Can you eat back the calories you “burn”?

Fitness trackers and calorie estimators on cardio machines are incredibly popular and also incredibly imprecise.

Trackers can be off by anywhere from 10%-30%, making them a very unreliable source of data to base your calorie needs on. Why are they so imprecise? Many factors influence the amount of calories you burn at rest or during an activity including genetics, sleep, hormones and more.

Metabolism is a very complicated process that has many factors that influence it. What and how much you eat can determine how many calories you burn - different macronutrients require more energy to digest than others. Your weight history also influences how much you will burn - if you’ve lost or gained weight in the past and how many calories you’ve eaten during different phases of dieting all influence how much you burn

What CAN you do??

• Track your daily food intake by using hand portions, a food scale or taking pictures of your food to determine your current calorie needs. Monitor your weight for 2-3 weeks as well as tracking your food. Adjust from there

• Commit to strength training & daily movement consistently and find ways to do this that you enjoy

Questions about how to figure out how much to eat? Comment below :)