Do you eat calories burned through exercise?

elliotl530

Hey,
I was just wondering what people's thoughts are on using calories earned through exercise as a way of being able to eat more or a way of increasing the calorific deficit.
For example, my daily allowance is just over 2000 calories a day, I know from using my heart rate monitor that a 25 minute kettlebell workout burns just short of 300 calories (not including those extra calories burned due to increased metabolic rate).
Would you guys allow yourselves to eat an extra 300 calories to break even or would you leave the extra 300 in the bank so to speak?

jemhh

I would eat them.

Are you sure that 300 calories is right though?

Unknown

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autumnblade75

I would generally allow myself the extra calories. At that level, I don't think it's going to make a huge difference, unless you were already starving on the 2000 calories. If you're already struggling, definitely eat them. If you're not losing as quickly as you'd like, don't eat them.

Upstate_Dunadan

Agree, depends on your goal. If you want to maintain your weight or gain muscle, not eating exercise calories back will put you back at a deficit and make hitting those goals hard or impossible.

Fair warning, expect posts about the accuracy of using a HR to calculate calorie burn of weight training exercise.

I use an HRM (chest strap) while working out with weights, so I get a calorie burn which I track, but I use TDEE to calculate my daily calories, so I'm not worried if my burn rate (even using Polar's strength training algorithm) is off.

elliotl530

I'm not starving at all, but I'm also aware that operating at too large a deficit can kill my metabolism. I currently weigh 192lbs and want to get to around 180. I'm fairly confident on the 300 calories burned being as accurate as possible, all calculators online and on this app tally up with my heart rate monitor on other activities, if anything the heart rate monitor tends to be fairly conservative.

TheVirgoddess

I'm using the TDEE method, so I do not.

When I did, I'd only eat back half of my exercise calories, to be on the safe side. I like to err on the side of caution.

elliotl530

Sorry for being daft but what's the TDEE method?

annaskiski

I have a new HRM which reports both active and resting calories burned during exercise.

For example, I walked about 2.5 miles yesterday on my lunch break. (about an hour)
It reports:
Total Calories: 281
Active Calories: 171
Resting : 110

In other words, I only burned 171 calories more than I would have if I had just sat at my desk the whole time.

So, if you eat back calories, you should only be eating the active calories, not the total calories, since the resting calories are already accounted for.

If I punch in an hour walk into MFP though, I get the total calorie number. I know that my old HRM also only reported the total calories.
Do any of the other new HRMs report total vs active calories?

shadow2soul

elliotl530 wrote: »

Sorry for being daft but what's the TDEE method?

You calculate what you need to maintain your current weight with your current level of exercise. Then you take a % off of that number.

For example, my TDEE is approx 2500. To lose weight, I need to eat less than 2500 calories. Since I don't have much to lose, I'd probably go with a 10-15% cut. So 2125 - 2250 calories everyday no matter what I do that day. This should have me averaging approx 0.5 - 0.75 lbs per week loss.
With TDEE, you are technically eating back exercise calories, but they are spread out evenly across the week instead of getting more calories one day and less on another (MFP's way).

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As for your original question, yes I eat mine. MFP gives me 1399 when set to Lightly Active for 1 lb per week loss. My exercise and any extra activity above and beyond what MFP predicts is tracked by my Fitbit. Fitbit sends over the information and I get more calories to eat. I'm averaging an intake of about 2054 calories currently (30 day average).