Do you eat back all your exercise calories? Advice please!

snowybone

I tend to eat back all of them (because I don't want to feel deprived and trigger a binge - former binge eater here) but I'm worried that I shouldn't be as my deficit may be too small.

I've set my activity level to sedentary and calorie goal to 1200, I usually end up eating about 2000-2500 cals per day as I burn quite a lot...though I could be overestimating.

What has worked for you?

HaleCry

I think it's usually suggested to eat back 50-75% of your exercise calories and see how you go. If you're losing more than you set MFP up to at 50%, then eat more until you find your happy place.

kgirlhart

Try that for a few weeks. If after 3-4 weeks you are not losing as much as expected you will know that you need to eat less than all of your exercise calories. I ate about 75-80% of mine back. Now that I am maintaining I try to eat them all back.

GauchoMark

best thing is trial and error. Stick to a plan for a few weeks and gauge the results, then adjust as necessary.

snowybone

Thanks for the responses. I imagine it's hard not to eat them all when they show up as calories remaining....I'm just like 'ooh, an extra glass of wine, I deserve it after working out!'

Spliner1969

I eat back all of the accurate portion of my exercise calories. Having said that.. you just have to figure out what portion of yours are accurate for you.. everyone is different. I can safely eat back 85-90% of mine because I know the counts are that accurate. But I figured that over the period of months using the same HR strap and app to calculate those calories. If you are not sure how accurate your counts are, compare them to the manual entries or to other apps, and then eat back a percentage. If you are losing faster than anticipated over the next few weeks, eat back more of the calories to slow down the loss. It's that simple, but takes time.

cosmonew

wonderful advice has been given to you here. If you can't stand to look at the extra calories log the exercise and put in 0 calories burned...many people do that, or give yourself the calories you are gonna allow yourself to eat...I always use the notes portion to add remarks if I have altered something in my food or exercise so if my stats change I can look back and see what I might have done differently.

SuzySunshine99

Are you burning those 800-1300 extra calories through exercise alone? What are you doing exactly?
If you are including various daily activities in your total (walking around at work, etc), then that should be reflected in your activity level setting, not logged as exercise. I'm not doubting you, just want to make sure you're using the app as it's intended and you can have the best chance of success.

snowybone

SuzySunshine99 wrote: »

Are you burning those 800-1300 extra calories through exercise alone? What are you doing exactly?
If you are including various daily activities in your total (walking around at work, etc), then that should be reflected in your activity level setting, not logged as exercise. I'm not doubting you, just want to make sure you're using the app as it's intended and you can have the best chance of success.

It's a combination of formal exercise like running or gym classes, and then walking using my phone to track how many miles. The amount I do varies a lot day-to-day which is why I set my activity level as sedentary and add in the exercise...I think it might be a better idea to change my activity level though, might help keep me more consistent!

Thanks for the responses!

Muscleflex79

snowybone wrote: »

I tend to eat back all of them (because I don't want to feel deprived and trigger a binge - former binge eater here) but I'm worried that I shouldn't be as my deficit may be too small.

I've set my activity level to sedentary and calorie goal to 1200, I usually end up eating about 2000-2500 cals per day as I burn quite a lot...though I could be overestimating.

What has worked for you?

are you losing do this??? hard to imagine you could be consistently burning up to 1300 calories per day through exercise.

LAWoman72

I used to eat half or so back and was fine, but now all of a sudden I can't eat any of them back or else I stop losing. I don't know whether it's age, impending menopause, being 50 lbs. lighter now or perhaps all three.

JessusaCavazos

I know its pretty easy to encumber your calorie intake, so many things are high in calorie and low in fulfillment... eat lower calorie things that make you feel full, don't overstuff of course but feel full... find those foods that are low and tasty if possible which I've found it is have fun but remember to feel full so you don't feel the urge to overcompensate for these things.

SCoil123

I have mu fitbit synced and eat back all or most of my earned calories.

mitch16

The number your phone is giving you is an estimate of your TDEE. You will want to eat less than this if you are trying to lose weight, or more than this if you are trying to gain weight.

Dogmom1978

Sometimes I eat them and sometimes I don't. It just depends on my hunger levels and plans for the day. Sometimes I have to exercise just to work in a special meal (like thanksgiving).

Gamliela

Yes, whynot? I don't gain eating excersize calories back, plus then I have all the necessary energy for everyday activities.

jenilla1

I eat most, if not all, of them back. Hasn't been a problem for me.

girlinahat

I tend to eat all back of my fitbit related calories. I go by my weekly net average (meaning there are days where I overeat and days I undereat) and target a NET of 1500. I seem to be losing weight by this method.

I should add - I'm 5' tall and have only a few pounds to lose. I'm losing about a 1/4 lb per week which is about right for me. I'm mostly interested now in fitting into clothes better.

Machka9

When I was actively losing weight, and only exercising a moderate amount ... I ate about half my exercise calories back.

sijomial

All of them - they are delicious and taste far better than BMR calories.

trigden1991

Contrary to most above, I do not. I use my "cardio" calories to increase my deficit and have a good grasp on my TDEE.

Muscleflex79

trigden1991 wrote: »

Contrary to most above, I do not. I use my "cardio" calories to increase my deficit and have a good grasp on my TDEE.

sometimes I feel like I'm the only one that does this since almost all posters talk about eating them back...I also don't eat them and use it as a buffer for any logging errors or underestimations on any foods.

trigden1991

Muscleflex79 wrote: »

trigden1991 wrote: »

Contrary to most above, I do not. I use my "cardio" calories to increase my deficit and have a good grasp on my TDEE.

sometimes I feel like I'm the only one that does this since almost all posters talk about eating them back...I also don't eat them and use it as a buffer for any logging errors or underestimations on any foods.

I can fully appreciate the philosophy of eat as much as you can to lose the weight at a steady pace but it does not fit with my mentality.

LAWoman72

Muscleflex79 wrote: »

trigden1991 wrote: »

Contrary to most above, I do not. I use my "cardio" calories to increase my deficit and have a good grasp on my TDEE.

sometimes I feel like I'm the only one that does this since almost all posters talk about eating them back...I also don't eat them and use it as a buffer for any logging errors or underestimations on any foods.

You're not the only one, but some of us simply can't or we don't lose (or we lose much more slowly than we'd like), and some like the extra boost (even more calories out than in, potentially quicker loss) so they elect not to eat them back. I see a variety of these choices on here.

JaydedMiss

If i exercise alot- say walk 10 miles instead of 5- Ill bump my daily calories from 1200-1300 to 1400-1500 if i feel a little extra hungry or crave an extra treat. Bout it I don't see why youd do cardio to then just eat it back, Besides the fitness aspect, but most people are here for weight loss XD Especially every time, Like why not happily accept a little extra weight loss

laurens47

trigden1991 wrote: »

Muscleflex79 wrote: »

trigden1991 wrote: »

Contrary to most above, I do not. I use my "cardio" calories to increase my deficit and have a good grasp on my TDEE.

sometimes I feel like I'm the only one that does this since almost all posters talk about eating them back...I also don't eat them and use it as a buffer for any logging errors or underestimations on any foods.

I can fully appreciate the philosophy of eat as much as you can to lose the weight at a steady pace but it does not fit with my mentality.

I agree. I also think it is subjective to the person's life style, outside of "exercise".

LolitaApplebaum

Yes so guilty of doing this and in the past month I stopped because I notice the scale wasn't moving. When I feel hungry or deprived now I eat quinoa crackers, yogurt or clementines, all under 100 cals snacks.

snowybone

JaydedMiss wrote: »

If i exercise alot- say walk 10 miles instead of 5- Ill bump my daily calories from 1200-1300 to 1400-1500 if i feel a little extra hungry or crave an extra treat. Bout it I don't see why youd do cardio to then just eat it back, Besides the fitness aspect, but most people are here for weight loss XD Especially every time, Like why not happily accept a little extra weight loss

I guess part of the reason I do a lot of cardio is so I can eat more...I won't lie and say that I always love to exercise just for the fun of it think I'd be miserable eating just 1200-1500 every day cos that wouldn't leave enough for treats that help keep me sane

Thanks for the new responses!

cwolfman13

snowybone wrote: »

I tend to eat back all of them (because I don't want to feel deprived and trigger a binge - former binge eater here) but I'm worried that I shouldn't be as my deficit may be too small.

I've set my activity level to sedentary and calorie goal to 1200, I usually end up eating about 2000-2500 cals per day as I burn quite a lot...though I could be overestimating.

What has worked for you?

It really comes down to how accurate you feel your exercise calories are...when I used the MFP method I used a HRM for my cardiovascular workouts and I used the calorie burn from that less an estimate of the calories I would have otherwise still burned just sitting around and I ate those calories back...it was good enough for me to pretty easily drop about 40 Lbs.

Whether it "works" for you or not is also going to depend on your logging accuracy...really, it all comes down to how accurate you are being with things.

NorthCascades

snowybone wrote: »

SuzySunshine99 wrote: »

Are you burning those 800-1300 extra calories through exercise alone? What are you doing exactly?
If you are including various daily activities in your total (walking around at work, etc), then that should be reflected in your activity level setting, not logged as exercise. I'm not doubting you, just want to make sure you're using the app as it's intended and you can have the best chance of success.

It's a combination of formal exercise like running or gym classes, and then walking using my phone to track how many miles. The amount I do varies a lot day-to-day which is why I set my activity level as sedentary and add in the exercise...I think it might be a better idea to change my activity level though, might help keep me more consistent!

Thanks for the responses!

Eating a consistent number of calories every day only makes sense when you burn a consistent number of calories every day. What you're already doing makes more sense.

glassyo

snowybone wrote: »

JaydedMiss wrote: »

If i exercise alot- say walk 10 miles instead of 5- Ill bump my daily calories from 1200-1300 to 1400-1500 if i feel a little extra hungry or crave an extra treat. Bout it I don't see why youd do cardio to then just eat it back, Besides the fitness aspect, but most people are here for weight loss XD Especially every time, Like why not happily accept a little extra weight loss

I guess part of the reason I do a lot of cardio is so I can eat more...I won't lie and say that I always love to exercise just for the fun of it think I'd be miserable eating just 1200-1500 every day cos that wouldn't leave enough for treats that help keep me sane

Thanks for the new responses!

Yup! I have a desk job and if I didn't exercise at all, my tdee would probably run around 1100 calories. Only eating 1100 (I'm more or less trying to maintain right now) calories? Not gonna happen. I like my chocolate and cookies too much.