Do YOU eat your calories back?

dizzysarah

And do you still lose consistently?

I am about 278 pounds
(19 stone 11lb)

I am having 1700 cals a day and I don't really want to eat anymore, but should I when I start exercising?

I know this question gets asked a lot but I'm interested to hear how eating back your exercise calories affects YOUR weight loss

Thank you

VintageFeline

Yes. Some people don't eat all of them. I pretty much do. No issues. It's how the MFP system works.

CafeRacer808

I try to eat back 50-70% of my exercise calories but in reality, I only do that about 20% of the time. Usually, I eat them all back. My weight loss goal is a .5 lb loss/week and in the six weeks since I've been here, I've lost on average about .4 lb/week.

Ready2Rock206

No and yes, I changed my calorie goal to a higher amount to account for exercise. So in a way I do, but I just don't log it separate.

TavistockToad

Yep, exercise cals taste the best!

__TMac__

I log 50% of them, and use up to 100 cals that day. I bank the rest for the weekends but usually have so many that I don't use them all. I'm losing steadily, about 1.5 lbs per week, which is where my goal is set on MFP.

Maxematics

I definitely do. I learned the hard truth that it takes 2100 to 2500 for me to maintain my weight. I was eating 1700 to 2000 calories for a few weeks, leaving some exercise calories on the table via Fitbit and my weight plummeted from 114 to 111. If I don't eat my exercise calories, I'd be doing myself a disservice.

NorthCascades

Of course I do! And I'm down about 75 lbs.

On Saturday I spent four and a half hours skiing 17 miles. Roughly doubled my calorie budget for the day.

lemurcat12

I ate them back at first before I had a consistent exercise schedule (not 100% of them, more like 50-90% depending on the activity), and lost just fine, usually more than MFP predicted (so I could have eaten back more).

I stopped only because I had a consistent schedule and wanted to eat more on off days and never needed all my calories on the longest workout days, so I decided to average them over the week upfront instead.

estherdragonbat

I tend to exercise to the tune of 300 calories most days. (Mostly walking, ski machine, or treadmill.) Usually I don't eat them. I keep them as a cushion for those times when I'm guesstimating the calories/portion size of a dish. I'm down 25 lbs in 2 1/2 months. However, for those times where I realllly want an indulgence that would take me over my base calorie allotment, I can cut into the exercise calories and know that I haven't 'blown everything'. (Yeah. I know. Going off-plan one day is not 'blowing everything'. But it can feel like it sometimes.)

Machka9

When I am losing weight ...

If I only do a little bit of exercise, I eat about half my exercise calories back.

If I do a moderate amount of exercise, I eat about 3/4 of my exercise calories back.

If I do a lot of exercise, I eat about 95% of my exercise calories back.

dragon_girl26

Yes, I eat them all back. While I do generally love exercise, not gonna lie...sometimes the only thing that gets my butt off the couch and moving is that I'll get to eat more.

sijomial

dizzysarah wrote: »

I know this question gets asked a lot but I'm interested to hear how eating back your exercise calories affects YOUR weight loss

I ate all mine back - it didn't affect my weight loss in the slightest, I lost at the rate I chose.
The system works fine if you put a little effort into making your estimates reasonable (doesn't have to be accurate) and apply a little common sense.

I found it easier to lose weight when I had a higher calorie allowance boosted by exercise - plus you get all the health/fitness benefits of the exercise. Win/win.

Yep, exercise cals taste the best!

Agreed.

dizzysarah

I'm amazed at how many people eat back their exercise calories.

A few years back I lost a load of weight by exercising like crazy and hardly eating... I gained it all back

This time I'm in NO rush. I wanna do this properly, I want to do it eating plenty and reducing my intake as I go along so maybe I will eat some back and see how I go as I lose weight

Thank you for your replies guys

Tacklewasher

I'm eating around 2,000 cals. MFP goal is just over 1,600, before exercise. I'm making sure I workout enough that 2000 is under. My Net calories under weekly goal was 2,103 this week so far. So that covers underestimating food and overestimating calorie burn.

callsitlikeiseeit

i eat them back if im hungry or want a treat of some kind.

if i dont ... i dont.

jen_092

Since I don't believe the numbers they give me for my calorie burns (I also use map my fitness which is the same company)...I tend to eat back about half. Sometimes I eat em all if I feel like it. But for example when I go snowshoeing it says I'm burning over 1000 calories but I just don't think that's right, and even if it was, I'm so used to eating what I eat.

nowine4me

I do pretty consistent exercise and burn 500-650 per day. I build 500 into my daily calories so I can pre-plan my entire day in advance. I eat about 2,000/day to main 150# at 5-7"

pesigrandi

I only eat them back if I'm hungry or work out extra long so I can have alcohol on the weekends. I am pretty sure this site overstates the amount of calories actually burned anyway.

rankinsect

Yes and sort of.

For the "sort of" - I simply add in an "average" amount of calories for my workout days, because I like to plan my meals ahead of time and I want to know the night before how many calories I have to play with.

For the "yes" - I also do long days of hiking / snowshoeing, and I definitely eat back calories for that (not as many as MMF gives me, I think its estimate is much too high, but I took the average of several other sources and eat that back).

sarko15

dizzysarah wrote: »

I'm amazed at how many people eat back their exercise calories.

A few years back I lost a load of weight by exercising like crazy and hardly eating... I gained it all back

This time I'm in NO rush. I wanna do this properly, I want to do it eating plenty and reducing my intake as I go along so maybe I will eat some back and see how I go as I lose weight

Thank you for your replies guys

Good luck! I eat my exercise calories back because like your experience, I found it very hard to maintain eating little and exercising a lot long term. I love cooking, and I felt it was impossible for me to experience my joy with too little calories (not that there isn't low-cal cooking out there, I just don't necessarily want to avoid butter or things that can really elevate a meal if it fits in my calories, which isn't really possible at 1200). Eating back exercise calories is what the app intends, and it would be a bummer to deprive myself of something I've earned.

nutmegoreo

No, I don't eat them back, but I'm not using the MFP determined calorie intake. The program gave me 1200 cals, if I was using that number, then I would, and it would likely work out to about the same amount as what I aim for. I just like having a steady daily target.

ETA: yes, I lose consistently an average of 2lb/week for now, I will be slowing that rate of loss in about 20lbs.

successgal1

If I didn't I would die. I'm on 1200 calories as sedentary. If I burn 500 and didn't eat some back I'd next at 700 calories. Not good.