Eating my exercise calories

Matt71Fleming

I have a daily allocation of 1750 calories.I exercise daily (walking minimum 10000 steps).Should I be eating all my exercise calories as well.Friends/family say yes.Im a little confused.Ive not been eating my full allocation back and have lost 23llbs in 77 days.Steady but to me it seems very slow.Is this normal or slow weight loss?Any help is appreciated.

sarahdayski

From what ive read on here, no, as the calories are over estimated anyway. I would recommend eating back 50% of them. My calories are set at 2lbs per week but i lose more then that most weeks, im eating and feeling well so im not worried about it.

Matt71Fleming

Thanks for the advice.Ive not really been eating them all anyway.

Domicinator

I've gone back and forth on this. For the last few days I've been so crabby at the end of the day, I've been eating back all the exercise calories and just trusting that my Apple Watch is estimating accurate burn. It has not caused me any kind of slowdown or plateau. I've still lost 2 lbs. this week.

I say if you're hungry, eat them back. If you can get through the rest of the day without eating them back or just eating some of them back, then great.

jeffpettis

23 pounds in 11 weeks is 2 pounds a week so, depending on how much you have to lose, I'd say you are doing everything right. If you lose more than this in a week you risk some of it being lean muscle tissue which you want to avoid at all cost.

lemurcat12

I set to lightly active and think of my 10,000 steps as the minimum to really be lightly active, although I know Fitbit would adjust it a little more. If you aren't losing excessively, I'd not worry about it.

(Your loss rate is pretty high for the amount you want to lose--if you are already lower in body fat you would probably want to eat back some to avoid unnecessary muscle loss, is the only thing to be cautious about.)

rsclause

After doing the math I would let MFP add the exercise calories back to my target goal but would try to stay under. So when you think about it it's really the same as don't eat all back. I think as long as your losing weight but at a slow steady rate you should be good. The odd thing for me was that lost weight faster when I stayed closer to the calculated deficit than when I went way under. I also do a lot of running to keep things in check.

Matt71Fleming

My weight was 16st 2 down to 14st 7.My aim is to get to 14 st.Once I'm there (hopefully)I'll see how I'm feeling.Im never hungry just need to stop opening a fridge door to see what's there.I had a large midriff but it's went down a good bit so basically I'm just trying to getting rid of the rest.Its harder to lose than to gain.The exercise is really helping.Im over my target (10000) steps a day so that is pleasing.i was a bit confused about the exercise calories I knew it was to good to be true.Thanks for the advice.

Domicinator

matt71flemingm wrote: »

My weight was 16st 2 down to 14st 7.My aim is to get to 14 st.Once I'm there (hopefully)I'll see how I'm feeling.Im never hungry just need to stop opening a fridge door to see what's there.I had a large midriff but it's went down a good bit so basically I'm just trying to getting rid of the rest.Its harder to lose than to gain.The exercise is really helping.Im over my target (10000) steps a day so that is pleasing.i was a bit confused about the exercise calories I knew it was to good to be true.Thanks for the advice.

This is my main problem--at the end of the day, after dinner has been eaten, my log is complete, my exercising is all done, and it's time to relax for the night, I want to eat. I want to eat everything in the house. All the snacks, all the leftovers, everything. And it's not that I'm hungry--it's just that I want to eat stuff. My stomach is telling me I'm totally fine. My brain is telling me I need to eat.

This is a constant battle, and it makes me very crabby sometimes. The urge to eat is a completely different animal than being hungry, at least in my case.

Matt71Fleming

Domicinator you've hit the nail on the head.My brain also tells me eat my stomach says your full.So far I've resisted the urge.Think the fat photo stuck on the fridge door helps.Anyone who wants to add me as a friend then they would be most welcome.

WBB55

Domicinator wrote: »

matt71flemingm wrote: »

My weight was 16st 2 down to 14st 7.My aim is to get to 14 st.Once I'm there (hopefully)I'll see how I'm feeling.Im never hungry just need to stop opening a fridge door to see what's there.I had a large midriff but it's went down a good bit so basically I'm just trying to getting rid of the rest.Its harder to lose than to gain.The exercise is really helping.Im over my target (10000) steps a day so that is pleasing.i was a bit confused about the exercise calories I knew it was to good to be true.Thanks for the advice.

This is my main problem--at the end of the day, after dinner has been eaten, my log is complete, my exercising is all done, and it's time to relax for the night, I want to eat. I want to eat everything in the house. All the snacks, all the leftovers, everything. And it's not that I'm hungry--it's just that I want to eat stuff. My stomach is telling me I'm totally fine. My brain is telling me I need to eat.

This is a constant battle, and it makes me very crabby sometimes. The urge to eat is a completely different animal than being hungry, at least in my case.

I try to save some calories for an evening snack. I find it helps me remain sane. TYPICALLY my exercise for the day is what I use to "earn" a bit more of a nighttime snack (wine, chocolate, cheese... things I really enjoy and can savor). The trick with this is to not let a 200 calorie snack turn into a 2000 calorie eat-the-whole-bag-of-chocolate binge.

7lenny7

Domicinator wrote: »

I say if you're hungry, eat them back. If you can get through the rest of the day without eating them back or just eating some of them back, then great.

This is how I do it. Let my hunger be my guide. Like you I also love to eat at night, even though I'm not really hungry. It's my only weakness on my weight loss journey. One thing I've done is to do my running at night. I eat a very light dinner, or sometimes nothing, then go for a run around 9pm after it's cooled off. After 5 to 10 miles I'm looking at a 1000 to 2000 calorie burn. This, combined with what I had left from the rest of the day gives me plenty of calories to work with to eat until full. Quite often I'll have 300 to 1000 calories left over on top of the 500 that MFP factors in for me.