Do you eat your fitness calories?

BootyEvolve

Do you eat your fitness/workout calories? I'm set at 1200 calories but on a good workout I can burn 500. I'm not sure if eating those calories can inhibit my weightloss.

Seffell

Yes I do and you are supposed to.

ManBehindTheMask

No

Greenteaandtattoos

No I never do.

Orphia

Short answer, yes, you eat your exercise calories.

Long answer:

http://myfitnesspal.desk.com/customer/portal/articles/410332-how-does-myfitnesspal-calculate-my-initial-goals-

"How does MyFitnessPal calculate my initial goals?

When you create your profile, we ask you for your age, height, weight, gender, and normal daily activity level. We use these factors to determine the calories required to maintain your current weight. We also ask how much weight you would like to lose or gain per week, and with this goal in mind we subtract calories (for weight loss) or add calories (for weight gain) to determine your daily calorie and nutrient goals.

We ask for your goal weight when you create your profile, but this is only for purposes of reporting how many pounds remain until you meet your goal. Your goal weight does not affect our initial calorie calculations.

We also ask you for your weekly exercise goals (which should not be included in your initial activity level), in order to provide an incentive for you to reach. However, we do not account for additional exercise outside of your reported daily activity level, until you actually perform and log exercise to your diary under the "Cardiovascular" section. Please see this article to understand why we do not currently calculate calories burned via strength exercises.
​
Because your daily calorie goal already accounts for your intent to gain or lose weight at a particular rate, you can achieve your goal by eating the specified number of calories per day, with no additional exercise required. If you do exercise, your daily calorie goal will then increase for the day, to stabilize your weight loss or weight gain at the rate you initially specified.

We set your daily calorie goal in Net Calories which we define as:

Calories Consumed (Food) - Calories Burned (Exercise) = Net Calories

This means if you exercise, you will be able to eat more for that day. For example, if your Net Calorie goal is 2000 calories, one way to meet that goal is to eat 2,500 calories of food, but then burn 500 calories through exercise.

Think of your Net Calories like a daily budget of calories to spend. You spend them by eating, and you earn more calories to eat by exercising. We do not recommend women consume fewer than 1200 calories per day, or men fewer than 1500 calories per day. Eating too little can produce negative health effects."

TavistockToad

BootyEvolve wrote: »

Do you eat your fitness/workout calories? I'm set at 1200 calories but on a good workout I can burn 500. I'm not sure if eating those calories can inhibit my weightloss.

Yep, they taste the best!

MelanieCN77

Yes, or I'd be so hungry all the time.

RuNaRoUnDaFiEld

Yes, I eat all of mine. I earned them.

Just an observation but the posters saying they don't eat them have very few posts. Interesting as I believe people not eating them back is one of the main reasons people quit. They try to live on such a small amount of calories that is becomes unsustainable.

notnikkisixx

Since I've been following the IIFYM program I have not been eating back my exercise calories and, honestly, I prefer it that way. When I was eating back my calories I found myself overdoing it on days I worked out and feeling very guilty about eating at all on days I didn't work out. Now that I am consistently eating the same calories and macros every day I'm feeling better and losing weight.

fiddletime

I'm on 1200 cal. I usually eat back 3/4 of my calories. If my weight loss stalls for a few weeks I'll eat back half. If I'm losing too quickly I'll eat back more. You have to play with it. But with proper logging, I usually suspect my exercise calories are off if something isn't adding up.

EnderMako1987

I'm currently only eating a partial amount of mine. If it's not something I can maintain then I will start eating back half.

BootyEvolve

notnikkisixx wrote: »

Since I've been following the IIFYM program I have not been eating back my exercise calories and, honestly, I prefer it that way. When I was eating back my calories I found myself overdoing it on days I worked out and feeling very guilty about eating at all on days I didn't work out. Now that I am consistently eating the same calories and macros every day I'm feeling better and losing weight.

That's a little bit what I am doing but I mainly make sure to get 108 to 124 grams of protien. I've noticed when I eat extra (my workout calories) it makes me gain weight.

MegaMooseEsq

BootyEvolve wrote: »

Do you eat your fitness/workout calories? I'm set at 1200 calories but on a good workout I can burn 500. I'm not sure if eating those calories can inhibit my weightloss.

It will slow your weight loss, but so does eating 1200 calories a day instead of 700 a day, which is basically what you're doing if you don't eat back those exercise calories.

I think a lot of the caution around exercise calories is the knowledge that it's easy to overestimate how many calories you're actually burning, which is why people say they eat back half or two thirds or whatever. The thing is, this is *all* guesswork to an extent. You need to pay attention to your body and your rate of weight loss and adjust as needed. 1200 is the estimate of what women need to keep our bodies running healthy. It's better to lose weight a little bit more slowly than to risk health problems by starving yourself.

Maxematics

RuNaRoUnDaFiEld wrote: »

Yes, I eat all of mine. I earned them.

Just an observation but the posters saying they don't eat them have very few posts. Interesting as I believe people not eating them back is one of the main reasons people quit. They try to live on such a small amount of calories that is becomes unsustainable.

I've noticed this as well, especially amongst women. I think a big part of it is that women see that "magic" number of 1200 calories everywhere but do not realize it's geared toward sedentary people and, even then, it's often too low. I've used MFP since 2009 but didn't know all the really useful stuff until I decided to lose weight again in 2015. Today is my 777th consecutive day on MFP. If someone told me back then that I could maintain 114 pounds on over 2000 calories per day, I would have looked at them like they were nuts.

When you come from a place where you feel like the world around you is judging you for being fat and making you feel like a glutton, it's easy to think that eating a small calorie amount is what you should be doing because that's probably what thin and/or fit people do when in reality, that's far from the case. So most people go from one extreme to the other, cutting out sugar, gluten, dairy, meat, and everything else that's "bad" in the weight loss world and they try to adopt a "clean" diet. They come to MFP and think the more they are in the green, the better they're doing. This leads to restrict/binge cycles for many or just flat out giving up. It can be difficult to find a middle ground.

That being said, yes I eat my calories back. I have my Charge 2 synced to MFP and if I don't eat all my calories back I'll bank them for another day when I feel like eating a bit more.

evilokc

you are given a total amount of calories you are SUPPOSED to eat daily in order to lose your preset amount of weight per week. you are supposed to REACH that goal every day not eat less. if you exercise and that drops you under that goal you are allowed and supposed to eat back up to that goal. mfp sets the per week weight goals to keep you healthy and try and stop rebound. if you drop 5 to 10lbs a week you are going to rebound. use the math they give you and drop the weight slow and steady. you will get there. I did.

sijomial

notnikkisixx wrote: »

Since I've been following the IIFYM program I have not been eating back my exercise calories and, honestly, I prefer it that way. When I was eating back my calories I found myself overdoing it on days I worked out and feeling very guilty about eating at all on days I didn't work out. Now that I am consistently eating the same calories and macros every day I'm feeling better and losing weight.

But your goal is a TDEE goal I assume as per the IIFYM calculator?

So in reality you are eating back your exercise calories but as an average every day rather than a variable amount.

ManBehindTheMask

RuNaRoUnDaFiEld wrote: »

Yes, I eat all of mine. I earned them.

Just an observation but the posters saying they don't eat them have very few posts. Interesting as I believe people not eating them back is one of the main reasons people quit. They try to live on such a small amount of calories that is becomes unsustainable.

Or they just don't spend much time on the forum

MossiO

I eat mine; I earned them! Plus it really helps it feel sustainable. I'm not in a huge hurry, and I know this is how I just need to live and eat from here on out.

NorthCascades

Yes, of course. I'm in this dirt my health and looks, and I can understand basic math.

NorthCascades

notnikkisixx wrote: »

Since I've been following the IIFYM program I have not been eating back my exercise calories and, honestly, I prefer it that way. When I was eating back my calories I found myself overdoing it on days I worked out and feeling very guilty about eating at all on days I didn't work out. Now that I am consistently eating the same calories and macros every day I'm feeling better and losing weight.

IIFYM has you eating your exercise calories, you just account for them up front instead of after the fact. It's like paying with a credit card instead of cash.

Mandy_1982

Some days I'll eat some of them back, some days I won't. It just depends on how hungry I feel after a workout. I usually like a protein shake after my workouts.