earned calories?

MelStren
MelStren Posts: 457 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
My daily summary says I've earned extra calories through exercise..... My goal is to lose weight, so consuming these extra calories would be a bad idea, right?

Replies

  • Bob314159
    Bob314159 Posts: 1,178 Member
    I would say its up to you, but 99% of the replies will tell you you have to eat them or you wont lose weight.
  • JoolieW68
    JoolieW68 Posts: 1,879 Member
    Not necessarily. If MFP already has you set at a deficit, then you can (and most people say you should) eat them back.

    Everyone is different, though..... and you will get a million different replies here :smile:
  • Captain_Tightpants
    Captain_Tightpants Posts: 2,215 Member
    Nope. Your deficit is already built into mfp when you told it how much weight you wanted to lose per week, so if you have your activity level set to sedentary, then you should be eating back at least some of your earned exercise cals or your deficit may become too great.

    Word of warning though - the mfp database, and other online databases, are notoriously inaccurate when it comes to exercise cals burned, so you are better off using a good quality heart rate monitor such as the Polar FT series.
  • chivalryder
    chivalryder Posts: 4,391 Member
    I would say its up to you, but 99% of the replies will tell you you have to eat them or you wont lose weight.

    He's got it! If you drive a car harder, you need to put more gas in the tank. Same goes for your body!
  • TexanThom
    TexanThom Posts: 778
    Eat some, leave some.
  • tigersword
    tigersword Posts: 8,059 Member
    MFP designs your calorie goal without including exercise. When you exercise you burn extra calories, and they need to be added into your overall calorie goal.
  • jtjunkie
    jtjunkie Posts: 59 Member
    I eat them back and I've been losing weight. I'm also not starving all the time like on a lot of "diets" so I guess it works.
  • tzeoli86
    tzeoli86 Posts: 75 Member
    I used to eat them all back and enjoy every bite. Lately though I have only been eating about half of them back. You should just feel it out and see what works best for you.
  • FrugalMomsRock75
    FrugalMomsRock75 Posts: 698 Member
    My daily summary says I've earned extra calories through exercise..... My goal is to lose weight, so consuming these extra calories would be a bad idea, right?

    mfp is set up so that you will lose weight through a healthy deficit regardless of exercise; therefore, the exercise calories can (and should, at least in part), be eaten back to maintain your healthy weight loss deficit. If you make too broad of a deficit, your weight loss efforts may be stalled.

    I compare it to a car: you absolutely can not put a half a tank of fuel in your car and expect it take you across the country. You can not fuel your body half way and expect it to take you across the finish line of FIT. :)
  • rides4sanity
    rides4sanity Posts: 1,269 Member
    You do need to eat more than normal if you exercise, but MFP is rather generous with exercise calories at times, and I am not measuring all of my food. So although I suggest eating exercise calories to fuel your workouts, I typically don't eat them all more like 50-75% to account for errors in intake or expenditures. But that's just me.
  • AZKristi
    AZKristi Posts: 1,801 Member
    It depends on your settings... if you told MFP you led a sedentary lifestyle then you will probably need to eat back a portion of your exercise calories to maintain lean body mass while losing fat. Just be sure you are using a reliable tool like a heart rate monitor to measure exercise calories. If you told MFP you were active, your calorie goal may already account for your workouts (depending on length and intensity).
  • FrugalMomsRock75
    FrugalMomsRock75 Posts: 698 Member
    You do need to eat more than normal if you exercise, but MFP is rather generous with exercise calories at times, and I am not measuring all of my food. So although I suggest eating exercise calories to fuel your workouts, I typically don't eat them all more like 50-75% to account for errors in intake or expenditures. But that's just me.

    If you are relying on mfp to calculate your exercise calories, then that 75% is probably a good stopping point. I have noticed that some of the exercises are spot on (within 15 calories or so) of my HRM, and some are waaaaay off.

    I love my HRM.
  • fiveohmike
    fiveohmike Posts: 1,297 Member
    Get a heart rate monitor, than eat back your exercise calories (more accurately).
  • Keefypoos
    Keefypoos Posts: 231 Member
    depends on how accurate you track the execise calories Vs calories eaten I suppose

    for example
    I wear a HRM yesterday I did a 10.5 mile walk it gave me 1719 Cals (gross) in 2hours 33 mins
    today I did the same walk HRM gave me 2062 Cals gross in 2 hours 30 mins
    so I have over a 300 Kcal variance between the walks

    tricky thing exercise calories, my point try eating some back and see how it goes
  • FrugalMomsRock75
    FrugalMomsRock75 Posts: 698 Member
    It depends on your settings... if you told MFP you led a sedentary lifestyle then you will probably need to eat back a portion of your exercise calories to maintain lean body mass while losing fat. Just be sure you are using a reliable tool like a heart rate monitor to measure exercise calories. If you told MFP you were active, your calorie goal may already account for your workouts (depending on length and intensity).

    If you followed the instructions at set up, then your total will include your lifestyle WITHOUT EXERCISE being added in. :)
  • michellesz
    michellesz Posts: 429 Member
    Not necessarily a bad idea, but I personally am just cautious. Reasons why: There are so many things to account for and there are a million opinions. MFP has set me up for 1200 calories and I average about 400+ exercise calories daily. Initially I was ignorant to the information and was eating under the 1200 calories (not knowing). Since then, I have slowly increased my calories to ensure I meet the bare min. of 1200 calories daily and try to now go beyond that to take the exercising into consideration. With that being said, I do not incorporate just any foods to bring that number up as I want the bottom line to focus on those calories, fat, and carbs to stay within the green by only increasing the number with healthy foods. Secondly, I have not been able to purchase a heart rate monitor yet and so I can only go by the calories noted as being burned by the MFP system or machines (which may or may not be exactly accurate) as mentioned above. In addition, I am not using a food scale, so I always try to estimate the exact amount of portions, which if my numbers appear to be a little lower, most likely they are actually a little higher from my judging of a portion size except items measured with measuring tools. There are also a few days of the week that the numbers spike higher due to certain meals and so I'm sure it brings the week to a healthy balance. All this being said, I have lost 28 pounds and several inches, lowered BMI and increased muscle mass by incorporating healthy foods and cardio and strength training to into my lifestyle. It is obviously working for me, but you have to wait and see and decide how it is working for you. Listen to your body ~ Good luck.

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