Another question about eating my exercise calories

Anobono
Anobono Posts: 14 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
I'm wondering if I'm on the right track if I eat my exercise calories because I told the MyFitnessPal wizard that I'm sedentary. (Sorry if this gets asked often and in different ways. I've read a lot of older posts, and I think I've figured out a good strategy for me, though I may still be confused.) On some other questionnaires, they classify me as active because I exercise for at least 30 minutes at least 5 times a week.

When I look at calorie calculators, they tell me I can eat more calories if I'm active than sedentary. That has to mean they INCLUDE the exercise calories and that I should NOT eat them back, right? Conversely, it should mean that saying I'm sedentary will "trick" the system to determine my a daily input with NO calories for exercises, and I can therefore eat them? Or does being active increase the base rate and I can still eat the exercise calories?

I suppose it may not matter, because I've had a lot of success last year, including eating my calories, and managed to lose around 30 pounds in 6 months (around 1.2 pounds per week). I gained much back, but I'm back on the program to lose weight again, maybe for good, and reach my healthy weight.

Still, it bugs me that I'm still not sure that I really "get it".

Replies

  • Retroguy2000
    Retroguy2000 Posts: 1,848 Member
    edited April 2023
    Your suspicious are all correct. Other calculators take into account your inputs and your estimated workout times per week and fold all that into their definitions of "active", "very active", etc. Basically that ends up being your BMR (calories burned if laying still all day) multiplied by some number to estimate your typical day.

    MFP does similar, but expects you to enter workouts separately, which is potentially a more accurate method. After all, some days or weeks you don't workout, some days you workout for longer, and so on.

    So yes, feel free to eat those back, if that keeps you on track for your goals. If you're adding the workouts yourself, probably best to be conservative with the estimate.
  • Anobono
    Anobono Posts: 14 Member
    Retroguy2000 wrote: »
    So yes, feel free to eat those back, if that keeps you on track for your goals. If you're adding the workouts yourself, probably best to be conservative with the estimate.

    Thanks for reassuring me. I know what you mean about being conservative in the estimate for the exercise calories. I have a FitBit, and I disconnected it from my MyFitnessPal account because I think it greatly exaggerates the calories burned.

    As I said, I should be more confident about what I am recording based on having so much success with it last year.

  • tomcustombuilder
    tomcustombuilder Posts: 2,226 Member
    Some people eat back, some do 50% and some do none. The proof of if your choice is correct will be in how your loss is going. If say, you eat all exercise cals back and your below your targeted goal of loss then you’ll need to revisit your calorie counting and tracking and how you approach the exercise calories.
  • yirara
    yirara Posts: 9,943 Member
    Retroguy2000 wrote: »

    MFP does similar, but expects you to enter workouts separately, which is potentially a more accurate method. After all, some days or weeks you don't workout, some days you workout for longer, and so on.

    So yes, feel free to eat those back, if that keeps you on track for your goals. If you're adding the workouts yourself, probably best to be conservative with the estimate.

    The good thing about this method is also that it directly shows the impact of exercise. Hey, I exercised. I get to eat another desert now. It can be used to foster new habits. It can also be used to show that while exercising can be fun, calories are often exaggerated and can actually lead to weight gain because we only thought we did so much. Thus I prefer this method.
  • PAV8888
    PAV8888 Posts: 14,253 Member
    1.2lbs per week means that on average you were operating on an "effective" deficit of 600 Cal a day.

    You can compare that to your weight loss expectation given your caloric balance estimate and come up with an estimation error to take into account.
  • StaciInGa
    StaciInGa Posts: 60 Member
    I also think my current Fitbit (I upgraded last fall) awards generously for exercise calories. As a small way to combat that, I do not have it connected to MFP and I log intentional exercise. If I'm walking around a little extra here & there (to avoid being TOTALLY sedentary with an office job) I do not log that. Like I make an effort to be at 1,000 steps before my work day starts at 8am, but do not log a walk. If I walk for 20+ minutes at lunch or in the evening, on weekends: I do log that.

    AS to your original question: MFP uses a system where they do not assume you exercise. SO activity level is your day to day life/job/hobbies. I have mine at sedentary because without intentional exercise, that is accurate for me. TDEE systems for calorie targets include your average weekly exercise. The end result should be about the same. Like MFP assumes I burn 1600 total daily without exercise. If I walked 30 minutes everyday for a 150 calorie burn, a TDEE calculator would estimate I burn 1750 daily.

    The caveat here is that all the calculators take input from the user, and if we overestimate our exercise burn, the calculators will overestimate our needs.
  • Anobono
    Anobono Posts: 14 Member
    PAV8888 wrote: »
    1.2lbs per week means that on average you were operating on an "effective" deficit of 600 Cal a day. You can compare that to your weight loss expectation given your caloric balance estimate and come up with an estimation error to take into account.

    Ha! Why didn't I think of that? Using my diary in MyFitnessPal paired with my weight measurements to compare my actual losses to the projected losses! I'll be sure to do in a few months once I've lost weight again. Thanks!

  • Anobono
    Anobono Posts: 14 Member
    StaciInGa wrote: »
    AS to your original question: MFP uses a system where they do not assume you exercise. SO activity level is your day to day life/job/hobbies. I have mine at sedentary because without intentional exercise, that is accurate for me.

    Great. So I'm glad I set it to sedentary too. I also don't count all the short walks or moving around, just the "official" walks.

  • di35bha5881
    di35bha5881 Posts: 4 Member
    New to MFP, is there a way to stop it adding back the exercise calories at all? I’ve come across other programs previously that allow you to change it.
    Thank you
    Di
  • kshama2001
    kshama2001 Posts: 28,052 Member
    edited April 2023
    di35bha5881 wrote: »
    New to MFP, is there a way to stop it adding back the exercise calories at all? I’ve come across other programs previously that allow you to change it.
    Thank you
    Di

    Hi @di35bha5881 welcome.

    Yes, you can log your exercise and manually change the calories to a number greater than 0. (0 calories won't log the exercise.)

    Probably most people use the app these days, but desktop is easier for me to screenshot, so that is what I am giving:

    oxkdbipkiy3r.png
  • AnnPT77
    AnnPT77 Posts: 34,225 Member
    di35bha5881 wrote: »
    New to MFP, is there a way to stop it adding back the exercise calories at all? I’ve come across other programs previously that allow you to change it.
    Thank you
    Di

    You can do what a poster above suggested. Premium MFP has settings that let you control whether the exercise calories get added or not.

    Think about whether letting exercise calories increase your calorie deficit is a good idea or not. If you're losing slowly, and not exercising much, it's NBD. If you're exercising hundreds of calories daily, on top of already shooting for an aggressively fast weight loss rate for your current size, it increases health risks and the risks of unsustainability (compensatory overeating, long breaks, maybe giving up altogether). In between, it's a question of how much risk you want to tolerate.

    Trying for fast loss tends to be counterproductive.
  • di35bha5881
    di35bha5881 Posts: 4 Member
    Thank you. I’ll sort that out.
    Di

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