Eat back food calories burned or just overall calories?

_monicagarner

I work out in the morning on an empty stomach. I am aware you are supposed to eat back the calories you burn off.. Does this only apply to food calories (say I eat something 100 calories, burnt it off with excersise and now that energy is gone so I need to eat 100 calories to supply my body with energy) but since I workout on an empty stomach and I don't have any food calories do I still eat back those calories? What I'm basically trying to say is is it food calories I eat back or just overall calories in general?

tomatoey

Yes, eat your exercise calories, whether you ate or not. (Eat all the calories given to you.)

kyrannosaurus

..... a calorie is still a calorie even if you are exercising on an empty stomach, so yep, eat them (bare in mind that MFP estimates are usually over-inflated)

professionalHobbyist

kyrannosaurus wrote: »

..... a calorie is still a calorie even if you are exercising on an empty stomach, so yep, eat them (bare in mind that MFP estimates are usually over-inflated)

I have found this advice to work for me.

I eat back about half of my exercise calories usually and stay on track

KarenJanine

I've looked back through the past few days of your diary. What you have been doing is absolutely fine - you're eating your 1200 cals and then adding back some exercise calories. If you are losing weight then continue as you are.

terbusha

Many people do eat back exercise calories. Personally, I don't because it ends up making your intake not very consistent from day to day. I eat the same number of calories regardless of how I exercise. This gives me way more consistency and is easier for me to know if I'm in a plateau.

What I do and what I recommend to people is to eat at a calorie level that allows you to make good progress towards your goal. If you are trying to lose weight, eat so you drop 1-2 lbs/week. This assumes an average calorie burn from you getting in all of your workouts. This will be different for everyone, so you'll have to do some trial and error to figure it out. I'd start ~1600 cal/day. Hit this goal, along with your macros and getting in your workouts, for 2 weeks. If you lose 1-2 lbs/week, you're good to go. If you lose too much, increase your intake and repeat. If you don't lose enough, reduce your intake a bit and repeat. After a few cycles, you'll figure out what works for you in your situation.

maillemaker

You can eat back your calories. Just beware that MFP tends to be *very* optimistic for the number of calories it assigns to some exercises. 30 minutes of leisurely swimming does not burn 300 calories, for example.