Is there a general rule for calorie counting ?

[amybethbug]

Its my first day using the twelve weeks plan and tomorrow i start my pilates class so i was wondering how you work out how many calories you lose during exercise to your daily in take.

[Windswept1]

If you worked out your intake from the calculator on the website this will have asked about activity levels. I assumed that you do not deduct the calories used in exercise. Good luck with your journey

[Windswept1 in reply to Windswept1]

Maybe I should have said 'eat'your exercise calories.

[gingernut49]

Get the free app MyFitnessPal and it will work out your calories for you. Make sure you log everything that passes your lips and don't eat your exercise calories - they're a bonus!

[housewife1]

Go onto my fitness pal and put in what you want to eat and it will do your calorie counting for you. Make sure you put in your weight and waist measurements as well, it has really helped me.

[albionjen]

There are a couple of ways to account for your activity level:

1.) If your exercise is the same most weeks, then change your calorie target to allow for this, but don't add on any extra calories for each workout

2.) Try to work out how many calories your exercise burned and "eat them back" on the day you worked out. You can look up calorie burns online and gym equipment may give a number. Just be a bit cautious about the amount you "eat back" because estimates for calories burned are often on the high side.

I have done both approaches. Currently I just have a stable calorie target, that takes into account that I am quite active - I exercise for about 1 hour 6 days a week, plus walking for 1 hour at least 5 days a week. That makes my calorie target 2000kcal total. Before I added on exercise calories to a starting target of 1500kcal. It came to much the same total, but was more hassle to add on exercise calories every day so I decided to switch to a stable target.

My calorie target is quite high because I only want to lose about 4-5lb more weight at most and actually I don't mind if I stay the same weight now.

[Penel]

I have been doing Pilates for several years and regard it as a way to stay healthy, not as a way to lose weight. Find a calories target that works for you and stick to it.

[Koomie]

You need to be very careful of the amount of calories fitness pal says you use doing a certain exercise. It's a great app, but I found it over estimated the calories by about 100-150kcals! It's only when I brought a heart rate monitor that I got a more realistic account.

As a general rule though, I tend to not eat my exercise calories so it doesn't bother me, I just wanted to know how hard I was working.

Good luck on your journey though!!