Do you eat your exercise calories?

shelly_38

I'm new here, this time around anyway. Just curious if you eat back some or all of exercise calories? I am working out 3x/week and burning about 300 calories per workout according to my Apple Watch. I'm hungrier on workout days and so I've been eating most of all of those calories. Does this work for most people -- I mean do you still get weight loss?

JaxxieKat

Only steady or HIIT cardio. I don't count calories burned from my daily steps or daily tasks(like cleaning), nor do I eat back calories burned from strength training. If you're eating back the calories and losing, keep doing what you're doing.

gerla_k

I eat back my exercise calories , not all of them maybe about 60-70% of them.

sarahthes

So the only exercise I log is via Fitbit. I eat back every single one of those calories and sometimes a few more (I've got a big deficit and going over by 150-300 calories is not going to impact my goals that much). Have lost about 11 lbs since the end of April, which is when I basically got back on the wagon after a 5 month maintenance break.

VeggieBarbells

I eat back approx 50% sometimes more but that's because I calculate my cals based on IIFYM with no exercise cals included. If I didn't eat back some of my exercise cals, I'd die of starvation.

I'm always very hungry after major lifting days so those are the ones I eat a little more. Truth be told I do not mind going over on cals if I eaten clean, its when I eat crap that it pisses me off. Good luck!

Old_Cat_Lady

many, many people here say they eat 50% back.

Rebecca0224

I have my garmin connected so I eat back all of my exercise calories and I still lose weight at the expected rate

cmriverside

I've always eaten every delicious one. I just used online "guesses" for the numbers in the beginning.

Now I've been at this long enough to have my own data on which to base my calories. That's the only thing that works. Pick "yes" or "no" or "part of them" and stick with that for six weeks so you have a basis on which to decide whether that works or not for you. All the calculators do is get you in the ballpark. It's about you creating a pattern of data that gives you results.

InkAndApples

I log workouts and daily steps through my Fitbit and I eat back every single one. They are the tastiest calories.

I don't eat them on the day I "earn" them necessarily but I do before the week is out. That way running around like a mad thing at work means I get extra dessert on the weekend.

jenilla1

Yes. I eat 90-100% of them back, but I'm careful not to overestimate my exercise burns. I lost weight just fine eating them all back and have been maintaining at goal for 6 years eating them back. I earned those calories and I'm going to enjoy them!!! As long as you are relatively accurate with your exercise estimates, it all works out. Some people complain about the generic MFP exercise estimates, but they've really worked out well for me for years. If they're off a little, it hasn't been enough to impact me, personally. You can try it out, if it doesn't work, eat less of them back until you find the right percentage. If it seems to work, like it does for me, eat all of them back.

jasonscotsmith

I usually eat part of my exercise calories back as well, depending on what I do.

A word of caution on eating back your exercise calories. If you link multiple apps together in that mfp will sum them up so that you think you burned more calories than you really did. That bit me in the butt for a week until I realized it.

MommaGem2017

I absolutely eat back my exercise calories - that is what MFP intended. If you check the Getting Started pinned threads there is an excellent video.

momofamadhouse

Sometimes. Exercise tends to suppress my appetite and on rest days I feel like a black hole. So I usually save up the exercise calories for my rest days just so I don't break my deficit for the week.

shelly_38

Thanks everyone. Since this is my first week I have no idea how eating my exercise calories will work for me. So I will continue eating them! I'm pretty sure my Apple Watch is about as accurate as I will get to account for calories burned. And so far MFP is syncing up exactly with the workouts that are on my watch.

JeromeBarry1

Today I exercised back my ate calories. I do that a lot.

nyponbell

Yes but not always all. And sometimes I eat more, so it works for me to have some "extra" that isn't part of my calculated deficit.