How many exercise calories

bermequeen

How many exercise calories are you supposed to eat back? On a daily basis I burn about 1300 calories but I don't like to eat over my daily allotted calories. Once in while I will eat some back but never more than 300. Does anyone else have this dilemma? I'm just afraid of going over. Please any advice offered would be greatly appreciated.

herblackwings39

You're supposed to eat them all back. If you're not sure about your accuracy then try eating half. MFP already sets your weight loss deficit into the calorie goal before exercise.

primalpam

All of them.

grimendale

All of them. I'll often leave about 100 to account for any inacurracy (with 600-1400 calorie burns), but if you do end up going over your goal a little because of inaccuracy, you'll still be in a deficit, so don't worry.

Mokey41

Everyone says eat them all back but I find that counter productive for me. What on earth are you doing to burn that many calories every day?

megsmom2

all or most of them...assuming your calorie count is accurate, such as using a HRM.

tinamarie014069

Oh my gosh! You burn 1300 calories a day? How do you do that? That's great!!! I have a hard time eating back exercise calories also. Every one has said to eat them but I haven't. Some times I will eat back like 100-200 calories but that doesn't happen often. I'm scared to.

JoJo61612

I usually eat them back, but only if I'm hungry. I don't eat them just because I have them. Keep in mind though, I usually burn around 100-200 calories a day.

Basia_and4345

How many exercise calories are you supposed to eat back? On a daily basis I burn about 1300 calories but I don't like to eat over my daily allotted calories. Once in while I will eat some back but never more than 300. Does anyone else have this dilemma? I'm just afraid of going over. Please any advice offered would be greatly appreciated.

I don't usually burn more than 300-ish a day and I don't usually make it to my allotted calorie intake. But if I am hungry I eat, if I'm not hungry I don't.

lambchristie

You're supposed to eat them all back. If you're not sure about your accuracy then try eating half. MFP already sets your weight loss deficit into the calorie goal before exercise.

This is the 2nd time today I've heard this ... "MFP already sets your weight loss deficit in the calorie goal" and something I never knew. Its been a frustrating road to understanding what to do: eat exercise calories back; don't eat them back. Check out a TDEE and go by that; oh wait that number doesn't take into account your deficit. Its finally becoming a little less murky and easier to understand.

This past week I've burned between 600-900 calories a day and that is a lot to eat back,

shadow2soul

This is from the Help section of MFP:

Because your daily calorie goal already accounts for your intent to gain or lose weight at a particular rate, you can achieve your goal by eating the specified number of calories per day, with no additional exercise required. If you do exercise, then your daily calorie goal will increase for the day, to stabilize your weight loss or weight gain at the rate you initially specified.

http://myfitnesspal.desk.com/customer/portal/articles/410332-how-does-myfitnesspal-calculate-my-initial-goals-

musicteacher40

Okay I have to ask....if you are working to burn calories to lose weight, why must we eat them back plus what our caloric intake for the day should be....this just confuses me....I had seen that MFP figured in the burnt calories, but just have not had the nerve to ask without sounding ignorant or stupid...but just want to know....

shadow2soul

You're supposed to eat them all back. If you're not sure about your accuracy then try eating half. MFP already sets your weight loss deficit into the calorie goal before exercise.

This is the 2nd time today I've heard this ... "MFP already sets your weight loss deficit in the calorie goal" and something I never knew. Its been a frustrating road to understanding what to do: eat exercise calories back; don't eat them back. Check out a TDEE and go by that; oh wait that number doesn't take into account your deficit. Its finally becoming a little less murky and easier to understand.

This past week I've burned between 600-900 calories a day and that is a lot to eat back,

TDEE takes into account exercise. The method involves take a eating usually at a 20% deficit.

So if your TDEE was: 2365
You would eat at : 1892
This would result in weight loss.

shadow2soul

Okay I have to ask....if you are working to burn calories to lose weight, why must we eat them back plus what our caloric intake for the day should be....this just confuses me....I had seen that MFP figured in the burnt calories, but just have not had the nerve to ask without sounding ignorant or stupid...but just want to know....

MFP estimates your daily burn (without exercise): 2000
1lb per week loss setting: -500
Goal (without exercise): 1500

You exercise and burn : 500
MFP estimates your daily burn ( with exercise) : 2500
1lb per week loss setting: -500
Goal ( with exercise): 2000 (or NET 1500)

If your unsure of the accuracy of your calorie burns then eat 50-75% of them back. You also don't have to eat them back the day you burn them. You could essentially save them to go out and eat later in the week.

Losing weight is all about Diet. Exercise should be for fitness and overall health.

sammi_j

I try to eat 1600 calories and burn 200. If I burn more i eat more. I try not to leave myself in negative.

musicteacher40

Okay I have to ask....if you are working to burn calories to lose weight, why must we eat them back plus what our caloric intake for the day should be....this just confuses me....I had seen that MFP figured in the burnt calories, but just have not had the nerve to ask without sounding ignorant or stupid...but just want to know....

MFP estimates your daily burn (without exercise): 2000
1lb per week loss setting: -500
Goal (without exercise): 1500

You exercise and burn : 500
MFP estimates your daily burn ( with exercise) : 2500
1lb per week loss setting: -500
Goal ( with exercise): 2000 (or NET 1500)

If your unsure of the accuracy of your calorie burns then eat 50-75% of them back. You also don't have to eat them back the day you burn them. You could essentially save them to go out and eat later in the week.

Losing weight is all about Diet. Exercise should be for fitness and overall health.

Understand my numbers...just does not answer my question...why must we eat back our burnt calories....especially since the goal is to lose gift, it just does not make sense to me to eat back the calories...it seems to me that is making a person backslide....so once again... Why eat back our burnt calories......????

43932452

None-10%

shadow2soul

To fuel your workouts. It's really a personal choice. But when you go to maintain, if you continue to workout (which you should), then you will have to eat them back or you will continue to lose weight. For me its about creating a small deficit, so that there isn't as much of a gap between loosing and maintaining.

In other words, you should not exercise for the sole purpose of losing weight. This can cause the problem that your talking about. If a person gets to their goal weight, moves to maintain, stops working out, but continues to eat as if they were working out, said person will gain weight back quickly. I personally plan on keeping up with exercise, for my health, and as such I should eat to fuel my workouts. I prefer not to be cranky and grumpy (which I am when I don't eat enough).

herblackwings39

Okay I have to ask....if you are working to burn calories to lose weight, why must we eat them back plus what our caloric intake for the day should be....this just confuses me....I had seen that MFP figured in the burnt calories, but just have not had the nerve to ask without sounding ignorant or stupid...but just want to know....

MFP estimates your daily burn (without exercise): 2000
1lb per week loss setting: -500
Goal (without exercise): 1500

You exercise and burn : 500
MFP estimates your daily burn ( with exercise) : 2500
1lb per week loss setting: -500
Goal ( with exercise): 2000 (or NET 1500)

If your unsure of the accuracy of your calorie burns then eat 50-75% of them back. You also don't have to eat them back the day you burn them. You could essentially save them to go out and eat later in the week.

Losing weight is all about Diet. Exercise should be for fitness and overall health.

Understand my numbers...just does not answer my question...why must we eat back our burnt calories....especially since the goal is to lose gift, it just does not make sense to me to eat back the calories...it seems to me that is making a person backslide....so once again... Why eat back our burnt calories......????

You tell the program I want to lose 1 lb a week and work a desk job. The program says okay, here. Eat this amount and you'll lose 1 lb a week. Then you go and exercise to burn 200 calories. The program then says HEY! You said you sit at a desk. The number before was just sitting at a desk now, to still lose 1 lb a week you need to eat this number.

You need a deficit to lose weight. 250, 500, or 1000 depending on how much you need to lose is normal. When you already have that amount taken out of your daily calories and add in another 200-500 working out the deficit can get too large. That's why you eat back exercise calories.

SRB8710

Well MFP usually is overly generous with workout calories so I usually adjust them down anyways. I eat them back. I really shoot for my net goal to be between 1200-1460 everyday. If my net falls somewhere in there then I am happy!

grimendale

You need to make sure you eat enough. It seems counterintuitive, but eating too few calories will hinder fat loss. When you enter all of your vital statistics into MFP, it comes up with a total number of calories you should be eating. This number includes a healthy deficit below what you would need to eat to maintain, so you should try to get as close to that number as possible. When you burn calories, your body pulls both from fat reserves and muscle tissue, but the ratio of the two can change. When you eat at a small deficit and exercise, your body will tend to pull from fat reserves since they are easier to access and your muscles are being used. When the deficit grows too large for too long, your body will start to shift towards burning muscle tissue rather than fat. Muscle tissue requires more calories to maintain than fat cells, so when your body expects to not get enough food for an extended period, it will hoard fat cells to try to maintain an energy reserve for future use. You will still lose weight, but most of that weight will be muscle, not fat. As long as your deficit is small, your body isn't worried about getting enough food and will be comfortable burning through the fat reserves.

When you exercise, MFP expects you to eat back any calories you burn to ensure that you total deficit does not grow too large (see above). This also seems counterintuitive, since it seems like you are undoing the benefits of the exercise, but this is not the case. The more muscle you build and the better shape you get into, the more calories your body will require to maintain itself, so you will eventually be able to eat more without gaining weight. Exercising without eating enough calories can easily result in burning muscle rather than fat.

Hope that helps.