Eating back your calories post.. yes again

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yuliyax
yuliyax Posts: 288
in Fitness and Exercise
Yes I know it is important to eat back your calories, from this thread - >http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/539912-why-eating-exercise-calories-is-so-important
but I've been seeing a lot of posts that say that MTF doesn't give you the right calorie burn for exercises, for example I do eliptical and my machine says that I've burnt about the third of what MTF says. I don't know whether it is because I can't log my weight in my with on the machine or because MTF is wrong. Should I put a number in between those two?
and if MTF is wrong it means that I am eating more calories than I should, maybe I should only eat back a percentage of exercise calories? What do you guys do?
ps. I can't afford an HRM at the moment

Replies

  • TheBigYin
    TheBigYin Posts: 5,682 Member
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    if there's a dispute on the figures - book the lower one I'd say...
  • Martucha123
    Martucha123 Posts: 1,093 Member
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    in case of low impact cardio I would say eating back half of what MFP tells you is ok
    you do not have much to lose, so you don't burn a lot, probably aroun 400-600 kcals per hour durng intense cardio (fast run 600kcal, gym class 400kcals) , 200-400 during low intensity cardio (walking about 200, jogging about 400)
  • crux
    crux Posts: 454 Member
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    This is where things get sticky and advice can be both good and bad depending on the person. We can only really talk in generalities, yes it's good to eat your exercise calories back. Yes, sometimes the machines over estimate those calories. It all depends on the person.

    My personal solution?

    I started by eating all calories back, and looked at my deficit + result over the course of a week rather than over the day. Then if I lost I left things alone, if I did not lose after 2 weeks I eat back a little less of the exercise calories.

    Just one caveat, I never tried to lose more than a pound a week. and even on my lowest calorie days I still got more than 2k calories which meant I was getting enough protein and essential fats to keep my body happy while losing weight.
  • greenskpr
    greenskpr Posts: 11 Member
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    Buy a heart rate monitor, and keep track of your own burn. It's a piece of mind plus you can keep track of your work when your not on a machine, doing intervals, etc. Tons of online burn calculators to choose from that will calculate your bpm into calories.
    http://www.calories-calculator.net/Calories_Burned_By_Heart_Rate.html
  • yuliyax
    yuliyax Posts: 288
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    Just one caveat, I never tried to lose more than a pound a week. and even on my lowest calorie days I still got more than 2k calories which meant I was getting enough protein and essential fats to keep my body happy while losing weight.

    Thats is the scary thing, after radical diets I've decided to lose weight slowly and it just looks so wierd that I have to eat 2400 calories if I walk for 2 hours that day or do elliptical for an hour, well I probably shouldn't complain - I am full and losing weight so its all good :)
  • poledancing_ninja
    poledancing_ninja Posts: 271
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    I just eat half of what MFP says
  • jaxandmaksmom
    jaxandmaksmom Posts: 262 Member
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    Buy a heart rate monitor, and keep track of your own burn. It's a piece of mind plus you can keep track of your work when your not on a machine, doing intervals, etc. Tons of online burn calculators to choose from that will calculate your bpm into calories.
    http://www.calories-calculator.net/Calories_Burned_By_Heart_Rate.html

    ok well that calculator gave me a thrid of cals burnt that i get from MFP..

    i am starting to think this site is making me more confuessed then ever..
  • banffkid
    banffkid Posts: 59
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    HRM are the way to go...Mine is usually more calories than the machines if that helps. I heard they are very accurate.
  • CyberEd312
    CyberEd312 Posts: 3,536 Member
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    You should invest in a good Heart Rate Monitor to get a more accurate calories burned..... I use a Polar FT60 HRM..... It's not perfect but it is alot better than guessing....
  • sazzyp1973
    sazzyp1973 Posts: 517 Member
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    I don't know the correct answer to this but I have put a note on the profile of a person who might be good to offer some insight. If he sees it, he may contribute!
  • californiagirl1950
    californiagirl1950 Posts: 900 Member
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    My elliptical has the monitor also and is always less calories than what MFP says, but I can not log my weight or age into the elliptical monitor. The heart rate monitor in it, I get up to around 140 when I go fast, and I do the interval, slow, fast, slow, fast etc. I googled calories burned and it has this formula , age, weight, etc and it came out the same as here. It can all be so confusing!
  • TeaBea
    TeaBea Posts: 14,517 Member
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    What previous posters have said ... just eat back a portion.

    The problem with calorie counts from on-line (or even many machines) .... fitness level. If your machine measures your heart rate steadily, then it is more accurate. Heart rate monitors "compare" your resting heart rate VS. your exercise heart rate. The bigger the difference ... the harder you are working. Without any calculation for fitness level, you are relying on averages.
  • pvakilpa
    pvakilpa Posts: 1
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    From what I understand, if you do not enter your weight on the machine you workout on, it calculates calories burnt for an average 70kg adult. MFP calculates calories burnt according to your weight. So, you will notice you burn less calories for the same workout when you are a few lbs lighter. Hope this helps.
  • mes1119
    mes1119 Posts: 1,082 Member
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    It honestly depends on your physical condition. That is why a HRM is key. Someone in good shape can jog at 6.0 speed no problem with very little rise in heart rate. Someone out of shape may be hitting max heart rate at 6.0 speed. That is why the machine's are always so off. I'd say if you think you are in good shape the machine is OVERestimating your calorie burn, and if you think you are in very poor shape it is UNDERestimating your calorie burn.

    I either eat all of my exercise calories or some of them. A lot of times I kind of "save" them for the weekend. I'm focused on hitting my net for the week, not necessarily perfect everyday. Over some days and under some has been working very well for me.

    With the elliptical, I found MFP to be spot on with my HRM. My speed varies too much during runs/intervals for the machine to accurately predict burn, however.
  • TeaBea
    TeaBea Posts: 14,517 Member
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    From what I understand, if you do not enter your weight on the machine you workout on, it calculates calories burnt for an average 70kg adult. MFP calculates calories burnt according to your weight. So, you will notice you burn less calories for the same workout when you are a few lbs lighter. Hope this helps.

    It's not just size ..... it's also gender (men are more muscular.. burn more) then age, and fitness level. As your fitness increases, calories burned decreases. Many fit people are shocked by low numbers when they use a heart rate monitor for the first time.

    Some lower quality machines do not factor gender ... they just default to "male"
  • MyaPapaya75
    MyaPapaya75 Posts: 3,143 Member
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    if u plan to eat back cals and cant afford a hrm ...when mfp gives u a calorie burn for workouts just take like 10-15% off what it says..it wont be accurate either way but its the best you can do...
  • Erisad
    Erisad Posts: 1,580
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    Buy a heart rate monitor, and keep track of your own burn. It's a piece of mind plus you can keep track of your work when your not on a machine, doing intervals, etc. Tons of online burn calculators to choose from that will calculate your bpm into calories.
    http://www.calories-calculator.net/Calories_Burned_By_Heart_Rate.html

    This link pretty much gave me the same as the gym machine told me, so I'll go with that. When I get a job, I'll buy me a heart rate monitor too. :)
  • Mercenary1914
    Mercenary1914 Posts: 1,087 Member
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    Yes I know it is important to eat back your calories, from this thread - >http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/539912-why-eating-exercise-calories-is-so-important
    but I've been seeing a lot of posts that say that MTF doesn't give you the right calorie burn for exercises, for example I do eliptical and my machine says that I've burnt about the third of what MTF says. I don't know whether it is because I can't log my weight in my with on the machine or because MTF is wrong. Should I put a number in between those two?
    and if MTF is wrong it means that I am eating more calories than I should, maybe I should only eat back a percentage of exercise calories? What do you guys do?
    ps. I can't afford an HRM at the moment

    Hi,

    I know the feeling...When I use the elliptical in the gym it is off by 100 cals compared to MFP.....MFP loads me WAY higher than any machine I use in the gym...So like you I have always been skeptical of eating back my calories...


    If you are going to not be able to purchase an HRM you should probably not eat all your Calories back...infact try to eat the same amount every day, but if you feel lethargic and need more energy add a bake sweet potato or some healthy carbs to your diet to keep your energy levels high....One thing is for certain....this topic will only give you 1000 or more different answers....

    The best answer is to be consistent...Try to either have the same amount of Net Cals every day to base line...

    OR eat the same amount of calories every day no matter what and after a month see how things are going and make your adjustments from there..

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