Do you eat back your exercise calories?

DomesticKat

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.

Best of luck to you then!

veganbaum

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.

MFP gives you a calorie goal for losing weight without exercising. If you eat your exercise calories, you will still be burning more than you consume.

Even your calorie goal is an estimate and you may burn more or less than the number the estimate is based off of. So, choosing not to eat any exercise calories at all because the numbers might be inflated for you does not seem reasonable. What does seem reasonable is eating a percentage and adjusting based off of real world results after a reasonable period of time (4-6 weeks).

ETA: I eat all of my fitbit adjustment. There is no way I would be properly fueled if I didn't.
I've lost just fine and am in maintenance.

OHammykins

I have my daily calories set higher than the MFP recommendation so I eat between 1400 and 1500 a day. I tend not to eat back my exercise calories unless I'm having a hungry day or I've had an intense work out.

I never let myself go hungry though. If I need extra food and I've done the work I'm going to eat and enjoy it

workinonit1956

I eat my Fitbit adjustment and half of my exercise calories.

Deviette

Not really, but I don't worry so much about going over my goal range.

Candyspun

I eat back some of my exercise calories, but on days I exercise, I like to leave at least 315 calories in the green.

janejellyroll

There is no way I could meet my fitness goals and maintain my energy if I didn't eat back my exercise calories.

WholeFoods4Lyfe

Only rarely. I’m in my 40’s and weight loss is slow enough as it is. If I’m really hungry I’ll eat back some, but I don’t really exercise that strenuously anyway.

Spliner1969

I switched a long time ago to IIFYM. I do the same amount of exercise each week without fail, so those calories are already calculated into my daily calories. I simply go to iifym.com, use their macro calculator, answer all the questions honestly about how much exercise I do, enter those calories into MFP and adjust the macros like it tells me and eat the same amount every day. This way I don't have to starve on rest days and eat more on days I exercise. It's the same every day and works just the same over time. The catch is that you can't slack off on the exercise you input in their calculators or you'll either gain weight or not lose at the projected rate. Any exercise that gets entered into MFP automatically by my apps/devices I simply change the calorie burn to 0 or 1 so that I'm not double dipping on calories. If I do anything above and beyond what I planned on a weekly basis I may keep those calories and eat about 50% of them back.

errollmaclean

When cutting I tend to leave about a 100 calorie buffer to account for logging errors/calorie burn estimate errors. But the best way to know how accurate everything is, is to watch your body weight on the scale, to see if you're losing at the expected rate. If not, your calorie burns may be over estimated or you may have a logging error. If you're losing faster than expected, you can eat back more if you like.

fuzzylop72

The ones that are easy to track, I eat back. Some of the others, I don't, and just estimate based on average weight decline over a week.

kshama2001

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.

If you use MFP to set your calorie goal and don't add in any exercise calories, you are not using MFP the way it was designed.

MFP uses the NEAT method (Non-Exercise Activity Thermogenesis), and as such this system is designed for exercise calories to be eaten back. However, many consider the burns given by MFP to be inflated and only eat a percentage, such as 50%, back. Others, however, are able to lose weight while eating 100% of their exercise calories.

http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/818082/exercise-calories-again-wtf/p1

DoubleUbea

Thank you all for your help, I do appreciate it.
Kshama2001, thank you for the link.

I do not go under 1,200 calories a day, I keep it close to 1,500. I am not burning 600 calories, according to the treadmill I burn about 375-400. I know you are not suppose to hold on to the handles on the treadmill but I do. I can walk straight but for some reason I get wobbly in a treadmill so I hold the handles. Holding onto the rails decreases the calories burned. If use 200 calories and eat 1,500 calories I do not fall below the 1,200 lower limit.
I spread my meals out throughout the day, I do eat small in between meal snacks. I don't go over 1,500 often.

Maybe I will try eating a percentage of my calories back for a few days and look at the results. Thank you again.

Running_and_Coffee

No, because I don't trust that they are accurate. A person my size is supposed to burn about 80-90 calories per mile according to most calculators, but I have been running for decades and simply don't think that's possible because I'm adapted. I might burn this amount when sprinting or doing something totally new to me, but because I don't really know--and because I've hit my heaviest weights while training for half-marathons--I just don't trust the number. I exercise to remain sane, to feel great, to look good and not worry about Spanx or cellulite. But I don't do much about the calories I am supposedly burning.

debtay123

I only eat back half of my exercise calories each day. for instance I have a fit bit and if it says I burned 220 calories during this exercise- I will only eat back 110 to make room in case of errors because i like to see a loss even if it is a small loss-

CharlieBeansmomTracey

DoubleUbea wrote: »

Thank you all for your help, I do appreciate it.
Kshama2001, thank you for the link.

I do not go under 1,200 calories a day, I keep it close to 1,500. I am not burning 600 calories, according to the treadmill I burn about 375-400. I know you are not suppose to hold on to the handles on the treadmill but I do. I can walk straight but for some reason I get wobbly in a treadmill so I hold the handles. Holding onto the rails decreases the calories burned. If use 200 calories and eat 1,500 calories I do not fall below the 1,200 lower limit.
I spread my meals out throughout the day, I do eat small in between meal snacks. I don't go over 1,500 often.

Maybe I will try eating a percentage of my calories back for a few days and look at the results. Thank you again.

its going to take more than a few days to see the results. give it a month or so and go from there.weight fluctuates day to day so you want to see if your trend in weight is going down or not.

estherdragonbat

I eat back half and use half as a buffer against inaccurate logging (food and exercise). At first, I was losing a bit more than projected, but I seem to be right around where I ought to be now.

I find I'm less hungry, which makes adherence easier. Or less stressed.

kami3006

It's also not necessary to eat them on the same day. Many of us follow a weekly calorie average and incorporate them into other days of the week. Some save them for weekends since that's when they're likely to eat higher calorie meals. It all balances out.

cwolfman13

shaumom wrote: »

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.

Because all of those other things are included in your "giant tub" of calories...exercise is not included in your "giant tub" with MFP. MFP is not a TDEE calculator which is why exercise isn't mentioned in the least in your activity descriptors. You include it in your "giant tub" when you log it and get additional calories.

As an example, If I used MFP as designed I would get about 2000 calories to lose 1 Lb per week...this means MFP is estimating my non-exercise (everything else in your "big tub") calories to be 2500 calories. I rode 30 miles yesterday...I burn around 900 calories on a 30 mile ride. If I didn't account for them, my net calories would be 1,100 which is no way healthy for an adult male. My actual maintenance would be 2,500 + 900 = 3400 calories...so I would have a deficit of around 2,300 calories. Done regularly, I'd be very ill and malnourished.

If you're into fitness and health, fueling your fitness is a "thing to think of as a concept."

lorib642

Yes

DoubleUbea

I have been looking at several calorie calculators on various websites, the amount the treadmill displayed isn't too far off from what the various calculators say.
This is the Under Armour calculator: https://www.mapmywalk.com/improve/calorie_calculator/ I looked at others as well, there is about a 75 calorie difference between the website calculator with the lowest amount of calories burned and the website with the highest amount of calories, however if I took an average the treadmill isn't too far off. That is good to know.

I know there are several variables that go into the calculation and I will never get an exact amount. I am losing weight, I feel better than I did before I started with MFP. I will increase my calories as others have suggestedy and see how that goes.

Thank you.

walking2running

technically yes but i don’t use MFP as a guide as to the number of calories i should be consuming. i estimated that my average TDEE is 1850 based on working out 4 times per week. my calorie goal doesn’t change based on whether i work out on a specific day because it is already built in. it takes away the ‘using food as a reward’ mentality for me. and i don’t get psycho if i am sedentary on a given day because i know it will average out during the course of a week.