Do you eat your exercise calories on the same day?

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em9371
em9371 Posts: 1,047 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
hi,
ive been using MFP on and off for a while now, the last few weeks I have been tracking seriously and going to gym and have lost 9 pounds in 5 weeks . I am currently 235lbs / 5ft 5 / UK size 18, looking to get to around 140lbs / UK size 10.

I just have a quick question re exercise / exercise cals:
If MFP calculates my goals for 1.5lb per week it gives me a calorie allowance of 1490 (activity set at sedentary as I have a desk job)
I go to the gym 4x per week, and burn at least 600 cals each time = 2400 per week.

I get that the exercise cals are built into the MFP calculations and I should eat them back BUT - do you have to eat them on the same day you do the exercise?
Would it be better to eat 1490 non exercise days / 2190 exercise days or is it ok to divide them up and eat an equal amout each day - 2400/7 = 342 + 1490 = 1832 per day. it works out the same amount of cals either way, so will it affect my loss depending when they are eaten?

I find it much easier to plan my food diary if I can have around the same cals each day, 100-200 difference would be fine but 600 is too much, especially when I am also cooking for my husband!

I have been tracking my exercise calories just in notes, as I get different calorie readings everytime I go to the gym and there doesnt seem to be an option to change the calories each time you enter an exercise, does anyone know if this can be done? I prefer to record the exact calorie reading then I can see if i have improved instead of just choosing a 'generic ' exercise from the list.

thank you
emma
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Replies

  • curlyclo
    curlyclo Posts: 243 Member
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    I sometimes choose to think about my calories and weight loss on a weekly basis rather than a daily basis. Your body doesn't know the difference between one day and the next - eat them whenever you like, just make sure you keep track correctly.

    For example, sometimes if I go really far over in my calories, I will add the extra calories to the next day so that I eat less the next day. It works (better actually) because then those calories get accounted for and my total for the week is still under my weekly goal even though I went over on one day.
  • jessilyn76
    jessilyn76 Posts: 532 Member
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    I eat them the day I earn them. I wouldn't want to eat extra calories on a day that I didn't excercise, because I wouldn't burn them off and would be over my target calorie goal.
  • MissMaryMac33
    MissMaryMac33 Posts: 1,433 Member
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    I personally go day by day.... if I know I'm going to the gym that night, I tend to eat bigger meals so I don't have a huge deficit at the end of the day. If I know I'm not going to the gym I plan out the whole day in advance to figure out what I can eat and stay at my net of 1400 without exercise.

    I don't think there is a magic answer here... some days I go over, some I go under...
  • mnewton21
    mnewton21 Posts: 1 Member
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    On logging the calories - why couldn't you go to the excercise tab and create under my excercise what you did and enter your exact calories?
  • greengold
    greengold Posts: 34 Member
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    My sense of this is that it doesn't make a difference in the long run - especially if you are only weighing yourself once a week or so. If you are up or down by as much as 600 calories in a given day and weigh yourself the next morning, you will most likely see a difference (there are other factors affecting daily weight as well, though, such as water retention, so it's not a guarantee) but over the course of a week it doesn't seem to matter. The main thing is to see those weight numbers going down at a steady rate(not too fast or you will burn muscle, which will make it harder later on!) - at your weight no more than 2lbs/week.
  • debussyschild
    debussyschild Posts: 804 Member
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    I always eat back the calories I burned on the SAME day I burned them. If I don't eat all of them back (not hungry), then that's okay. Better to not force yourself to eat when you're not hungry. A good rule of thumb would be to only eat back exercise calories on days that you burn them. If you're averaging 500 cals/day burned through exercise, then you can figure on eating back those calories by pre-planning your meals for the day. You can always adjust your diary if you don't end up burning all 500 calories and just eat less that day.

    As for tracking and recording exercise calories, I use a heart rate monitor every time I workout. I use it when I run and I use it at the gym. You can create your own exercises if you go to the "exercise" tab. Then click on "my exercises", then click on "create exercise". There, you can give your specific exercise the name you want it to have as well as record your exact time spent exercising as well as exact calories burned. I used to use the generic exercises in the database before I bought my heart rate monitor, but now I create all of my own exercises. Added bonus: MFP stores all of the exercises that you create, so if you complete the same exercise on another day, you can select it from your exercises and adjust the time/calories spent to reflect your workout for the day. Hope this helps!
  • LorinaLynn
    LorinaLynn Posts: 13,247 Member
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    I can't see a problem with eating about the same number of calories every day. It's not like there's a magic RESET button that goes off at midnight.
  • em9371
    em9371 Posts: 1,047 Member
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    On logging the calories - why couldn't you go to the excercise tab and create under my excercise what you did and enter your exact calories?

    i created an exercise with the specific cals, but i cant alter cals for next time and dont want to create a new exercise everytime i go to the gym, so i need to know if there is a way to just amend the cals of an exercise already created if that makes sense?

    never mind, i found the option to edit exercise now :smile:
  • Krhoppy
    Krhoppy Posts: 1
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    I believe there is a time period after you excercise that your body is in recovery (replenishing nutrients, building muscle, that sort of thing). It is during this time that your body uses up the extra cals you earn by doing the exercise. Your body looks to use cals that have been recently eaten first. So that leaves me to believe that the best time to eat the extra cals is the day of the exercise.
  • llkilgore
    llkilgore Posts: 1,169 Member
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    I run every other day and routinely log half the time to that day and the rest to the non-run day that follows. I don't like having to fudge the numbers to spread the calories out, but other than that, it hasn't caused any problems. MapMyRun keeps an honest record for me.
  • debussyschild
    debussyschild Posts: 804 Member
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    On logging the calories - why couldn't you go to the excercise tab and create under my excercise what you did and enter your exact calories?

    i created an exercise with the specific cals, but i cant alter cals for next time and dont want to create a new exercise everytime i go to the gym, so i need to know if there is a way to just amend the cals of an exercise already created if that makes sense?

    I see the problem. You can actually use exercises that you've created and alter the calories/time spent completing them. It works almost the same way as creating your own foods.

    To do this:
    1. Click on the "exercise" tab
    2. Click on the "exercise diary" sub-tab beneath it
    3. Under "cardiovascular", click on "add exercise"
    4. Select an exercise to add from your list of created/most used exercises
    5. Along the same row of the exercise, you should be able to manually alter the input for "minutes" and "calories" to reflect your workout for the day.

    Edit: I felt I needed to add this: I never use the "strength training" gadget this website has. It really confuses me, so I log ALL of my exercise (cardio and strength training) under the "cardiovascular" section. I, of course, name the exercise I did to reflect the actual task performed (either cardio or ST), and then just record the calories burned doing it. If I want to record how many set/reps I did/how much weight I used during strength training workouts, I usually jot that down under my "notes" section to have for my own reference and track my progress. I only use the exercise diary to reflect calories burned from any kind of workout.
  • rpstaller
    rpstaller Posts: 8
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    This is something I have given a lot of thought to myself. I don't think I would personally be comfortable with dividing my projected exercise calories over the whole week. Anything can happen in a week and if something happened that prevented me from exercising as much as I projected then the calories are off. However, I am perfectly comfortable with the idea of eating my Tuesday exercise calories on Wednesday, for example. As others have said, in the span of a week I don't think it will make much difference. I also think it depends on when you are exercising. If I was getting up and exercising first thing in the morning and had the whole day ahead after my workout, I would consume my exercise calories on the same day. But because of my schedule, I normally don't get to the gym before 7:00, 8:00, or sometimes even 9:00 at night. If I get home from the gym at 10:00 or 11:00 at night, I certainly don't want to be eating 600 or 700 exercise calories at that hour, so I would add them to the next day.
  • mhotch
    mhotch Posts: 901 Member
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    I agree with Hoppy, but I have no data to back it up. If I do eat my exercise calories it from cardio alone. A very wise poster here, once posted that the HRM is not really accurate with calorie burn from strength training. So I don't eat strength calories. I believe I eventually burn those calories from an increased metabolism, but I am not sure I burn that much on the day of workout.
  • annimal74
    annimal74 Posts: 25
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    I work evenings and dont get to the gym until about 10p so I add all my gym calories to that day not the next day . I try to get to 1300 cals a day somedays I dont make it but I keep trying :) I dont understand what you mean about eating earn exercise cals tho?
  • summer827
    summer827 Posts: 516 Member
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    Usually I do, but I mainly am shooting for a weekly average. I'm fairly consistent, but there are often two meals a week that are heavier than the others. I rarely eat less than 1500 calories in a day, but if I haven't eaten ALL my exercise calories back and I'm not hungry, I'll "save" them for the higher cal-intake meals.
  • rpstaller
    rpstaller Posts: 8
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    I agree with Hoppy, but I have no data to back it up. If I do eat my exercise calories it from cardio alone. A very wise poster here, once posted that the HRM is not really accurate with calorie burn from strength training. So I don't eat strength calories. I believe I eventually burn those calories from an increased metabolism, but I am not sure I burn that much on the day of workout.

    I own a Bodybugg and it is pretty awesome. It tracks the calories I burn from all activity whether it's walking on the treadmill, lifting weights, or carrying groceries in from the car. I have also done the math (me = nerd) with my total burned vs. total consumed compared to the weight I lost for the week and the thing is surprisingly accurate.
  • debussyschild
    debussyschild Posts: 804 Member
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    I agree with Hoppy, but I have no data to back it up. If I do eat my exercise calories it from cardio alone. A very wise poster here, once posted that the HRM is not really accurate with calorie burn from strength training. So I don't eat strength calories. I believe I eventually burn those calories from an increased metabolism, but I am not sure I burn that much on the day of workout.

    I'm not sure that's entirely accurate. Strength training is far more cardiovascular than most people think. My heart rate stays elevated during all of my strength training workouts, but fluctuates more between fast and slightly faster heart rates more than it would fluctuate during a run. I use my HRM to record calories burned from my workouts as that's really the determining factor for how many calories you burn: how hard your body is working. Your heart rate is an accurate reflection of how hard your body is working.
  • em9371
    em9371 Posts: 1,047 Member
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    thank you for all the replies, its good to see whats working for everyone else!
    i generally exercise on Mon / Wed / Fri / Sat am's so the 600 i earned on those days i could eat half on the day and half the next day, think that would leave me with pretty equal cals most days without carrying the exercise cals too far, and would have an extra 300 from fri/sat which is always handy for the weekend!, I havent been eating a whole weeks worth of exercise cals before i had done the exercise:laugh:
  • sophjakesmom
    sophjakesmom Posts: 904 Member
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    I average over the week. The phone app has a weekly summary, so it is really easy to see. Especially when I was doing long runs getting ready for my half marathon, I would eat more the night before, then burn the calories in the morning the next day.
  • jheath123
    jheath123 Posts: 101
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    MFP days start at midnight so I would say add accordingly to your schedule, I however am never up at midnight lol so letting it do as it does works for me. And as far as aiming for a weekly goal I would say that would sowrk if you stuck to a schedule and ate an average number of calories a day, but if you don't eat enough one day due to being busy or something I wouldn't say you can just add all them calories on the next day cause you'll overload your body I'm sure a few hundred extra wouldnt hurt

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