Eating what I burn

bmc3991

Should I be eating the calories I burn from workouts? I don't have that intense workouts and burn around 200 to 300 calories per session. I am eating around 1500 to 1600 calories as it is and if I ate what I burned I'd be eating like 1700 to 1900 calories which seems like a lot.

CMNVA

It's an individual thing. I was not exercising hard either and I don't overly trust the estimates for calorie burn, so I made up my mind that I would not eat my calories back. I would only do that if I was exercising really hard. See if you can do without it. If you start being unmanageably ravenous or you feel your workouts are suffering that you might want to eat back half of the estimate.

CasperNaegle

You want to stay in a total deficit of calories.. I stay at around 20% so you need to know about what you burn in your workouts. It takes some time to figure out exactly what you burn. Most watchs/programs tend to over estimate the calorie burn.

TeaBea

bcasey3991 wrote: »

Should I be eating the calories I burn from workouts? I don't have that intense workouts and burn around 200 to 300 calories per session. I am eating around 1500 to 1600 calories as it is and if I ate what I burned I'd be eating like 1700 to 1900 calories which seems like a lot.

Where did you get the calorie goal of 1500?

MFP gives you a calorie goal with zero exercise factored in. Other calculators include exercise in the calculation.

If you know exercise will be a consistent thing for you, then a TDEE calculator less a "cut" will allow you to eat the same calories daily. TDEE's average out the exercise for the week.
http://scoobysworkshop.com/calorie-calculator/

The reason MFP gives you more calories for exercise - large deficits make it harder to support existing lean muscle mass. For a lower body fat %, you want moderate paced weight loss.

bmc3991

1500 to 1600 is just what I tend to eat but my fitness pal suggest 1640 to lose .5lb a week. That TDEE calculator did estimate a litter higher at 1720. I may actually be eating too little but I do feel comfortable most days. Thanks guys!

trigden1991

I personally don't eat back exercise calories unless I have done a lot (e.g- hiking all day), but most eat back around 50% of calories "earned". The choice is yours and what is most sustainable for you.

red99ryder

I don't eat anything back , I think if your seeing the loss rate at a good level is what matters , and it covers the errors in logging ,, not that I exercise mind you ,, but if I go for a swim I don't log it

Good luck

TavistockToad

If you use MFP'S calculations, yes, eat them back. If you use tdee, you don't have to

Unknown

This content has been removed.