Exercise calories do you use them for food?

TeaBea

freda78 wrote: »

I think it is odd that people who want to lose weight and therefore "move more" then eat more food to compensate for that extra movement.

Makes no sense to me at all.

Obviously a different conversation if you are exercising for health reasons but if you are eating a variety of foods to cover your nutritional needs while not moving then what is the point of moving if you then going to just eat back the calories???

Some some people want fast "weight" loss no matter the cost. The cost is often a higher % of muscle loss. These people don't bother with exercise calories at all, because the purpose is to adjust the scale as fast as possible. These are people who exercise for weight loss.

Other people want to target FAT loss, as in lowering their body fat %. Healthy weight loss means maintaining an appropriate deficit. Maintaining an appropriate deficit is why MFP gives you calories back. These are people who exercise for health and/or fitness.

glassyo

I like food so I ate every last exercise point earned on weight watchers and every last exercise calorie earned while counting calories. And I lost (except for the year I didn't....damned over exercise estimating fitbit!).

apullum

It’s baffling to me how people think this is an opinion question.

If you are following the MFP calorie goal, you are intended to eat all exercise calories assuming they are calculated accurately.

If you are not following the MFP calorie goal, you should use your chosen method correctly.

This is how the program was designed, not a matter of opinion. You’re either using the program as designed, or you’re not.

magnusthenerd

I'm still hoping to find where I can redeem them for stuffed animals, but alas, so far to balance food intake is about all I've been able to cash them in for.

betsymoomoo

I use a heart rate monitor when I exercise so mine is fairly accurate. And I used my apple watch to determine my activity level.

I eat most of mine back. But I won't eat if I'm over full. I might also go a little over if I'm hungry.

sijomial

No I use them for bragging rights!




I also eat them of course. When you select a tool to do a job is makes sense to use it as designed.

lgfrie

When I started dieting, I used MFP's Goal number and ate 1/2 or so of my exercise calories back. However, I found myself starting to do excessive, multiple daily workouts to earn more food, and at some point decided the situation was becoming destructive. So I went to TDEEcalculator.net, got a calorie quota that included an hour of exercise, and went with that. Been happy with it ever since. In the end, the total calories are around the same regardless of which approach you use (MFP's NEAT vs TDEE), but I learned that I really need exercise to be completely separate from food consumption in order to avoid bad behaviors.

H_Ock12

Eat them!!!! Alternatively, bank them for a couple of days and have a treat at the end of the week.