Calorie deficit & exercise calories earnt

Jamesb2405

I'm currently on a calorie deficit and when I cycle it's adding the calories burnt to what I can eat. Should I be consuming these & how would if impact on my goal of loosing body fat %

mazcor536

Your deficit is already built in to your calorie goal. If you exercise, those additional calories are extra calories for you to eat. Not eating them increases your deficit. Say your daily deficit is 500 calories (1lb a week loss). If you burn 300 calories with exercise and don’t eat them, you make your deficit larger (500 + 300 = 800) for that day. However, calories burned through exercise are only an estimate (often overstated) so many people on here eat a portion back (50% or so). Only you can tell how many you need to eat back. Eat some or all back, and see how it affects your progress. Reassess in a month (losing more = eat more of them, losing less = eat less of them). Good luck!

sijomial

Yes your base calorie goal is for a day you don't exercise.
Eating back your exercise calories has the impact of keeping your calorie deficit at the rate you selected in your goals.

But beware the calorie estimates for cycling in the exercise database here. The speed categories are just generic and might work if you are cycling off road but in my experience for a road bike they are badly over-stated.
Just like the food database - use with thoughtfulness and don't assume everything is accurate.

Indoor cycling I convert power output (watts) to calories, outdoor cycling I use Strava which for me at least comes up with pretty reasonable estimates.

LivingtheLeanDream

Yes, eat back your exercise calories. Be aware that they are estimated burns so you can err on the side of caution and eat say 50% of them back. If you are losing at a faster rate then you'll know you can eat more of them back.

Jamesb2405

Thank you so much for the responses, I'll stick to eating back 50% of what gets burnt. Its all applied by my fitbit for walking and cycling that I do.

fitoverfortymom

Sounds like you are on the right track!