Can I really eat my exercise points???

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Sunlight2011
Sunlight2011 Posts: 75 Member
in Fitness and Exercise
Or is it just a cruel ploy. I've done at least three hours of fairly heavy gardening today and it says I've burned over 700 cals which its added to my available calories. Is this right? Could all of the digging up roots have paid off?
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  • kgprice11
    kgprice11 Posts: 750 Member
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    Or is it just a cruel ploy. I've done at least three hours of fairly heavy gardening today and it says I've burned over 700 cals which its added to my available calories. Is this right? Could all of the digging up roots have paid off?

    To be frankly honest I would not add that to my "exercise" portion of the MFP. But thats up to you. Yes I would eat my exercise calories. Good Luck and keep it up
  • mollyv09
    mollyv09 Posts: 7
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    My rule of thumb is to eat only half of your exercise points. It's a little bonus, but you're not over-doing it, either!!
  • staceyhavard
    staceyhavard Posts: 7
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    I try not to eat my exercise calories...as I don't want to just break even, I want to end the day within my calories given only. For instance, today, my caloric intake is 1200, but according to my calories I have, (1600 some) I don't want to eat all of those. I'll stick to the 1200 to see the greatest change in my body.
  • souperficial
    souperficial Posts: 122 Member
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    I eat about half of them. That leaves wiggle room for mfp overestimating calories burned, and me underestimating calories eaten.
  • MikeInAZ
    MikeInAZ Posts: 483 Member
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    I wouldn't. I used to do that and weight loss was slow. I started eating back only about 1/3 to 1/2 of them and weight dropped off quickly. Don't believe you are going into "Starvation mode" if you are under eating about 500 calories per day 3-5 days a week, you might have a problem after a couple of months (according to Dr. Oz).

    Don't go out of your way to eat back ALL your exercise calories, just some of them to make you feel comfortable.
  • Brandie1029
    Brandie1029 Posts: 183 Member
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    I usually eat back half to allow for error and over estimation. Seems to be working for me for the last 7 months! :drinker:
  • chantels1
    chantels1 Posts: 391 Member
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    Never trust the gardening calories burned... It lies! I think it is calculating if you are shoveling for hours! LOL! As for eating back your actual exercise calories, YES!!! Eat at least 1/2 of them back. I try to. My diary is open to friends if you want to see. It's been working great for me!
  • happythermia
    happythermia Posts: 374
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    I think sometimes MFP overestimates exercise calories. So, I wouldn't eat all of them, but I'd eat some for sure...lol!

    I think the half rule is a safe way to go! If you want to know how many calories you burn, wear a heart rate monitor while you're gardening to see if your heart rate goes up. :-)
  • Sunlight2011
    Sunlight2011 Posts: 75 Member
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    Thanks for the advice. Its just when I saw those extra calories I imagined all the stuff I could have but now I've settled down I'm not going to eat them all but maybe have a treat. Thanks again.
  • Shoshannah68
    Shoshannah68 Posts: 14
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    That's what I do and I'm down quite a bit. I never eat them.
  • fatonthemountain
    fatonthemountain Posts: 3
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    i eat back only the calories burned from regular exercise. there is too much room for error in everything else. it is a slower weight loss, but more satisfying to me and hopefully lasting.
  • JaySpice
    JaySpice Posts: 326 Member
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    Depends on how you calculated your calories. If you let MFP calculate how many calories you should eat...then yes. Eat back your calories. If you calculated your calories from a formula that includes your exercise level...then no.

    Oh. Just read your post more carefully and saw you were talking about gardening. No. Don't eat back those calories.
  • CyberEd312
    CyberEd312 Posts: 3,536 Member
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    I eat every last one of them little critters!!! lol Got to fuel my body for these workout's... MFP still has a deficit built in (1/2 lb. a week for me) of 250 calories less a day off my BMR... So my exercise calories are just that to fuel my body...... Best of Luck....
  • Genem30
    Genem30 Posts: 431 Member
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    Stuff like gardening, cleaning, etc. are exactly what an HRM should be used for. MFP tells me I lose 1k calories after an hour in the pool, not swimming laps or anything, just "Swimming, leisurely, general". I don't even know what that means, lol. It tells me I burn over 1400 calories in an hour on the elliptical, but with the HRM it's actually only right at 1000. The figures on MFP are a rough generalization at best, a "best case scenario" if anything. Cutting them in half is probably about right in most cases.
  • Excellentia
    Excellentia Posts: 182
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    My rule of thumb is to eat only half of your exercise points. It's a little bonus, but you're not over-doing it, either!!

    LIKE!
  • runfatmanrun
    runfatmanrun Posts: 1,090 Member
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    If you can eat you can eat you exercise cals. And I say eat them.
  • DanRyan44
    DanRyan44 Posts: 6 Member
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    You can really simplify weight loss by looking at it this way.
    If you burn MORE than you consume, you will lose. BUT you have to know what your Resting Metobolic Rate [RMR] is. My RMR is 1950 calories. I have my diet set at 1650 calories, so I am burning more calories than I am consuming. I like to walk a couple days a week [3-4 miles]. I only eat a portion of my activity calories if I really "hit" it hard. Like a 15-20 mile bike ride or something that gets my heart rate going for a long time and I really sweat alot.
    Just my .02. It is working for me. I am down 46 lbs in 3 months. That's a 3.8 lb average per week.

    Thanks for the post and good luck.
  • temsabi
    temsabi Posts: 45 Member
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    I always eat back my exercise calories. When I do I still lose considerably. However, don't eat way over your calories on weekends like I do. It makes all that loss pointless... :I
  • FrugalMomsRock75
    FrugalMomsRock75 Posts: 698 Member
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    I try not to eat my exercise calories...as I don't want to just break even, I want to end the day within my calories given only. For instance, today, my caloric intake is 1200, but according to my calories I have, (1600 some) I don't want to eat all of those. I'll stick to the 1200 to see the greatest change in my body.

    But ask yourself: do I want to do this most healthy way, or the unhealthy way? 1200 calories is already eating at a deficit. Eating 800 net (as in your proposed example) is neither healthy, nor sustainable. You WILL reach a breaking point, and it won't be pretty. Aside from that, instead of losing fat, you are losing more muscle than if you were properly fueling your body.

    Take it or leave it. I'm just giving a solid POV.

    OP-yes; you really can eat your exercise calories. Whether you include the gardening should be based on what you set your lifestyle to. If you put it to sedentary, I'd count it and eat back about 75% (to give room for error). If you set your lifestyle to active, I wouldn't count it. That's part of an active lifestyle. I eat my exercise calories, and I still consistently lose weight. I have an HRM for a little more accuracy than the calculations here...
  • Spanaval
    Spanaval Posts: 1,200 Member
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    I did some gardening (2 hrs. 45 minutes) a couple of weekends ago, and logged about an hour or hour and a half of it. I wore my HRM for 45 minutes of it, but I know that I wasn't doing strenuous stuff the entire time, and subtracted my hourly BMR (guesstimate) from it.

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