Calling all petite ladies! Which works better? Eating exercise calories or not?

Mitzigan94

Im at 4'11 and I have a healthy appetite.
I need to up my workouts to burn off Calories and Im thinking for petites like us, is it better to eat exercise calories back or not?

middlehaitch

I’m 5’1 and had 1200 cals to lose 1lbs, then 0.5lbs, then less per week.
It took a year to lose 30 lbs, but I couldn’t have done it, and been healthy, without eating back all my exercise calories. I worked out 5 x a week for an hour and earned ~200 extra cals per day (YMMV).

The slow loss made transitioning to maintenance easier for me.
Maintaining at 100-105lbs for ~10yr now.

The good thing about always eating your exercise calories is it is much easier to make educated adjustments when your exercise either increases or decreases.

It also means you are not compromising your NEAT by having too little energy to perform everyday activities, tasks. Nor will your workout be less than optimum because you are underfuelled.

Cheers, h.

Mitzigan94

Thank you for your response and for sharing this! Will definitely take note of this and observe my progress with this!❤

koalathebear

I'm five feet tall and I definitely use exercise calories for eating. I make sure I have a deficit every day - around 800 - 1000 calories regardless of how much I've eaten, but the deficit usually comes from exercise calories - a chunk of which I have eaten I've been able to lose 25-26kg so far this year, mostly through additional exercise and being careful what I eat.

Mitzigan94

koalathebear wrote: »

I'm five feet tall and I definitely use exercise calories for eating. I make sure I have a deficit every day - around 800 - 1000 calories regardless of how much I've eaten, but the deficit usually comes from exercise calories - a chunk of which I have eaten I've been able to lose 25-26kg so far this week, mostly through additional exercise and being careful what I eat.

Thats sounds great! I might need to stick with 1000 kcals too since Im at 4'11.5 ft though!

koalathebear

Mitzigan94 wrote: »

koalathebear wrote: »

I'm five feet tall and I definitely use exercise calories for eating. I make sure I have a deficit every day - around 800 - 1000 calories regardless of how much I've eaten, but the deficit usually comes from exercise calories - a chunk of which I have eaten I've been able to lose 25-26kg so far this week, mostly through additional exercise and being careful what I eat.

Thats sounds great! I might need to stick with 1000 kcals too since Im at 4'11.5 ft though!

Oh man. I meant this YEAR not this week!!! Eek

Lillymoo01

I am 4'11 and exercise just so that I can eat more. While losing I hated being restricted to 1200 calories and now that I am in maintenance I love eating around 2000 instead of 1500 calories. It allows room for more treats and makes it more sustainable for me.
Also, you should always aim for a net intake of 1200 calories as a minimum, even if you are short. This is the smallest amount of food you need to meet basic requirements and eating less is unhealthy long term. To reinforce what the wise owl @middlehaitch said, eating at least this amount will not compromise your NEAT as it will give you enough energy to perform your day to day tasks. It will also sufficiently fuel your workouts.

brittanystebbins95

I never ate back my exercise calories during my initial weight loss. For an entire 54 lbs I didn't eat them back.
By the end of it, my hair started thinning really bad. I would shower or brush it and come back with handfuls.
Definitely eat your exercise calories back. MFP calculates it like that for a reason.

apullum

MFP intends you to eat back your exercise calories.

This is how the site is designed and has nothing to do with your height.

If you aren’t losing at the expected pace, you may need to:
1) make sure you are using a food scale to weigh ALL your food.
2) make sure your exercise calorie burns are not exaggerated. Many people find MFP’s exercise calorie burns unrealistically high and eat only half of these estimated exercise calories.
3) if you’ve done both these things, be consistent and patient. Remember that you will not see the scale go down every day or even every week, and the less you have to lose, the slower the weight will come off.

apullum

Mitzigan94 wrote: »

koalathebear wrote: »

I'm five feet tall and I definitely use exercise calories for eating. I make sure I have a deficit every day - around 800 - 1000 calories regardless of how much I've eaten, but the deficit usually comes from exercise calories - a chunk of which I have eaten I've been able to lose 25-26kg so far this week, mostly through additional exercise and being careful what I eat.

Thats sounds great! I might need to stick with 1000 kcals too since Im at 4'11.5 ft though!

First, having a deficit of 800-1000 calories per day is only appropriate for people with about 75 pounds or more to lose. It is not appropriate for everyone.

Second, having a 1000 calorie deficit does not mean eating 1000 calories, which is not a healthy calorie goal for anyone. The size of your deficit depends on the pace of loss you set in your MFP goals, and so you don’t need to calculate it yourself unless you’re just interested in the math. A 1000 calorie per day deficit is equivalent to setting MFP for a 2 pound per week rate of loss—which is, again, only appropriate if you have a lot to lose.

The absolute size of your deficit is not directly related to your height. The number of calories you can eat, and how large a deficit is appropriate for you, vary depending on your height and starting weight.

Rayvis1014

I've heard so much back and forth on accuracy of the fitbit, so I made a spreadsheet which tracks my calories, TDEE (taken from my fitbit), and my weight. This shows me that it's pretty accurate for ME. Therefore, I do eat my exercise calories and keep an eye on the scale, then adjust as needed. There are times when I eat less, sometimes because I'm not hungry, sometimes because eating that much is a mental battle. I'm 5'2 and 130 lbs and sometimes can eat as much as 2500 to maintain, but I'm pretty active. When I'm losing (which is right now), I eat 1500-1800.

ExistingFish

I eat my exercise calories.

I have used both a TDEE (not logging exercise, as it's included)

and NEAT from MFP. It's obvious you have to eat them, otherwise, you'd be way under on calories all the time.

If you don't want to log exercise, you can go to a TDEE calculator and use that and manually set your goal. It will always be included.

I am always hungrier on workout days, so I prefer to use NEAT and use my extra calories when I work out, but avoid those extra on days that I do not. Logging and eating my exercise calories allows that.

LivingtheLeanDream

I ate them back, I needed them or I'd have felt hangry/fatigued. It didn't hinder my progress and its how MFP works, they are meant to be eaten back. I see it as a bonus: when you move more you get to eat more

L1zardQueen

I am short and i eat back exercise calories which has never hindered my weight loss. I did use a food scale, however, it helped with getting accurate with calories of food.

WinoGelato

Why would your height determine whether or not you use this tool the way it’s designed, which is to eat back the exercise calories since the initial estimates are based on NEAT (no exercise).?

If anything I think it was more important for me as a petite female to eat back my exercise and activity cals (FitBit adjustments) since by the basic stats and my desk job, MFP assumed that 1200 cals was the level I needed to be at to lose 1 lb/week but my FitBit estimates I burned 2200-2300 at my most active so I would have been significantly under eating if I didn’t eat them back.

ketsuban25

I am not petite but wanted to weigh in (lol). I opted not to eat them back and if my pedometer and weight loss app were to be believed, I was averaging 800-1000 kcal a day at 5'6" and 177 lbs at the time. Needless to say, I'm 13 days late for my period and am not pregnant (no tubes). Eat them back. Don't make your body have to divert resources, especially if you place importance on your reproductive capabilities.

kshama2001

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

Unlike other sites which use TDEE calculators, 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 for them 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

88142855mfp

sometimes, eating less calories than your recommended in a day doesn't always equal healthy weight loss. i recommend eating different amounts (healthy amounts) to see what works for you. i eat 1200 a day to maintain my weight after recovering from my eating disorder. and i want to lose weight healthily now, and i cannot go under what i currently eat because it would be unhealthy. working out and burning off calories instead of cutting works best for some! so just eat whatever amount is healthy and allows you to lose weight, but if your like me, exercise is the answer.

sefajane1

88142855mfp wrote: »

sometimes, eating less calories than your recommended in a day doesn't always equal healthy weight loss. i recommend eating different amounts (healthy amounts) to see what works for you. i eat 1200 a day to maintain my weight after recovering from my eating disorder. and i want to lose weight healthily now, and i cannot go under what i currently eat because it would be unhealthy. working out and burning off calories instead of cutting works best for some! so just eat whatever amount is healthy and allows you to lose weight, but if your like me, exercise is the answer.

Are you eating any of your exercise calories back? Only 1200 cal/day, plus exercising but not eating those "earned" calories wouldn't be enough, I'd have thought 😕