Exercise and calorie counts Topic


Hey there U1192013045- I'd suggest giving each option a try and pay attention to how your body feels. You know your body the best and will have the best sense of what type of fueling makes sense for you and your energy levels and training. BTW: Hard workouts increase my hunger the FOLLOWING day, so I plan for that~

You may be interested in learning more about the nuts and bolts of how calorie budgets are established in the app. This article goes into a lot of detail and includes information about "adding exercise to calorie budget. " Have a great day and enjoy your runs! Joanna (MyNetDiary Dietitian)


Hi Joanna, thanks for the info. I can see what you mean about thinking about the next day. Guess there would be something about when I get my work out in as well. Did you mean to link an article? You reference an article but I am not sure where to look. Thanks


Hi U1192013045,

I believe Joanna intended to attach this article in her last message.

https://www.mynetdiary.com/planning_weight_and_calories.html

Hope it helps. Please keep us posted! Brenda (MyNetDiary Dietitian)


Great, thanks


I have found I get more hungry when I exercise so I need to plan food around it. I dont exercise as intensely as you do. First I added exercise to my calorie budget but I think it helps me know how much to eat it I have a more stable calorie goal but somehow the program will take my exercise calories off even if it does not add it to my food goal.


Thanks Celia. I think that is good advice about the stable goal. What I have started doing is just eat a little on the days I workout. Basically give myself a little freedom to eat more without counting. Pounds are still coming off so I’ll go worth it.


I have two questions, both about logging exercise.
1. My Apple watch gives me "active kilocalories" and "total Kilocalories" for each workout. Which do I log for exercise? I have set my basic level as sedentary.
2. How many steps (or kms) does "sedentary" allow for? i.e. if I don't have premium, when do I start logging any extra steps over that?


Hi Marionlustig,

I would log active kilocalories (calories) for an exercise workout. You may not want to add the exercise calories back into your calorie budget because many people find that they lose weight without adding them back.

To answer your next question, I copied this from the article https://www.mynetdiary.com/planning_weight_and_calories.html

The simplest way to avoid overestimating your Daily Food Calorie Budget (and Calorie Budget) is to set your Activity Level to sedentary in Plan section. Sedentary level accounts for activities of daily living and that is what most people do every single day of their lives. Since sedentary level already includes incidental walking up to about a mile, I would not log 15 minutes of shopping as exercise since it would just overestimate my Calorie Budget.

Sedentary: Engages in typical activities of daily living (shopping, cooking, laundry, walking a few minutes to and from car/bus/train) but sits for most of the day. Total incidental walking time might be 20 minutes or less. This is equivalent to about a mile of walking (about 2000 steps or so). Sample occupations: computer programmers, office and phone jobs.

Low active: Sedentary activities described above PLUS 30-60 minutes of MODERATE activities (e.g. walks 2 miles at 3-4 mph). Sample occupations: school teachers, cashiers, retail workers, and stay-at-home parents with active children.

Active: Sedentary activities described above PLUS 60-120 minutes of MODERATE activities (e.g. walks more than 7 miles daily). Sample occupations: restaurant servers, light construction workers, cleaning professionals, and nursing.

Very active: Sedentary activities described above PLUS 60 minutes or more of moderate activities PLUS 60 minutes vigorous activity (or 120 minutes or more of moderate activity). Sample occupations: lumberjacks, heavy construction workers, and professional athletes (during competition and training).

Hope this helps answer your questions. Brenda (MyNetDiary Dietitian)


Thanks for all this.
One more detail:
The app transfers the steps from my phone. If I've set my activity level to sedentary, then I could increase my calorie budget by any steps above about 2000 steps. Is there any way the app can automatically do this - i.e. log those stops as exercise and adjust the calories accordingly?
If not, then I would want to log the steps myself. The app asks me to log walking according to the pace and time taken. Is there a way of translating either steps or kms into calories instead?


Hello Marionlustig-
MyNetDiary makes it easy to track steps and in most cases, manual entry is not needed for activity.

I'd suggest giving the Step bonus feature a try- Basically, this feature gives you extra calories after you have walked a lot more than allotted by the activity level you selected in the app.
Taken from the calories and planning article Brenda mentioned:

Step Bonus is a feature available with Premium membership. This feature allows you to capture extra calories burned for walking a lot more steps than what is already included in your Activity Level. Turn on Step Bonus in Settings.
Step Bonus is a great way to capture extra calories burned from steps above their Activity Level. The benefit of using Step Bonus is that you are less likely to overestimate your Calorie Budget than if you try to account for extra walking by increasing the Activity Level. Step Bonus gives you those extra step calories on a day-to-day basis whereas a higher activity level increases the Calorie Budget every single day. You can learn more about Step Bonus here: https://www.mynetdiary.com/moving-more.html
BTW: I really like Step Bonus and use it all the time. I have my activity level set to sedentary + Step Bonus.
Have a great day~ Joanna (MyNetDiary Dietitian)

Exercise and calorie counts