or off if you're doing cardio every day??
I would suggest you have it off. You shouldn't eat the calories back from any form of exercise especially if your goal is weight loss. Burning calories has so many variables it's impossible to get an accurate amount of calories burned via exercise and therefore you run the risk of over eating and then wondering why you are not losing weight.
Don't count it but if you find yourself slightly hungry thanks to the exercise then maybe adjust the calories eaten instead, i.e. give yourself an extra 100 calories on exercise day.
Good luck.
I can guarantee that an estimate of zero calories burned from exercise is not accurate. Therefore you run the risk of undereating and wondering why your workouts are suffering, why you're always tired, why you're irritable, why you catch every cold and flu that's going around, why, eventually, you start losing your hair ...
Edited to add missing word.
I can guarantee I didn't say you burn zero calories so please don't put words into my mouth.
If the person has used an online calculator to determine calories part of that calculator is to determine activity level, if you then add back in an estimated level of calories that you think you've burned because of inaccurate readings on a watch or phone then you're likely over eating.
Do you know much about energy expenditure and the amount of individual variables involved? If you do then you'll know that there is no accurate way of determining expenditure, hell, it isn't even accurate to determine calorific requirements, it's all based on equations and estimations but we have a better understanding of requirements then we do of expenditure.
As I also quite CLEARLY stated in my original post. If you find yourself hungry then you work out the calories around it, you don't work to an imaginary figure because a watch/phone/device says you've burned x number of calories so you can now eat them back.
MFP's activity level determination does NOT include exercise which is why with MFP you get additional calories to account for that activity...which is why you end up undereating if you don't account for some measure of those calories.
Some other online calculators are TDEE calculators and DO include exercise...in which case you wouldn't want to eat additional calories...they are already accounted for with a TDEE calculator.
That said, it's 6 of 1...you either account for them with MFP by eating more or you account for exercise with TDEE by having a higher starting number.
I'd wager most people just use MFP to calculate their calorie targets...which isn't TDEE...MFP is a NEAT method calculator where your activity level is just based on your day to day hum drum...ie, me sitting at my desk job. I have a 25 mile ride scheduled for later this afternoon...I would need to account for that activity somewhere. If I'm set to sedentary on MFP per my desk job and then go ride 25 miles, I'm not sedentary and thus eat an estimate of my energy expenditure to account for that additional activity.
I guess it depends on your goal though. If you’re overweight and dieting then exercise can be there to support you in achieving your goal (as well as other health benefits), it helps create a bigger deficit.
If you’re already on a high deficit and it would leave you short of energy then yeah sure by all means.
It’s goal dependent, person dependent and highly dependent on the calculator being a basic start point only as it’s way too variable to be accurate.
The amount of clients I have had come to me and a simple change of not having there steps linked into their MyFitnessPal and suddenly they start noticing a difference in weeks is unbelievable.
A large amount of people think they’re in a deficit when they’re not and that is unfortunately thanks to taking estimations, calculations and equations as red.
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SharpWellbeing wrote: »cwolfman13 wrote: »SharpWellbeing wrote: »lynn_glenmont wrote: »simonthompson6516 wrote: »Is it better to have the calorie adjuster on or off if you're doing cardio every day??
I would suggest you have it off. You shouldn't eat the calories back from any form of exercise especially if your goal is weight loss. Burning calories has so many variables it's impossible to get an accurate amount of calories burned via exercise and therefore you run the risk of over eating and then wondering why you are not losing weight.
Don't count it but if you find yourself slightly hungry thanks to the exercise then maybe adjust the calories eaten instead, i.e. give yourself an extra 100 calories on exercise day.
Good luck.
I can guarantee that an estimate of zero calories burned from exercise is not accurate. Therefore you run the risk of undereating and wondering why your workouts are suffering, why you're always tired, why you're irritable, why you catch every cold and flu that's going around, why, eventually, you start losing your hair ...
Edited to add missing word.
I can guarantee I didn't say you burn zero calories so please don't put words into my mouth.
If the person has used an online calculator to determine calories part of that calculator is to determine activity level, if you then add back in an estimated level of calories that you think you've burned because of inaccurate readings on a watch or phone then you're likely over eating.
Do you know much about energy expenditure and the amount of individual variables involved? If you do then you'll know that there is no accurate way of determining expenditure, hell, it isn't even accurate to determine calorific requirements, it's all based on equations and estimations but we have a better understanding of requirements then we do of expenditure.
As I also quite CLEARLY stated in my original post. If you find yourself hungry then you work out the calories around it, you don't work to an imaginary figure because a watch/phone/device says you've burned x number of calories so you can now eat them back.
MFP's activity level determination does NOT include exercise which is why with MFP you get additional calories to account for that activity...which is why you end up undereating if you don't account for some measure of those calories.
Some other online calculators are TDEE calculators and DO include exercise...in which case you wouldn't want to eat additional calories...they are already accounted for with a TDEE calculator.
That said, it's 6 of 1...you either account for them with MFP by eating more or you account for exercise with TDEE by having a higher starting number.
I'd wager most people just use MFP to calculate their calorie targets...which isn't TDEE...MFP is a NEAT method calculator where your activity level is just based on your day to day hum drum...ie, me sitting at my desk job. I have a 25 mile ride scheduled for later this afternoon...I would need to account for that activity somewhere. If I'm set to sedentary on MFP per my desk job and then go ride 25 miles, I'm not sedentary and thus eat an estimate of my energy expenditure to account for that additional activity.
I guess it depends on your goal though. If you’re overweight and dieting then exercise can be there to support you in achieving your goal (as well as other health benefits), it helps create a bigger deficit.
If you’re already on a high deficit and it would leave you short of energy then yeah sure by all means.
It’s goal dependent, person dependent and highly dependent on the calculator being a basic start point only as it’s way too variable to be accurate.
The amount of clients I have had come to me and a simple change of not having there steps linked into their MyFitnessPal and suddenly they start noticing a difference in weeks is unbelievable.
A large amount of people think they’re in a deficit when they’re not and that is unfortunately thanks to taking estimations, calculations and equations as red.
I was overweight...I lost 40 Lbs almost 8 years ago using MFP as designed. I selected a rate of 1 Lb per week and sedentary as I have a desk job. I ate back an estimate of my exercise calories just as this tool is designed and what do you know...on average I lost at a rate of about 1 Lb per week just as I had intended and I've kept it off for 7.5 years.
I started training for a sprint triathlon while I was losing weight...that sure as *kitten* doesn't make me sedentary even if I was working a desk job. That was not accounted for in my activity level as I was using MFP as designed (desk job sedentary)...so you think I shouldn't account for triathlon training because I wanted to lose weight? Have you ever done brick work?4 -
Ok so what I'm getting from all of these great posts , is to, set my mfp to normal everyday tasks. Which for me is sitting ata desk all day. Then set my adjustment to ON. My watch is synced to mfp, so it will calculate any deliberate excersice I do and then sync it to mfp, adjusting my calorie intake. That calorie intake still reflects the deficit that mfp calculated for me. So in turn it is work ing like the TDEE method. So what I'm doing is the right way to do it.5
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Ok so what I'm getting from all of these great posts , is to, set my mfp to normal everyday tasks. Which for me is sitting ata desk all day. Then set my adjustment to ON. My watch is synced to mfp, so it will calculate any deliberate excersice I do and then sync it to mfp, adjusting my calorie intake. That calorie intake still reflects the deficit that mfp calculated for me. So in turn it is work ing like the TDEE method. So what I'm doing is the right way to do it.
Precisely.
And then keep an eye on your actual weight trend over the next 6 weeks or so (a weight trending app is handy, such as Libra or Happyscale). If you're losing less quickly than the rate you selected, eat a bit less, or if you're losing more quickly than intended, you can eat a bit more.3 -
Ok so what I'm getting from all of these great posts , is to, set my mfp to normal everyday tasks. Which for me is sitting ata desk all day. Then set my adjustment to ON. My watch is synced to mfp, so it will calculate any deliberate excersice I do and then sync it to mfp, adjusting my calorie intake. That calorie intake still reflects the deficit that mfp calculated for me. So in turn it is work ing like the TDEE method. So what I'm doing is the right way to do it.
That is how MFP is designed. Trust the program but keep tabs on your logging ... both intake and output.
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You should not eat back exercise calories if you are trying to lose weight. As already stated earlier, it can be very inaccurate and potentially derail your weight loss goals (assuming that is your goal). The easiest technique, and one I used to drop 40 lbs, is to calculate your TDEE. Once you have that calorie number knock off 10% and eat only those calories. TDEE takes your activity into account, so you won't be eating back exercise calories. Here are the links to a couple decent TDEE online calculators - https://www.damnripped.com/tdee-calculator/ & https://legionathletics.com/tdee-calculator/. The thing to understand is this will get you into the ballpark. After several weeks you will be able to zero in on the calorie deficit that provides your weight loss goals. For me I was trying to lose a 1 lb a week. One pound of fat equals 3500 calories. During my initial weeks into a calorie deficit I was only losing a half a pound so I knew I had to knock off another 1750 calories/week (250 a day). It took me about a month to really nail down my TDEE. Moreover, as you get leaner and/or more active your TDEE will increase, so you have to continually adjust your calories, or you may find yourself in a very aggressive deficit, which can be extremely difficult to sustain. For reference, I do a LOT of cardio. I cycle approximately 500-600 miles a month and also mix in steel mace and Indian club functional workouts. I've been following the TDEE method for almost two years now. It helped me drop 40 lbs initially, and now over the last 16 months it has helped me maintain my current weight and 11% body fat.
Those are the least accurate TDEE calculators I've ever tried, as far as I can recall. (Anytime someone links one, I like to try them, because for some reason I seem to be a bit of a calorie needs outlier.) I'm totally LOL-ing that you'd recommend one whose Exercise Level descriptors are things like "Light - Goofing Around" and "Difficult - Zero Gossip". Really helpful, that. 😆
Usually, TDEE calculators are a bit more accurate estimates for me than MFP's NEAT calculator. Both of the ones you linked are howlingly far off, for me. (Based on 5+ years of logging experience, 1 year losing from obese to healthy weight, maintaining since, daily life sedentary, athletically active.)
Nonetheless, I prefer NEAT method (estimate calories based on daily life, add exercise separately) because my exercise is quite variable, and seasonal/weather-dependent also. Of course, one has to adjust based on experience if needed, whether using NEAT or TDEE methods.
Back to these calculators:
It's nice that DR separates daily life from exercise level. Those exercise level descriptors, though! 😆
Legion, only 5 activity levels, and only exercise (not daily life) mentioned? No, thanks. The average bricklayer's apprentice burns more calories by far than the average reference librarian, before we consider their exercise schedules.
Among online calculators, for TDEE method, I usually suggest Sailrabbit (https://www.sailrabbit.com/bmr/), but it, too, has limitations. The pluses are more activity levels (not separate for daily/exercise though), multiple research-based formulas to compare or average, and (like one of the two you suggest) ability to input body fat percent (which most people don't know, and BIA scales aren't a great source, but still).
There's a spreadsheet that's passed around here from one of the expert MFP-ers, but I can never remember the link, and I'm not going to ask him again on behalf of a PP who Already Knows.
OP says "cardio every day" so either TDEE method or NEAT method can be workable; sometimes people prefer one over the other for simple logistics - that's all good, whatever works best. Also, OP sound a bit new to this, so getting those first few weeks of experiential data will have a bigger positive impact on progress than trying to get the NEAT or TDEE estimate exactly exact. It IS just an estimate, either way, as is the fitness tracker; and some methods will work better than others for specific individuals. Experience provides sound info, if tracking is accurate. (If someone's a data geek, it's easy enough to compare results to all three methods - NEAT, TDEE, tracker - no matter which is being used as control to start.)
OP, if your exercise calories from daily cardio aren't huge (not above low hundreds), your requested loss rate is low (say half a percent of body weight a week or less), you don't have other huge sources of stress in your life besides calorie deficit (and new exercise, if it's new), and you're otherwise healthy (and maybe not tooooo old **), then it's probably OK to NOT eat back the exercise calories for a 4-6 week trial period, as long as you don't experience otherwise unexplained fatigue or weakness.
Then, if you're losing too fast in practice, adjust your intake, either base allowance or exercise calorie handling. (It might be OK to lose more than half a percent weekly when you adjust, if you have quite a bit to lose, or a health-threatening reason to lose it, but that's a whole other discussion. It's certainly OK to lose slower, to increase sustainability, or to improve athletic performance or something like that.)
If those conditions are NOT all true for you, I'd suggest eating some exercise calories whether by averaging them in (TDEE method) or adding them on (NEAT method). I'm conservative about health risks: That's the summary rationale for that advice.
** This is not a dis, older people: I'll be 65 next week. Despite being very active and healthy, my resilience isn't what it was when I was 20, so I consider it sensible to avoid health risks that I might take if I were still quite young.2 -
Ok so what I'm getting from all of these great posts , is to, set my mfp to normal everyday tasks. Which for me is sitting ata desk all day. Then set my adjustment to ON. My watch is synced to mfp, so it will calculate any deliberate excersice I do and then sync it to mfp, adjusting my calorie intake. That calorie intake still reflects the deficit that mfp calculated for me. So in turn it is work ing like the TDEE method. So what I'm doing is the right way to do it.
Be aware with Garmin and some others - you may have days that are LESS active than selected on MFP outside of the exercise.
So in Food setting Enable Negative Calorie Adjustment.
Because many many people that select Sedentary for the 8 hrs of work, don't account for the other 8 hrs in the day or 32 hrs on the weekend when it more than makes up for sedentary and they are higher activity level.
But then again may have days that are less if a workout wore you out.
So you could receive say 300 for a jog, but then get neg 100 because you sat around more in the evening.
That setting takes care of the fact you eat more when you do more, AND eat less when you do less.
And as several have stated - reasonable rate of loss. Weight trend can be messed up again if you are attempting extreme diet.
How much you got until a healthy weight?3 -
Ann, may I ask how ypu read sailrabbit... lol do I take the final average of the bmr or the tdee??0
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The skill of estimating is to start from reasonable.SharpWellbeing wrote: »SharpWellbeing wrote: »It would appear that a certain person thinks I should ignore the roughly 170,000 very accurately estimated calories I've burned in the last 12 months of cycling as per my power meter and Garmin and "play around" instead starting from zero.
Facepalm!
OP - if you want a same every day goal then use a TDEE calculator (which includes a rough average estimate of your exercise) set that as your goal and turn off exercise adjustments. Or use MyFitnessPal as designed to give a daily goal that varies in line with your exercise. For most it's personal preference.
Both methods work, both methods will give you a reasonable start point, both methods are sustainable both during weight loss and at maintenance.
If your exercise regime is very varied or has long duration exercise that needs fuelling on the day then the MFP varied goal may be more suitable.
Bold part is exactly the point I made.
Could easily go round in circles on this so I'll end it here. But the evidence is solid to support the inaccuracy of garmin, fitbit, jawbone and others.
And the accuracy of a power meter for cycling calorie expenditure is about +/- 2%.
Should I start adjusting from 98 to 102% of reality or from zero?
Which end of the scale is a more than reasonable start point and which would be frankly dim-witted?
Maybe also think about whether it's best for the average dieter to maybe lose a little slower than anticipated or faster than anticipated.
"+/-2%" - Wow, really? The research has had to have changed dramatically for that to be the case, any link to a paper on pubmed or the like? I'd genuinely be interested to read this.
The average dieter just needs to work out what calories they need with the lifestyle they need and then crack on and take it from there. So many people fail because they allow MFP to track exercise calories such as walking.
The point I'm making is that adjusting from zero would only make even any sense if someone's estimate was more than double reality.
Today's ride burned an accurate 860 net cals. MFP's extremely vague (and a very poor choice of all the alternatives freely available) estimate would be 1,295 - still a lot closer than zero.
When I used either Strava or Garmin without a PM their estimates were entirely reasonable, from experience within 10 - 20%, mostly over, some clearly under but over time perfectly good enough for purpose. Again far easier to make small adjustments than big adjustments.
I would agree that using MFP for walking estimates is not a good choice but there's no compulsion to use MFP's exercise database which is mostly sourced from the Compendium of Physical Activity, more for convenience than accuracy. The issues with the database do not invalidate the method.1 -
Hi Posters,
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Betty2 -
Ann, may I ask how ypu read sailrabbit... lol do I take the final average of the bmr or the tdee??
If you're following your tracker synched with MFP (negative adjustments enabled as that nice knowledgeable heybales suggests), just do that for a month or two. (If you're a premenopausal woman, compare bodyweights at the same relative point in two or more different menstrual cycles, to figure your average weekly loss rate.)
Then adjust if necessary based on experience.
If a person uses Sailrabbit to estimate, rather than a tracker, then what numbers to use would differ depending on what you're trying to do.
Personally, I'd only use a TDEE calculator to estimate a TDEE (not to estimate pre-exercise NEAT), because the multipliers can differ with the different assumptions (pre- vs. post-exercise assumption).
BMR estimates, IMO, are kind of pointless for the average person. It's the *estimate* of how much we'd burn in a coma, and we're not in a coma if we're posting here. 🤷♀️
There are sports lab tests you can get (for $$$) to get a closer measurement/estimate of BMR. If someone's experiential results are far off the calculators' estimates, it might be fun to know a more accurate BMR and experiment with the standard activity multipliers, I suppose.
Other than that, in a practical sense, I'm not sure why a BMR estimate is useful. Some people say you shouldn't eat below BMR consistently ever, but I haven't really seen convincing evidence that's true. (Not saying it isn't true, not saying there is no such evidence. Just I haven't seen it.)2 -
@AnnPT77 - if you had not commented on the calc's I'd have forgotten to look, most are just so wrong I've stopped usually.
I do like DR went for separation of daily and exercise - good attempt, and including Katch BMR if you have BF%.
Not sure about recommending that max deficit based on a non-study though.
But they seem to have taken the Harris TDEE study level descriptions and just applied them to daily life.
And with strange descriptions there too.
So if I did stairs all day as job that is only Lightly-Active? I'd dare say it would be more than that.
They just knocked 10 and then 15% off the normal TDEE calc levels - 1.1, 1.2, 1.4, 1.6, 1.8. Which I've seen another site do.
And workouts while strange descriptions - still have no aspect of time.
So my Difficult workouts of 3 x weekly @ 15 min is given the same weight as 6 x weekly @ 1.5 hrs?
Workouts just add back the 10 & then 15% to those TDEE levels - but strangely it makes the Sedentary life level become all the other levels you'd normally get.
Still a lot lacking.
At least their pre-amble description has some true points in it. And unlike some I didn't catch using the terms BMR and TDEE incorrectly.1 -
I use a Garmin watch to track my training. Started this past week training for a half marathon. Also walking and biking. Using watch to track.
Hi, I have just this week bought my first Garmin. I am trying to stop the adjusted calories appearing in connect. On MFP I have tried both tick in the box and also no tick. In MFP it doesn't add my exercise calories in which is what I want but Garmin is still adding them. Do you know how to turn this off?
Thanks in advance0 -
Damn people, stop complicating things with your mini essays.
The answer is NO!
Don’t eat what you “burned from exercise”. That’s just an excuse to eat more than you should.
Set a caloric goal, and eat only that amount of calories for the week. *kitten* where you are, losing weight, good, keep it that way.
Maintaining weight but getting stronger? Good maintain for a few more weeks.
It is a JOURNEY, not a sprint0 -
I_AM_ISRAEL wrote: »Damn people, stop complicating things with your mini essays.
The answer is NO!
Don’t eat what you “burned from exercise”. That’s just an excuse to eat more than you should.
Set a caloric goal, and eat only that amount of calories for the week. *kitten* where you are, losing weight, good, keep it that way.
Maintaining weight but getting stronger? Good maintain for a few more weeks.
It is a JOURNEY, not a sprint
Your advice: fine if and only if your calorie goal is based on your TDEE (including exercise).
If the calorie goal is given by MFP it's nonsense advice, even dangerous potentially depending on the chosen rate of loss and amount of exercise.
- choose a method of calculation for your calorie goal
- monitor your weight for at least one month/menstrual cycle
- adjust according to real life results.
5 -
I_AM_ISRAEL wrote: »Damn people, stop complicating things with your mini essays.
The answer is NO!
Don’t eat what you “burned from exercise”. That’s just an excuse to eat more than you should.
Set a caloric goal, and eat only that amount of calories for the week. *kitten* where you are, losing weight, good, keep it that way.
Maintaining weight but getting stronger? Good maintain for a few more weeks.
It is a JOURNEY, not a sprint
Tell us you don't train endurance cardio without telling us you don't train endurance cardio? 😆
P.S. To the bolded: Not accounting for exercise calories at all, whether via TDEE or separate logging, kinda tends to turn it from a journey into a sprint: Difficult, maybe painful, usually brief because not sustainable for long. For those of us who do meaningful amounts of variable-schedule endurance cardio, anyway.
OP is training for a half marathon.5 -
Spammyamfa wrote: »I use a Garmin watch to track my training. Started this past week training for a half marathon. Also walking and biking. Using watch to track.
Hi, I have just this week bought my first Garmin. I am trying to stop the adjusted calories appearing in connect. On MFP I have tried both tick in the box and also no tick. In MFP it doesn't add my exercise calories in which is what I want but Garmin is still adding them. Do you know how to turn this off?
Thanks in advance
You'll need to explain a tad better.
Adjusted calories in Connect?
Do you mean the line in your status that says "Adjusted Goal" (online view, device may use different term)?
With several trackers - when you link them to MFP - the Adjustment in MFP is merely the difference between what you told MFP you thought you'd burn merely from daily life no exercise - and then what the tracker tells MFP you burned with daily life and exercise.
All estimates of course.
MFP estimate is based on your best guess of 4 levels of daily life with no exercise.
Garmin estimate is based on being on you with 100's to 1000 levels, and may include good or bad estimates of exercise calorie burn.
Do you not see something similar here, perhaps a positive adjustment though?
0
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