Do you eat exercise cals ?

size102b

Hi I had some nice people help me with my issues about exercise calories. Would you mind telling me what’s been most successful for you ?
1. Not eating exercise calories ?
2. Eating all exercise calories ?
3. Eating % exercise calories ?

Thanks 😁

tinkerbellang83

Eating about 50% worked for me, but this won't be useful to you because my tracker and how accurate it is for me won't tell you how accurate your method is for you.

There is only one number that you can definitely rule out as inaccurate and that's zero calories.

Pick an option stick with it for a month or so whilst logging your food accurately and you'll know how accurate your chosen option is. Then you can adjust accordingly.

size102b

tinkerbellang83 wrote: »

Eating about 50% worked for me, but this won't be useful to you because my tracker and how accurate it is for me won't tell you how accurate your method is for you.

There is only one number that you can definitely rule out as inaccurate and that's zero calories.

Pick an option stick with it for a month or so whilst logging your food accurately and you'll know how accurate your chosen option is. Then you can adjust accordingly.

Thanks a lot

Commander_Keen

It really depends on, how much your eating (How reliable ) and how much you are burning ( again How reliable)
The bigger the deficit, the quicker the weight loss.

cmriverside

I always ate them all.

The only way to know what works is to log food and exercise for a month or so and see. Regardless what any of us say, YOUR numbers and your ability to track them is all that matters.

KRansome83

I usually don't because it's been hard enough for me to lose even when eating right without the exercise. And when I do try to eat my exercise calories it seems to slow me down a little. I've been figuring all this out for me the hard way over the last year.

I guess my point is each person should figure out what works best for them.

size102b

Commander_Keen wrote: »

It really depends on, how much your eating (How reliable ) and how much you are burning ( again How reliable)
The bigger the deficit, the quicker the weight loss.

Mines been 1100 deficits a day no fast losses for me

Naturally_Monica

size102b wrote: »

Commander_Keen wrote: »

It really depends on, how much your eating (How reliable ) and how much you are burning ( again How reliable)
The bigger the deficit, the quicker the weight loss.

Mines been 1100 deficits a day no fast losses for me

You said you are eating 1100 cals a day? How long have you been eating in that deficit for? And are you accurately tracking foods with a food scale, etc.?

MikePTY

Commander_Keen wrote: »

It really depends on, how much your eating (How reliable ) and how much you are burning ( again How reliable)
The bigger the deficit, the quicker the weight loss.

The bigger the deficit can also mean muscle loss, hair loss, and lots of other nasty side effects if a person eats at too agressive a deficit for too long.

shadow2soul

I eat them all. All the weight I lost was while eating them all. Eating them all has proven to be the most sustainable way to go about it for me.

cwolfman13

size102b wrote: »

Hi I had some nice people help me with my issues about exercise calories. Would you mind telling me what’s been most successful for you ?
1. Not eating exercise calories ?
2. Eating all exercise calories ?
3. Eating % exercise calories ?

Thanks 😁

It is the way this tool is designed considering exercise isn't included in your activity level and thus unaccounted for.

For my cardio, I just used whatever my HRM gave me less my BMR calories for that given time. For weight lifting I just used the entry in MFP under cardio. I lost at the average rate I told MFP I wanted to lose at. I was pretty meticulous with logging my food...using a food scale for most things, verifying database entries against other sources, etc in order to mitigate inaccuracies.

This also really depends on what it is you are doing. When I first started exercising I was just going for morning or evening walks. I never bothered tracking those because I figured I sit most of the day at a desk and even a sedentary activity level would account for a certain number of steps in a day. I also figured it wasn't something particularly arduous, and they weren't long walks...basically just something to get off the couch.

That changed when my exercise intensity increased and duration increased. Not fueling a 30-50 mile bike ride is a really bad idea. Not fueling a 20-30 minute walk isn't a particularly big deal.

heybales

size102b wrote: »

Commander_Keen wrote: »

It really depends on, how much your eating (How reliable ) and how much you are burning ( again How reliable)
The bigger the deficit, the quicker the weight loss.

Mines been 1100 deficits a day no fast losses for me

Or does that mean trying to obtain an 1100 daily deficit, or tad more than 2lb weekly loss rate?

You have over 60 lbs to lose to make that reasonable attempt?

If not - then you actually are what would normally be considered a fast loss. The type that usually results in the over 50% of dieters being unable to maintain/reach their healthy goal weight.

If that is the amount of deficit - how long you been attempting that?

And to the OP question - yes, eating back all my manually logged workouts with best estimate of calories burned.
I'm one that figures if I'm going to spend X amount of time confirming the food side of the equation is best it can be, I can spend that much time on burning side of equation too.

AnnPT77

Estimated them carefully, ate pretty much all of them back, all through a year of losing around 50 pounds, and 3 years of maintaining a healthy weight since.

ighecla

I use a Garmin Fitness tracker linked to MFP. My goal is 1200 net calories per day and 1lb a week weight loss. I try to leave 200-250 of my exercise calories 'on the table' to cushion imperfections in tracking. I am consuming between 1900 and 2400 calories a day and have lost 27lbs in 25 weeks. This approach seems to be working for me and I think will be sustainable when I switch gears to maintenance weight.

JeromeBarry1

I usually log more exercise than I eat. On my best days, I get all the protein I'm supposed to and keep my carbs very low.

movgrl1

I don't eat any of my exercise calories. The estimates can be off and when I do eat my exercise calories I find myself going over or stressing about it, so I just don't eat them. I have them turned off, so I don't even see them. I try not to eat all of my calories. I try to leave ~200-300, I figure my accuracy can't be spot on when logging, so these allow me to account for that. I will say, I don't stress about leaving calories though, If I'm having a hungry day I may eat up to my calorie limit. I've found the best thing for me is to set it and then basically forget it until I reach my short term goals and reset my calories and macros.

neugebauer52

On average I eat about 50 % of exercise calories burned.

akalostangel

I started out eating them, but found myself going over my goal, then minimally exercising so I could be under my calories. I like to eat under my calorie goal, if even just a bit, so I'd rather not include exercise calories at all and then I can be sure I am under.

WinoGelato

movgrl1 wrote: »

I don't eat any of my exercise calories. The estimates can be off and when I do eat my exercise calories I find myself going over or stressing about it, so I just don't eat them. I have them turned off, so I don't even see them. I try not to eat all of my calories. I try to leave ~200-300, I figure my accuracy can't be spot on when logging, so these allow me to account for that. I will say, I don't stress about leaving calories though, If I'm having a hungry day I may eat up to my calorie limit. I've found the best thing for me is to set it and then basically forget it until I reach my short term goals and reset my calories and macros.

Sure estimate can be wrong. There are ways to validate them though. But you know you burn SOME calories, right? So choosing zero is the one number that is definitively wrong.

WinoGelato

Commander_Keen wrote: »

It really depends on, how much your eating (How reliable ) and how much you are burning ( again How reliable)
The bigger the deficit, the quicker the weight loss .

Please stop promoting overly aggressive weight loss techniques. There are many adverse effects to rapid weight loss if a person doesn’t have a lot of weight to lose.

movgrl1

WinoGelato wrote: »

movgrl1 wrote: »

I don't eat any of my exercise calories. The estimates can be off and when I do eat my exercise calories I find myself going over or stressing about it, so I just don't eat them. I have them turned off, so I don't even see them. I try not to eat all of my calories. I try to leave ~200-300, I figure my accuracy can't be spot on when logging, so these allow me to account for that. I will say, I don't stress about leaving calories though, If I'm having a hungry day I may eat up to my calorie limit. I've found the best thing for me is to set it and then basically forget it until I reach my short term goals and reset my calories and macros.

Sure estimate can be wrong. There are ways to validate them though. But you know you burn SOME calories, right? So choosing zero is the one number that is definitively wrong.

Yes, I'm well versed in CICO. I've met with trainers, nutritionists, and dietitians, and they all recommended not eating the exercise calories. Yes, I have a Fitbit that estimates my calories burned. I just use my exercise calories as a sort of padding towards my deficit. I have a training plan from the personal trainer, I've lost 43 pounds in 4 months, losing at a decent pace, without binge-ing, or feeling deprived.