Eating your exercise

menyeca71

would like to get a feel for how many people eat their earned exercise calories?

janejellyroll

I eat most of them.

ana3067

I do by default because I do TDEE method. When I did neat method I ate them back on work out days.

CharlieBeansmomTracey

I eat 50-75 percent. depending on how hungry I am afterward. sometimes I eat less than 50% but I always make sure I eat something back

AmyRhubarb

My goal is to eat as many calories as I can and still lose weight. Like ana3067, I also do the TDEE method, so I know my upper and lower calorie limits. My daily goal is 2000 cals, but I know I can go a bit higher if I want to and I'll still come in under maintenance cals and I won't gain.

MysticRealm

I do TDEE method as well so, by default, I also eat them back.

LITtlerMeCO

I do, especially on days I lift.

wishiwasarunner

I eat as many as I need/want to feel satisfied. Usually, I try to leave the majority of them uneaten - but some days I may exercise only to make up for a higher calorie day and so end up eating back all of them. You have to be careful how you are measuring them if you want to eat them back though. Be aware that MFP tends to dramatically overestimate the amount you burn on certain activities. IF you are relying on that calorie burn and eat it all back, you may find that you are not really at a deficit at all any more due to overestimation

mudmonkeyonwheels

I do. I will normally eat most of them back as my goal net is 1200-1400 anyway so I wouldn't want to go below that.

arditarose

I eat them back, and then some. Perhaps not on the same day I exercise, but at some point during the week.

TimothyFish

I eat them back, but I leave out a few to account for overlap with BMR and to make up for logging food incorrectly.

BWBTrish

TimothyFish wrote: »

I eat them back, but I leave out a few to account for overlap with BMR and to make up for logging food incorrectly.

For the same reason i eat 25% back of my exercise calories

Liftng4Lis

A portion of them.

toni632015

What is TDEE? thank you

AmyRhubarb

toni632015 wrote: »

What is TDEE? thank you

TDEE is Total Daily Energy Expenditure - or the number of cals the body burns all day long in a 24 hour period - sleeping, working, walking, watching tv, exercise, brushing your teeth, etc.

Great info here: In Place of a Road Map

minties82

I eat 30-50% percent back.

kpw818

I do TDEE, eat 1800 daily, and don't log exercise. Partially an experiment, to see if I need to eat more/less. So far its maintenance or just under. I tried to figure in calories burned exercising, and I think I figured too low.

But, this seems to be working overall. I'm not wanting to really eat more than that most days.

helenbenzie75

arditarose wrote: »

I eat them back, and then some. Perhaps not on the same day I exercise, but at some point during the week.

Yep in the same, I had 200 calories left over yesterday. If I need then during the week they are there for me to use if I don't then it helps my weight loss more.

azulvioleta6

I do not eat them back unless I have burned 1500+ calories. That seems to be the point at which exercise starts to make me hungrier and I need a couple hundred extra calories.

I have some unique health/metabolic issues. Most people probably should eat back a significant portion of their exercise calories, but that does not work for me.

sijomial

Yes - the ones you have earned taste the best.
You will have to account for them when you get to goal weight so why not while you are losing?

amusedmonkey

I eat every single calorie of them back. If I don't eat all of it one day I bank it for later.

hhnkhl

I stick with the regular routine regardless of the activity.

brocej

Nope. I eat (BMR * 1.35) * 0.75 everyday regardless of how much exercise I do.

lauracups

It varies by the day. If I have done a lot of cardio and weights and had a busy active day I will have most those calories back IF I have the appetite increase too. When I log my workouts I've already cut it in half from what mfp said I burned. I try to plan ahead as much as possible if I know what type of food I'll be having at a social event etc. After a while it becomes habit.

pinkteapot3

I just do MFP the way it was designed - using the cal goal it gives me and not worrying about TDEE, BMR or any of the other acronyms on here that confuse me. I eat 100% of my exercise cals and have lost 11lbs in 11 weeks, with it set to a goal of 1lb per week.

I do log both food and exercise with an OCD level of accuracy. All food is weighed, and for exercise I only log my running and cycling. I use apps to record my running and bike rides, so I know the exact speed and time and can log accordingly. If I do something like walk to the local shop (2 mins away) or do a bit of weeding in the garden, I don't log that. Things that don't even raise the heart rate.

callsitlikeiseeit

when i was at 1200 cals i ate them all back. i was hungry. so hungry. LOL

upped to 1500 and now (am not hungry LOL!) and will eat back if i am hungry or want a treat but thats about it.

RoxieDawn

Pretty simple, eat some of them or all of them if you need them.

Deficit= weight loss.

rebeccahunt718

I try not to because I read an article stating most people tend to underestimate calories eaten and overestimate calories burned. The only exercise calories I count on MPF are what my fitbit calculates. I try to keep myself in a deficit with that and not eat back those calories. However, if I go over my 1200 calorie goal for the day by +/- 100 calories, I don't kick myself over it.

Good luck on your weight loss goals!

WeddedBliss1992

i do not. i don't even log exercise.

SuzyH

My most successful weight loss was not even counting the calories burned from exercising. However, (I fell off the wagon!), this time around I log the exercise because I like to see it, but try to keep really close to the calories before exercise. There are days, though, when I am really hungry that I allow myself to eat some of the calories back. Weight loss for me is better, however, not eating the calories back.

ana3067

kpw818 wrote: »

I do TDEE, eat 1800 daily, and don't log exercise. Partially an experiment, to see if I need to eat more/less. So far its maintenance or just under. I tried to figure in calories burned exercising, and I think I figured too low.

But, this seems to be working overall. I'm not wanting to really eat more than that most days.

If you've only just recently increased to 1800 after eating much lower than this, you're probably just adjusting to it. I wasn't losing on a calorie goal that was LOWER than what I was losing weight on last month - stalls, adjustments, etc all happen. So you need to give it a month or so to see if you lose at all (I don't always follow thsi advice, but I've been doing TDEE for a while now and I've decided I want to lose a bit faster than 0.5lb/week so I lowered my calories a bit again)