Eating back exercise calories?

sarko15

I've seen a few people post about how they don't eat back exercise calories and I've been really curious about the reasoning. Is it because exact exercise calories are hard to track, or is it because it gives you a bigger deficit?

I'm eating about 1200 calories on my rest days and eat back my exercise calories. Not eating them back would probably put me at a deficit of around 1000 calories which seems like an alarmingly big number, especially with the relatively small amount I need to lose and I am HANGRY when I get home from the gym so a 300 calorie dinner probably isn't going to cut it. I know it's all a matter of personal preference and what works for you on the scale, but I'm just curious if there is a good reason out there that should make me consider it.

janejellyroll

Some people do it because they don't feel confident in the calorie burns. Some people do it because they want a bigger deficit. Some people do it because they don't understand how MFP is designed. Some people do it because they consider it to create a margin of error for logging inaccuracies. There are a lot of different reasons.

deannalfisher

i don't because I'm just using MFP as a logging mechanism and getting my caloric intake based off TDEE; I also don't log any workouts in MFP

sarko15

janejellyroll wrote: »

Some people do it because they don't feel confident in the calorie burns. Some people do it because they want a bigger deficit. Some people do it because they don't understand how MFP is designed. Some people do it because they consider it to create a margin of error for logging inaccuracies. There are a lot of different reasons.

Totally, I get that. I just wonder what kinds of exercise people who don't eat back their calories do, if it's a long walk or something like a high-intensity spin class.

cwolfman13

I think most people who don't do it simply don't understand how the app/method is designed to work and don't care to look into it. There seems to be a whole slew of people who don't even understand that they are constantly burning calories and that burning more than you eat doesn't mean exercising off every single calorie.

LivingtheLeanDream

I ate most of mine back when losing as I'm very active and needed them to stop me feeling weak/hangry. I found out early on if I fuelled my body properly I feel energised all day.

NinaSharp

sarko15 wrote: »

janejellyroll wrote: »

Some people do it because they don't feel confident in the calorie burns. Some people do it because they want a bigger deficit. Some people do it because they don't understand how MFP is designed. Some people do it because they consider it to create a margin of error for logging inaccuracies. There are a lot of different reasons.

Totally, I get that. I just wonder what kinds of exercise people who don't eat back their calories do, if it's a long walk or something like a high-intensity spin class.

I don't eat them all back because of
1. I don't trust my calorie burn
2. 2. I don't always trust my weighing/measuring ability and
3. 3. because I eat enough during the day that I don't actually feel hungry. At night, after I'm done with my workout, I may have a second helping or a snack, but just enough to get rid of the hunger.

CMNVA

I don't eat back because I don't think the estimates are correct. I'm in my 50s so it's hard for me to lose weight on the calories limits that used to be easy for me to lose on. My workouts aren't that strenuous so *maybe* I'm burning 200 or so calories. Not worth eating back. But, I would eat something back if I were doing very strenuous exercise.

lillianslattery

if i do i work out spin class etc I do eat a portion back. if its incedental (i walk a lot in my job and wear a pedometer) then i dont tend too unless I really create a lot of extra calories

RochelleLUnangst

I'm also at 1200 calories a day. I used to eat back my calories (automatically logged with MapMyRide) when I was logging with MFP several months ago but I wasn't losing anything. Eventually I stopped using MFP...but recently I decided to try it again without eating back calories. It still too early to tell if its working yet.

50sforme

Like many others here, I don't eat them all back, to remedy likely mistakes in the calculation of caloric intake and calorie burn. But I'm always surprised by people who think they're "not supposed to" eat them back. That MFP target is for NET calories!!! If I knew I could log with 100% accuracy, I'd eat them all, all the time

ShammersPink

I understand how the app is supposed to work, but that is not how I want to use it at this time.

Currently, my only regular deliberate exercise is walking, with only very occasional short runs or cycles, though I will be adding more exercise in the new year, as the days lengthen. I walk, normally around 3-6 miles, most (but not all) days if the weather is fine, but on the days that I don't deliberately walk, I might be more "active" in other ways that are harder to quantify. On walking days, I might often (but not always) be "sedentary" other than the walk.

So MFP would have me at 1200, and eating back exercise calories for the walks, but there is no way I could, or should, eat at 1200, even on non-walk days. So I set it to 1600 cals, aiming to average somewhere near this over the week, and don't eat back calories. If I'm unusually hungry, then I'll eat a little bit more, and will often compensate on other days. I'm losing at a rate of ~0.75kg/wk over the past 3+ months, which is just about what I wanted (I predicted 100g/day on my spreadsheet).

I don't have huge faith in the estimated calorie burns. When I start exercising more regularly, I will probably up my base calorie allowance a bit, rather than "eat back" calories.

not_a_runner

deannalfisher wrote: »

i don't because I'm just using MFP as a logging mechanism and getting my caloric intake based off TDEE; I also don't log any workouts in MFP

Same, I figure my intake myself and just use MFP to track. My intake and exercise is generally the same week to week so no reason to complicate it by making unneeded adjustments every day.
(Not saying there's anything wrong with the way MFP is set up, I think that's a great way to do it, this is just how I prefer to log and it works well for me. Gets us to the same place at the end of the day. )

riffraff2112

As has been stated I do not eat them back because
1. I am a little loose with my logging and it gives me a bit of leeway in case I underestimated my calories eaten, or overestimated my calorie burn.
2. I am pretty full with my caloric allowance anyway so I really do not need the extra food.
3. I was a little confused about how the burns are calculated how activity level works, and I really did not feel like spending the time trying to figure out how to input my fitbit data and my exercise data from cardio so i decided to just go with the basic setting and an activity level that seemed to fit my lifestyle. I do not enter any cardio calories now, one less thing to worry about.

Now had I not lost weight, I probably would have had to make adjustments but it worked for me and now with 3 years of maintenance I just never needed to switch it up.

Spliner1969

You should be eating back your exercise calories unless you tinkered with MFP's daily goals and assumed those exercise calories into your calculations. Generally, you should eat them back, whether you do 50%, 75% or whatever of them, you need to eat back what you feel are accurate exercise calories otherwise your deficit gets larger.

Jalexander33

Food is Energy....Let me rephrase that (Good) Food is Energy
Of course you want to make sure you don't over eat your daily calorie count b/c then you won't see positive results but you need to make sure you are eating enough calories to provide your body with the Energy it needs to keep going.
You will have to ask yourself are you feeling hungry all the time? Sluggish? Are you filling run down at the very start of the workout? If so you might not be eating enough and not providing your body with the energy it needs. At that point up your intake. It will feel a bit like a balancing act few a while but once you get into a routine it makes it easier to work around.

For me I try to make sure my weightlifting days I get in extra proteins while keeping my increase of calories lower say 300 to 500. My heavy cardio days I increase my calorie intake by 800 to 1000.

Michael190lbs

Daily Macro's weekly calories all food is good in Moderation totally up to you on taste and fullness..

Spliner1969

Michael190lbs wrote: »

Daily Macro's weekly calories all food is good in Moderation totally up to you on taste and fullness..

I'd have to agree. In the end it's all up to you, as long as you aren't using exercise to put yourself into an unhealthy deficit, it really just depends on your personal goals. Many of us in maintenance set our macros to what we want them to be and that is more important than how much (if any) of a deficit we have. People who choose not to eat back their exercise calories aren't wrong, it simply works right for them.

135terry

I just started back with MFP on December 2nd. This time I am participating in the community discussions and challenges. Since starting back I am at a 1200 calorie intake and have not added any additional calories to account for my exercise which is also logged. I was doing this on purpose to create a greater deficit - have about 30 lbs to lose. My exercise is mostly walking and strength training and I make sure I get protein at every meal. So far I am not hungry and feel more energized than ever, however, I am a little concerned that I could potentially lower my metabolism if I don't consume some calories to account for my exercise. Is that a possibility?

janejellyroll

135terry wrote: »

I just started back with MFP on December 2nd. This time I am participating in the community discussions and challenges. Since starting back I am at a 1200 calorie intake and have not added any additional calories to account for my exercise which is also logged. I was doing this on purpose to create a greater deficit - have about 30 lbs to lose. My exercise is mostly walking and strength training and I make sure I get protein at every meal. So far I am not hungry and feel more energized than ever, however, I am a little concerned that I could potentially lower my metabolism if I don't consume some calories to account for my exercise. Is that a possibility?

Lack of hunger and high energy aren't necessarily signs that you're meeting all your needs and fueling your activity. There is a limit to how much fat your body can burn in a day and if your deficit puts your body at need for energy that goes beyond that, you'll be losing muscle (after all, the energy has to come from somewhere). I'd be less worried about lowering my metabolism and more worried about muscle loss and the potential for nutritional needs that aren't being met. A greater deficit isn't always better, especially when you have a modest amount of weight to lose (like 30 pounds).