Eating Back Exercise Calories Burned?

greengrassgala
greengrassgala Posts: 15 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
Hi Everyone:

I'm currently 190lbs, 5' 5" and consuming 1200 calories a day. So far, I find it to be ok. On average, I burn about 400 calories a day walking 3+ miles (I also do a lot of work around the house in the evenings).

My question is whether I should eat back the calories I burned exercising? Or should I just go about it as if I I burned 0 calories and stick to the 1200 diet without adding calories?

Thank you for reading!

ggg

Replies

  • macgurlnet
    macgurlnet Posts: 1,946 Member
    How are you determining the calories burned?

    If you're logging it through MFP, eat back a portion (say 50%) of what it gives you and continue to do that for 4-6 weeks. Evaluate you weight loss at that point and you'll know if you can eat back more, less, or stay the same.

    You shouldn't net fewer than 1200 calories so you definitely should eat them back!

    ~Lyssa
  • greengrassgala
    greengrassgala Posts: 15 Member
    Thank you for the response, Lyssa.

    I am using MapMyWalk to determine calories burned during my walks and using MFP to log my food and exercise.

    Are you saying that regardless of calories burned and calories consumed, I should aim for 1200 net (so eat back exercise calories if I go under the 1200 threshold)?

    According to MFP, my calories burned is 1,960 cal/day (set to sedentary). MFP suggests a daily caloric deficit of 760 cals. So my #s took like this -1960 + 1200 - 400 = -1160 caloric deficit daily (without eating back my exercise calories).


    As I mentioned before, I do a lot of stuff around the house and go up and down the stairs, too at least 30 time a day. I do housework that includes folding laundry, washing dishes, tidying up, etc. On top of this, I'm at my desk for quite a while for work (I'm at home working most days). I don't log any of this in MFP unless it's lengthy/substantial.

    Thanks again for reading!



  • macgurlnet
    macgurlnet Posts: 1,946 Member
    Many of the folks that help out here recommend that you do NOT net fewer than 1200 calories in order to ensure you're getting proper nutrition. Can you do it on fewer? Probably. I'm 5' even and occasionally I eat less than that - generally on a day when I'm not feeling the greatest and eating in general is a chore.

    Anyway!

    Yes, eat back your exercise calories. Up to you if you eat back all of them or a portion. Whichever you go with, stick to it for a minimum of 4 weeks, then see if you need to make adjustments.

    The daily deficit of 760 calories per day should give you a weight loss of 1.5lb/wk averaged out over time.

    ~Lyssa
  • strong_curves
    strong_curves Posts: 2,229 Member
    greengrassgala wrote: »
    Thank you for the response, Lyssa.

    I am using MapMyWalk to determine calories burned during my walks and using MFP to log my food and exercise.

    Are you saying that regardless of calories burned and calories consumed, I should aim for 1200 net (so eat back exercise calories if I go under the 1200 threshold)?

    According to MFP, my calories burned is 1,960 cal/day (set to sedentary). MFP suggests a daily caloric deficit of 760 cals. So my #s took like this -1960 + 1200 - 400 = -1160 caloric deficit daily (without eating back my exercise calories).


    As I mentioned before, I do a lot of stuff around the house and go up and down the stairs, too at least 30 time a day. I do housework that includes folding laundry, washing dishes, tidying up, etc. On top of this, I'm at my desk for quite a while for work (I'm at home working most days). I don't log any of this in MFP unless it's lengthy/substantial.

    Thanks again for reading!



    Just curious, are you counting your housework calories?

  • honkytonks85
    honkytonks85 Posts: 669 Member
    Unless you feel like your calories burned are fairly precise (eg you did steady state cardio and you used a HRM), I would be wary of trusting those numbers. I usually eat back some but not all.

    The other thing about calories burned is that the figures you are given also factor in the number of calories that you'd have burned if you didn't do exercise. For example I go to an aerobics class and burn 400 calories in an hour. I would have burned 70 calories anyway which is already factored into my TDEE. So if I count 400 calories then I am double counting 70.. really it should be 330 calories.

    I would fiddle around with your numbers and figure out what works.
  • greengrassgala
    greengrassgala Posts: 15 Member
    macgurlnet wrote: »
    Many of the folks that help out here recommend that you do NOT net fewer than 1200 calories in order to ensure you're getting proper nutrition. Can you do it on fewer? Probably. I'm 5' even and occasionally I eat less than that - generally on a day when I'm not feeling the greatest and eating in general is a chore.

    Anyway!

    Yes, eat back your exercise calories. Up to you if you eat back all of them or a portion. Whichever you go with, stick to it for a minimum of 4 weeks, then see if you need to make adjustments.

    The daily deficit of 760 calories per day should give you a weight loss of 1.5lb/wk averaged out over time.

    ~Lyssa

    So far, I've eaten back my calories on most days. Mind you, I've only been at this for about a week. There are days, however, like today, where I seem to have burned a lot and need to have a 1k cal dinner to eat back my exercise calories... So I'll have to take it day by day.

    Also, I'm sort of paranoid that perhaps MapMyWalk is over estimating the calories I've burned?

    strong_curves, hi! :smile: As mentioned, I don't normally count the housework as exercise unless it's something out of the norm that requires some time or is substantial in length or effort. For example, I logged 15 mins of lawn mowing today because I helped mow a part of our lawn (something I rarely ever do, if ever).
    honkytonks85 wrote: »
    Unless you feel like your calories burned are fairly precise (eg you did steady state cardio and you used a HRM), I would be wary of trusting those numbers. I usually eat back some but not all.

    The other thing about calories burned is that the figures you are given also factor in the number of calories that you'd have burned if you didn't do exercise. For example I go to an aerobics class and burn 400 calories in an hour. I would have burned 70 calories anyway which is already factored into my TDEE. So if I count 400 calories then I am double counting 70.. really it should be 330 calories.

    I would fiddle around with your numbers and figure out what works.

    honkytonks, that's precisely my concern. What if the #s are higher than they actually are? I've considered getting a gadget that mesures HRM, etc.

    I think I need to continue doing this to get a sense of how accurate the numbers are and what, if anything, I need to change/do to get accurate feedback.

    Thanks, all, for the awesome responses! Totally helpful and got me thinking. Hope everyone's journey is going well!!!

Categories