Eating back calories?
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meganhirschi31886
Posts: 30 Member
Should you eat back the colories you burn from working out?
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Replies
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As a general rule, MFP is designed for you to eat back at least half, especially if you are eating as little as 1200 (not saying that you are, but iF you are).3
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I definitely don't have my intake that low. But thank you for clarifying that for me cuz I am struggling to eat my regular intake cals somedays let alone any of my exercise cals.0
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meganhirschi31886 wrote: »I definitely don't have my intake that low. But thank you for clarifying that for me cuz I am struggling to eat my regular intake cals somedays let alone any of my exercise cals.
What are your stats OP? What is your goal? If you are truly struggling to eat your daily calorie allowance then try adding more calorie dense food, nuts and nut butters, full fat dairy foods, heck even a bit of cake or chocolate, 😁 And yes, eat a good proportion of your exercise calories too 👍1 -
MFP uses a NEAT system, which doesn't account for any deliberate exercise over and above your activity level setting (ie, sedentary). The calories from any exercise you do that falls outside of that are meant to be eaten back. As mentioned before, there is some wiggle room depending on how accurate the reported burns are for you (which is basically trial and error), but you should be eating back most of them most likely. I'm currently training for a half marathon, so on my long runs, I can easily burn 1200+ calories. That's over half my daily intake, so if I wasn't eating those back, I'd be getting a net of about 800 calories that day, which isn't nearly enough (and I would be ravenous to boot).2
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I usually don’t eat back my workout calories because if my tracking accuracy is a little off, I assume it’ll all balance out. Just how I do it anyway. 😊7
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Why would MFP give them to you if you weren't supposed to? It is how this tool is designed to work considering exercise isn't accounted for in your activity level.
That said, there are some inherent difficulties in this. One being that estimating energy expenditure can be difficult. Many people just eat back an arbitrary % of those calories back. Others like myself have found more accurate ways of determining energy expenditure. It also depends on how accurate you are tracking your calories in.
You'd also likely want to consider what it is you're doing exercise wise. I higher intensity workout is going to require greater recovery than a light workout...and calories are important to recovery as well as making fitness gains. Like I wouldn't personally be too fussed about accounting for calories taking my dog for a walk...it's not going to be that much, and it's not an exercise that is very demanding...a 30 mile bike ride is another story.8 -
I burn A LOT of calories working out and I eat them back depending on 1. if not doing so is going to net me under 1000. or 2. I'm hungry. If I feel like eating, I take those extra calories and I eat.4
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I eat at least half of mine most days. I will eat them all on days when I'm super hungry.
Do you have a fitness tracker for your exercise? That's probably the most accurate way to know how many calories you have burned (approximately).
I have a Fitbit, but I only wear it during workouts.. so I'm not including just regular activity/steps throughout the day.
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I just read an article by a trainer who says you should not eat exercise calories back as most fitness trackers over estimate calories burned so eating them back can hinder your progress. I think eat them if you are really hungry but dont force yourself to.9
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I just read an article by a trainer who says you should not eat exercise calories back as most fitness trackers over estimate calories burned so eating them back can hinder your progress.
You should eat SOME of your exercise calories. Even if the method you're using to track your exercise is over-estimating, you've still burned more than zero calories.
If you're not sure how accurate your exercise tracker is, start by eating 50% and see what happens after 6 weeks. If you're losing at the rate you selected, 50% is correct. If you're losing too fast or losing slower than selected, adjust your exercise calories up / down a bit.9 -
I just read an article by a trainer who says you should not eat exercise calories back as most fitness trackers over estimate calories burned so eating them back can hinder your progress. I think eat them if you are really hungry but dont force yourself to.
Were these fitness trainers speaking in the context of MFP which is built off of NEAT and doesn’t include exercise estimates in calorie targets?
Even if some (I don’t believe it’s most as I’ve had 4 different models and they’ve all been accurate for me) fitness trackers overestimate calories burned during exercise, the trainers should know that the exercise burns SOME calories so there’s one number that’s wrong to eat back, and that’s zero... which is what they are recommending.
So yeah... not a great testimonial for a trainer who says to disregard calories burned through exercise.7 -
WinoGelato wrote: »I just read an article by a trainer who says you should not eat exercise calories back as most fitness trackers over estimate calories burned so eating them back can hinder your progress. I think eat them if you are really hungry but dont force yourself to.
Were these fitness trainers speaking in the context of MFP which is built off of NEAT and doesn’t include exercise estimates in calorie targets?
Even if some (I don’t believe it’s most as I’ve had 4 different models and they’ve all been accurate for me) fitness trackers overestimate calories burned during exercise, the trainers should know that the exercise burns SOME calories so there’s one number that’s wrong to eat back, and that’s zero... which is what they are recommending.
So yeah... not a great testimonial for a trainer who says to disregard calories burned through exercise.
Agreed. I wish that instead of these articles placing the blame on everything else at least one of them would emphasize the fact that even if a tracker says one can eat a certain amount of calories that it depends on the person to try to be as accurate as possible since it's easy to underestimate their calorie intake. Either that or something along the lines of telling them to eat 250 calories less than their tracker says to and reassess after a couple of weeks. Fitness trackers aren't perfect, no, but the claims that they are egregiously off almost always boil down to user error rather than the trackers themselves.5 -
When I’ve eaten back the calories I’ve burned, I did not lose at all that week. So, I do not eat them back now. If I happen to go over my calorie limit for the day, it’s fine to have the exercise calories burned as a cushion. It’s just not a goal to eat them back, unless maintenance is the goal.8
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PiscesIntuition wrote: »When I’ve eaten back the calories I’ve burned, I did not lose at all that week. So, I do not eat them back now. If I happen to go over my calorie limit for the day, it’s fine to have the exercise calories burned as a cushion. It’s just not a goal to eat them back, unless maintenance is the goal.
Often when we look at the food diaries of people who use exercise calories as a cushion we learn that they are making logging errors that lead them to be eating more than they think. These people can indeed continue to not eat exercise calories, or they can tighten up their logging and eat back exercise calories, as the tool was designed.
MFP also assumes accurate food logging, but that can take some practice. Many of us have a sad when we get a food scale and see how meager a tablespoon of peanut butter really is. I stopped making my peanut butter and banana smoothies not long after getting a food scale.4 -
@kshama2001 I weigh all of my food using a food scale, and count out servings. My diary is accurate. Thanks though.7
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PiscesIntuition wrote: »When I’ve eaten back the calories I’ve burned, I did not lose at all that week. So, I do not eat them back now. If I happen to go over my calorie limit for the day, it’s fine to have the exercise calories burned as a cushion. It’s just not a goal to eat them back, unless maintenance is the goal.
One week is not going to provide information sufficient for determining whether something works or not.5 -
If you're trying to lose weight, you shouldn't, should you?13
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warukimedesu wrote: »If you're trying to lose weight, you shouldn't, should you?
Isn't the idea of calorie counting to actually at least try to estimate all significant calorie needs?
Isn't the idea of a goal (your chosen calorie balance) actually to hit that goal not undercut it?
Isn't the idea of selecting a tool to do a job to actually use the tool as it was designed to be used?6 -
Isn't the idea of calorie counting to actually at least try to estimate all significant calorie needs?
Yes. Based on my age, height, current weight, activity level, etc., my TDEE is around 2300 cals per day. This amount already includes an estimate of my daily energy expenditure from exercise.Isn't the idea of a goal (your chosen calorie balance) actually to hit that goal not undercut it?needs?
I guess it depends on your approach. If by chosen "calorie balance", you mean my estimated TDEE, that's not my goal. I want to lose weight, so my goal is 20% below my TDEE, and I do try to hit that goal. And in doing so, I'm not eating back calories from working out, as I originally mentioned to the OP.Isn't the idea of selecting a tool to do a job to actually use the tool as it was designed to be used?
Am I not using the tool correctly?
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warukimedesu wrote: »Isn't the idea of calorie counting to actually at least try to estimate all significant calorie needs?
Yes. Based on my age, height, current weight, activity level, etc., my TDEE is around 2300 cals per day. This amount already includes an estimate of my daily energy expenditure from exercise.Isn't the idea of a goal (your chosen calorie balance) actually to hit that goal not undercut it?needs?
I guess it depends on your approach. If by chosen "calorie balance", you mean my estimated TDEE, that's not my goal. I want to lose weight, so my goal is 20% below my TDEE, and I do try to hit that goal. And in doing so, I'm not eating back calories from working out, as I originally mentioned to the OP.Isn't the idea of selecting a tool to do a job to actually use the tool as it was designed to be used?
Am I not using the tool correctly?
MFP is based off of NEAT, which included daily activity but NOT exercise calories so if you’re using MFP to set goals then you are supposed to be eating back calories.
TDEE calculators already estimate your exercise so if you take your deficit from that then no, you don’t need to be eating back calories now that you’ve clairified your approach . Just important to distinguish since many people do take the MFP goal, sometimes a really low one, exercise and assume they shouldn’t eat them back.
The only question would be how much are you trying to lose because 20% off of TDEE May still be a little aggressive for the amount of weight you have to lose. If you have less to lose then 10% may be a better reduction to avoid losing lean body mass.8
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