Do you eat your exercise calories?

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  • pjcfrancis
    pjcfrancis Posts: 121 Member
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    My daily calories is set at 1600, but I find it hard to live with that number, and it generally goes up to about 2000 with exercise. I find eating about 1800 fits well with my lifestyle and I don't feel too hungry, so eating back half seems to work for me.
  • veganbaum
    veganbaum Posts: 1,865 Member
    edited March 2015
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    RaspberryTickleChicken wrote: »
    This is an on-going debate.

    But the latest nutritionist recommendation from MFP no less is that you do not have to eat back all your exercise calories unless you are a hard-core body builder (lifting for 3-4+ hrs a day) or a professional athlete. The rest of us 'regular folks' are just fine without it. :D

    Personally I have never fully eaten my exercise calories back. I was always about 150 - 200 under from my exercise calories allowance when I was losing. In maintenance I'm more within 100 - 150 ... I'm REALLY petite though & frankly just can't store that much food. LOL

    Best of luck to you!

    It's not a real debate, exactly. One just has to understand the numbers, where your deficit comes from, why it's important to maintain a healthy deficit and how MFP is designed vs other sites and common recommendations of doctors/trainers/nutritionists, etc., etc. Understand this, then make an informed decision.

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

    OP - So many people start off way too aggressively, then crash and burn - either with too high a weekly loss goal, or trying to eat as little as possible (especially with that whole 1200 common number floating out there). PLEASE read the stickies, understand the difference between MFP and other sites that use TDEE, and then make a decision.
  • esjones12
    esjones12 Posts: 1,363 Member
    edited March 2015
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    Do I eat back my calories? You freaking bet. My -1lb per week is at 1590 and I burn anywhere from 600-1200 calories in exercise 5x a week. I was only eating 50% of those back and it was miserable. I would end up binging here and there because I was tired, hungry and miserable. Now I eat 80-100% back and my training is improving AND I feel fantastic. I'd bet money the next two months the scale will drop faster too.
    pmm3437 wrote: »
    "Harvard Health Publications suggests women eat at least 1,200 calories daily and men get a minimum of 1,500 calories a day unless supervised by their doctors." - Livestrong

    This. You should not be netting below 1200. Your body NEEDS fuel to you know...live.
    cwolfman13 wrote: »
    eating back your exercise calories will not slow your weight loss.

    Also, the stickies do explain how this tool works, to include why you would eat back exercise calories with this method. Despite all of the derp on this site, it's really not a matter of opinion...it's actually the way the tool is designed.
    ...
    Learning to properly fuel your activity, including your fitness is kind of important to actually being a healthy and FIT individual. News flash...fit people eat.

    Exactly. The tool IS designed to eat them back. If you increase your deficit too much you could experience negative side effects (as I did). You will continue to lose, but you will be miserable and depending on what kind of activity you are doing, you could risk injury. The degree of importance of eating back calories depends on your deficit, how close you are to 1200 calories, and the amount you burn. Best bet is to just eat them back.

    PS - learning to eat FUEL for your activities is different than using those extra calories to eat a piece of cake ;) But I realize not everyone on here cares about being fit and training/performance....some just want a number on the scale.
  • hjeppley
    hjeppley Posts: 230 Member
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    I am a distance runner. My "normal" goal based on my sedentary job is about 1400 calories but it easily goes up to 2000 on days that I run to even 3000 on my longer run (10 mile +) days. My weight loss goal is modest (0.5 lb per week) and I am focusing on losing only fat and no muscle. I definitely eat back most if not all of my calories. The weight loss has been slow (about 7 lbs in 2 months) but that is intentional as I try to keep my performance up at the same time. I feel like it has been working well for me.
  • pmm3437
    pmm3437 Posts: 529 Member
    edited March 2015
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    cwolfman13 wrote: »
    pmm3437 wrote: »
    " Harvard Health Publications suggests women eat at least 1,200 calories daily and men get a minimum of 1,500 calories a day unless supervised by their doctors." - Livestrong

    Do those publications mention anything about acitvity? Because those numbers are for sedentary individuals. If one is working out, one is not sedentary. Hell, I do a 30-40 mile ride every Sunday...I would *kitten* die if I only ate 1500 calories.

    The ones that I've seen are describing absolute minimums for basic metabolic function, which implies or states no activity. Obviously, if you need more due to activity, you should eat more. These numbers are quoted as an absolute minimum for anyone, without proper supervision.

    This is not Basal Metabolic Rate they're talking about, thats an entirely different animal.
  • tryanother
    tryanother Posts: 36 Member
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    I used to eat them back, but I didn't lose any weight so I stopped completely. I feel fine though - not hungry at all. I might start eating them back once I have a HRM etc. to ACCURATELY measure calories burned. I think the fact that I did not lose had more to do with MFP overestimating calories burned during exercise. I might have been eating at maintenance.

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