Eating your exercise cals

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Huddersfield2014
Huddersfield2014 Posts: 7 Member
in Chit-Chat
If I were to start eating my exercise cals would I stop losing weight?

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  • Spliner1969
    Spliner1969 Posts: 3,233 Member
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    Depends on how accurate your food logging and your exercise calories might be. If you're weighing your food, and using an accurate method of logging your exercise calories then the answer would still be, it depends. If you're set at a 2lb/week deficit (max setting at MFP), and you're doing a lot of exercise and not eating at least some of that back, then you're likely losing weight at a higher rate than what is usually recommended. In that case, no, you shouldn't gain weight, but you might lose slower, which also might be a good thing.

    When I was dieting (I am not now, I have been in maintenance mode/recomp for a while now), I had myself set at 2lb/wk deficit with MFP, logged my exercise using a good app and a HR strap (basically an app that based calorie burns on heart rate for accuracy), and ate back 50-60% of my exercise calories. Doing that I was happy, and lost an average of 2lb per week, sometimes more.. and I would then increase the amount I'd eat back. It takes some adjustment here and there.
  • ncboiler89
    ncboiler89 Posts: 2,408 Member
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    Huddersfield2014 wrote: »
    If I were to start eating my exercise cals would I stop losing weight?

    Not if you are consuming fewer calories than you burn. Just be careful though because exercise calories are easily overestimated.
  • cwolfman13
    cwolfman13 Posts: 41,867 Member
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    Huddersfield2014 wrote: »
    If I were to start eating my exercise cals would I stop losing weight?

    It depends on how accurate you are with everything else. It is the way this tool is designed...however, it seems that most people are *kitten* when it comes to accurately logging or estimating exercise calories.
  • Spliner1969
    Spliner1969 Posts: 3,233 Member
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    cwolfman13 wrote: »
    It depends on how accurate you are with everything else. It is the way this tool is designed...however, it seems that most people are *kitten* when it comes to accurately logging or estimating exercise calories.

    You're absolutely right, it's generally accepted that all estimates are over-inflated. The body doesn't lie though, if you or your app are entering 500 cals worth of exercise, and eating back 300 of those calories consistently de-rails your loss then something is up. Reduce the percentage you're eating back of those 500 calories. The opposite can also be true, if you're only eating back 50% of the 500 calories you're logging of exercise and you find yourself losing 3lbs a week, you aren't eating enough back. Adjust and go from there. Just don't adjust too often, watch things for at least two to three weeks and adjust slowly. Eventually you'll dial it in to your favorite app/method of logging those calories and you'll know what's accurate and what's not. For me, with an HR strap, the app I use has always been at least 80% or more accurate. So I can eat back up to 80% of my exercise calories and not gain extra weight. But I find that equipment (ellipticals, etc.) that give you a calorie count are usually either way higher or way lower on their estimations. So use the same app/device regularly and adjust accordingly.

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