Help with calorie intake and exercise

[Scarecrow2016]

Hi, Hoping someone can explain calorie counting alongside exercise for me as I think I may have misinterpreted how it works.

I'm 5.3 weight 9st 9lbs. I'm looking to get down to 8st 10lbs.

I'm watching my calorie intake using MyFitnessPall and logging cycle rides (MayMyRide) and steps.

Calorie intake is set at 1200. However this is where I think I'm going wrong. I'm using MyFitnessPal app. When I enter the calories burned, the calories shown as remaining on MyFitnessPal increase.

For example yesterday I ended up eating 1762 calories. Burnt 594. And that left me with 32 calories remaining. Am I misunderstanding what this means for weight loss? Should I keep my calorie intake to 1200 rather than thinking I can eat up to the the number of calories I've added due to the exercise?

Thank you.

In theory you can 'eat back' your exercise calories yes, but the trouble is that MFP, FitBit and other apps can tend to massively overestimate the amount of calories burnt through gentle cardio exercise and step counts in particular so if you eat back the amount it says you are 'allowed' then you can end up overeating and not losing weight. This is particularly the case with step count because just strolling round your house or to the shops without getting your heart rate up doesn't really burn many calories above resting/sedentary, for it to 'count' it really needs to be a proper brisk walk that gets you breathless, and most people don't really do that for all 10,000 steps and yet the app will tell you you can eat loads more which probably isn't true. On the other hand if you really do a lot of intense exercise you probably do need to eat more than if you were doing none.

How long have you been trying to lose weight this way and is it successful? I would give it at least a few weeks, maybe a few months of continuing as you have been, eating back the calories MFP has been telling you to for the exercise (maybe leaving yourself a 100 cal margin of error) and see if you do lose weight this way (you don't have much to lose, you are already within the healthy weight bracket for your height so it's always going to be harder/slower for you), or perhaps more crucially, whether you lose inches around your waist as this is important for health as visceral fat concentrates in the waist area. If you find you are not losing you may need to adjust.

What most people find more accurate than apps is using a TDEE (total daily energy expenditure) calculator and inputting your average activity level - you would probably be lightly or moderately active depending on how many days a week you exercise and the intensity of it. Here's an example

tdeecalculator.net/

It depends a bit on your age (older people need fewer calories) but your TDEE is probably in the region of 1600-900. This is the amount you need to maintain your current weight. You then need a deficit on your TDEE of 400-500 calories a day to actually lose weight (that would be to lose roughly 0.5-1lb a week) so eating 1750 is not far off but possibly a bit too much.

Of course it also matters that you find the diet sustainable and you aren't miserable/constantly hungry, at your weight it would be better to have a very small calorie deficit/lose very slowly but eat a healthy and satisfying diet than crash all the weight off in a horrible period of starvation then go back to 'normal' and end up putting it back on again.

I don't enter any exercise on MFP and just stick to the allocated calories, any exercise is then a bonus :)

That's hugely helpful thank you. My weight is normally static and I've put that down to cycling to and from work 3 days a week. But during lockdown I've been pretty inactive. The last few days I've upped my movement and I'm cycling between 8 and 14 km a day, plus some strenuous digging for about 2 hours per day at my allotment. I've only been doing this for 4 days but normally if I up my exercise my weigh drops quickly. I'm 49. Calorie counting etc is new to me and something I've avoided in the past but the apps are v seductive. Normally I'd skip an evening meal a couple of times a week and that would even things out if I was feeling bloated.

I'll exclude the exercise from MFP and see how I get on by cycling and keeping an eye on calories eating close to 1200. Thanks again.

Just eat healthier appropriate portions and exercise more, fill up on protein and veg and complex cards or your body will adjust you BMR and next time this happens and you need to lose weight you'll have to cut even more calories.

I use the paid version of MFP (because I want to see the nutrition breakdown and some other bit that aren't on the free version). There's an option not to increase the calorie allowance, even if exercise is logged.

(You'll notice that the other allowances/targets also go up with exercise.)

Not sure if this is an option on the free version?