Eating your exercise calories
jarredondo
Posts: 284 Member
I know, I know, there are about a gazillion post about whether to eat your exercise calories or not. This is just a word of warning who take the numbers too literally. Be careful of the numbers you choose as your exercise burn. Today, for example, I was on the elliptical for 36 minutes. The machine calculate calorie burn was over 600 calories!! Whoo Hooo, right? Except generally those machines calculate for a Man, not a woman, so I know it was no where near that. I go back to my computer and enter it into MFP. That calculates to a 387 calorie burn. Still not bad but my heart rate monitor (Which takes into account my HR, age, gender and weight) tells me I only burned 261. I just wanted to throw this out there for people, especially new people, to be careful of the numbers that you choose.
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And that is exactly why I never eat back ALL of my calories.0
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I know about allllll the posts saying to eat them back, but I dont. I eat a good dinner a couple of hours before I hit the gym and if I'm hungry after a grab a snack of fruit or popcorn, no way would I have a 400 cal loaded meal, the equivalent of what I would usually burn.0
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I agree. I usually eat about half of them back just to be on the safe side. I am in total agreement on eating back exercise calories but so many times, they are exaggerated.0
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Im with you, my gazelle trainer usually gives me 3x as many calories as my pedometer.0
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oh and never go by fitnesspal's default calories burned. IMO they are way too generous.0
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That's why I invested in a HRM.0
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bump0
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Yep! Machines pretty much always over estimate calorie burn. I wouldn't believe any machine that told me I burned over 300 calories, maybe 400 for a 1 hour treadmill run. And since we're only talking about a few hundred calories for our workout, while you may still get results eating back your exercise calories, it is certainly not going to do you any harm if you do not.0
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my thought is that if you are supposed to burn calories to lose weight im not sure why you would want to eat all of them back anyway! i try to stay in my daily allowance and not eat any of my exercise calories back but they are nice to have there in case I go over my daily count a little bit0
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That's why I invested in a HRM.
This.0 -
i typically take off 4-500 off of my burns (mfp gives maybe TOO much credit for certain exercises) and i try to only log actual exercise and chalk the rest up to a bonus. That way i dont get duped into eating too much back0
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That's why I invested in a HRM.
me too!
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when i was losing weight i ate back 3/4 of them...now i eat as much of them as i feel like cause I'm trying to gain muscle.0
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I only log 2/3 of my exercise TIME and eat back ALL the calories. Keeps me from having to do as much on-the-fly math. :-)0
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oh and never go by fitnesspal's default calories burned. IMO they are way too generous.
I agree with this...according to MFP I burned 700+ calories for a moderate work out of 45 minutes and the machines I was on were not even close to this...eating back 1/2 is what I did, just because I was hungry...listening to your body is the most accurate measure I believe!0 -
That's why I invested in a HRM.
me too!
ordered my FITBIT today...hope it is more accurate than the machines or MFP0 -
For me? 400 an hour for a treadmill run would be underestimating or just getting it right. It all depends on you and your body. I wear a HRM and tend to burn about 100 calories a mile.Yep! Machines pretty much always over estimate calorie burn. I wouldn't believe any machine that told me I burned over 300 calories, maybe 400 for a 1 hour treadmill run. And since we're only talking about a few hundred calories for our workout, while you may still get results eating back your exercise calories, it is certainly not going to do you any harm if you do not.0 -
I also do not eat back all the calories most of the time.0
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I invested in a Polar FT60 HRM and eat back 85-90% of my calories burned leaving 10-15% for error...... My bmr is 2300 with my 1 lb. Deficit built in and I am eating 3200 calories day with my exercise calories.... and still adding a pound lost to my ticker every week. Got to fuel those workouts.....0
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Same thing happened to me yesterday. I did the elliptical for an hour and the machine said 750, MFP said 1100, and my HRM said 356. WAYYYYYYY different.0
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That's why I invested in a HRM.
me too!
ordered my FITBIT today...hope it is more accurate than the machines or MFP
Fitbit isn't a HRM, is it?0 -
No, the fitbit isn't an HRM, but I get concerned about the calories that we burn above and beyond the activity level that we think we are. I gain quite a few calories from extra activity (from my fitbit calorie adjustment) and wonder how others can figure out their true deficit. Using the fitbit and HRM, I find that when I get too much of a deficit in calories I lose nothing or less than when I have a smaller deficit. It's crazy. I see much larger losses than I ever seem to get from others and I'm not sure what I could be doing differently. But I'm just happy to be losing.
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For me? 400 an hour for a treadmill run would be underestimating or just getting it right. It all depends on you and your body. I wear a HRM and tend to burn about 100 calories a mile.Yep! Machines pretty much always over estimate calorie burn. I wouldn't believe any machine that told me I burned over 300 calories, maybe 400 for a 1 hour treadmill run. And since we're only talking about a few hundred calories for our workout, while you may still get results eating back your exercise calories, it is certainly not going to do you any harm if you do not.
I was speaking specifically for myself at 140 lbs. Someone heavier would naturally burn more and, of course, how many miles you are covering within that hour would factor in as well. I wore a BodyBugg for two years and got a good handle on what I burn personally doing various activities. I learned that I burn more calories per minute doing pushups than even doing conventional deadlifts. Too bad I can't do 30 minutes of push ups!0 -
yep yep yep. I never eat the calories that MFP awards me for exercise. I (usually) eat the calories my HRM awards me which are maybe 50% less than MFP calculations. No way do I burn what MFP sez I burn!!0
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You guys must work on some crazy machines!
When I cycle for 20 minutes I burn around 130 calories at the speeds I do.
When I hit the treadmill for 20 minutes jog/walk, I usually burn 120.
250 for 40 minutes of cardio seems well within reason. I too would be skeptical if the machine told me anything even close to 700! Lol!0 -
I know, I know, there are about a gazillion post about whether to eat your exercise calories or not. This is just a word of warning who take the numbers too literally. Be careful of the numbers you choose as your exercise burn. Today, for example, I was on the elliptical for 36 minutes. The machine calculate calorie burn was over 600 calories!! Whoo Hooo, right? Except generally those machines calculate for a Man, not a woman, so I know it was no where near that. I go back to my computer and enter it into MFP. That calculates to a 387 calorie burn. Still not bad but my heart rate monitor (Which takes into account my HR, age, gender and weight) tells me I only burned 261. I just wanted to throw this out there for people, especially new people, to be careful of the numbers that you choose.
^^^ Great Post
It's crazy how people over-estimates calories burn.
Lyle McDonald Article:
http://www.bodyrecomposition.com/fat-loss/exercise-and-weightfat-loss-part-1.html
For most of us, we are going to lose around 5 calories per minute of excercise (300/hour).0 -
I focus on a desired range of food calories consumed and disregard the exercise calories burned. I also adjust down the burn MFP calculates.0
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Yeah I agree, the machines where I work out are always lower numbers for the calorie burn then on this site.0
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I invested in a Polar FT60 HRM and eat back 85-90% of my calories burned leaving 10-15% for error...... My bmr is 2300 with my 1 lb. Deficit built in and I am eating 3200 calories day with my exercise calories.... and still adding a pound lost to my ticker every week. Got to fuel those workouts.....
You have really lost 305 lbs??? That is AWESOME!0 -
I actually burn twice as much than the machine tells me! But I usually never eat them cuz food makes me nauseous after working out :frown:0
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