Eating back calories

SecretGift
SecretGift Posts: 16 Member
edited November 17 in Health and Weight Loss
Should you eat back calories that you've burnt off?

Replies

  • uvi5
    uvi5 Posts: 710 Member
    edited April 2015
    I have read from other posts that to eat back 25, 50 to 75% due to overestimated burns. Sometimes I eat back 1/2 or less. Been working good so far. Good Luck.

    Edit to add: I'm set to "sedentary" at 1200/day (was at 1420/day, just experimenting till I find my sweet number :tongue: ). I add my exercise throughout the day, then decide how much I will eat back, dependant on how much I workout.
  • jaqcan
    jaqcan Posts: 498 Member
    I wouldn't, they are hard to estimate accurately. However if you are hungry, can't focus, feel dizzy, and a glass of water won't make the hunger go away, ABSOLUTELY eat something.
  • barbecuesauce
    barbecuesauce Posts: 1,771 Member
    I eat back half-most and am losing 1 lb/week (52 pounds total so far). I am also sedentary/1200 a day so I pretty much have to work out :)
  • janejellyroll
    janejellyroll Posts: 25,763 Member
    jaqcan wrote: »
    I wouldn't, they are hard to estimate accurately. However if you are hungry, can't focus, feel dizzy, and a glass of water won't make the hunger go away, ABSOLUTELY eat something.

    But it isn't hard to estimate that you burned something.

    Waiting for dizziness or loss of focus is insane. Choose a portion to eat back, monitor your results, and adjust as necessary.

    No starvation necessary.
  • Gizmo20783
    Gizmo20783 Posts: 36 Member
    I never eat back my calories but if I feel a binge coming on from hunger I eat something.
  • diannethegeek
    diannethegeek Posts: 14,776 Member
    http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/818082/exercise-calories-again-wtf
  • atypicalsmith
    atypicalsmith Posts: 2,742 Member
    I rarely eat back exercise calories, but as long as I have some, if I feel like eating a little something extra, I will as long as I stay under MFP's goal.
  • cwolfman13
    cwolfman13 Posts: 41,865 Member
    You should account for exercise activity somewhere. The way MFP is designed is to give you your calorie goals based on your day to day WITHOUT exercise which is why you log it when you do it and get those calories to "eat back." Other calculators include such estimates in your activity level and thus your calorie targets to begin with.

    Fueling your fitness and accounting for that activity is important. When you get past the notion of exercise for weight loss and start thinking of exercise for the sake of fitness, it makes a lot more sense. Exercise is very good for you...but it can also be a tremendous stress on the body...to recover from this stress and re-build and make fitness gains, nutrition (quality) and energy (calories) are required.

    You will note that most fit and healthy people also eat.
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