Eat exercise calories?

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Purplekat921
Purplekat921 Posts: 14 Member
in Fitness and Exercise
hi everyone. Just a quick question- are we supposed to eat the calories we burned from exercise back?

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  • queenliz99
    queenliz99 Posts: 15,317 Member
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    Most people eat half of them. MFP overstates calorie burns on their database.
  • asdowe13
    asdowe13 Posts: 1,951 Member
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    If you are following MFP's method yes you are supposed to eat them back.

    I do.

    Some say eat 50-75% as MFP overestimates.
  • BrianSharpe
    BrianSharpe Posts: 9,248 Member
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    Assuming you've set your activity level to sedentary then yes but (there's always a but....) exercise caution in that most HRMs/ exercise databases etc over-estimate calories burned exercising and it's not unusual for people to under-estimate portion sizes. Like others have suggested above, only eat back a portion of them to give yourself a margin of error...
  • erickirb
    erickirb Posts: 12,293 Member
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    As an example say MFP gives you 1450 calories to lose 1 lb/week, and you plan on exercising 5x/week for an average of 400 cals per workout. well MFP will tell you to eat 1450 on the days you don't workout and 1850 on the days you do whereas a "professional" or TDEE calculator may tell you to eat 1700 everyday regardless if you workout.

    So for the week MFP will have you eat 12,150 (1450*2+1850*5) whereas doing it the other way will have you eat 11,900 (1700*7) almost the same number of cals for the week (250 dif). The issue in not following MFP is if you don't workout the full 5 days or burn more or less than planned. If that is the case you may lose more or less than your goal, whereas MFP will have you lose your goal amount regardless how much you actually workout.

    What many MFPers do is take the low 1450 and not eat back exercise calories which is wrong, if you are not eating them back then your daily activity level should reflect the higher burn with would be covered in the 1700/day above.
  • sijomial
    sijomial Posts: 19,811 Member
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    Purplekat921 wrote: »
    hi everyone. Just a quick question- are we supposed to eat the calories we burned from exercise back?

    That's why it gets added to your daily goal.
    The calorie deficit you selected doesn't account for your exercise, if you are doing a significant amount of exercise you do need to account for it.
  • AnthonyThrashD
    AnthonyThrashD Posts: 306
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    I would eat them back. If 3 weeks pass with no loss, switch to eating half calories back. If not losing in another 3 weeks, I would re-evaluate my logging accuracy and goal settings.
  • stephrenee827
    stephrenee827 Posts: 1
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    So if you don't eat back the calories then you lose more than what you want to lose? Is that a bad thing? Help me out folks I've never heard of eating back calories
  • Purplekat921
    Purplekat921 Posts: 14 Member
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    I'm pretty accurate with the counting. I even have a scale and measure every little thing, including spices, condiments, and drinks.

    I use the treadmill 6 days a week and usually burn 500-800. I have it set to sedentary and losing 2 lbs a week.

    I started October 19th at 254. Right now I'm at 211. (I'm 5'4" and 39 yrs.)

    I had been usually eating them all back or close to it. But I still have so much more to lose, and am getting impatient.

    A lot of my new friends On this app (I started On a different app) say they don't eat any burned calories back.

    I was just wondering because the treadmill says for example I've burned 400, when I log it here, it says same exercise is 5-600...

    How can I tell which one is correct?
  • franola12
    franola12 Posts: 45 Member
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    When I'm in serious loss mode, I do not replace calories I've exercised off.
  • erickirb
    erickirb Posts: 12,293 Member
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    stephrenee827 wrote: »
    So if you don't eat back the calories then you lose more than what you want to lose? Is that a bad thing? Help me out folks I've never heard of eating back calories

    You will lose faster without eating them, but faster =/= better. the faster your loss the greater the % of the loss will come from lean muscle, not fat.
  • sijomial
    sijomial Posts: 19,811 Member
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    A lot of your friends may be doing it wrong!

    If you are losing a steady 2lbs a week you are doing brilliantly so carry on with what you are doing. Changing things when they don't work is sensible, changing things because of impatience isn't. Did you gain your weight at a faster rate than 2lbs a week?

    Faster weight loss may not be good weight loss, it could lead to excessive loss of lean mass - which you really want to preserve as much as possible.
  • esjones12
    esjones12 Posts: 1,363 Member
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    It is a marathon and not a sprint. Faster is not always better. Eating back your calories will help you learn how to fuel exercise and learn a new healthy lifestyle. It's not just drop the weight and then you are free to resume life however you want. You need to change the habits that got you to where you are, which is why slow progress is usually best.

    Is the treadmill synced to your height, weight and heart rate? If so I would use that.

    Honestly you have had awesome results already. KEEP DOING WHAT YOU ARE DOING.

    Best of luck :)
  • erickirb
    erickirb Posts: 12,293 Member
    edited March 2015
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    Purplekat921 wrote: »
    I'm pretty accurate with the counting. I even have a scale and measure every little thing, including spices, condiments, and drinks.

    I use the treadmill 6 days a week and usually burn 500-800. I have it set to sedentary and losing 2 lbs a week.

    I started October 19th at 254. Right now I'm at 211. (I'm 5'4" and 39 yrs.)

    I had been usually eating them all back or close to it. But I still have so much more to lose, and am getting impatient.

    A lot of my new friends On this app (I started On a different app) say they don't eat any burned calories back.

    I was just wondering because the treadmill says for example I've burned 400, when I log it here, it says same exercise is 5-600...

    How can I tell which one is correct?

    I would go with the lowest estimate, or the other option is to use a TDEE calculator which would give you more cals everyday as it averages out your exercise across the week, in that case you would not eat burned cals back. See my example above.
  • Marchmallow
    Marchmallow Posts: 124 Member
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    I'm following the P90X3 nutrition plan, which as my level is 1500 cals, 150g carbs, 50g fat and 114g protein, regardless of any exercise I do. It's working pretty well for me so far.
  • Sued0nim
    Sued0nim Posts: 17,456 Member
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    If you are logging accurately then yes eat them

    There's lots of satisfaction in eating more and losing weight

    I tend to halve MFP and machine burns...but I take my fitbit and HRM calories closer

    Always judge against weight loss over time
  • Deedee1111111
    Deedee1111111 Posts: 66 Member
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    I usually eat most back (even knowing that the estimated calories burned are probably exaggerated), otherwise I feel starving! Really depends on the day though. I've still been able to lose about 1lb per week on average. Some weeks I don't lose anything, and then the next I'm 3 lbs down. Keep it up! You've already done so well!
  • Asher_Ethan
    Asher_Ethan Posts: 2,430 Member
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    Everyone is different... I found that eating half of my workout calories works the best for me.
  • juliet3455
    juliet3455 Posts: 3,015 Member
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    @arditarose, @Asher_Ethan and @mangrothian nailed it.

    I call it the Human Science Experiment. Try eating back 75% of your calories and see the results and how you feel over 1-2 months. Reduce to 50% and repeat. If you feel horrible at 50 and great at 75 pick a number between the two and repeat the experiment.

    From my personal experience I found It was important to do this over a longer time frame ( months versus days) to help average out the little bumps in the road of life and it gave me a better feel for what I needed to do.

    .
    arditarose wrote: »
    You can eat back calories you burn from exercising. MFP inflates the calories burned, so many people do not eat them all back, but some.
    mangrothian wrote: »
    It's your decision whether you eat back the exercise calories or not; everyone on MFP seems to have a different opinion on this.

    1. Up your water intake. ETA: dehydration can cause headaches
    2. Eat back half of your exercise calories for a couple of days and see if it makes a difference.
    3. Eat them all back. Just bear in mind that if you're using MFP to calculate your exercise calories, it tends to overestimate the burn amount, and you may see that your weight will drop a little more slowly.

    If any of those steps work, success! If not, go and speak to your GP.

    ETA: I personally eat back some of my exercise calories, but not all. If I'm hungry, I'll eat more of them back. If I'm not, then I don't.
    Asher_Ethan wrote: »
    Everyone is different... I found that eating half of my workout calories works the best for me.

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