Should I eat back my exercise calories when maintaining?

scrittrice

kanerz14 wrote: »

Im still kinda stuck with the notion that whilst losing I never ate back excercise calories. Now that I'm maintaining and excercising more I still get scared to eat more as logic would assume that I'd gain, as I am still maintaing my weight whilst excercising more. Anyone have any idea why this may be? I still log as accurately as possible.

You're using the TDEE method, meaning you've incorporated your exercise into your maintenance calories and are averaging it out. That's fine, too, but if you're maintaining you're eating back your exercise calories in one way or another.

kanerz14

sijomial wrote: »

kanerz14 wrote: »

Im still kinda stuck with the notion that whilst losing I never ate back excercise calories. Now that I'm maintaining and excercising more I still get scared to eat more as logic would assume that I'd gain, as I am still maintaing my weight whilst excercising more. Anyone have any idea why this may be? I still log as accurately as possible.

@kanerz14
What does "exercising more" mean? One extra 350 cal workout a week would take ten weeks to lose a pound.

Your food diary contains suspiciously round numbers! Either you deliberately measure out 10/15/25g portions or you are estimating a lot. (Nothing wrong with that by the way.)
Also nothing wrong with doing the TDEE method which effectively you

Thanks for the repy. I do weigh my portion sizes and looking back on my diary there is no particular rounding. I do little estimating.

With regards the increase in exercising more. I have had between 600-900 odd more calories to eat back owing to me taking up running and increasing mileage. I still do strength training on off run days.

I have eaten back sone excercise cals but not yet doing this routinely. As i said its a bit scary as dont wanna fall into old habits or see/feel a significant increase in the scale.

nikkiab86

christinev297 wrote: »

I'm a bit stuck on the fact that your maintenance calories are only 1420. You must be teeny tiny

I was thinking that. I'm 5'8/173cm and my maintenance is 1700-1800.

ericGold15

OP: are you exercising the same amount now as you did during your diet, and do you plan to continue the same ?
Are you going to continue logging your food ?

Regarding the arithmetic part of your question, here is a mini tutorial that should let you figure this stuff out on your own:

Calories in > Calories out = weight gain
Calories in < Calories out = weight loss
Calories in = Calories out = stable weight
The locals like to call this CICO

Calories in = food
Calories out = exercise, BMR, and activities of daily living (ADL.)
For most of us outside of exercise we are pretty sedentary. If that is you too, ignore ADL
BMR is the daily calories a body burns just to be alive. Calculators can be found on the web if you are skeptical of the number you currently use.

Substituting terms, we get for stable weight
BMR + exercise = food

Figuring out exercise can be tricky with many a device over estimating. This is why folks suggested you plug in 50% of your device reported exercise. Most of us would rather find we have to eat a little more to enter maintenance rather than find we gained weight.

Christine_72

nikkiab86 wrote: »

christinev297 wrote: »

I'm a bit stuck on the fact that your maintenance calories are only 1420. You must be teeny tiny

I was thinking that. I'm 5'8/173cm and my maintenance is 1700-1800.

I'm the same height as you @nikkiab86 and my tdee is around 2,200

earthnut

I am 5'2" and my maintenance calories are 1450-1500.

nikkiab86

christinev297 wrote: »

nikkiab86 wrote: »

christinev297 wrote: »

I'm a bit stuck on the fact that your maintenance calories are only 1420. You must be teeny tiny

I was thinking that. I'm 5'8/173cm and my maintenance is 1700-1800.

I'm the same height as you @nikkiab86 and my tdee is around 2,200

1700-1800 is for when I'm sedentary. I'm not really an active person.

3dogsrunning

juliet3455 wrote: »

3dogsrunning wrote: »

What did you do to lose the weight? Did you include exercise or not?
What was your average calorie intake? What was your weight loss?
How you did that will help to figure out how to approach maintenance.

@jenpretlow A great summary in 4 simple questions from @3dogsrunning.
I always refer people back to the http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/833026/important-posts-to-read/p1
There are a few stickied posts that might answer your question, especially the ones in the "Setting Your Calorie and Macro Targets"

I agree with the concept that this will take some trial and error as stated by @editorgrrl, @Sabine_Stroehm, @xtrain321 and @earlnabby . Its a Science Experiment and you adjust your inputs as the outputs change until you achieve the desired goal/balance.

@juliet3455 - thanks but I was asking how she did it to help her figure out how she should approach maintainance.

carolyn000000

I eat them back always, I burn 600-700 calories per workout though. (I am on a Spartan training team) On days I don't workout I eat at a maintenance level, I just like food to much. I am in a losing phase now though because I gained (9lbs!) by just not paying attention and not logging my food. (I got cocky!) Lost 5 pounds in 13 days, eating 1500 calories plus my 600. That is a nice amount of food and I don't get hungry but can still lose. You only know if you are calculating calories you burn by whether or not you are losing weight. I always knock off a 100 calories or so just to be on the safe side. For example, I know I am underestimating my calories because I am set to lose 1.5 pounds a week and I am over 2 per week.

Samm471

Wow that is pretty low on cals I'm
5'1 and my TDEE is 2002 to be exact! My BMR is like 1720

JeanCricket

I typically eat back my exercise calories. I've been maintaining for 1 year and so far so good

TacoTina

I exercise 6 days a week, watch my caloric intake for 5 months now and can't really seem to lose any weight maybe a lb here here and there but I would like to loose like 15-20 lbs. I was adding my calories burned while working out. My goal calories is 1200 them add in 500-700 calories burned. So should I stay at the 1200 calorie goal and not add the calories burned? Help I can't lose weight!

sijomial

TacoTina wrote: »

I exercise 6 days a week, watch my caloric intake for 5 months now and can't really seem to lose any weight maybe a lb here here and there but I would like to loose like 15-20 lbs. I was adding my calories burned while working out. My goal calories is 1200 them add in 500-700 calories burned. So should I stay at the 1200 calorie goal and not add the calories burned? Help I can't lose weight!

@TacoTina
Everyone can lose weight.

What does "exercise" actually mean? What are you doing? For how long? How are you estimating calorie 500 - 700 calorie burns?

Your food diary is full of entries using cups - that's a really inaccurate way to estimate food. Throw them away and start weighing.

runner_girl83

I'm 160cm and a small build. I didn't have a lot to lose, just baby weight from my last pregnancy. My BMR is 1320 calories and I usually burn around 250-300 calories through exercise (walking/running) each day so I'm aiming to eat at 1700 calories (as I think my exercise calories are a little less compared to what my old HR monitor used to show) I'm just going to see how I go over the next few weeks. If weight increases, i'll adjust the 1700 so it's a little lower. I feel great and never thought I would be running, of all things! I'm enjoying a bit of extra food but will keep a close eye on it to make sure my numbers are working.

TacoTina

sijomial wrote: »

TacoTina wrote: »

I exercise 6 days a week, watch my caloric intake for 5 months now and can't really seem to lose any weight maybe a lb here here and there but I would like to loose like 15-20 lbs. I was adding my calories burned while working out. My goal calories is 1200 them add in 500-700 calories burned. So should I stay at the 1200 calorie goal and not add the calories burned? Help I can't lose weight!

@TacoTina
Everyone can lose weight.

What does "exercise" actually mean? What are you doing? For how long? How are you estimating calorie 500 - 700 calorie burns?

Your food diary is full of entries using cups - that's a really inaccurate way to estimate food. Throw them away and start weighing.

TacoTina

will do I will start weighing food instead of using a cup measure and thank you for the reply:)

TacoTina

amyrebeccah wrote: »

sijomial wrote: »

TacoTina wrote: »

I exercise 6 days a week, watch my caloric intake for 5 months now and can't really seem to lose any weight maybe a lb here here and there but I would like to loose like 15-20 lbs. I was adding my calories burned while working out. My goal calories is 1200 them add in 500-700 calories burned. So should I stay at the 1200 calorie goal and not add the calories burned? Help I can't lose weight!

@TacoTina
Everyone can lose weight.

What does "exercise" actually mean? What are you doing? For how long? How are you estimating calorie 500 - 700 calorie burns?

Your food diary is full of entries using cups - that's a really inaccurate way to estimate food. Throw them away and start weighing.

It's in her exercise diary--she's using cardio machines (elliptical, stair stepper, etc) and it appears some circuit training style classes. OP, your exercise looks fine. I would tighten up your logging (things like trail mix especially, accuracy is really important on something calorie dense). I don't know your stats or exactly how much weight you're trying to lose, but it's going to be pretty slow because you already appear to be a healthy weight.

TacoTina

thank you for the reply I feel pretty healthy too just would like to loose about 15 lbs, i'll start weighing food tomorrow no more cup measurements and thank you for the compliment too.