CAN I EAT BACK MY BURNED CALORIES?

nicoleramseyer

I'm currently eating pretty good throughout the day and I burn calories through exercise as well. But if let's say I burn 200 calories can I eat that back in healthy foods or snacks? Or no

3dogsrunning

Typically, yes.
But...
It really depends on how you are estimating them and what type of activity. A lot of people choose to eat a portion of them back to err on the side of caution since there is no one method of estimating perfectly.

200 isn't too high. The higher the estimate, the more cautious I would be.

The best way to figure it out is to pick a starting point, whether that is eating all of them back, or a certain percentage back (like 50% or 75%) and tracking for several weeks.

Personally, I followed MFP calorie goals and logged and ate back all my exercise calories and was successful.

A good read
http://www.myfitnesspal.com/blog/Azdak/view/estimating-calories-activity-databases-198041
http://www.myfitnesspal.com/blog/Azdak/view/exercise-calories-sometimes-the-cardio-machines-are-more-accurate-404739

wizzybeth

^This. As long as you are not over estimating calorie burn.

I sometimes choose NOT to eat the extra calories if I am not hungry (that's rare, I always want to eat, lol)

Asher_Ethan

Yes but some things on MFP can be extremely over estimated. Today I helped my sister move for 6 hours. I looked up moving for 6 hours on MFP and it said I burned 2858 calories and I KNOW there is no way I burned that. So I put it in as 90 minutes which is 714 calories and that sounds more accurate.

3dogsrunning

Asher_Ethan wrote: »

Yes but some things on MFP can be extremely over estimated. Today I helped my sister move for 6 hours. I looked up moving for 6 hours on MFP and it said I burned 2858 calories and I KNOW there is no way I burned that. So I put it in as 90 minutes which is 714 calories and that sounds more accurate.

One of the links I posted addressed that. Basically, the more generalized and activity is, the less likely it is to be accurate.

6 hours of moving can widely vary. I'd guess someone who does it professionally does a lot more work than the average joe moving something.
Even entries with descriptions like "vigorous" will be hard to justify since that can vary widely between people.

robertw486

Agree with the above. Finding the proper logging for exercise is the hardest part. If you can do that, you can eat back all the exercise calories you want.