We are pleased to announce that as of March 4, 2025, an updated Rich Text Editor has been introduced in the MyFitnessPal Community. To learn more about the changes, please click here. We look forward to sharing this new feature with you!

To all you beautiful successful people. Who are back their exercise calories??

tennisgolfswim
tennisgolfswim Posts: 6 Member
edited December 2024 in Success Stories
I lost 40lbs on mfp years ago and cannot remember if I ate back exercise calories.

I know I ate some on Tennis days when I burned 1,000 or more but on elliptical days when I burn 150-200 what’s a girl to do?

I’m also using my polar ft7 hr monitor which is accurate for calorie burned vs mfp which is very generous.

THANK YOU!

Replies

  • PAV8888
    PAV8888 Posts: 14,666 Member
    monmimi wrote: »
    I lost 40lbs on mfp years ago and cannot remember if I ate back exercise calories.
    I know I ate some on Tennis days when I burned 1,000 or more but on elliptical days when I burn 150-200 what’s a girl to do?
    I’m also using my polar ft7 hr monitor which is accurate for calorie burned vs mfp which is very generous.
    THANK YOU!

    I found out that my Fitbit is considerably more accurate when I "religiously" log my food intake

    We don't actually know whether MFP, your FT7, or Bob's iPhone is "accurate".

    What we do know is that you can very easily eat a percentage of calories "spent" (say 100%) and compare your expected vs actual trending weight results over a time period of 6 to 8 weeks... and adjust based on how well this is actually working out for you!

    That said, not eating back exercise calories creates a larger deficit. But what you actually want is a reasonable deficit that helps you achieve your goals!
  • ceiswyn
    ceiswyn Posts: 2,256 Member
    I ate back 50%, but given that I fairly consistently lost more weight than I expected I should probably have eaten back more.

    These days I eat back up to 100%, which works for me.
  • RunsWithBees
    RunsWithBees Posts: 1,508 Member
    edited January 2019
    I ate back every single calorie burned through exercise, lost and have maintained for 5 years. My exercise consists of walking, hiking and running with occasional swimming and biking and I use the iRunner app to track burns, it’s been extremely accurate for me.
  • TheFlyOnTheWall
    TheFlyOnTheWall Posts: 61 Member
    ceiswyn wrote: »
    I ate back 50%, but given that I fairly consistently lost more weight than I expected I should probably have eaten back more.

    same here - now that I'm in maintenance, I'm experimenting and increasing from 50% to 60% right now - will see how that goes, and hopefully I will be able to end up eating 100% too! :)

  • megemrj
    megemrj Posts: 547 Member
    Every.Single.One
  • GemimaFitzTed
    GemimaFitzTed Posts: 260 Member
    I have never eaten back my exercise calories and I think know that is one of the reasons why I failed so dismally with my weightloss in the past. I was way under the 1200 calorie mark and my mental health seriously suffered. I would give up at the 12 week mark.

    This time around, I will firstly eat back 50% of my exercise calories and tweak accordingly. I need to change the way I look at eating back exercise calories - it's not wrong! I will always make sure my NET calories is 1600.
  • GemimaFitzTed
    GemimaFitzTed Posts: 260 Member
    So, for the first time in my MFP journey (and there has been a few!) I've eaten back exercise calories, albeit 50% of them.

    And that chocolate was the most satisfying chocolate I have ever had....
  • LivingtheLeanDream
    LivingtheLeanDream Posts: 13,342 Member
    Eat them :smile: I ate them, needed them to fuel my workouts/activity - it didn't affect my weight loss.
  • motivatedmartha
    motivatedmartha Posts: 1,108 Member
    Because I use mfp exercise database to count mine I aim to eat back 50% of those earned - this is principally because I think the database estimates on the high side and I'm not prepared to purchase and wear a fitbit or other tracking device :) This approach has worked pretty well for me so far (57lbs lost). It also encourages me to move my ageing body more - exercise has been so beneficial to my mood/mobility etc etc but the biggest motivator is that I can 'afford' a treat if I've earned it.
  • girlwithcurls2
    girlwithcurls2 Posts: 2,289 Member
    kami3006 wrote: »
    Lost and maintained while eating all of mine. Made a nice difference in mood, adherence and fitness progression.

    This. I almost always ate them all back. Well, I ate close to all of them. I figured that MFP overestimated, and since the exercise database is what I use, I was a little cautious...
This discussion has been closed.
Do you Love MyFitnessPal? Have you crushed a goal or improved your life through better nutrition using MyFitnessPal?
Share your success and inspire others. Leave us a review on Apple Or Google Play stores!