Should I eat back my exercise calories?

SparklesFer097
SparklesFer097 Posts: 27 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
I’m a female, age 18 and height 5.3ft who weight 59kg and would like to be 55kg. I’m on a caloric deficit right now. I eat around 1350 calories per day and this is without the excerise calories. I do HIIT 3 times per week and 2 days weight training. My question is should I eat back the amount of calories I burn after I excerised?

Replies

  • 4legsRbetterthan2
    4legsRbetterthan2 Posts: 19,590 MFP Moderator
    @SparklesFer097 I moved this to the general help board, you will get better answers here.

    If you are using a MFP guided goal the deficit to lose your selected rate of loss is already built in ( unless you were given 1200 calories, if thats the case I can elaborate more on it). The system is designed so you to eat your exercise calories back. Not eating them back may give you a really big deficit, which speeds up weight loss but also can have other less awesome side effects (hangry anyone?). Most people eat back about half of their exercise calories if measured by MFP entry, or exercise equipment, as these methods tend to overestimate. Personal trackers may be more accurate. After a few weeks you can measure your progress, if you aren't seeing the results you expect exercise calories may be something you should to adjust.
  • AnvilHead
    AnvilHead Posts: 18,343 Member
    Great explanation of it here: https://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10503681/exercise-calories-do-i-eat-these-a-video-explanation/p1
  • SparklesFer097
    SparklesFer097 Posts: 27 Member
    Thank you everyone!
  • SparklesFer097
    SparklesFer097 Posts: 27 Member
    AnvilHead wrote: »
    Great explanation of it here: https://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10503681/exercise-calories-do-i-eat-these-a-video-explanation/p1

    Thank u! This helped a lot

  • TavistockToad
    TavistockToad Posts: 35,719 Member
    SparklesFer097 wrote: »
    I’m a female, age 18 and height 5.3ft who weight 59kg and would like to be 55kg. I’m on a caloric deficit right now. I eat around 1350 calories per day and this is without the excerise calories. I do HIIT 3 times per week and 2 days weight training. My question is should I eat back the amount of calories I burn after I excerised?

    yes, if you use MFP numbers, that is how its designed.

    and exercise cals taste the best!
  • TavistockToad
    TavistockToad Posts: 35,719 Member
    mybattle2006 wrote: »
    I don’t eat my exercise calories back. I prefer a deficit.

    you have a deficit...
  • Stockholm_Andy
    Stockholm_Andy Posts: 803 Member
    However, be careful as many devices and this site often give overly generous estimates of how many calories you've actually burned.

    Watch how your body is reacting to the extra calories and use common sense is my advice.
  • sijomial
    sijomial Posts: 19,809 Member
    Yes you should be accounting for your exercise.
    Apart from being how this site is designed to be used it's also a great lesson for life after weight loss - you do more you eat more, you do less you need to eat less.

    Your weight training can be logged as "strength training" (under CV part of the exercise diary), it's reasonable and modest estimate.
    Your HIIT is more problematic to estimate - what exactly are you doing? (HIIT isn't an exercise, it's a style of doing a particular exercise.)
  • emmamcgarity
    emmamcgarity Posts: 1,594 Member
    I choose to let hunger be my guide then try to make a healthful choice. Often an apple with a light string cheese or a banana... maybe even a handful of almonds. Sometimes I am hungry the day after a workout. I use the weekly net calories to guide me there
  • mph323
    mph323 Posts: 3,565 Member
    emmamcgarity wrote: »
    I choose to let hunger be my guide then try to make a healthful choice. Often an apple with a light string cheese or a banana... maybe even a handful of almonds. Sometimes I am hungry the day after a workout. I use the weekly net calories to guide me there

    I go by weekly calories too. Some days I do more and am less hungry, other days I'm ravenous for no obvious reason. As long as it all balances out at the end of the week, including at least half of my exercise calories, I'm good :)
  • yukfoo
    yukfoo Posts: 871 Member
    Maybe try eating them back for a week. See if your weight loss is still on track. If it slows, stops or reverses go back to your original calories and add a 100 until you find what works for you.
  • phke5716
    phke5716 Posts: 10 Member
    Agree with most folks here - let your own body guide your choices (i.e. everyone's requirements are different). Like @mybattle2006 , I do not eat back my calories. It is near impossible to know how many calories you burned during exercise (very difficult for resistance/weight training). However, if you have a general idea (and feel hungry) I would ensure you are eating a healthy diet (you know, protein and complex carbs) and then eat back 1/2 of what MFP is saying you 'earned'. I spoke to a co-worker about this (he holds a PhD in biology) and asked him about this very thing last Friday. His advice was that 'you definitely can eat back your calories - people make to big of a deal about dieting, it is simple and has not changed: eat less than your tdee and your lose wait, eat more and you'll gain it back'(ie calories in-calories out)'. He did point out though (and thats why I mentioned it) that it is difficult to accurately measure how many calories you burned during a workout and that is wher ea lot of people see stalls or even failures (gaining fat). They overeat because they think they are just eating back to deficit. If all else fails you can calculate MET (go with the lowest figure) and use that as your 'earned'. Good luck :)

    Example of MET: I am on the 5x5 program. Yesterday was 45m (Squats,Bench,Barbell Row). The MET calculator says this type of activity is a 8.0 but I put it at 6.0. The result was ->384 calories burned. However, the compendium (see reference 2, below) notes this type of activity [resistance (weight) training, squats , slow or explosive effort] is [5.0] I go with the conservative estimate [5.0] and the result is ->320 kc burned. I cap this at 300 to be more conservative.

    How to calculate MET by hand? MET*3.5*weight(kg)/200 = X*minutes . Example from above: 5*3.5*81/200=7.0875*45=319kc burned.

    See:
    https://www.businessinsider.com/how-to-calculate-calories-burned-exercise-met-value-2017-8
    https://sites.google.com/site/compendiumofphysicalactivities/Activity-Categories
    https://www.cooperinstitute.org/2017/12/07/using-met-minutes-to-track-volume-of-physical-activity
  • nooshi713
    nooshi713 Posts: 4,877 Member
    I eat them back. I have found that circuit training or weight lifting drastically over estimates calorie burn while cardio machines slightly underestimate my burn.
  • WinoGelato
    WinoGelato Posts: 13,454 Member
    phke5716 wrote: »
    Agree with most folks here - let your own body guide your choices (i.e. everyone's requirements are different). Like @mybattle2006 , I do not eat back my calories. It is near impossible to know how many calories you burned during exercise (very difficult for resistance/weight training). However, if you have a general idea (and feel hungry) I would ensure you are eating a healthy diet (you know, protein and complex carbs) and then eat back 1/2 of what MFP is saying you 'earned'. I spoke to a co-worker about this (he holds a PhD in biology) and asked him about this very thing last Friday. His advice was that 'you definitely can eat back your calories - people make to big of a deal about dieting, it is simple and has not changed: eat less than your tdee and your lose wait, eat more and you'll gain it back'(ie calories in-calories out)'. He did point out though (and thats why I mentioned it) that it is difficult to accurately measure how many calories you burned during a workout and that is wher ea lot of people see stalls or even failures (gaining fat). They overeat because they think they are just eating back to deficit. If all else fails you can calculate MET (go with the lowest figure) and use that as your 'earned'. Good luck :)

    Example of MET: I am on the 5x5 program. Yesterday was 45m (Squats,Bench,Barbell Row). The MET calculator says this type of activity is a 8.0 but I put it at 6.0. The result was ->384 calories burned. However, the compendium (see reference 2, below) notes this type of activity [resistance (weight) training, squats , slow or explosive effort] is [5.0] I go with the conservative estimate [5.0] and the result is ->320 kc burned. I cap this at 300 to be more conservative.

    How to calculate MET by hand? MET*3.5*weight(kg)/200 = X*minutes . Example from above: 5*3.5*81/200=7.0875*45=319kc burned.

    See:
    https://www.businessinsider.com/how-to-calculate-calories-burned-exercise-met-value-2017-8
    https://sites.google.com/site/compendiumofphysicalactivities/Activity-Categories
    https://www.cooperinstitute.org/2017/12/07/using-met-minutes-to-track-volume-of-physical-activity

    But you know you burned SOME cals during exercise so eating NONE of them back is definitely wrong....

    It’s really not a choice between absolute accuracy and nothing at all. Pick a method of estimating calorie burn: Calculator, HRM, MFP estimate, Equipment estimate, etc. Log that number. Eat back whatever you’re comfortable with - 50% is what a lot of people start with. If you lose at desired rate then keep using that same approach. If you lose faster than your chosen rate of loss - eat back a little more. If you lose slower - eat back a little less.

    Just pick a number and stick with it for 4-6 weeks and monitor and adjust as needed. It’s simple trial and error but eating back none, if you are following the MFP method - is definitely not the right answer.
  • New_Heavens_Earth
    New_Heavens_Earth Posts: 610 Member
    4legsRbetterthan2 wrote: »
    @SparklesFer097 I moved this to the general help board, you will get better answers here.

    If you are using a MFP guided goal the deficit to lose your selected rate of loss is already built in ( unless you were given 1200 calories, if thats the case I can elaborate more on it). The system is designed so you to eat your exercise calories back. Not eating them back may give you a really big deficit, which speeds up weight loss but also can have other less awesome side effects (hangry anyone?). Most people eat back about half of their exercise calories if measured by MFP entry, or exercise equipment, as these methods tend to overestimate. Personal trackers may be more accurate. After a few weeks you can measure your progress, if you aren't seeing the results you expect exercise calories may be something you should to adjust.

    Not the OP, but could you please elaborate on if/ how things change if you are given 1200 calories?
    Thank you.
  • janejellyroll
    janejellyroll Posts: 25,763 Member
    New_Heavens_Earth wrote: »
    4legsRbetterthan2 wrote: »
    @SparklesFer097 I moved this to the general help board, you will get better answers here.

    If you are using a MFP guided goal the deficit to lose your selected rate of loss is already built in ( unless you were given 1200 calories, if thats the case I can elaborate more on it). The system is designed so you to eat your exercise calories back. Not eating them back may give you a really big deficit, which speeds up weight loss but also can have other less awesome side effects (hangry anyone?). Most people eat back about half of their exercise calories if measured by MFP entry, or exercise equipment, as these methods tend to overestimate. Personal trackers may be more accurate. After a few weeks you can measure your progress, if you aren't seeing the results you expect exercise calories may be something you should to adjust.

    Not the OP, but could you please elaborate on if/ how things change if you are given 1200 calories?
    Thank you.

    Not the person who said this, but I think they're referring to the fact that nobody will get a goal lower than 1,200. So if you put in that you want to lose two pounds a week but you don't weigh enough to do this and still consume at least 1,200 calories, you will still get a goal of 1,200 calories. You don't get a deficit large enough to lose your goal of two pounds per week.

    MFP is designed so that your rate of loss is built into your goal *unless* that rate of loss would give you a goal that is generally recognized as too low to be safe.
  • New_Heavens_Earth
    New_Heavens_Earth Posts: 610 Member
    janejellyroll wrote: »
    New_Heavens_Earth wrote: »
    4legsRbetterthan2 wrote: »
    @SparklesFer097 I moved this to the general help board, you will get better answers here.

    If you are using a MFP guided goal the deficit to lose your selected rate of loss is already built in ( unless you were given 1200 calories, if thats the case I can elaborate more on it). The system is designed so you to eat your exercise calories back. Not eating them back may give you a really big deficit, which speeds up weight loss but also can have other less awesome side effects (hangry anyone?). Most people eat back about half of their exercise calories if measured by MFP entry, or exercise equipment, as these methods tend to overestimate. Personal trackers may be more accurate. After a few weeks you can measure your progress, if you aren't seeing the results you expect exercise calories may be something you should to adjust.

    Not the OP, but could you please elaborate on if/ how things change if you are given 1200 calories?
    Thank you.

    Not the person who said this, but I think they're referring to the fact that nobody will get a goal lower than 1,200. So if you put in that you want to lose two pounds a week but you don't weigh enough to do this and still consume at least 1,200 calories, you will still get a goal of 1,200 calories. You don't get a deficit large enough to lose your goal of two pounds per week.

    MFP is designed so that your rate of loss is built into your goal *unless* that rate of loss would give you a goal that is generally recognized as too low to be safe.

    Ah, thanks. I'm at 1200 calories for 1 lb a week. I thought it affected how many exercise calories to eat back. For me I can't use that many.

    Thank you.
  • hesn92
    hesn92 Posts: 5,966 Member
    Yes.

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