Exercise Calories

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kristenspring5520
kristenspring5520 Posts: 1 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
Hi, new to this. I'm set as 1280 calories per day and I walk over 10k steps per day and do exercise and gym classes most days. Today I am showing as over 700 active calories. Do I eat any of these??? If I do use them will I still be creating a calorie deficit for my weightloss goal???

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  • herringboxes
    herringboxes Posts: 259 Member
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    You can eat them. Because many people have found exercise calorie estimates to be inflated, a lot of people like to just eat half their exercise calories back. You can try to eat back some or all and see how it goes over the course of a few weeks and adjust from there as needed.
  • spiriteagle99
    spiriteagle99 Posts: 3,676 Member
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    MFP's calculations are set so that you should eat back your exercise calories. Your stated activity level is for life apart from exercise, since most people do not exercise at the same level every single day. I lost weight and maintained it here for several years by eating back all my exercise calories, but as herringboxes said, some people prefer to eat only a portion to make up for inaccuracy in estimating calories eaten or calories burned. If you eat too few calories, you won't have energy to fuel your exercise, if you eat too many you won't lose as quickly as expected so it is a good idea to try to figure out whether you burn more or fewer calories than indicated.
  • TanyaHooton
    TanyaHooton Posts: 249 Member
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    Yes, that is the design of MFP; you can eat back your exercise calories. Agreed with the other person, I suggest eating back only half or three-fourths of your exercise calories because they can be inflated but also because it gives you a bit of cushion in case you accidentally underestimate during the week or have some food that is just impossible to log (like eating out or potlucks).
  • ninerbuff
    ninerbuff Posts: 48,527 Member
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    Eat back half to start and see how it goes.

    A.C.E. Certified Personal and Group Fitness Trainer
    IDEA Fitness member
    Kickboxing Certified Instructor
    Been in fitness for 35+ years and have studied kinesiology and nutrition
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  • ReReNotMe
    ReReNotMe Posts: 63 Member
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    Yes. I tend to have a goal of net calories a day as well as just consumed calories a day. My goal is to eat around 1800cal/day but my net goal to lose about 1kg/week based on my BMR is -1100cal/day. On a workout day I may burn more than that so I can eat a bit more to allow for that and keep my energy up for the day. Under eating and over exercising may lead to burn out and lack of motivation so I find this method more sustainable. I hope that makes sens . Good luck :)

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