Why You Can't Reliably Count Calories Burned
Exercise is often promoted as a powerful tool for burning calories, which it is. However, many people fall into the trap of thinking that burning calories through exercise allows them to eat more without consequences. This mindset can be counterproductive, especially in the context of weight loss. Relying solely on exercise to justify eating extra food usually leads to weight gain rather than loss. Physical activity should be viewed as a way to increase calorie expenditure, not as an excuse to indulge in additional food.
Question: "If I burn a lot of calories during my workout, can I eat more to compensate for the calories I lost?"
Answer: In most cases, no.
Understanding the Basics
Let’s start with some key terms related to calorie expenditure. The diagram below represents all the different ways your body burns calories throughout the day:
BMR (Basal Metabolic Rate): This is the number of calories your body burns at rest to maintain vital functions like breathing, blinking, and even thinking.
TEA (Thermogenesis from Exercise Activity): Calories burned through physical activities like working out.
TEF (Thermic Effect of Food): The energy your body uses to digest, absorb, and process food.
NEAT (Non-Exercise Activity Thermogenesis): Calories burned from everyday movements and activities that aren’t formal exercise, like walking, cooking, or standing.
TEE (Total Energy Expenditure): This is your total daily calorie requirement, which is the sum of BMR, TEA, TEF, and NEAT.
The equation for TEE looks like this:
TEE
=
BMR
+
TEA
+
TEF
+
NEAT
TEE=BMR+TEA+TEF+NEAT
Your Calorie Norm
When nutritionists or calorie calculators provide you with a daily calorie intake recommendation, they take into account all of these factors, including your physical activity. In fact, most popular formulas already include your exercise levels when calculating your daily calorie needs.
This is important to remember because when you use exercise to burn calories, adding those calories back into your diet disrupts your weight loss efforts. If your daily calorie target has already factored in your exercise activity, "rewarding" yourself with more food after a workout will undermine any progress you've made.
Simply put, the formulas that determine your calorie needs already account for the calories burned during exercise. Adding them back in after a workout won’t help you—it’ll likely halt your weight loss progress entirely.
When Can You Eat the Calories You’ve Burned?
There is one scenario where adding calories from exercise might make sense: if you’re using only your BMR (without factoring in TEA, TEF, or NEAT) to calculate your daily calorie needs. In this case, it’s justifiable to add the calories burned during exercise (TEA), but you’ll also need to account for food digestion (TEF) and non-exercise activities (NEAT).
Weight loss involves multiple variables, and managing these can be tricky. For simplicity, most people find it easier to use a standard formula or consult with a nutritionist to determine their calorie needs and deficit. Advanced dieters may use non-linear diets, which allow calorie intake to fluctuate depending on the day, but the overarching goal remains the same: achieving a calorie deficit over the week or month.
The Pros and Cons of Non-Linear Diets
Non-linear diets have their benefits, such as adding flexibility and potentially preventing plateaus. However, they also come with downsides, such as the tedious process of calculating calories for different days and the need to meticulously track various factors. Beginners don’t need to complicate their weight loss journey with non-linear diets; these are typically more suited for advanced individuals who have already made significant progress and are looking to break through weight loss plateaus.
A Practical Example
Let’s consider an example with Vasya, who weighs 91 kg. Here are his estimated daily caloric needs:
BMR: 1,500 kcal (the energy needed for basic bodily functions)
TEA: 500 kcal (calories burned during strength training)
TEF: 100 kcal (calories burned digesting food)
NEAT: 600 kcal (calories burned through daily activities like work and chores)
Total (TEE): Vasya’s total daily calorie requirement is 2,700 kcal. If he eats this amount, his weight will remain stable—he won’t gain or lose weight.
To lose weight, Vasya needs to create a deficit. A 20% reduction from 2,700 kcal is 540 kcal, so he should aim for around 2,200 kcal per day to lose weight.
Now, let’s say Vasya has an intense workout and burns 600 kcal. A fitness app might tell him that because he burned 600 kcal, he can eat more to "make up" for it. But this isn’t true.
If Vasya adds those 600 kcal to his 2,200 kcal deficit goal, he’ll end up consuming 2,800 kcal—more than his maintenance level of 2,700 kcal. As a result, he’ll gain weight, not lose it.
The issue lies with many fitness tracking apps and calorie diaries. Often, they only consider your BMR when calculating daily calorie burn but then present you with your TEE (total energy expenditure). This can mislead people into thinking they can eat back the calories burned during exercise, even though these calories have already been factored into their daily calorie targets.
Conclusion
Calorie counting can be a useful tool for weight loss, but it’s important to understand how calories are calculated and what factors are already included in those numbers. Exercise should be seen as a way to create a calorie deficit, not as a ticket to eat more food. If your goal is weight loss, focus on maintaining a caloric deficit consistently. Re-adding calories burned during exercise to your diet can quickly negate the progress you've made.
