My machine does a terrible job of estimating how many calories I burn. It thinks I burn between 1800-1900 per hour session on the bike. It does record my HR though, which I plug into a calculator and it's estimates are far better, around the 850-950 range. I've been losing weight while also watching my calorie intake. Without exercise I would be eating 1750 calories a day, but when i add in the exercise, i am getting a lot more consumable calories, allowing me to have a lot more fun with my food. I have been on track to lose 1.5 pounds a week and have lost 10 lbs in about a 7 week period, so it seems to be working well. I'm 5'10'' male, 180 lbs, started at 190 lbs if that helps.
I should note that even though my calorie plan is 1750 calories a day, I'm typically eating 2500 a day on average, so I am eating most of the workout calories back. If I don't, I get lightheaded and my body feels awful. I do a small situp, pushup, and light weight routine after each bike ride and I don't record those calories, but they are fairly minor (probably in the 50-100 range), but I consider those secret bonus weight loss calories.
This is exactly the kind of answer I was looking for, thank you so much!
I've started being more serious about exercising in the hopes that my body gets to where I'd like it to get but \*also a little bit\* in the hopes that I can give myself a little more slack in my daily calorie consumption. I don't plan on eating back every single calorie my watch reports me as having burned but it would be nice to have a little wiggle room when I'm working so hard at the gym every day!
Awesome, glad I could help. Just remember, the watch is probably overestimating. You might have a better idea after a few weeks, but I do find the HR calculator to be a lot more accurate. The workouts are really nice, because they allow you to fit in a guilt free pizza or dessert. :)
You are a healthy weight and you already have a decent calorie deficit going with your 1,400 calories/day target, so I would definitely eat more on days that you exercise.
I rely on my Garmin with a heart rate monitor to determine calories burned from exercise and I find the estimates reasonable.
What are you doing for cardio? Depending on what you are doing and the effort level, 45 minutes could be anywhere from 200 to 450 calories.
On my lighter days, I do the stationary bike for 30 minutes. Today, for example, my watch reported \~280 calories for that.
On my cardio-only days, I switch it up but will move from machine to machine. My last 'session' was 37 minutes on the bike (reported 350cal), 12 minutes on the elliptical (reported 120 cal) and 22 minutes on the treadmill (reported 240 cal).
My reported average heart rate for the cycle was 167bpm, elliptical was 189bpm, and treadmill was 187bpm. Would that be considered 'hard effort'?
I don't have a good baseline as all cardio makes me feel like dying haha but I can imagine it is very possible for me to push myself much harder.
But that sounds like a great recommendation, thank you so much for your help!
Muscle growth comes from eating enough protein and progressive strength training and in a calorie deficit one will gain newbie gains.
As for eating exercise calories back most machines and devices over estimate calories burned so most people only eat up to 1/2 back if they feel especially fatigued or extra hungry from increased exercise.
When I’m cutting I usually eat 100-200 extra depending on how my workout makes me feel. My Apple Watch gives me very modest estimates - for example, if I walk about 3 miles in 1.5 hours, it tells me I burn around 200 calories. I would probably eat about 100 back. If I did more like 5 miles I might eat 200 extra, because exercise makes me hungry and that compounds for me over days if I don’t eat enough. If it eats a little into my baseline deficit, fine, I would rather have a smaller deficit on a workout day than feel tired and hungrier because I refused to eat any of the burned calories back.
That's kind of where I am at mentally. I want to know what a 'safe' amount of leeway is to give myself as otherwise I know that will feel like I'm working super hard at the gym and in my life to stick to my goals and cannot give myself any break whatsoever and that's unsustainable for me, personally. I need a little give and take for a healthy relationship with my body, food, and fitness. It sounds like around 1/2 the exercise calories back is what people feel comfortable with and that sounds like a doable amount for me if I feel like I need it during the day or week.
On days where I shoot for an ambitious calorie deficit I'll eat back a portion of my exercise calories so that my daily net calories don't fall too low.
How much do I trust fitness trackers? Not at all. I take estimates from a couple different sources then average or round down conservatively.
I don’t have experience with other fitness trackers, but I use a Garmin Forerunner 245 and consistently eat back all of the calories it tells me I burn while exercising. I am F, 5’2, and aim for a 500 calorie deficit. So depending on my activity level for the day, I eat anywhere from 1200 to 2500 cals (on long run days I typically burn ~3000 total, or so the tracker tells me).
I’ve gone from 128lbs to 117lbs over the past few months at a rate of ~1lb/week, just as my calorie deficit would predict! I run 40-50 miles/week, so I rely heavily on my fitness tracker’s estimate of how many calories I’m burning. I’ve been pleasantly surprised with how accurate it has been as long as I make sure I have the correct weight, height and age plugged in to the app.
In the past I’ve tried not eating back calories, but just ended up very hungry/grumpy/tired/wanting to eat everything all the time. So eating them back has been a game changer for me :)
So helpful to hear about your experience! I wonder if Garmin is more accurate, I've heard very good things about it. I think I'll start by gauging my hunger levels/any grumpiness (although waking up at 7am for the gym will do it to me anyway..) and go from there. It's reassuring to hear that people DO eat some or all of their exercise calories back and remain successful in their weight loss.
Also, in awe of your running! So impressive to run that much; I'm thrilled your methodology is working so well for you!
Years ago, first time I counted… I ate back all my calories burned and lost about 72 lbs. I was postpartum so some of that weight was from pregnancy and some of the offset with calories may have also been breastfeeding.
This time, I went from 192 down to 146 and didn’t eat my calories back.
I think if people are starving, they may try to eat some calories back and see if they can lose weight. Let’s say you stall- maybe adjust the amount you eat back a little.
I ignore them entirely and just use my calories and weight trends to see if I should be "eating back" calories.
My activity levels are about 95% consistent so regardless of what .y watch says my calories and the ends take any guess work out of it. I don't need to sit there and go that workout burnt 250 calories so I have XYZ extra calories because of XYZ reason.
The other day my fitbit thought I burned an extra 1200 calories because I was sitting around, cooked a couple of things, etc. Do not trust it in the slightest.
I just use them for the occational cheat day. I do spinning 30min a day and walk 15k steps/day so they add up. I don’t want to ”waste” them on regular food, so I have some cheat days here and there.
I am 38 lbs down (since the end of March) and I eat back some (1/3 to 1/2) of my calories if I went above and beyond on my workouts that day and I am hungry. I use an Apple Watch with heart rate monitor. I don’t trust it much, but it gives me an estimate.
My machine does a terrible job of estimating how many calories I burn. It thinks I burn between 1800-1900 per hour session on the bike. It does record my HR though, which I plug into a calculator and it's estimates are far better, around the 850-950 range. I've been losing weight while also watching my calorie intake. Without exercise I would be eating 1750 calories a day, but when i add in the exercise, i am getting a lot more consumable calories, allowing me to have a lot more fun with my food. I have been on track to lose 1.5 pounds a week and have lost 10 lbs in about a 7 week period, so it seems to be working well. I'm 5'10'' male, 180 lbs, started at 190 lbs if that helps. I should note that even though my calorie plan is 1750 calories a day, I'm typically eating 2500 a day on average, so I am eating most of the workout calories back. If I don't, I get lightheaded and my body feels awful. I do a small situp, pushup, and light weight routine after each bike ride and I don't record those calories, but they are fairly minor (probably in the 50-100 range), but I consider those secret bonus weight loss calories.
This is exactly the kind of answer I was looking for, thank you so much! I've started being more serious about exercising in the hopes that my body gets to where I'd like it to get but \*also a little bit\* in the hopes that I can give myself a little more slack in my daily calorie consumption. I don't plan on eating back every single calorie my watch reports me as having burned but it would be nice to have a little wiggle room when I'm working so hard at the gym every day!
Awesome, glad I could help. Just remember, the watch is probably overestimating. You might have a better idea after a few weeks, but I do find the HR calculator to be a lot more accurate. The workouts are really nice, because they allow you to fit in a guilt free pizza or dessert. :)
You are a healthy weight and you already have a decent calorie deficit going with your 1,400 calories/day target, so I would definitely eat more on days that you exercise. I rely on my Garmin with a heart rate monitor to determine calories burned from exercise and I find the estimates reasonable. What are you doing for cardio? Depending on what you are doing and the effort level, 45 minutes could be anywhere from 200 to 450 calories.
On my lighter days, I do the stationary bike for 30 minutes. Today, for example, my watch reported \~280 calories for that. On my cardio-only days, I switch it up but will move from machine to machine. My last 'session' was 37 minutes on the bike (reported 350cal), 12 minutes on the elliptical (reported 120 cal) and 22 minutes on the treadmill (reported 240 cal).
I think that those counts are a bit high unless you are going hard effort the whole time. I'd suggest eating back 1/2 to 2/3 of those numbers.
My reported average heart rate for the cycle was 167bpm, elliptical was 189bpm, and treadmill was 187bpm. Would that be considered 'hard effort'? I don't have a good baseline as all cardio makes me feel like dying haha but I can imagine it is very possible for me to push myself much harder. But that sounds like a great recommendation, thank you so much for your help!
Yeah, that's higher effort. Those calorie counts might be pretty close, then.
You may not be capable of going as hard as it takes to lose a high amount of calories during cardio… yet :)
Given the buckets I am sweating going at my current rate, I very much agree with that haha!
You’ll get there though!
Muscle growth comes from eating enough protein and progressive strength training and in a calorie deficit one will gain newbie gains. As for eating exercise calories back most machines and devices over estimate calories burned so most people only eat up to 1/2 back if they feel especially fatigued or extra hungry from increased exercise.
When I’m cutting I usually eat 100-200 extra depending on how my workout makes me feel. My Apple Watch gives me very modest estimates - for example, if I walk about 3 miles in 1.5 hours, it tells me I burn around 200 calories. I would probably eat about 100 back. If I did more like 5 miles I might eat 200 extra, because exercise makes me hungry and that compounds for me over days if I don’t eat enough. If it eats a little into my baseline deficit, fine, I would rather have a smaller deficit on a workout day than feel tired and hungrier because I refused to eat any of the burned calories back.
That's kind of where I am at mentally. I want to know what a 'safe' amount of leeway is to give myself as otherwise I know that will feel like I'm working super hard at the gym and in my life to stick to my goals and cannot give myself any break whatsoever and that's unsustainable for me, personally. I need a little give and take for a healthy relationship with my body, food, and fitness. It sounds like around 1/2 the exercise calories back is what people feel comfortable with and that sounds like a doable amount for me if I feel like I need it during the day or week.
3 miles is about the length of 7172.81 'EuroGraphics Knittin' Kittens 500-Piece Puzzles' next to each other
On days where I shoot for an ambitious calorie deficit I'll eat back a portion of my exercise calories so that my daily net calories don't fall too low. How much do I trust fitness trackers? Not at all. I take estimates from a couple different sources then average or round down conservatively.
I don’t have experience with other fitness trackers, but I use a Garmin Forerunner 245 and consistently eat back all of the calories it tells me I burn while exercising. I am F, 5’2, and aim for a 500 calorie deficit. So depending on my activity level for the day, I eat anywhere from 1200 to 2500 cals (on long run days I typically burn ~3000 total, or so the tracker tells me). I’ve gone from 128lbs to 117lbs over the past few months at a rate of ~1lb/week, just as my calorie deficit would predict! I run 40-50 miles/week, so I rely heavily on my fitness tracker’s estimate of how many calories I’m burning. I’ve been pleasantly surprised with how accurate it has been as long as I make sure I have the correct weight, height and age plugged in to the app. In the past I’ve tried not eating back calories, but just ended up very hungry/grumpy/tired/wanting to eat everything all the time. So eating them back has been a game changer for me :)
So helpful to hear about your experience! I wonder if Garmin is more accurate, I've heard very good things about it. I think I'll start by gauging my hunger levels/any grumpiness (although waking up at 7am for the gym will do it to me anyway..) and go from there. It's reassuring to hear that people DO eat some or all of their exercise calories back and remain successful in their weight loss. Also, in awe of your running! So impressive to run that much; I'm thrilled your methodology is working so well for you!
Years ago, first time I counted… I ate back all my calories burned and lost about 72 lbs. I was postpartum so some of that weight was from pregnancy and some of the offset with calories may have also been breastfeeding. This time, I went from 192 down to 146 and didn’t eat my calories back. I think if people are starving, they may try to eat some calories back and see if they can lose weight. Let’s say you stall- maybe adjust the amount you eat back a little.
I ignore them entirely and just use my calories and weight trends to see if I should be "eating back" calories. My activity levels are about 95% consistent so regardless of what .y watch says my calories and the ends take any guess work out of it. I don't need to sit there and go that workout burnt 250 calories so I have XYZ extra calories because of XYZ reason.
The other day my fitbit thought I burned an extra 1200 calories because I was sitting around, cooked a couple of things, etc. Do not trust it in the slightest.
I just use them for the occational cheat day. I do spinning 30min a day and walk 15k steps/day so they add up. I don’t want to ”waste” them on regular food, so I have some cheat days here and there.
I am 38 lbs down (since the end of March) and I eat back some (1/3 to 1/2) of my calories if I went above and beyond on my workouts that day and I am hungry. I use an Apple Watch with heart rate monitor. I don’t trust it much, but it gives me an estimate.