Do you eat your excersise calories!

karafrog

Hello everyone. Just curious I know In WW they always adviced to eat your points you lost with excersice. Then a nutritionist said do not eat them. Here on fitness pal it automatically adds more calories once you have added your fitness. Do most of you eat your excersice calories or not?? Thanks for any advice.
Kara

lessismoreohio

Sometimes yes, sometimes no.

meem548

I did eat most of them today but I try not too! It seems to be something of a black hole - I have read articles that say you should and then others that say you shouldn't. Be interesting to see what others say in reply!

karafrog

Thank you . Maybe one week I will and one week I won't to see if there is a difference!

julzwild

Hi! Not everyone here does that, however that is definitely the idea behind how MFP works. The deficit required to lose weight is already calculated based on the activity level and weight loss goal that you chose when you signed up. Exercise calories are considered earned calories that you get to eat. Many people aren't comfortable eating them back and some eat half of them back and some eat all of them back. The website takes into account that if you eat them all back, you will lose weight (assuming that you're logging accurately). I hope that made sense.

Ready2Rock206

I do not but I set my base calories higher to account for that fact. It depends if you're following MFP numbers or working off your TDEE numbers. MFP you should eat back at least a portion of them. TDEE already calculates them in.

ToniaH75

If im hungry i do and if im not then i don't.

fizzleh

exercise points lost are not 100% accurate therefore it's always best not to use them up completely if you do decide to. If you don't then you can always use them as a buffer if you use up all your points one day. That way you'll always be under (hopefully)

ShellyBell999

I eat back 1/2 to 2/3 depending on how many I've burned.

cceladita

I try to listen to my body. If I'm hungry I eat. Also, it's hard to estimate the actual number of calories burned in some exercises. I feel like if I over estimate, then I could be eating back more than I should.

kbmnurse

I am trying not to this time. I am hoping to be more successful. We will see. I don't know what to believe. I have also increased my workouts.

brittanywilcoxen2

I'm trying not to eat back my calories

karafrog

Thank you everyone!

pscarolina

On MFP, it depends on how you set your activity level. If you set it to include your workouts & then add workouts & eat your exercise calories back you are double dipping. You'll probably see weight loss in the beginning, but then you'll stall & be frustrated. It's already challenging enough to accurately log & the burns are estimates regardless of what method you use to track them so I (almost) never eat all my exercise calories. I also didn't set my calories really low (1,200)

13rialb

Some days you're going to be hungrier than others, just take it day by day and judge if you body needs the extra energy. I find the day after a workout I'm more hungry, but everyone is different

clyn27

I do not go out of my way to eat them but if I am hungry I will, but never all of them. If I plan on going out to eat or having a few drinks that day I will bust my *kitten* to burn as many calories as I can so I am not going too far over.

DvlDwnInGA

I used to, I don't anymore. When you set up your fitness pal did you put in the settings that you were going to exercise or did you set yourself for sedentary? If you said that you were going to exercise, it will account for it and give you extra calories from the get go.

This is really one of the biggest issues that is discussed in MFP. And it comes up in many different ways. The threads with, "How many calories did I burn doing this", being the largest showing of what I mean.

I think it easier if you eat the same calories everyday. If you are upfront with what you are actually going to do, for example exercise 3 times a week, add it in there and eat the same calories a day and stop worrying about adding in exercise and eating differently for the days that you actually do work out. It helps you stay consistent, and helps your body adjust from day to day as well. If you find you are a little more hungry on the days that you workout, adjust your calorie count manually. You might need more food.

Keep in mind, this is just a calculation for what MFP "thinks" you need to eat daily to lose weight. Run it for 4 weeks and if you are losing the amount that you are hoping then you are good. If not, before I would jump the gun and start dropping calories off your daily goal I would check to make sure my logs were 100 percent accurate. If they are make an adjustment and go from there.