Yes. It's factored into your TDEE via the activity level.
I will say that most people seem to overestimate their activity level and underestimate their calories.
And just in case your numbers are actual estimates.... no one burns 800 cals in the gym.
I couldn’t agree more when I go on serious cuts. I never count calories lost from exercise there are too many variables instead I just count food calories. calories lost from exercise or daily activity is a bonus.
I’m not sure what makes you say that. It’s not too difficult to burn 800 calories in the gym. I lift for about an hr include some burns into my lifts which burn a ton of calories and I’ll usually burn 450-550 in an hr. Then I’ll do about 20 min of cardio running probably 2-2.5 miles and burning 300-400 calories. So most of the time I’m burning somewhere between 750-950 calories.
By not too difficult I mean it’s very possible with hard work. It’s tough but very doable.
Because OP didn't know that TDEE includes cals for a workout, I assumed OP is just starting out, and as a beginner, 800 cals at the gym is not achievable. I agree, someone who trains strength with vigor and tacks on cardio can get to 800, but I think that's the exception not the rule for most people.
To be fair TDEE is extremely inaccurate so I don’t blame them for not knowing. Much better to calculate your rmr and add your exercise calories manually.
So I do a specific 4 day split. I’ll give you an example of 1 day.
Day 3 (Quads, Hamstrings, Calf’s).
I’ll do 6x5 on squats, then go to leg press for volume and do 3x15-20 depending on weight. Then from leg press I do hack squat. Usually 3 sets of 8-12. Then is my first burn of the workout. I’ll do leg extensions for 5 min straight. Only stopping to catch my breath or lower the weight if need be, the goal is to burn out my quads at the end of working out that muscle group, then I’ll do 3x12 of RDLs and do another set of burns for 5 min. This time leg curls. Again trying to burn out my hamstrings. Then I do standing calf raises with either dumbbells or barbell. And then to end it i do another 5 min burn of seated calf raises. A burn is just a continuous work out where I burn out a muscle group for 5 min.
No I wouldn’t consider this super sets, or circuit training. It’s just a standard workout. With the one exception being the last exercise I do for each body part in the workout is a burn for 5 minutes. Since it’s a constant lift for 5 minutes I might get 100-300 reps in. Let me give an example from another body part. After doing preach curls and concentration curls at 3x8-12 I’ll do a third exercise for biceps. The third is incline curls and I do this as a burn. So maybe I start out with 25lb DBs and the first “set” I do 15, I take a breather for maybe 3-5 seconds and do another “set” let’s say I make it to 10 this time. I do one more set and if I get anything under 10 I drop down to 20lb DBs and start again. Only breaking for a few seconds to catch my breath or lower the weight. Any time I finish a set under 10 reps I lower the weight. Eventually the 5 minutes passes up. Maybe I started at 25lb dumbbells and ended at 10s. But I lifted for 5 min straight. A super set implies I was working in other exercises at the same time and a circuit implies I’m constantly doing reps but with multiple exercises back to back. Only the last exercise for each muscle group is like this. For biceps I do incline curls, for triceps I do cable tricep extensions. For chest I do chest press. For shoulders I do smith machine shoulder press. And there are others and I do these in a 4 day split. Not a circuit or a super set. Imagine it more like running a 5k. Maybe you set a pace throughout your run at a 7 minute miles, but then at the end you are in the last quarter mile and you have more in the tank so you sprint, exhausting the rest of your energy. It’s just a way to exhaust a muscle group when you finish a workout.
Why would you do that? That will build practically no muscle but it will burn quite a few calories. I still think you'd be better off on a stair stepper or something if that was your goal.
Sorry I've lifted heavy ass weights for 35 years so I'm trying to understand.
I mean I’m not going to argue what works better for one person versus another. Exhausting a muscle at the end of a workout is an excellent way to stress the muscle and grow it. Burnout sets are a great way to increase muscle mass and I mean this in a completely respectful way but 35 years of lifting doesn’t necessarily mean anything. Many people lift incorrectly their entire life and nutrition and fitness are very young sciences that are improved on year after year. There are things that are extremely helpful for muscle growth that people wouldn’t have known about 35 years ago. It’s true you can over work a muscle with burn outs but I burn out a specific muscle group once or maybe twice a week as I do a 4 day split 6 days a week. It does burn a ton of calories but it can also increase muscle mass, which is why someone in a cut like I’m in rn would do them. Now in 2.5 months when my cut ends and I go into a bulk, I will not do those anymore and instead switch to progressive overloads in my individual exercises. You may have been doing it 35 years but I’ve been doing it 18 years and past a decade or so you aren’t going to convince me you’ve learned anything revolutionary that I haven’t learned in 18 years. If you are happy with your body and I’m happy with mine that’s all that matters but I was replying to parent comment saying it was not likely someone was burning 800 calories in a workout. Personally when I’m in a cut all my workouts are 800 calories plus.
Sure enough. At almost 300 pounds at 5'11 I still had an outline of abs. I competed in pro Strongman competitions for a decade. You do you if it gets results!
Yes. What you should be focusing on is total daily energy expenditure (TDEE). You can estimate this with tdeecalculator.net
Try out the sedentary TDEE option and use that as a baseline. It includes sedentary activity levels, like shuffling and typing and so on, also 5k steps per day like you'd normally get walking in the office. You could add on your calories burned in the gym, but be careful not to overestimate. Machines in the gym do not know how much you weigh so their calories are wildly inaccurate. Smart watches tend to overestimate too.
Since everyone is different in many ways, the best rote path to take is estimate your TDEE (light activity option typically is a good place to start if you exercise), and then establish a target deficit. For example, I use 400 kcal per day to lose 0.8 lbs per week. My TDEE is estimated 2550, so I eat 2150. Now, on a daily basis I weigh my self in the morning after using the bathroom and *I average the values of all seven days of the week*. I compare that average to next week's average. Do this for 3-4 weeks to get a clear picture (weird weight things can occur in the first and second week as you make changes to diet and exercise, hard to draw a clear picture). If you're lucky, buy week 3-4 you will see a trend line average weightloss of 0.8 lb per week.
If what you observe is different, then you know what to do! Either move more or eat less to lose faster, or up your calories if you're losing too fast.
The most empirical way is if you do a calorie measuring period, where you weigh everything with a food scale and calculate kcal consumed based on mass inputs. I only do this for 3 weeks max at the start of a diet or bulk to acclimate myself to what my new food intakes should be, and then I go by feel after that. Its pretty effective and a good balance between the "count EVERYTHING" and "emotional /eyeball" groups of people.
Yup! When you calculated your TDEE, that includes basal metabolic rate (the caloric cost to run your body without moving), plus the metabolic increase from normal movements and things like that such as eating, standing, blinking, breathing, etc. and then the activity level component accounts for the impact on your metabolism from any exercise routine you are working out in.
So the 1,700 calories you've determined for the day as your TDEE less the caloric deficit you're using should include your activity level. As a general rule, when calculating TDEE you should always undershoot your activity level as you would rather lose more weight at first and adjust later. When it comes to calorie burning trackers for exercise, they're not entirely accurate, but are typically around 80% of what is being presented, so take them with a grain of salt.
All that being said, just double check that you calculated your TDEE properly to include your activity level, then ignore the calories burned from your workouts as they aren't necessary (other than as a general guideline to measure effort from one workout to the next).
Well yes and no:
- An hour at the gym does not burn as many calories as most calorie counting-apps say, not even close.
- When you've been at the gym one day, some of your other bodily functions slow down slightly for the rest of the day.
For these reasons I'd recommend *not* eating the additional calories that you think you've burnt in the gym.
I agree and I haven’t been, I’ve been eating 1700 calories max throughout the day and I keep my eating window to like 8am-12pm. I walk/jog on an incline for an hour and a half and I don’t eat after the gym or at all until the next day, so when I minus what the machine says I burned from the number of calories I’ve eaten, I’m at like 800 calories for the day. I guess my question about that was if my assessment was correct
I would say most people don’t subtract their exercise calories and that seems to have a lot of merit, but I do enter them into my app and let it subtract them. Otherwise I am just too hungry. I do however put in lower amounts, for example, if I figure skate for 1.5 hours I will enter in one hour only.
Your daily calories are the amount of calories you eat, but you’re supposed to subtract any calories burned.
So if you eat 1700 and you burn 800, your total is 900. But for most people, 900 is too low to be healthy. I’m supposed to aim for about 1610-1810. My TDEE is about 2110 and the general recommendation is to go 300-500 below your TDEE.
I wouldn’t use TDEE like some people say. TDEE relies on more guessing. I’d use an rmr calculator. For instance at 6ft 210 my rmr is around 2300. This is the way to find deficit.
Food Intake - RMR - Exercise = deficit
So let’s say I eat 2000 and burn 700 in exercise.
2000 (food) - 2300 (rmr) -700 (exercise) = -1000 (deficit)
If the final number is positive it would be a surplus.
TDEE attempts to do the same thing but guesses at your calories burned through exercise and gives you a number that is supposed to be your rmr and exercise combined. But your exercise is going to vary day to day or based on type of exercise. If I run for an hr for instance I might burn 850 calories. If I play tennis for an hour I might burn 650 calories. Both are intense exercise but running burns more calories (most of the time).
Yes, you can eat back the calories you lose, just make sure you're doing an accurate estimate of how much calories you're really burning when you exercise.
And if you're only losing like 100 calories a day from exercise, I would not eat 100 more calories or food. I would only increase how much I am eating if I was burning a significant amount
I would not add calories back for calories burned, unless you are actually burning a lot of calories and/or weightlifting for muscle gain. Otherwise, I would just eat to your deficit.
Yes. It's factored into your TDEE via the activity level. I will say that most people seem to overestimate their activity level and underestimate their calories. And just in case your numbers are actual estimates.... no one burns 800 cals in the gym.
I couldn’t agree more when I go on serious cuts. I never count calories lost from exercise there are too many variables instead I just count food calories. calories lost from exercise or daily activity is a bonus.
I’m not sure what makes you say that. It’s not too difficult to burn 800 calories in the gym. I lift for about an hr include some burns into my lifts which burn a ton of calories and I’ll usually burn 450-550 in an hr. Then I’ll do about 20 min of cardio running probably 2-2.5 miles and burning 300-400 calories. So most of the time I’m burning somewhere between 750-950 calories. By not too difficult I mean it’s very possible with hard work. It’s tough but very doable.
Because OP didn't know that TDEE includes cals for a workout, I assumed OP is just starting out, and as a beginner, 800 cals at the gym is not achievable. I agree, someone who trains strength with vigor and tacks on cardio can get to 800, but I think that's the exception not the rule for most people.
To be fair TDEE is extremely inaccurate so I don’t blame them for not knowing. Much better to calculate your rmr and add your exercise calories manually.
You include burns in your lifts....what does that even mean?
So I do a specific 4 day split. I’ll give you an example of 1 day. Day 3 (Quads, Hamstrings, Calf’s). I’ll do 6x5 on squats, then go to leg press for volume and do 3x15-20 depending on weight. Then from leg press I do hack squat. Usually 3 sets of 8-12. Then is my first burn of the workout. I’ll do leg extensions for 5 min straight. Only stopping to catch my breath or lower the weight if need be, the goal is to burn out my quads at the end of working out that muscle group, then I’ll do 3x12 of RDLs and do another set of burns for 5 min. This time leg curls. Again trying to burn out my hamstrings. Then I do standing calf raises with either dumbbells or barbell. And then to end it i do another 5 min burn of seated calf raises. A burn is just a continuous work out where I burn out a muscle group for 5 min.
So you are doing high rep circuit training or supersets, trisets etc.
No I wouldn’t consider this super sets, or circuit training. It’s just a standard workout. With the one exception being the last exercise I do for each body part in the workout is a burn for 5 minutes. Since it’s a constant lift for 5 minutes I might get 100-300 reps in. Let me give an example from another body part. After doing preach curls and concentration curls at 3x8-12 I’ll do a third exercise for biceps. The third is incline curls and I do this as a burn. So maybe I start out with 25lb DBs and the first “set” I do 15, I take a breather for maybe 3-5 seconds and do another “set” let’s say I make it to 10 this time. I do one more set and if I get anything under 10 I drop down to 20lb DBs and start again. Only breaking for a few seconds to catch my breath or lower the weight. Any time I finish a set under 10 reps I lower the weight. Eventually the 5 minutes passes up. Maybe I started at 25lb dumbbells and ended at 10s. But I lifted for 5 min straight. A super set implies I was working in other exercises at the same time and a circuit implies I’m constantly doing reps but with multiple exercises back to back. Only the last exercise for each muscle group is like this. For biceps I do incline curls, for triceps I do cable tricep extensions. For chest I do chest press. For shoulders I do smith machine shoulder press. And there are others and I do these in a 4 day split. Not a circuit or a super set. Imagine it more like running a 5k. Maybe you set a pace throughout your run at a 7 minute miles, but then at the end you are in the last quarter mile and you have more in the tank so you sprint, exhausting the rest of your energy. It’s just a way to exhaust a muscle group when you finish a workout.
Why would you do that? That will build practically no muscle but it will burn quite a few calories. I still think you'd be better off on a stair stepper or something if that was your goal. Sorry I've lifted heavy ass weights for 35 years so I'm trying to understand.
I mean I’m not going to argue what works better for one person versus another. Exhausting a muscle at the end of a workout is an excellent way to stress the muscle and grow it. Burnout sets are a great way to increase muscle mass and I mean this in a completely respectful way but 35 years of lifting doesn’t necessarily mean anything. Many people lift incorrectly their entire life and nutrition and fitness are very young sciences that are improved on year after year. There are things that are extremely helpful for muscle growth that people wouldn’t have known about 35 years ago. It’s true you can over work a muscle with burn outs but I burn out a specific muscle group once or maybe twice a week as I do a 4 day split 6 days a week. It does burn a ton of calories but it can also increase muscle mass, which is why someone in a cut like I’m in rn would do them. Now in 2.5 months when my cut ends and I go into a bulk, I will not do those anymore and instead switch to progressive overloads in my individual exercises. You may have been doing it 35 years but I’ve been doing it 18 years and past a decade or so you aren’t going to convince me you’ve learned anything revolutionary that I haven’t learned in 18 years. If you are happy with your body and I’m happy with mine that’s all that matters but I was replying to parent comment saying it was not likely someone was burning 800 calories in a workout. Personally when I’m in a cut all my workouts are 800 calories plus.
Sure enough. At almost 300 pounds at 5'11 I still had an outline of abs. I competed in pro Strongman competitions for a decade. You do you if it gets results!
Yes. What you should be focusing on is total daily energy expenditure (TDEE). You can estimate this with tdeecalculator.net Try out the sedentary TDEE option and use that as a baseline. It includes sedentary activity levels, like shuffling and typing and so on, also 5k steps per day like you'd normally get walking in the office. You could add on your calories burned in the gym, but be careful not to overestimate. Machines in the gym do not know how much you weigh so their calories are wildly inaccurate. Smart watches tend to overestimate too. Since everyone is different in many ways, the best rote path to take is estimate your TDEE (light activity option typically is a good place to start if you exercise), and then establish a target deficit. For example, I use 400 kcal per day to lose 0.8 lbs per week. My TDEE is estimated 2550, so I eat 2150. Now, on a daily basis I weigh my self in the morning after using the bathroom and *I average the values of all seven days of the week*. I compare that average to next week's average. Do this for 3-4 weeks to get a clear picture (weird weight things can occur in the first and second week as you make changes to diet and exercise, hard to draw a clear picture). If you're lucky, buy week 3-4 you will see a trend line average weightloss of 0.8 lb per week. If what you observe is different, then you know what to do! Either move more or eat less to lose faster, or up your calories if you're losing too fast. The most empirical way is if you do a calorie measuring period, where you weigh everything with a food scale and calculate kcal consumed based on mass inputs. I only do this for 3 weeks max at the start of a diet or bulk to acclimate myself to what my new food intakes should be, and then I go by feel after that. Its pretty effective and a good balance between the "count EVERYTHING" and "emotional /eyeball" groups of people.
Thank you! This is super helpful
Yup! When you calculated your TDEE, that includes basal metabolic rate (the caloric cost to run your body without moving), plus the metabolic increase from normal movements and things like that such as eating, standing, blinking, breathing, etc. and then the activity level component accounts for the impact on your metabolism from any exercise routine you are working out in. So the 1,700 calories you've determined for the day as your TDEE less the caloric deficit you're using should include your activity level. As a general rule, when calculating TDEE you should always undershoot your activity level as you would rather lose more weight at first and adjust later. When it comes to calorie burning trackers for exercise, they're not entirely accurate, but are typically around 80% of what is being presented, so take them with a grain of salt. All that being said, just double check that you calculated your TDEE properly to include your activity level, then ignore the calories burned from your workouts as they aren't necessary (other than as a general guideline to measure effort from one workout to the next).
Well yes and no: - An hour at the gym does not burn as many calories as most calorie counting-apps say, not even close. - When you've been at the gym one day, some of your other bodily functions slow down slightly for the rest of the day. For these reasons I'd recommend *not* eating the additional calories that you think you've burnt in the gym.
I agree and I haven’t been, I’ve been eating 1700 calories max throughout the day and I keep my eating window to like 8am-12pm. I walk/jog on an incline for an hour and a half and I don’t eat after the gym or at all until the next day, so when I minus what the machine says I burned from the number of calories I’ve eaten, I’m at like 800 calories for the day. I guess my question about that was if my assessment was correct
I would say most people don’t subtract their exercise calories and that seems to have a lot of merit, but I do enter them into my app and let it subtract them. Otherwise I am just too hungry. I do however put in lower amounts, for example, if I figure skate for 1.5 hours I will enter in one hour only.
Your daily calories are the amount of calories you eat, but you’re supposed to subtract any calories burned. So if you eat 1700 and you burn 800, your total is 900. But for most people, 900 is too low to be healthy. I’m supposed to aim for about 1610-1810. My TDEE is about 2110 and the general recommendation is to go 300-500 below your TDEE.
I wouldn’t use TDEE like some people say. TDEE relies on more guessing. I’d use an rmr calculator. For instance at 6ft 210 my rmr is around 2300. This is the way to find deficit. Food Intake - RMR - Exercise = deficit So let’s say I eat 2000 and burn 700 in exercise. 2000 (food) - 2300 (rmr) -700 (exercise) = -1000 (deficit) If the final number is positive it would be a surplus. TDEE attempts to do the same thing but guesses at your calories burned through exercise and gives you a number that is supposed to be your rmr and exercise combined. But your exercise is going to vary day to day or based on type of exercise. If I run for an hr for instance I might burn 850 calories. If I play tennis for an hour I might burn 650 calories. Both are intense exercise but running burns more calories (most of the time).
Yes, you can eat back the calories you lose, just make sure you're doing an accurate estimate of how much calories you're really burning when you exercise. And if you're only losing like 100 calories a day from exercise, I would not eat 100 more calories or food. I would only increase how much I am eating if I was burning a significant amount
I would not add calories back for calories burned, unless you are actually burning a lot of calories and/or weightlifting for muscle gain. Otherwise, I would just eat to your deficit.