Question about calories and training

ollimerlin
ollimerlin Posts: 2 Member
in Getting Started
Hello!

So I just started myfitnesspal. I'm all set to go from 75 kg to 70 kg and av adjusted the values. I have also filled in how many workouts/week I plan to do. After that I get a calories number that fit my weight loss.

However when I do workouts my data is imported from garmin connect. I wonder if that import affects my totally calorie intake or is that already counted for in my settings? If you understand what i'm after :)

Replies

  • Lietchi
    Lietchi Posts: 6,845 Member
    The workout frequency you enter in the MFP set-up doesn't actually influence your calorie goal (I know, it's confusing). So you can just follow the calorie goal given on MFP plus any exercise calories your Garmin gives you.

    The only thing to pay attention to is that your Garmin might not be accurate for you (it slightly underestimates for me). The best thing is to follow the numbers for at least one month and then adjust your calorie intake if your weight loss rate isn't what you intended: eat more if losing more quickly than intended, eat less if losing more slowly than intended.
  • ollimerlin
    ollimerlin Posts: 2 Member
    Thanks for your reply!

    I got a good sense of how many calories I spend every day on training so that should work out fine. I just need a tool to force my bad diet habits :wink:
  • zblev
    zblev Posts: 13 Member
    Don’t worry about exercise calories in general. 5kg is not a lot to lose. If you eat in a slight calorie deficit like 200/300 calories below maintenance and workout you’ll lose that weight. Or you might find that you build muscle and not lose the weight but your body composition ends up looking better. My advice to you is don’t log exercise or activity. It’s easy to get it wrong. Just log what you are eating. Weigh out what you can. After 2/3 weeks if you aren’t seeing results you want you know where to change. Gaining or losing all come from what you eat.
  • nossmf
    nossmf Posts: 11,713 Member
    zblev wrote: »
    Gaining or losing all come from what you eat.

    Slightly misleading. The more accurate statement is comes MOSTLY from what you eat. Exercise can and does impact gains or loss.

    For the OP (Original Poster), MFP calculations are based on current weight and desired rate of gain/loss. Adjusting activity level (sedentary, active, etc) changes the calculations, but actual exercise is not factored in. That's an additional input you can do manually or have imported automatically by a Garmin or similar.

    You'll get lots of conflicting advice of whether to eat extra because you exercised, but @Lietchi gave sound advice to try one method, see if it works for you, and THEN adjust as needed.
  • Redordeadhead
    Redordeadhead Posts: 1,188 Member
    zblev wrote: »
    Don’t worry about exercise calories in general. 5kg is not a lot to lose. If you eat in a slight calorie deficit like 200/300 calories below maintenance and workout you’ll lose that weight. Or you might find that you build muscle and not lose the weight but your body composition ends up looking better. My advice to you is don’t log exercise or activity. It’s easy to get it wrong. Just log what you are eating. Weigh out what you can. After 2/3 weeks if you aren’t seeing results you want you know where to change. Gaining or losing all come from what you eat.

    If you eat in a slight deficit below maintenance and don't workout, you will also lose weight.

    If you do a lot of activity that's unaccounted for, you are at risk of undereating.
  • sijomial
    sijomial Posts: 19,809 Member
    edited November 2021
    zblev wrote: »
    Don’t worry about exercise calories in general. 5kg is not a lot to lose. If you eat in a slight calorie deficit like 200/300 calories below maintenance and workout you’ll lose that weight. Or you might find that you build muscle and not lose the weight but your body composition ends up looking better. My advice to you is don’t log exercise or activity. It’s easy to get it wrong. Just log what you are eating. Weigh out what you can. After 2/3 weeks if you aren’t seeing results you want you know where to change. Gaining or losing all come from what you eat.

    Bad advice for someone calorie counting to ignore a significant calorie expenditure. It's also contrary to how this site works, how average TDEE sites work and how fitness trackers work.

    Just my cycling this year will burn over 200,000 pretty accurately estimated calories - would be totally foolish to ignore that.
  • zblev
    zblev Posts: 13 Member
    edited November 2021
    Don’t listen to me I’m foolish.

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