Eating back burnt calories

Aline_1980

I'm not sure if it's the right section but anyway. Here's my problem: working out spoils my appetite. I might be starving, or feeling like I am, when I leave my gym class, but by the time I get home, I'm no longer hungry. Most of the time, I try to have meals ready so I only have to pop them in the MO and eat, but when I don't have a meal ready ... then chances are I'll go to bed without dinner and without feeling hungry. I typically try to listen to myself and not force myself to eat if I don't feel hungry, but that means some days I still have 500 or more calories to eat by the time I go to bed.
Anyone else has that problem? How do you/would you deal with it?
Thanks for your help

abbyegael97

Just because you burned them off, doesn't mean that you necessarily have to eat them back. It's not good to eat if you're not hungry.

callsitlikeiseeit

you dont have to eat them back. when i was on 1200 cals/ day i ate back ALL my exercise calories ( i was sooooooo hungry! LOL). im at 1500/day now and rarely eat them back because, well, im not hungry LOL

edited to add: im losing at the same rate, so in that aspect, its made no difference.

arditarose

I prefer mine medium rare

Nouurann

Calories burned are inaccurate anyway. If I'm not hungry I don't eat them, but if I had a good work out I usually am extra hungry but try to eat less than 50% of my fitbit calculated burned calories. If you start feeling fatigue and other symptoms of under eating then you know to start eating regardless of your appetite. For now, enjoy the extra deficit.

FashionQueen86

Somebody gave me this link to the forum discussion on exercise calories eaten. Might be helpful. And it is a lot of info.

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

kazaargrandcru

arditarose wrote: »

I prefer mine medium rare

Aww, you beat me to it LOL!

keri9563

Don't force yourself to eat. A calorie defecit is how you lose fat. It might be good to have a healthy snack though. Maybe a handful of cashews or some celery and pb or maybe a protein shake...if you don't have enough fuel for your metabolism, it goes into "starvation" mode and it will hold onto as much sugar, carbs, or fats as it can. In other words, it won't keep burning body fat. I am no expert, this is just information I have read. Go with how you feel just keep in mind that your body will burn more calories when you sleep if it has the fuel to do so...

keri9563

Certainly don't eat back all the calories you burned working out!

diannethegeek

You could eat them earlier in the day when you are hungrier.

veganbaum

keri9563 wrote: »

Certainly don't eat back all the calories you burned working out!

MFP is designed to eat those back to maintain a healthy deficit and fuel your body.


OP - first, many people eat only 50-75% back because the estimations can be off. Also, as someone mentioned, if you know you are going to exercise, you can eat those cals earlier in the day. Or even the next day. It may be helpful to look at your calories on a weekly basis rather than daily.

BWBTrish

It also depends how much calories you eat normally without training
When you eat low calorie it is better to eat 1/4 or 1/2 back.

When you train a lot of calories you will get burned out by not eating some of it back

your body needs more nutrition when it does more work. MFP is designed also that way. Your calorie allowance is calculated without doing exercise. Now when you do exercise MFP count them up to your allowance.
Now these numbers can be off indeed But they are not 100% off.

See it like fuel in a car. When your car normally can run for some time on 4 gallons when it is parked. Those 4 gallons wont be enough for running the same amount of time when you are going to race with it.

When your deficit is smaller or you only train for a 100 calories than it isn't that important to eat them back

But yes when you do a 1200 calories a day and you train every day above the 500 calories you should think of your nutrition intake for sure.

Liftng4Lis

diannethegeek wrote: »

You could eat them earlier in the day when you are hungrier.

Yep

BWBTrish

or eat some more calorie dense food the day you train

Marieenya

I have the same problem.
I wouldn't eat more calories earlier in the day though just in case for whatever reason I wasn't able to complete my workout, it seems a bit risky to me although I suppose it's extra motivation to get up and go!

The way I try and get around it is by not making myself eat calories for the sake of it no matter how little I've eaten but to make a strict point of consuming my entire calorie quota the next day plus a quarter of the calories I've burnt off through excersice.

Not sure if this is of any use to anyone or if they can recommend a better way but so far, it seems to be doing the trick for me (still in the early days of dieting though so it is hard to tell).

BWBTrish

You dont even have to eat more but eat more calorie dense food. I eat a kiwi in the morning ( most mornings) When i know it is going to be a long hard day, and lots of exercise i replace the kiwi for an avocado and bamm 200 calories more than the kiwi ( about).

instead of butter i use olive oil and there is a 100 calories again

It is not in eating more food but eating more calories! So when you are feeling quickly full ( lucky you btw) than you go to the more dense food to fuel your body.

And that is certainly not for rewarding or the sake of eating...it is being sensible and use common sense that your body need nutrition when it works harder.

For a lot of people it seems losing weight is more important than being healthy and think how they lose their weight.

LAWoman72

Meh. I rarely eat eat mine back. Why shovel in calories that I'm not actually hungry for? That's what got me here in the first place. :disagree:

scookbey

I wish I didn't have an appetite after working out! I usually get hungry within 30-1hr of working out! I sometimes eat some of my calories back but generally I do not. At first I thought to not log the burn at ALL and just stick to my calorie goal but not logging the burn will just drop my motivation to work out altogether. Eat some back or none at all..it's ok as long as you are REALLY NOT hungry and not just scared of gaining...good luck!

tibby531

...am I really the first person to chime in with ice cream?

tibby531

FashionQueen86 wrote: »

Somebody gave me this link to the forum discussion on exercise calories eaten. Might be helpful. And it is a lot of info.

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

+1

mxmkenney

I tend to not lose weight if I eat back my exercise calories. I think MFP over estimates the calories burned anyway. I eat in a calorie range rather than a set number (1500-1800). I eat on the lower end when I don't exercise, and if I am still hungry on days I do exercise, I'll eat a little more (but I still try to stay below 1800). If I don't eat more than 1500 on a day that I work out, then I chalk it up to more weight loss that week. However, I do plan on eating back my exercise calories when I get to maintenance phase.

MysticRealm

Depending on how few calories you are actually consuming (hopefully netting above 1200 cals) you could 'save them up' for when you want to go out for supper on the weekends or have a few extra yummies. I always focus on my weekly cals not daily so usually eat a couple hundred cals less mon-fri then eat 500-1000 cals more on weekends days while still staying under my weekly goal.

Aline_1980

Thank you all for your help
For info, I'm on 1200 calorie days. I walk a lot and do 3 to 5 hours Zumba per week. I use my FitBit for walks and a heart monitor during Zumba. I was asking because some days I have 800 calories left to eat
@FashionQueen86‌ thank you for the link, I'll check it out