My problem with eating back exercise calories.

I don't have a HRM at the moment (however you can get them relatively cheap on websites like Amazon) so I go by what the tracker on this website tells me.

What I do is say I do 45 minutes on my stationary bike... I will only enter 30 minutes and at a lower intensity that I have actually done. I like to log the actual information in the "notes" section on the tracker just so I know what I've really done. This gives less calories that I eat back. I know some people will only eat 2/3 of their exercise calories back to take into account any errors.

I would suggest trying it out. Put in less time and less intensity (or pace) than you've actually done. Not by a huge amount but than you'll get a bit more accurate of a number. Try it for a few weeks and see what happens.

This weight loss thing is a lot of trial and error.

I can only speak from my experience in the last 3-4 months. I have been eating back my exercise calories and I go by the calories burned that is shown on mapmyrun until I can get a FitBit to be more accurate. I have steadily lost at least a pound a week the whole time and I usually eat all my daily calories to include my exercise calories or come between 50-100 shy. I do that mostly to make up for the weekends since I do not log my food or limit what I eat on the weekends. When I was shorting myself 300-400 a day I was miserable, nasty and sluggish. Food is not your enemy. Don't be afraid!

I was never sure and at around half of what was said for fear it was way off. I now have a HRM and have found it to be sort of off. Every time I work out it's different as sometimes I work harder, sometimes I'm trying to take it a bit easy. Sometimes I burn more than it suggests, sometimes half.

I thought I would never get one and from reading the posts I could only see the £60+ models of the Polar were the only decent hrm to get but I ended up getting one for £12.99 from Lloyds that works really well. If you are really worried and would feel better I'd suggest saving up for this one. I've found it to be easy to use.

http://www.lloydspharmacy.com/en/lloydspharmacy-watch-and-heart-rate-monitor-35281

I have a Fitbit pedometer, not a HRM. It's still expensive but so worth it. Syncs up nicely with MFP.

RunKeeper is a decent app and it's numbers were very close to my fitbit as far as distance and time went. I tried a while back to compare. So knowing time, distance and speed should help you get a decent exercise calorie reading.

I try to eat some of my exercise calories back. If I'm hungry, I eat them.... if I'm not hungry or full even, I only go to 1200 net calories for the day. If I go lower than that I don't have a good week weight loss wise.

I'd give it a go, I don't have a HRM either, I just use the totals on the machines and the estimated totals on here. I eat back my exercise calories and I am losing weight. You really won't know unless you try it. I was scared as well, I was pushing 245-250 when I started and I've dropped 20 pounds. Try it and see, if it works you'll be glad you did, if it doesn't its a very minor setback.

A 12.5 minute mile is nowhere NEAR a crawl. I was in the AF and being fit I was only ever able to break an 11:30 so don't knock youself!!! That's pretty damn good!

My question is are you moving closer to your goals. As long as you're making progress it doesn't matter.

It's really only critical to eat back ALL your exercise calories if you are way under eating. This is such a touchy subject and it's different for everyone.

For Example. Someone that has a goal of 1200 and are at a 2 lb per week deficit and burn 500 calories a day should eat back their calories because they are all ready at a 1000 calories a day deficit and are only netting 700 calories which is not enough for nutrition / energy.

But someone that's eating at a surplus and burn 500 doesn't really need to eat back any / all their calories.

A few weeks ago while I was in a bulk phase I was eating 2500-2800 but not eating all my exercise calories back.

So you see, the answer is it's different for everyone.

Edit*** Almost forgot. So play with your calories making small weekly adjustments and see if you move closer or further from your goals.

There is literally no correct answer here. Your problem is that you don't know how many calories you burned as it compares to the (usually unreliable) machine. None of us know, either. If it's reporting high, the people who say not to eat back calories are right. if it's reporting low, you're messing up your metabolism by not eating back. If you don't want to save up for a HRM, just flip a coin. It will be just as reliable as any advice you get within this thread.

I couldnt afford a HRM either. I really wanted one as I was trying to eat back my calories but didnt want to go over.
I saved up and bought one for $70.00 I found out MFP is over about 30 calories for each exercise, so it wasnt to bad.
I am hoping to not be so stuck now that I know what I am burning.

My problem with eating back calories is I lost lots of weight NOT eating them back. So far I can barley maintain while eating them back.

I don't stress over getting the exact number of calories. I simply go by the estimate here on MFP and have had good success. If you are worried, try upping your calories by a little for a couple of weeks, then upping a little more.

For me, eating back my exercise calories has allowed me to work out much harder when I want to splurge -- a good thing I think. But I live for the little motivational tools MFP offers "77tes completed her diary and was under her calorie goal" and "If every day was like today, in 5 weeks ..."

Good luck.

Thanks everyone for their advice.

Firstly - I hadn't looked on Amazon, and I have found a cheap HRM, which I will buy. Thank you for pointing me towards that

Secondly - I'm going to aim for my TDEE, which is about 1770 (I will use that website to work it out properly - right now I don't have a tape measure to fill in the details, so I'll have to borrow my neighbour's tomorrow!)

Thirdly - to answer the question "am I moving nearer to my goals" - I am, slowly. My goal isn't just about losing weight any more, it's about getting healthy, and a part of that is getting a healthy attitude towards food. I've been on a very heavily restricted diet of a long time (I posted about my experience here: http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/521480-1000-calories-or-less-a-day). In the past month, I've increased my food intake from under 1000 to 1450 (actually, today was 1600). That was really tough, and I lost weight today for the first time in ten days (I realise that's not a long time, however it was hard to increase and come out of my comfort zone, not lose weight, and sticking to my plan of increasing by 100 a week even when I hadn't lose a single ounce). So yes, I am nearer to my goals

Be careful, not all of them actually show calories burned! Which one are you looking at?

What do you do? Set up your calorie goals according to your TDEE and accounting for your activity level - that's exactly what I'm doing.

Hit up the website here;
http://www.fat2fitradio.com/tools/

Use the Military Bodyfat Calculator and then the Calories and Basal Metabolic Rate calculator to find your ideal calorie plan.

That's what I'd suggest. Either calculate your TDEE from another site, or just change your activity level to active or very active on here to include exercise, and don't log the exercise calories.

I never used a HRM and even they're not 100% accurate. The only thing way you're really going to know if you're eating the right amount is by your results... when you feel great, have tons of energy, are able to meet your fitness goals, and are losing the weight you want to lose.

And for someone just starting, running a mile in about 12:30 is great!

bump

I got an HRM, but honestly, as far as I understand, if you have your activity level set properly for your TDEE, you shouldn't need to eat back your calories.

Multipliers for your BMR to get to your TDEE:
1.2 for Sedentary - desk job and little to no exercise
1.375 for Lightly Active - light exercise/sports 1-3 days/wk
1.55 for Moderately Active - moderate exercise/sports 3-5 days/wk
1.725 for Very Active - hard exercise/sports 6-7 days/wk
1.9 for Extremely Active - hard daily exercise/sports & physical job or training

So for example, if your BMR is 1300 and you work out a couple times a week, you should eat 1,788 a day and not log/eat back exercise.

If you use this method you should not need to eat back your calories unless you do activities above and beyond your multiplier activity.

OR, you can be conservative and just eat back like 25% or 50% of your "burned calories" along with your BMR.

I'm having problems with losing anything and I believe this is due to being 1800-2000 cals under each week. But using the above formula suggests I should be eating over 2,200 calories per day....I know I would gain weight doing this.

My BMR is 1429 and I exercise 5 times a week. My weight is still refusing to budge.

Once you have multiplied your BMR by a multiplier according to your Activity, you should deduct between 10% and 20%, depending on how much weight you have to lose, to create the caloric deficit that will make you lose weight.

On your BMR, Moderately Active puts you at 2214. Subtracting 10% from that as you don't have much weight to lose lands you at 1992 calories a day to lose weight. That gives you a deficit of 222 a day, 1554 a week, or 0.4 pounds a week. (Little over 34 weeks to goal)

Subtracting 15% from that as you don't have much weight to lose lands you at 1881 calories a day to lose weight. That gives you a deficit of 333 a day, 2331 a week, or 0.6 pounds a week. (Little over 22 weeks to goal)

Subtracting 20% from that, which is not the best option for lean mass preservation as you don't have much weight to lose lands you at 1771 calories a day to lose weight. That gives you a deficit of 443 a day, 3101 a week, or 0.75 pounds a week. (Little over 17 weeks to goal)

Use these numbers or don't - up to you

I am in the same position as the OP. I may get a HRM, but my list of "things I want" is a long one.

You don't need a HRM to measure your heart rate. What I do is check my HR several times during my workout. I pay attention to what I'm doing at that point, and I attempt to estimate how much of my workout is at a given level of intensity. Then, I plug that information into an online HR-based calorie calculator.

It's a bit of work, and I'm still not sure that I'm getting perfectly accurate results, but I feel it's pretty decent.

For example, this morning, I climbed the hill by my house. I use a GPS phone app that tracks my speed and distance, running in the background.

I also have a stop-watch app on my phone which I've got preset to 10 seconds. I pause and take my HR a few times on my walk. I do it when I reach the farm gate at the top of the lane. I take it when I've reached another gate after doing a moderate climb. Then, I take it while doing the steepest climb (which I cannot do without pausing for breath several times. It's very steep and I sometimes have to use my hands.) I check it at the top. I check it at the same landmarks on the way back down. Meanwhile, I check my GPS tracker to see how fast I've been going. This gives me an idea of how long I spend moderately climbing, steep climbing, level walking, downhill, etc. I walk that lane and back to my front porch as briskly as I can and take my HR at the very end of it all. It's all a bit of a jumble of numbers, but I find that I can remember most of them pretty well. It helps that I've done the same hill/route four times this week. :laugh:

This enables me to get a fair idea of my average HR. I also break it down by time. I know I was climbing intensely, with a heart rate of at least 150, for about ten minutes. I know I was at a more moderate level of intensity for 30 minutes. I plug all that in, adding it up. (The gps app also records how long I am moving out of my total time, so even pausing is accounted for. )

I average out my various heart rates and plug that in for the total moving time, as well.

I compare it to calculators for "hiking across open country carrying less than 10lbs" for the length of time I was moving.

I go with the lowest total and put that on my exercise diary.

I'm doing that C25K thing so I know what you mean about the "running." I do the math. I add up the running intervals and the walking intervals and look up the calorie rates for the two different activities. I also check my heart rate at various points and try to estimate it on the calculator for comparison's sake.

I have to say that for those activities, I have not found the estimates on here particularly high. It may just be my body and weight that it works for. I don't know.