Who eats back exercise calories and who doesn't?

Phoebeg1723

just curious at the ratios. I personally don't eat back exercise calories. It seems very backwards to me as the idea of working out is too increase the calorie deficit so you lose weight more, but eating back those calories is basically the equivalent of not having worked out.

Anyone else?

AnjaliSD

I find that if I enter them, I want to eat them,so I try to only enter my exercise at half the time I actually put in. That way if I do eat them all back, it's not terrible. That being said, i usually eat back at least part of them, as I allow myself to make bigger or more meat based meals on those days.

Lezavargas

Im glad you explained what it was because I hadnt heard of it! Im with you. Im trying to burn calories not replace them. I can understand the idea thatyou need to give your body sone protein after a workout, that makes sense to me.....altho i dont do it

Phoebeg1723

I can see the logic there

I have a good system with my food whereby I'm in a routine and my body is used to a centre amount of calories. If I eat more one day then I want more the next, so I just don't bother and in the past I've seen good loses.

RoxieDawn

I do not eat back the exercise calories I burned. It is really counter productive to do that.

I have to be completely miserable and dying for me to eat back something I worked so hard to burn... LOL

manthonyw

I eat them. That's part of why I'm not losing weight.

WinoGelato

Phoebeg1723 wrote: »

just curious at the ratios. I personally don't eat back exercise calories. It seems very backwards to me as the idea of working out is too increase the calorie deficit so you lose weight more, but eating back those calories is basically the equivalent of not having worked out.

Anyone else?

MFP is designed to calculate your activity level not including exercise, and set your calorie deficit to lose weight even if you don't exercise. By exercising and increasing your calorie deficit, you may lose weight faster but at the risk of losing lean muscle mass and potentially other negative effects if your calorie goal is too low to be able to maintain adequate nutrition.

That being said, many of the calorie burn estimates in MFP databases can be inflated which is why many who use this approach recommend only eating back a portion of your exercise calories. Another alternative is to use a TDEE approach which factors estimated calorie burns from exercise into your total daily energy expenditure, and when you use this approach you simply eat the same number of calories every day and don't log a calorie burn from exercise into MFP.

Phoebeg1723

Haha Gia I love that...

kaseyr1505

If I burn larger amounts, I do. I am doing strength routines as well, and eating too few calories can cause your body to burn muscle instead of fat. I want to get lean, and strong. I'm also not in a rush to lose weight.

ILiftHeavyAcrylics

I ate back every single calorie while I was losing weight, and of course I eat them back now that I'm in maintenance. I work out for fitness and health, not just to burn calories.

Your deficit is already built into your goal. It's not a good idea to make your deficit too large, as you can end up losing muscle instead of just fat.

For a more in depth explanation:
http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/818082

GiveMeCoffee

If you are following MFP the way it is designed you should eat back your exercise calories as your deficit is already included in the calorie goal it's giving you.

You exercise for health not to lose weight quicker by creating a larger deficit.

http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/818082/exercise-calories-again-wtf/p1

radiosilents

I often do, but sometimes I don't. Some days I feel like I want to eat more, and if I have the exercise cals, I use them. Other days, I'm fine with the usual allotted calories. I mean, I could probably be losing faster, but 69 pounds in 8 months ain't so bad. I'd rather lose more slowly and feel satisfied with the amount I'm eating. I feel like exercise gives me some leeway when I need it.

RoxieDawn

Here is the rule. Careful it's long (copied from a thread last week).

Here are some background definitions before going into this:

BMR (Basal Metabolic Rate): The number of calories you burn at complete rest.
EAT (Exercise Associated Thermogenesis): Caloric requirements of training, or training expenditure.
NEAT (Non Exercise Activity Thermogenesis): Caloric requirements of activity that is not planned exercise. Vacuuming, driving, brushing your teeth, for example.
TEF/DIT (Thermic Effect of Feeding or Diet Induced Thermogenesis): Caloric expense of eating/digestion.
TDEE: (Total Daily Energy Expenditure) = Sum of the above. BMR+EAT+NEAT+TEF


Exercise calories, as they are typically used in MFP specifically, is represented by EAT in the above definition. Whether or not you should eat your EAT (giggity) depends on what system or method you are using to calculate your intake needs.

If you are using most other online calculation tools to determine an intake estimate, that estimate is going to already include EAT as part of the suggested intake. For example, it will ask you an activity factor that includes an average of your exercise, and with this it increases your TDEE to account for the fact that you are exercising.

If you are using MFP to tell you how much to eat, that estimate is NOT going to include EAT as part of the intake estimate.

Myfitnesspal uses a caloric estimation tool that expects you to eat back calories burned during exercise.

Consequently, MFP will essentially give you a LOWER intake estimate than an external TDEE calculator would give you.


In other words:

You tell MFP: I'd like to lose 1lb/week.

MFP says: Hey, you should eat X calories every day to lose 1lb/week.

You then decide to exercise and you burn 400 calories.

MFP says: Hey you pecker, you said you wanted to lose 1lb/week. Now you need to eat X+400 because you told me you wanted to lose 1lb/week.


So based on this:

If you are using MFP to tell you how many calories to eat, you should probably be eating back some portion of your exercise calories.

If you are using an external calculator and then customizing your intake to match that, you should not be eating back your exercise calories.

Lastly: Exercise expenditure is often over-stated.

My general opinion is that it's much simpler and uses less guess-work to use a custom intake and just forget about the exercise calorie model entirely, but that's a different topic of sorts, more discussion of which can be found here: http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/819055-setting-your-calorie-and-macro-targets

Live_To_Win

I enter them so I have a record of them but I very rarely eat them back

dfranch

Depends on your goal. When losing weight, I didn't, as I wanted to lose as much weight as I could. Once I reached my goal, I did as I didn't want to lose more weight.

RoxieDawn

quote/ My general opinion is that it's much simpler and uses less guess-work to use a custom intake and just forget about the exercise calorie model / quote

I use this..

Lib_B

I only eat them back if my net calorie intake is less than 1,000 cals per day.

WinoGelato

Thanks Jen and Acryclics for posting those links I was off searching for them...

I concur - I ate back every calorie during weight loss and eat back every calorie during maintenance too. I use a FitBit to help me better understand how many calories I'm burning and to set reasonable calorie deficit goals.

GiveMeCoffee

I lost over 120 lbs eating back my exercise calories, worked pretty damn well

zyxst

I don't eat exercise calories, but I do TDEE rather then MFP.

Will_Run_for_Food

Some but not all. I generally try to keep it under 1500, unless it's a rest day where I try to stay under 1200.

asdowe13

I eat them....I eat them all. I have zero issues with losing weight.

SuggaD

I train hard and eat back some of my exercise calories (taking into account overestimates).

dswolverine

I eat back about 75% of them or so... unless i'm starving that day for whatever reason- then all of them get eaten

teemama2

I eat back half of what I have earned.

paszekmonika

I don't eat my calories back. However when i have a days where I burn around 2000 calories I treat myself with an extra snack or even meal. Still healthy but without this I would probably starve:)

acheben

I usually eat back a portion of my exercise calories and it has worked for me. If I have a large deficit from very long run days, I might save the calories and use them later in the week. I use MFP to set my calorie goal.

Paul_Collyer

I eat them, but you have to be careful you don't use an overestimated value.

Examples of overestimated values:

- MFP database walking
- MFP database pilates/stretching
- MFP database squash
- Strava run ( using these during marathon training was IMHO a factor in me actually gaining a couple of kg at that time )

As I lost more weight it became more clear that sticking to overestimated values and eating back the calories would slow me down, so I invested in a step tracker and HRM. I found the step calorie adjustments were lower, and IMO more realistic, and also that the Garmin run/workout with HRM calorie burn values were lower and again more realistic based on reading up on these things. Since switching to these I have done better.

Hope this is useful!

sijomial

I eat them back, both when I lost weight and now at maintenance - that's typically c.4000 a week but can be over 6000 in the cycling season.
There's no point setting a calorie balance goal and then not trying to meet it. It's not smart thinking to assume faster weight loss is better.

Exercise is for fitness, strength, preservation of lean mass plus it allows you much more freedom to eat while still hitting your goal.

NewGuy64

I like the idea of eating half, a little reward is good!!

snowflake930

GiveMeCoffee wrote: »

I lost over 120 lbs eating back my exercise calories, worked pretty damn well

^I lost 160+ NOT eating back my exercise calories, worked pretty damn well for me. I have been maintaining for 14 months.

We all ARE snowflakes! Do what works for you in all facets of this new way of living.