Eating Back Calories?

spanorchid

Hi All
I keep seeing in various posts "eating back your calories." What does this mean?

TeaBea

MFP as designed gives you a calorie deficit BEFORE exercise. That way people who can't exercise still lose weight. When you log exercise MFP rewards you with added calories.

Keeping the deficit "in check" becomes more important as you get closer to goal. Moderate weight loss goals help you lose fat & keep lean muscle.

Calorie burn estimates are pretty generous, so many people just eat back a percent.

cwolfman13

It is the way MFP is designed. Provided you set your activity level correctly, it DOES NOT include exercise activity. The way this calculator works is that it gives you a calorie goal to lose weight WITHOUT any exercise. Exercise is thus an additional activity which needs to be fueled. Other calculators assume some estimation of that activity up front...with MFP you account for it on the back end when you log exercise and then MFP increases your calorie goal.

Example...I maintain without any exercise at around 2300 - 2400 calories...so to lose 1 Lb per week would require a 500 calorie deficit...so MFP gives me a calorie goal of 1800ish calories.

Let's say I go out for one of my 30 mile rides...I burn around 1,000 calories or so doing that...so MFP would give me those 1,000 calories to eat back and I would consume a gross of 2,800 calories, but my net deficit would still be 500 calories because my new maintenance number would be around 3,300 calories and 3,300 - 2,800 = 500 calorie deficit still.

MKEgal

My doctor & dietician say not to.
Treat exercise as a bonus toward weight loss, though it's essential to maintaining that loss as well as improving health.
If you're very hungry some particular day, have 1/3 - 1/2 of what MFP says you've exercised away on that day.

spanorchid

Thanks. Some days I guess I do eat them back but most days I don't. Looking at my diary, I seem to eat them back more on my C25K days rather than my walking/strength training days.