Eating Back Exercise Calories????

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mrspett323
mrspett323 Posts: 85 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
Hello,
I am soooo confused with the "Eating Back Exercise Calories?" I eat no more than 1400 Cals a day because the whole TDEE, macros, etc. has me confused as well. So I just stick to 1400 cals, I am 185lbs female trying to lose 40lbs with 41% BF. I workout 5-6 days a week usually burning 400-500 cals according to my Polar chest heartrate strap. So eating back the calories.... would that mean eating my normal 1400 plus the 400-500 cals I burned which would be 1800-1900 calories eating???? If so I don't do that loo. Thanks for any replies!!!

Replies

  • callsitlikeiseeit
    callsitlikeiseeit Posts: 8,627 Member
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    most people, myself included, who eat back exercise calories eat back around half. even HRM arent all that accurate (though more so than machine counts), and im not sure if they take into account what you burn simultaneously by just being alive....
  • TeaBea
    TeaBea Posts: 14,517 Member
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    MFP gave you a calorie goal before exercise. So eating back exercise calories is expected. However as @callsitlikeiseeit said, take the calorie burns with a grain of salt.

    TDEE = total daily energy expenditure. This is your maintenance......including exercise. If your exercise is very consistent you might want to use this number.....less a percent of course.

    HRMs are designed for steady state cardio.....that's the best estimate (outside a lab). But everything else is pretty much a guess.
  • kgirlhart
    kgirlhart Posts: 4,973 Member
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    If you used mfp to get your calorie goal then you are supposed to eat back exercise calories. Mfp does not include exercise in your goal. Like @callsitlikeiseeit stated, exercise calorie estimates can be off so a good rule of thumb is to eat back half. After about 4 weeks you can reevaluate and if losing faster than expected eat back more and if losing slower than expected eat back less.

    If you used a TDEE calculator to get your calorie goal then do not eat back exercise calories as they are already accounted for in your goal.

    IMO using mfp's formula is good if you have inconsistent exercise and have some days with little exercise. Tdee is probably better if you have a more consistent exercise schedule. At the end of the day mfp's goal plus exercise should be pretty close to what you would get from a TDEE calculator.
  • cwolfman13
    cwolfman13 Posts: 41,876 Member
    edited February 2017
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    mrspett323 wrote: »
    Hello,
    I am soooo confused with the "Eating Back Exercise Calories?" I eat no more than 1400 Cals a day because the whole TDEE, macros, etc. has me confused as well. So I just stick to 1400 cals, I am 185lbs female trying to lose 40lbs with 41% BF. I workout 5-6 days a week usually burning 400-500 cals according to my Polar chest heartrate strap. So eating back the calories.... would that mean eating my normal 1400 plus the 400-500 cals I burned which would be 1800-1900 calories eating???? If so I don't do that loo. Thanks for any replies!!!

    When you use a TDEE calculator, you include all of your activity in your activity level...your day to day, as well as exercise and thus your calorie targets would include some amount to fuel your fitness while still losing weight.

    MFP uses the NEAT method (Non Exercise Activity Thermogenesis) whereby your activity level only includes your day to day stuff...you account for exercise activity after you do it, log it, and thus get calories to "eat back".

    My TDEE is around 3,000 calories...to cut 1 Lb per week I eat around 2,500 calories.

    My MFP target for the same is 1,900 calories...I routinely expend around 600 calories with exercise most days so my gross intake would be 1,900 + 600=2,500

    6 of 1, half dozen of the other. You just have to understand the method.
  • ChristopherLimoges
    ChristopherLimoges Posts: 298 Member
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    Unless you have degradations in any serious form than you shouldn't have to eat back your calories spent if you don't want to. Some areas of the fitness world benefit from it but those are usually very specific tailorings to small percent.
  • NorthCascades
    NorthCascades Posts: 10,970 Member
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    TeaBea wrote: »
    HRMs are designed for steady state cardio.....that's the best estimate (outside a lab). But everything else is pretty much a guess.

    For the record, HRMs are designed to show you your heart rate. No matter what you're doing. You can use their data to estimate calorie burn for not-at-all-steady-state things like riding a bike, where they work fairly well. A power meter is a much better way to measure your energy use on a bike, but a power meter costs $400 to $3,500 and a HRM costs $30 to $100.

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