Activity calories

AKLong321
AKLong321 Posts: 1 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
Curious if subtracting exercise calories should be done or not. I don’t ever factor them in my daily calorie counting but wasn’t sure if that was recommended. I’m trying to lose weight and build muscle- moderate activity.

Replies

  • yirara
    yirara Posts: 9,984 Member
    If you use MFP as intended then you eat the calories given to you, provided you've chosen a realistic weightloss goal. Hint: the highest weightloss goal is not always the appropriate one. Then you log your exercise and eat those calories back as well. The calories you're given already include your calorie deficit for your goal, assuming you're not exercising. Hence eating the exercise calories back. However, the database for exercises greatly overstates calories, thus starting with a part of that is a good idea.
  • Lietchi
    Lietchi Posts: 6,879 Member
    Two options:
    - use MFP as designed and enter your activity level without counting exercise - when you exercise, add it to your diary and eat back (a percentage, if you want to be cautious because of potential overestimations) of those calories
    - use a TDEE calculator, where your exercise is included up front in your calorie goal and subtract 250kcal per 0.5 lb of weight you want to lose per week

    Either way, your exercise needs to be included in the calculations somewhere.

    For losing weight and building muscle: those goals are hard to combine - more likely to happen if you're new to strength training and if you keep your calorie deficit small/moderate (and eat sufficient protein).
  • lynn_glenmont
    lynn_glenmont Posts: 10,097 Member
    If you have chosen a conservative rate of weight loss (say 1/2 pound a week) and your exercise calories tend to only be a couple of hundred calories a day, you're probably OK not eating them back.

    If you've opted for a pound or more a week as your weight loss goal and you're doing lengthy and/or high-intensity workouts burning 300+ extra calories a day, you could be headed for trouble if you don't eat back at least some of your exercise calories.
  • SweatLikeDog
    SweatLikeDog Posts: 320 Member
    Building muscle in a calorie deficit is tough to accomplish. Your best bet would be to keep your calorie deficit modest, keep your protein intake high, and focus on strength training. Add your exercise calories back, but don't overestimate them.
  • westrich20940
    westrich20940 Posts: 921 Member
    If you used MFP to calculate your daily calorie goal - it is intended that you eat your exercise calories - that's why it adds them. This is bc - if you chose that you wanted to lose weight, MFP calculates that when considering your daily caloric needs. So the daily caloric goal it gives you is already at a deficit (since you said you wanted to lose weight). If you also log a cardio workout that burned calories - this will increase your deficit ...possibly too much (depending on your stats and how much you burned) so you are supposed to eat them back. You will /should still be at a deficit as long as your daily calorie goal is appropriate. You can make adjustments as you go based on your data overall.

    If you used some other method to calculate your calorie goal - it will depend what method whether you should eat them back or not.

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