To log or not to log exercise and eat back calories

takemetosingapore2019

Hi everyone,

I have posted a few times but in case no one knows my stats, I am 20 YO F, extremely active and am actively trying to maintain and have been in maintenance for a year and a half.

In the past I logged exercise and ate back calories but found I was gaining and would then have to lose weight.

So now I am wondering if I should try to not log exercise calories and never eat back any exercise calories? I would technically assume a burn of 0 calories a day no matter what.

I typically run 1 hour a day or do some other activity, swimming or rock climbing etc.

What have been your experiences with logging and eating back exercise calories or ignoring exercise calories ? Thanks!

sijomial

Why would you change what you are doing if it's working?

As you are maintaining weight you must be eating back your exercise calories - you just aren't separating them out from your daily goal or labelling them as exercise calories. Your body is still burning them, you are still eating an equivalent number.
Either your daily goal based on your estimated BMR x activity is incorrect or your food logging is inaccurate and ignoring your estimated exercise burns fortunately corrects that inaccuracy.
But still don't see the point of you changing - the idea of tracking is to achieve your chosen calorie balance and it would seem whether by luck or judgement you are achieving that long term. There's no prize for accurate logging.

My experience is different in that I need to track my exercise as it's a very significant contributor to my overall calorie goal. That it works for you by doing what is effectively the TDEE method just shows there's more than one way to skin a cat.

WinoGelato

I have always logged and eaten back the exercise calories with no negative impact on weight loss or maintenance.

If you think you should be maintaining and you’re actually gaining then you are either underestimating your calories in (logging intake) or overestimating the calories out (exercise burn estimates).

How accurate is your logging? Are you using a food scale?

Where do you get your exercise burn estimates from?

It doesn’t have to be all or zero. If you are tracking accurately then you would have data points to see how much you’re gaining over what period of time and then be able to determine if you are off by 10% 20% etc. only eat back a portion of the exercise calories. Start with 75%, monitor and adjust from there.

If you are active you need calories to fuel your workouts and your lifestyle. Play around with the numbers, tweak until you have a daily intake and output that puts you confidently in maintenance but keep in mind, maintenance is a range not a set number.

Good luck.