Should I eat some of my exercise calories

deb8411

I run 4 miles a day and burn 650 calories. Should I eat any of my calories burned?

kk_inprogress

Yes. MFP is designed so that you account for that and then add calories to sustain your nutritional and energy needs.

Most people say eating back half is a good idea because the calorie burns around here are very inflated.

Laughter_Girl

Gauge how you feel. If you feel like you need more to eat, which you probably will, eat more. I generally eat back at least half of my calories, but if I'm feeling exceptionally ravenous (happens often), I eat all my exercise calories.

rosebarnalice

I go on how I feel. I typically eat about 1/3 to 1/2 of my exercise calories--but there are some days where I don't feel I need any of them, and other days where I eat every single one.

TyishaPBrown

Helpful replies!

andres0691

That is up to you and your short term weight loss goals. If you want to burn 1 lb in a week you need to burn 500 calories from Monday to Sunday, so in that case you could reach your BMRxActivity level limit and consume 150 extra calories above that. For more info I suggest you google "BMR and Acitivty level calculator" to see how many calories you can consume to maintain weight.

deb8411

Thanks everyone!!

FatMoojor

How you are measuring your calorie burn is also important. If you are using a HR belt then there is a good chance your calorie burn is closer to the correct number, so you can eat more of these back.

If you are relying on MFP solely for your calorie burn then aim for eating 50% of them back.