exercise calories

bacitracin

I only partially eat them back because I find that their estimates for calories burned from activities are high...

I find they're low.

And I eat them back because I'm not an idiot and know that MFP is designed with a deficit calculated in place before measuring exercise calories and if you burn 500 on a treadmill, and even if you just enter 400, and you ate 1200 today which was your goal before exercising, your net is now 800. You burned at least 400 of those 1200, meaning you need more to hit your goal. If you overeat by 500 and then go lift some heavy things and go running, then you'll be on track.

Too many people don't know what "net" and "gross" are.

fbmandy55

Think of it this way.

You have your calorie goal for the day. You exercise and burn 200 calories. You are now 200 calories under you daily goal so yes, you need to eat them back.

Many people who claim to have success with this are 'netting' much lower than their body needs. You may see rapid weight loss for a bit but prepare for plateaus and rapid weight gain after.

LorinaLynn

I ate them back while I was losing and lost the weight I wanted to lose as predicted in about 6 months.

I currently go by a TDEE method, but it works out just about the same. It's just easier for me to aim for 2000 every day than, for example, 1700 one day and 2300 the next.

bevtyndall

bump

fbmandy55

I usually burn about 700 calories during the weekdays at the gym based on my HRM doing spin class and weight lifting. I eat back only 100 of those calories and I have lost 15 pounds since mid April and I am 4 pounds from my goal weight, so that it what works for me!

Good luck gaining back the weight you've lost.

If you are following the MFP calorie recommendation of 1200-1300 calories and burning 700 in exercise, do you realize you are actually consuming 500-600 calories a day total? No healthy and not going to give you lasting results.

WaterBunnie

I eat all of mine but use fitbit to calculate my burns because it's more conservative. I'm on this for the long haul and just wouldn't have the energy to exercise if I never ate them back.

antonjanik

I don't eat much back. I generally stay around 1700-2000 calories eaten a day, even if I burn 2-3,000 calories exercising that day (long runs (7-13 miles), long bike rides (30-40 miles)--I use an HRM to track calories...).

In the end, there's just no reason for me to consume all 2,000 calories MFP says I can eat before bed. It is often just too many calories to eat back.

Say its early evening and before dinner I run 8 miles--that's about 1,000 calories for me at my weight. I already have 1,000 calories left for dinner, and I don't need that many for dinner itself (say 750 or so). So I'll eat maybe 200 more, so I eat a total of 950 calories at dinner (and dessert! For me, that's usually a greek yogurt).

Having eaten that, I'm not hungry at all, and sleep fine, etc. I still lose plenty of weight, look good, and am happy with progress.

A.

bajoyba

I always eat most or all of my exercise calories, because that's how the MFP program is set up. And it works!
Leaving exercise calories uneaten can create too large of a deficit, which puts the body at greater risk for losing more lean body mass than necessary.

herblackwings39

I eat mine back, but I've often wondered why people who don't aren't just setting their profiles to maintain and exercising to create their deficit instead.

Achrya

I eat mine back, but I've often wondered why people who don't aren't just setting their profiles to maintain and exercising to create their deficit instead.

Cause inaccurate burns are inaccurate. I eat at 1700, which I know is already a 300+ calorie deficit for me, and don't think about anything else. Setting for maintenance still requires me to trust burn numbers to create a big enough cut.

shannonmarie752487

I had no idea this was even a thing. I would have thought it would be better to post "finished under her calorie goal" every day. I'm thinking now it would be better to break as close to even as possible in order to keep the muscle I'm building and to not lose too much fat too fast that I will just gain back. I'm trying to consume most of my calories in the middle of the day, with a light breakfast and only light snacks at night if I get really hungry. I usually work out in the evenings, so that way I know how many calories I need to burn. I'm sure I'm underestimating my calorie intake somewhat even though I try to be brutally honest. I'm going to try harder now to make sure I don't create big deficits.

RobP1192

Best thing to do is to play around, experiment with it, and see what works for you and your goals.

I don't record any of the exercise i do except for when i play soccer once a week, which is just casual fun for me. I don't know why i record it. But my calories are set at 2400 which is a deficit for me right now. I exercise, burn calories, don't record it. I eat up to 2400 and sometimes i go over a little. I've been doing this the past 3-4 weeks. Prior to that i was eating at maintenance which was 2700-2800 calories a day, still not recording exercise. So basically, i haven't been eating back exercise calories at all. I've lost weight, inches off my waist, no loss in my arms, legs or chest. Getting leaner, meaner, it's workin' for me.

So yeah, play around with it, see what works for you. Some people need to eat back their exercise calories. I've found that your body will just burn calories eaten instead of fat stores. So, you basically just lose weight. But it might not be the fat. You just go from being a big fat person to a small fat person. Everyone is different, you just have to find what works for you.

Just my opinion. I'm not a doctor, nutritionist, or fitness expert. I do what i do, and i haven't died or gotten sick.

soeh

After I had my son 21 months ago I started using the app to count calories and exercise. When I first started I would eat back the calories from the workouts and found that I wasn't losing any weight. I assumed I was just balancing the calories and that just made me maintain the weight, so I got discouraged and I've been on and off counting calories until now. It's been a week since I started my new diet, counting calories and working out to burn 500 cal a day. I have not been eating my exercise calories back and in 7 days I've lost 4 lbs and eating almost 1200 cal a day.

So in my experience not eating the calories has been working. I don't understand why they would add the calories back to the diet. If I'm trying to eat less a day to lose weight, why would I eat back the calories I'm burning off. It just doesn't make any sense to me, but then again I'm not a fitness expert. There must be a logic to why they made the app this way. I wish they would take that out because every time I complete my log for the day it tells me I'm under my calorie goal and that it's not healthy. That's not what I want to see at the end of my day since the whole purpose is to lose the baby weight and be healthy.

Mia_RagazzaTosta

After I had my son 21 months ago I started using the app to count calories and exercise. When I first started I would eat back the calories from the workouts and found that I wasn't losing any weight. I assumed I was just balancing the calories and that just made me maintain the weight, so I got discouraged and I've been on and off counting calories until now. It's been a week since I started my new diet, counting calories and working out to burn 500 cal a day. I have not been eating my exercise calories back and in 7 days I've lost 4 lbs and eating almost 1200 cal a day.

So in my experience not eating the calories has been working. I don't understand why they would add the calories back to the diet. If I'm trying to eat less a day to lose weight, why would I eat back the calories I'm burning off. It just doesn't make any sense to me, but then again I'm not a fitness expert. There must be a logic to why they made the app this way. I wish they would take that out because every time I complete my log for the day it tells me I'm under my calorie goal and that it's not healthy. That's not what I want to see at the end of my day since the whole purpose is to lose the baby weight and be healthy.

*Sigh

MFP already builds your calorie deficit into your goal. There is no reason to make it bigger by not eating exercise cals back.

Also, in 7 days you have lost 4 pounds of water weight, not fat.

fbmandy55

After I had my son 21 months ago I started using the app to count calories and exercise. When I first started I would eat back the calories from the workouts and found that I wasn't losing any weight. I assumed I was just balancing the calories and that just made me maintain the weight, so I got discouraged and I've been on and off counting calories until now. It's been a week since I started my new diet, counting calories and working out to burn 500 cal a day. I have not been eating my exercise calories back and in 7 days I've lost 4 lbs and eating almost 1200 cal a day.

So in my experience not eating the calories has been working. I don't understand why they would add the calories back to the diet. If I'm trying to eat less a day to lose weight, why would I eat back the calories I'm burning off. It just doesn't make any sense to me, but then again I'm not a fitness expert. There must be a logic to why they made the app this way. I wish they would take that out because every time I complete my log for the day it tells me I'm under my calorie goal and that it's not healthy. That's not what I want to see at the end of my day since the whole purpose is to lose the baby weight and be healthy.

So you are actually only consuming 700 calories a day then.

Once again, not losing fat, you are dropping water weight. Eventually, starving your body, you will see the weight loss stops and you start gaining back. MFP already has your deficit built in!!!

psuLemon

If you do a search you will find thousands of threads on this, but I will leave you with the below two threads to help.

http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/729141-exercise-calories-to-eat-or-not-to-eat-results?hl=exercise+calories+psulemon&page=1#posts-10742097

http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/506349-women-who-eat-more-than-1800-calories-a-day

ksy1969

After I had my son 21 months ago I started using the app to count calories and exercise. When I first started I would eat back the calories from the workouts and found that I wasn't losing any weight. I assumed I was just balancing the calories and that just made me maintain the weight, so I got discouraged and I've been on and off counting calories until now. It's been a week since I started my new diet, counting calories and working out to burn 500 cal a day. I have not been eating my exercise calories back and in 7 days I've lost 4 lbs and eating almost 1200 cal a day.

So in my experience not eating the calories has been working. I don't understand why they would add the calories back to the diet. If I'm trying to eat less a day to lose weight, why would I eat back the calories I'm burning off. It just doesn't make any sense to me, but then again I'm not a fitness expert. There must be a logic to why they made the app this way. I wish they would take that out because every time I complete my log for the day it tells me I'm under my calorie goal and that it's not healthy. That's not what I want to see at the end of my day since the whole purpose is to lose the baby weight and be healthy.

Lets try it this way. You tell MFP that you weigh this amount, your this age, your this height and this is your gender. You also tell MFP you want to lose 1.5lbs a week. MFP then kicks out a number of how many calories you can eat a day to lose 1.5lbs a week. Lets say that magic number is 1200 calories a day and then you burn 500 calories exercising. You claim you ate 1200 calories but in reality you burned 500 of that exercising so your net calorie intake is now 700 instead of 1200. You created a much higher deficit than you need to lose 1.5lbs a week. This may result in a faster weight loss but cannot be done long term and eventually leads to challenges down the road. People either quit or their weight loss stalls out.

If you are not losing weight with the system MFP set up then more than likely you are not tracking properly. You are either not weighing or measuring properly or you are not tracking everything you take in. There is also a possibility that there may be a medical issue but not likely.

psuLemon

After I had my son 21 months ago I started using the app to count calories and exercise. When I first started I would eat back the calories from the workouts and found that I wasn't losing any weight. I assumed I was just balancing the calories and that just made me maintain the weight, so I got discouraged and I've been on and off counting calories until now. It's been a week since I started my new diet, counting calories and working out to burn 500 cal a day. I have not been eating my exercise calories back and in 7 days I've lost 4 lbs and eating almost 1200 cal a day.

So in my experience not eating the calories has been working. I don't understand why they would add the calories back to the diet. If I'm trying to eat less a day to lose weight, why would I eat back the calories I'm burning off. It just doesn't make any sense to me, but then again I'm not a fitness expert. There must be a logic to why they made the app this way. I wish they would take that out because every time I complete my log for the day it tells me I'm under my calorie goal and that it's not healthy. That's not what I want to see at the end of my day since the whole purpose is to lose the baby weight and be healthy.

Your exercise calories where probably over estimated. Many of us will suggest eating 50%. 1200 calories is not enough for an active mother. Also, did you did not give your body enough time to adjust to the calories (you need to try stuff for a month) then it will be hard to tell where you really went wrong.

TeaBea

The weight comes off faster if you don't eat them back. I eat them back sometimes, but i always try to finish the day with at least a 200 cal surplus.

The operative word here is "weight" ..... yes, fat AND muscle does come off faster if you don't eat enough.

The difference between fast weight loss and HEALTHY weight loss is the amount of muscle mass lost by the end.

I eat back 100% of my exercise calories ..... but I am conservative. MFP & many machines tend to give inflated numbers. Use a HRM .... look up different sources ...... use the lowest estimate.

TeaBea

I had no idea this was even a thing. I would have thought it would be better to post "finished under her calorie goal" every day. I'm thinking now it would be better to break as close to even as possible in order to keep the muscle I'm building and to not lose too much fat too fast that I will just gain back. I'm trying to consume most of my calories in the middle of the day, with a light breakfast and only light snacks at night if I get really hungry. I usually work out in the evenings, so that way I know how many calories I need to burn. I'm sure I'm underestimating my calorie intake somewhat even though I try to be brutally honest. I'm going to try harder now to make sure I don't create big deficits.

It doesn't matter what time of day you eat ..... if you "plan" of exercise ..... and you typically burn XXX caloires ..... then just plan to eat those calories during the next day or two. Add healthy "calorie dense" foods back in (nuts, nut butters, avocado, olive oil) if you need to.

You are exercising to maintain muscle ...... many, many sources say you cannot build muscle while in deficit.