Do you eat back your exercise calories?
LauraSrock18
Posts: 125 Member
If so, how much? How often?
And did you notice a difference eating back exercise calories vs not eating them back?
And did you notice a difference eating back exercise calories vs not eating them back?
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Yes. I ate back around 75% (more if I was still hungry) when I was losing and all of them now that I am maintaing, unless I really am not that hungry. Doing this gave me more energy which resulted in a better workout and more energy expenditure during the day. Not adequately fueling your body can leave you feeling tired so you move less when not exercising.9
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When losing I at all or most of my exercise calories. I had FitBit synced and went by the adjustments. I needed to properly fuel my workouts. My goal was to get fit not just lose weight.
Now I’m in maintenance and have transitioned to using the TDEE method which accounts for my activity but has me eating the same amount pretty much every day.3 -
Yes, as much of them as possible0
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If so, how much? How often?
All of them.
(I put a bit more effort into accuracy rather than just solely use the MFP database though.)
And did you notice a difference eating back exercise calories vs not eating them back?
The difference would be losing at the sensible rate I wanted (which I did) or losing weight far too fast.
I would also have had to learn how to account for my exercise when I reached goal weight and maintenance - you can't maintain if you don't!
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Yep, exercise cals taste the best!9
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I always do. Dare I say none of my 100 lb lost would have been possible without it because I can't maintain a deficit without it.4
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I eat back most of mine, with the exception of calories for rowing as my tracker tends to overestimate a bit.
If you are going to use a tool, use it as intended first then adjust to your own results. MFP is a tool and it intends for you to eat your exercise calories back, your deficit is already accounted for in your calorie allowance and not eating any of them back can lead to significant under-eating.5 -
All of them - I am set up so I can count on my numbers, though. There's some fuzzy math - I eat all exercise cals but am set to sedentary when I'm not really - but it balances out for me.0
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I eat all of my exercise cals back because I am in maintenance and exercise mainly to be able to eat more.
My maintenance level is currently 1850 cal/day and I row 1 hr/day which burns 550 cals/day which allows me to eat 2400 rather than just 1850 cals/day.
This eliminates any hunger, provides,greater freedom in fpod choices and allows me to eat more protein and other nutrients,than I could on just 1850 cal/day.4 -
not really but I probably set my daily calories to play into that (I am at 1300 cals while MFP recommends 1200 if I input my data and let it calculate)0
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I ate all of them while losing, and now in maintenance. I did take special pains at first to estimate them as carefully as possible, though, comparing various sources of estimates and usually picking the lowest plausible one.
If I didn't eat them back, my exercise performance would suffer, I'd feel fatigued/weak, and generally not enjoy life as much. (How do I know these things would happen, if I always ate them back? When I first joined MFP, it gave me a calorie goal that was too low for me, so I underate, and those bad things happened . . . and it took several weeks to recover even though I corrected as soon as I realized I was losing too fast. Undereating, and not fueling exercise, get one to the same place calorically, even if the calculation details differ.)3 -
I eat every one of them but I don't take a tracker's word for it. I started with about 75% of the value given and assessed my progress after several weeks. Now I know what my actual burns are and I use them all. I tried early on to not eat them but my exercise suffered and my weight lifting plateaued. With them, I lost at the exact rate that I wanted to.1
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No.... BUT I don't use the MFP target. I aim for between 1500 and 1700. MFP gave me 1200. I like have a set daily target. And 1200 calories per day makes my dog look like a tasty steak, or ribs...3
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I eat them all. I use my Fitbit and go by the adjustment it gives me. I would be losing way too fast and would have zero energy otherwise.1
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I deliberately underestimate my exercise calories to allow for error. For example I walk for 60 minutes on a treadmill. The treadmill says I've burnt 450 calories. I treat that as 300 calories, allowing for any errors, then I eat back 75% of those so 225. It works for me.8
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I used to but then I read a couple of research papers that suggested that people tend to overestimate their calories burned through exercise so that's when I decided to stop since I was trying to lose weight and figured that whatever I burned would aid the weight loss. That being said, I did not do STRENUOUS exercise. Just jogging and some weight lifting. If you ARE, I'd suggest going ahead and eating them back otherwise you could actually be harming yourself if you're not eating enough. I think it just depends on the person. Listening to your body is important. If you find yourself feeling famished and fatigued after a workout that probably tells you that you should eat some more!
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I deliberately underestimate my exercise calories to allow for error. For example I walk for 60 minutes on a treadmill. The treadmill says I've burnt 450 calories. I treat that as 300 calories, allowing for any errors, then I eat back 75% of those so 225. It works for me.
So you eat half....?8 -
I stopped because I have to rely on the database (I'm trying to get out of debt so can't afford a tracking device yet ) and I don't think it's accurate.
For example, I seriously doubt I'm burning 237 calories in a 30 min spin class. I used to eat them all back but now I'm aiming for 50%.0 -
Yes I eat them. Every delicious one of them.
If I don’t, I am hungry, cranky, tired, unable to do well with my runs and workouts, I can’t really fit in “treats” and “fun foods” and I feel deprived and prone to binges. I’m also less active in general because I’m so tired and grumpy that I end up burning even fewer calories in my normal every day to day life.
When I eat them, I’m not hungry, I get adequate nutrition and can also fit in treats and fun foods (which is incredibly important), my runs and workouts are well fueled, I have the energy to participate in life, I don’t binge, and I’m generally far more pleasant to be around.
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TrishSeren wrote: »I stopped because I have to rely on the database (I'm trying to get out of debt so can't afford a tracking device yet ) and I don't think it's accurate.
For example, I seriously doubt I'm burning 237 calories in a 30 min spin class. I used to eat them all back but now I'm aiming for 50%.
Trackers really aren't necessary. Stick with your 50% and after several weeks, adjust up or down according to your results. Good for you for working on your debt. I'm doing the same.7 -
TavistockToad wrote: »I deliberately underestimate my exercise calories to allow for error. For example I walk for 60 minutes on a treadmill. The treadmill says I've burnt 450 calories. I treat that as 300 calories, allowing for any errors, then I eat back 75% of those so 225. It works for me.
So you eat half....?
In that example yes but not always. For instance if I walk for 90 minutes and it says I've burnt 600 if probably treat that as 500 and eat back 400. I suppose roughly half is a good starting point.
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I'll be honest, I don't really get why it's a thing to think of as a concept?
As I see it, we eat a certain number of calories a day because it has been calculated that we USE a certain number of calories a day and we adjust what we eat based on that. Saying 'I'm not eating back my exercise calories today' is basically just saying, ' I'm going to have more a calorie deficit today,' that's all.
Because we have a giant tub of calories-used that we entitle "calories you used today by being alive and doing what you do." And it involves all the calories we used to breathe, to sleep, to drive, to draw, to move, to digest food, etc... Exercise is no different from any other category of 'calories-used.'
And just as I wouldn't think about it as eating back breathing or sleeping calories, I wouldn't think about eating back exercise calories, because it's effectively the same thing, IMHO.
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@shaumomI'll be honest, I don't really get why it's a thing to think of as a concept?
As I see it, we eat a certain number of calories a day because it has been calculated that we USE a certain number of calories a day and we adjust what we eat based on that. Saying 'I'm not eating back my exercise calories today' is basically just saying, ' I'm going to have more a calorie deficit today,' that's all.
Because we have a giant tub of calories-used that we entitle "calories you used today by being alive and doing what you do." And it involves all the calories we used to breathe, to sleep, to drive, to draw, to move, to digest food, etc... Exercise is no different from any other category of 'calories-used.'
And just as I wouldn't think about it as eating back breathing or sleeping calories, I wouldn't think about eating back exercise calories, because it's effectively the same thing, IMHO.
It is different on here because exercise is deliberately excluded from your "giant tub of calories".
What you are describing is how TDEE calculators work and MyFitnessPal isn't a TDEE calculator.9 -
No I do not. Calories burned is an estimate, I try to stay under my original suggested calories as it is. If you want to lose weight you have to burn more than you consume.11
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DoubleUbea wrote: »No I do not. Calories burned is an estimate, I try to stay under my original suggested calories as it is. If you want to lose weight you have to burn more than you consume.
Except when you use MFP and set your account to lose weight, your deficit is already incorporated into your calorie goal. You are supposed to consume enough calories to meet that goal, not under it. It expects you to log exercise and eat at least some of those calories back if you believe they're over-estimated. You're not doing yourself any favors but not eating any exercise calories back and creating an even bigger deficit by not eating the appropriate amount of calories MFP gives you.7 -
Thank you but If I am not hungry I am not going to eat. I never feel hungry when I close the day.
I am sure the treadmill is over estimating my calories burned. Everything I read has said those treadmill estimates usually over estimate your calories burned.
When I complete the day MFP will give me a warning if I have not eaten enough. I have not seen the warning since my first week, when I wasn't logging everything correctly.6 -
Not unless i work out on a rest day, like someone said above, my macros account for my daily energy expenditure. If for some reason I overeat I will use exercise to try to compensate but don't prefer doing that0
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DoubleUbea wrote: »Thank you but If I am not hungry I am not going to eat. I never feel hungry when I close the day.
I am sure the treadmill is over estimating my calories burned. Everything I read has said those treadmill estimates usually over estimate your calories burned.
When I complete the day MFP will give me a warning if I have not eaten enough. I have not seen the warning since my first week, when I wasn't logging everything correctly.
Not feeling hungry doesn't mean your body doesn't need the food. While a higher deficit means more weight lost in the week, it can be detrimental in the long run (muscle loss, hair loss, brittle nails, hormonal issues, missed periods, etc.). There are formulas that can nearly guarantee how much you burn walking or running if you don't want to trust what the treadmill says, or you can log half of the amount and eat that much.5
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