Eat back calories burnded? No

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  • PixelPuff
    PixelPuff Posts: 901 Member
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    Everything in moderation. The general consensus that I've seen on MFP is to eat back a fourth to half of the calories burned, if you even do. I believe it also depends on the workout, to keep people from getting to anorexic-levels of exercise.
  • kimny72
    kimny72 Posts: 16,013 Member
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    MFP uses the NEAT method to give you your calorie goal, and it assumes you will eat back at least some of your exercise calories. So if you let MFP set your calorie goal, you should eat back some of your exercise calories or you will be at a bigger deficit than you need to be.

    If you use TDEE to determine your calories and set your calorie goal manually, then you would just eat to your preset goal, because that already takes into consideration your exercise.
  • 7lenny7
    7lenny7 Posts: 3,493 Member
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    I burned 2270 calories yesterday running 12.2 miles. It would be crazy for me not to eat most of those back if I want to continue to perform.
  • MissJay75
    MissJay75 Posts: 768 Member
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    That article only makes sense if you do not have a calorie goal with a built in deficit. As kimny said MFP provides a built in calorie deficit based on how many pounds per week you told it you wanted to lose.

    To spell it out, let's say you maintain on 1700 calories a day . To lose a pound a week, you could eat 1200 calories per day, and do no exercise. This is often the standard 1200 calories a lot of people try to eat at to lose weight.

    Alternatively you could burn away 500 calories per day through exercise, and eat 1700 calories. And still lose 1 pound per week. A lot of people specifically work out more so they can eat more.

    Part of the trick is knowing how many calories you are burning. The number on the machine at the gym, or suggested by the database here are not super accurate. They tend to overestimate the burn. Which is why you hear the suggestion to only eat part of them back.
  • omma_to_3
    omma_to_3 Posts: 3,265 Member
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    Actually, the article makes good sense. They're right, if your goal is to lose weight as fast as possible, don't eat your exercise calories back. The world won't end, your metabolism won't implode, and you'll lose weight, faster. But, if you're working out for a reason (make note he is talking about if you're working on solely for weight loss!) like training for a race, you cannot sustain that activity without fueling your body.

    I do eat my exercise calories back. I started working out so I could actually EAT MORE while losing weight. So for me, that's kind of the point. I now spend a fair amount of time training for races. I definitely need the extra calories for that.
  • 3dogsrunning
    3dogsrunning Posts: 27,167 Member
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    But the article does not address the point of how you set your calorie goal. It seems to be assuming people have a reasonable calorie goal and are moderately exercising. Nor does it even consider performance as others have mentioned.

    Following MFP, for those weigh a lot of weight to lose, smaller deficits, or moderate exercising, it might be fine to not eat your exercise calories back. But for those who set severe calorie deficits, especially with less weight to lose, and/or exercsing intensely, it is not such a great idea.

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