Do you eat the calories you are burning from exercise?

RGv2

g8britten wrote: »

no i don't eat a single exercise calorie

Elaboration?

We've covered a few different scenarios here as to why some would and some wouldn't, mostly dependent upon which strategy they are using.

Weird place to drop a one line answer in, especially if you actually read the previous 4 and a half pages.

chelseascounter

No, because I'm sure not sure how many calories I really burned. I need a heart monitor!

jeepinshawn

When I was losing I tried to eat back less then 25%. I lost a ton of weight, no complaints from me. Of course I did my best to maintain a high amount of protein, and stayed active so that I didn't lose tons of muscle. Sure I probably lost some but I'd rather rebuild what was lost then drag out the weight loss eating at a deficit for another year.

sbl1881

I just started back on here, but I'm going to try and adjust every 2-3 weeks. I may be totally over thinking this, but the 2 week method will give me a good idea of what works and what doesn't, and adjust as I go. It also increases the calories as my workouts get more intense, which will help fuel me for the next one. Feel free to tear this apart. I like analyzing stuff, so why not do it for my diet too!

Week 1-2 - 1,300 calories, don't eat back exercise calorie burn (which, I'll admit are fairly light now)

Weeks 3-4 - 1,300 calories, eat back 50% of exercise calories burned

Weeks 5-6 - 1,300 calories, eat back 75% of exercise calories burned

Weeks 7-8 - 1,300 calories, eat back 75% of exercise calories burned

Weeks 9-10 - Adjust calorie allowance to 1,500, eat back 25% of exercise calories burned

Gisel2015

ElizabethOakes2 wrote: »

synacious wrote: »

ElizabethOakes2 wrote: »

I bank calories, too. Of course, sometimes, like tonight, things happen, like, you know, opening my oven and finding a rat

NOOOOO. Oh my God. I live in NYC and I'm deathly afraid of them. How did you deal with that? It would take me a long time to use my oven again.

I'd like to say that I calmly caught the rat, threw it over the back fence, and went about my evening. The reality is that I screamed like a sissy-child and threw the broiler pan at it, along with the perfectly seasoned steak that I was preparing for dinner. The rat, apparently afraid of seasoned steaks and screaming women, ran up the back of the stove, across the cabinet and down the back of the fridge. I then texted my husband and told him we were going out for dinner, and, despite considering myself a reasonable, sensible, and self-reliant woman, vacated the premises. It's probably still in my kitchen somewhere, since the traps my husband set last night are still set.

You are a trooper!!

rhody_

I definitely try not to, but some days when I splurge, I feel better because I do have those exercise calories

Afura

samanthachen wrote: »

If you used a TDEE calculator, and you based your number off of that, then you probably wouldn't eat those exercise calories back because properly calculated TDEE already includes planned workouts. However, if you got your number from MFP, then you eat them back. Give yourself a safety net, and eat them back at 50%-75%. Play around in that range until you are at the loss you are happy with (that is also safe).

That one. I may eat back a little more than 50% if I'm hungry too, I like to think of it as having a little wiggle room. The exercise calories tend to be exaggerated, and never trust the ones on a machine, as they're likely not calibrated correctly. @RGv2 broke down an explanation of the why we do what we do too.

positivepowers

I eat all but about 100-200 cals back, to give me a cushion incase my Misfit or MFP estimates too high. I use the exercise calories and the "extras" that those calories bring, for things I may want but not necessarily need. If I didn't eat back my exercise cals I would be hungry and binging all the time, since I only have 1220 cals.

positivepowers

RGv2 wrote: »

hko718 wrote: »

If you're attempting to lose weight then NO. Why would you eat back calories when you're trying to be in a deficit. Use cardio as a tool. If you're eating 1500 calories and losing weight without cardio then you don't really need to be on the cardio grind.

OP, please ignore this....this is the 2nd or 3rd thread that this poster has shown they don't understand how MFP works.

MFP give you a calorie goal based on the information that you enter in (personal stats, daily activity, etc), and assumes you do no exercise. Let's take a hypothetical person who enters their stats with a goal to lose 1lb per week and gets a goal of 1500 cals (so maint of 2000).

2000 maint cals - 500 cals = 1500 cals per day to lose 1lb per week.

Now let's say that hypothetical person adds in a run every other day that burns 300 cals. Now that person has a new maintenance.

2000 original maint. + 300 exercise cals = A new maintenance of 2300 cals.

2300 new maint cals - 500 cals = 1800 cals per day to lose 1lb per week.

Now, with that said...It's all an estimate. Most of us recommend eating back about 50% of your exercise cals, and after a few weeks adjusting from there. That will normally help counter any estimation inaccuracies.

When you first start out, and the more weight you have to lose, exercise cals can be less important. The closer you get to goal, the more important your exercise cals are going to be, and that estimation will need to be on point.

What I've found is that I cut best at about 1lb per week at ~75-80% of my exercise cals.

Excellent explanation.

cbihatt

I don't make any attempt to calculate how many calories I burn during exercise. To compensate, I set my calorie goal (for eating) a little higher than I would, otherwise. However, I am not doing hours of exercise at an intense level. If that were the case, I might rethink my method.

It is working well for me at the moment.

leahcollett1

i eat them if i need/want them. which i tend to mostly do lol. i have a heart rate monitor to evaluate calories burnt although i know the burns are still not 100% so i always leave half back