Exercise calories...eat or not?

lolagranola1

Ok... so i am wondering about your exercise calories. Do you eat the earned calories from exercise?

IzzyBooNZ1

I don't.

I don't have a Heart rate monitor, can't afford one so can't get an accurate calorie burn. Plus it's easier for me *is dim* . It's too much for my small brain if I had to eat them back

I calculated my TDEE on scooby workshop to be around 1600. I just log exercise as 1 .

Jruzer

I do, pretty much all of them. But I make sure to calculate them as accurately as I can.

sijomial

IzzyBooNZ1 wrote: »

I don't.

I don't have a Heart rate monitor, can't afford one so can't get an accurate calorie burn. Plus it's easier for me *is dim* . It's too much for my small brain if I had to eat them back

I calculated my TDEE on scooby workshop to be around 1600. I just log exercise as 1 .

So you are eating exercise calories!
You do realise TDEE includes exercise?

earlnabby

I eat back most of my fitbit calories because their estimations are pretty dead on. I eat back about 25% of the calories I log from my swimming because I don't trust the MFP database. Overall I probably average somewhere around 50-60% of my exercise calories. It has worked very well so far:

barbecuesauce

sijomial wrote: »

IzzyBooNZ1 wrote: »

I don't.

I don't have a Heart rate monitor, can't afford one so can't get an accurate calorie burn. Plus it's easier for me *is dim* . It's too much for my small brain if I had to eat them back

I calculated my TDEE on scooby workshop to be around 1600. I just log exercise as 1 .

So you are eating exercise calories!
You do realise TDEE includes exercise?

+10

Also, HRMs aren't completely accurate--if you lift or do interval training especially.

I've done it all 3 ways--eating none, eating half, eating all. I'd say that MFP's burns are roughly 75% accurate for me (they say I burn 100, I lose a pound a week eating 75). YMMV, OP, so maybe start at 50% and adjust as needed.

MireyGal76

Jruzer wrote: »

I do, pretty much all of them. But I make sure to calculate them as accurately as I can.

this... provided I'm hungry. If I'm not, then I'll allow myself to go under and then have a little extra on the weekend or the next day.

Often times if I have a mega calorie burn, I won't be hungry that day, but will be RAVENOUS the next.

lolagranola1

Good info yall! Thanks so much.

sscardina01

I don't log my exercise until the end of the day. That way, I'm not tempted to eat anything I've burned.

But, once I do import the info from my Polar, my macro numbers go back up and I know you should hit all your macros daily but I can't eat that much.

fishcat123

I eat back some of them if I'm very hungry - I go on long hikes pretty often and eating 1200 calories in a day when I hike 10 miles isn't really realistic or healthy! However, I'll only eat nutrient dense food - another portion of salmon or a piece of fruit or something like that, and rarely eat any back for normal running/yoga/elliptical days, unless I'm unusually active or feel like really need them.

startrekkermd

Hmm.
I'm on a fitness kick this month. I will run 2.5 km for a warm-up and then bike 15 to 20 km at a decent pace.

My BMI is 29 all my HR monitor ( chest strap polar ft7 and my Tom Tom runner wrist) both seem to agree I burn about 800 to 1000 calories.

My MFP goal is about 1700, I routinely eat under that cause I'm bad about weighing ...

So today I burnt 950 and I ate around 1400 .. Didn't eat anything back.

Hopefully I'm not shooting myself in the foot by doing that

lseed87

Just depends. Usually none or half

Christine_72

I usually leave a couple hundred calories in the bank to account for logging errors, and I eat back the rest.

MamaBirdBoss

I'm trying to lose weight, so.....NO. I eat only a tiny bit more than the baseline that MFP wants me to for my sedentary lifestyle, regardless of other things.

RuNaRoUnDaFiEld

I eat around half of them back, maybe slightly more if I feel I need them.

Christine_72

MamaBirdBoss wrote: »

I'm trying to lose weight, so.....NO. I eat only a tiny bit more than the baseline that MFP wants me to for my sedentary lifestyle, regardless of other things.

Are you also watching your net calories?

discretekim

I eat a lot of them back. I also go over my calorie goals often. But it just depends. I'm more working on lifestyle and aiming to lose gradually so i know this is really sustainable. I get hungry after exercise.

malibu927

MamaBirdBoss wrote: »

I'm trying to lose weight, so.....NO. I eat only a tiny bit more than the baseline that MFP wants me to for my sedentary lifestyle, regardless of other things.

The way MFP is set up, exercise is not accounted for in your goal. So when you do work out, your maintenance calories go up. In order to keep the deficit the same and fuel your body, you should eat back a portion of those calories.

I eat most, if not all of them back, as I use a Fitbit. But if you're just going from what MFP or the machines say, stick to half of those numbers to account for overestimations.

shadow2soul

Yes, I eat mine. I don't actually log exercise on MFP, but my Fitbit makes the necessary adjustments for me. I have MFP set to lightly Active with 1 lb per week loss; that gives me a calorie goal of about 1430 NET. My total intake averages out to be 1903 for the last 30 days with just over 1 lb per week loss. This is my happy spot.

Averages aside; some days I eat 100% of the adjustment, some days I eat only a portion and then there are days that I eat the ones that I didn't eat before (so over MFP's goal, but fine in terms of weekly calories). I'm not sure I could workout as much or with the intensity I do and maintain my sanity if I didn't eat these calories.

Another side note is that outside of social events or eating out, all my food is weighed on a food scale and liquids are measured with cups. This helps me be as accurate as I can about how much I'm eating.