from your daily total? I take in about 1200-1300 calories a day. I work out and probably burn about 300 calories ??? in that time. I really have no idea how many I am burning. I have been trying to just count my calorie intake and not deducting the burned calories from the total. I just don't truly know how many I am burning, so I hate to get more in because I estimated wrong. Does that make any sense at all?

Hey marie8674,

Some care has to be taken with calories burned by exercise, because it is not usually a high number and it varies greatly from one person to the next. The "calculators" on exercise machines can sometimes be off as much as 30%.

I don't subtract my exercise calories from what I eat--instead, I use FitDay and add the exercise calories to what I burn, based on what FitDay says is my metabolic rate. I also use the FitDay estimates for how many cals I've burned with exercise. I can rarely go above 200, but my exercise is somewhat limited. The metabolic rate depends on age, gender, current weight, and activity level.

Jay

I have been using the daily plate and I enter in my activity and go by what the calories burned says there. I don't have any equipment that tells me. So I'm just guessing by what they are saying on there. That's why I'm not deducting it, because I really don't know how accurate it is. I am just proud of myself for sticking with the exercise

I don't deduct calories burned, but I find that, when I'm working out, I need to take in more calories to keep from getting hungry or having my weight loss plateau. Like you said, it's really hard to know how many calories you're burning. The machines are always wrong, and it's hard to know how your body will act differently than someone else's.

Currently, I'm losing weight (about 1-1.5 lbs. a week) while eating around 1600-1800 calories a day and working out for about 45 minutes a day (at a pretty intense level, cardio and weight training).

If you stall out on your weight loss or find that you're hungry all the time, you might want to look at adding healthy, filling sources of additional calories (more veggies, more lean protein, etc.). It seems crazy to add calories to lose more weight, but it keeps your body from going into starvation mode where it's much harder to lose weight because your body wants to preserve every calorie you put in your mouth.

I have a question along these same lines...I have been eating right around 1800 calories, sometimes a little more. Up until now, that has been more than adequate, but today it seems like I have been starving non-stop. As my workout intensity increases, should I be eating more calories? When I first posted asking how many calories I should eat, people said 1800 may be too low. Also, I have used a few of those RMR calculators and it said right around 2100. Does anyone know about this? Someone told me you should never eat below your RMR, is this true? Any help would be appreciated!!

nope.

I've never tried to add up the calories I burn because I know it would be a wild guess at best. And I've certainly never deducted anything from my daily calorie intake. All I care about is tracking calories in and I let my body take care of the calories burned part.

That's good to hear. That is what I have been doing and I was afraid maybe I had it all wrong.

Thanks for all the help.

The Daily Plate is a little confusing because it automatically accounts for your exercise and kind of implies that you should make up those calories burned with more food. What I've been doing to combat the confusion with the numbers there is enter my food as I eat it through the day (or when I plan my meals) and then enter all my exercise for the day at the end of the night and then just not pay attention to the "You may eat xxx more calories today" message.

Hope that helps!

Kara

Kara, I have never understood why TDP does that. I've never seen it anywhere else. Exercise is an important component of the weight loss equation and, to me, eating back your calories burned by exercise negates all the weight loss benefits of exercise (I understand that there are separate health benefits as well). I think you're wise to ignore that feature!

This is exactly why I was confused. Down at the bottom in a daily box it will tell you your daily intake (without deducting the calories burned) so I have just been going by that. I hadn't ever heard you should do that, so I was thrown a curve ball when I noticed that. I'm glad to know that I should be disreagarding that as I have been. Thanks everyone, for all of your input.

Also keep in mind the "trickiness" of the calculations. I'm not sure how TDP or FitDay work, but you've got to remember to also take into account the amount of calories that your body would have burned naturally had you spent the 30 minutes you worked out simply sitting on your butt in front of the tv. For example, say you burn 250 calories walking for 30 minutes. But, your resting metabolic rate says that you would have burned 60 calories anyways by basically doing nothing. So, in total, you've got a net number of "extra" burned calories of 190, not 250.

Lots of math makes my head hurt ... another good reason not to worry about it.

CalorieKing is the same as TDP in that it deducts exercise calories to determine Net Calories. This ends up being a major debate on that site.

I use DietPower which gives you additional calories for exercise but I don't necessarily rely on them or use them.

The idea behind exercise calories is that you have already allowed in your budget the calorie deficit necessary to lose weight and that if you exercise you need additional calories to fuel your activity.

But that is not true for everyone. Some people reach their calorie deficit by reducing calories by say 350 and increasing exercise by 150.

The only problem I have with the net calorie issue is it assumes that you must eat the calories in the same day that you exercise. I prefer DP which lets you eat as much as you want and bank the difference. I find it just easier to budget the same number of calories per day regardless of exercise.

Don't get so hung up on this detail. Make sure you understand the purpose of exercis calories and how the program that you are using calculates them and adjust from there.

No matter what there is no single program that can determine the perfect number fo calories for you - this is something you have to determine through trial and error.

Lori

Daily Plate is currently making a lot of changes (like that new carbs/fat/protein pie chart), and is taking user suggestions. I'm going to suggest that they have an option to have the number at the top and also the numbers on the weight graphs ignore exercise - it seems like it would be popular, and as long as it's just an option and not forced, no one would lose. Maybe if a bunch of us write in it will actually happen?

I use caloriesperhour. It is very accurate. It has BMR and RMR calculators and the RMR are the ones that work the best.
A word of caution though almost all calculators including caloriesperhour tends to give too high rate of calories burnt for people who are too heavy.(above 200 pounds).
I feel there is not calculator that calculate exact calories as every person is different.
The best bet is to be on the lower side. Find a calculator that calculates your RMR(caloriesperhour does do not use BMR), ie the amount of calories you would burn in a normal day. Then divide it by 24(hours in a day) and then subtract how many hours you spend on on excercise, and then add the calories you burnt of the excercise and you will get your calorie deficit. Then you just add the calories you are consuming and you can easily picture your goal.
Also calculate your calories burnt on excercise using atleast 15-20% lower body weight.
It works for many especially those who are dieting a lot as their metabolism are slower and they are not burning as many calories as the calculator suggest.
Also dont worry too much if cannot maintain it as you remember you have taken the lowest calculations. if you really burn more calories then be pleasantly surprised at the end of your goal time.