Is this realistic eating exercise calories?

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Mandy72CM
Mandy72CM Posts: 59 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
So I have set my standard calories for 1200 calories per day before exercise. I exercise every day doing at least 1 hour of LES MILLS workouts. Possibly on average 9 hours a week mostly BodyPump and Bodycombat with random workouts in between. Can I eat all these calories back?

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  • harper16
    harper16 Posts: 2,564 Member
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    Yes.
  • hipari
    hipari Posts: 1,367 Member
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    Yes, you can and you should.
  • lgfrie
    lgfrie Posts: 1,449 Member
    edited June 2020
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    Yes, of course. You are at the minimum acceptable calorie level for maintaining health at 1200 and should eat back all of your exercise calories, every last one assuming you have a decent estimate of how many calories that is.
  • sijomial
    sijomial Posts: 19,811 Member
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    It's unrealistic not to take your exercise calories into account.
    Your body counts those calories even if you don't.
  • AnnPT77
    AnnPT77 Posts: 32,195 Member
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    Agreeing with all of the above, with a comment that it's worth considering whether your exercise calorie estimate is likely to be close-ish, or not. (Depends on the type of exercise, and the source of the estimate.)

    Your results in 4-6 weeks (comparing same relative point in two or more different monthly cycles, if a premenopausal woman) will give you a more definitive answer about overall estimating accuracy (food, activity level and exercise).

    Best wishes!
  • DancingMoosie
    DancingMoosie Posts: 8,613 Member
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    It also depends on how much you are estimating each workout burns. Combat would generally burn more than pump.
  • Mandy72CM
    Mandy72CM Posts: 59 Member
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    I’m estimating what mfp has estimated. I don’t have any devices but I have full sweat in pump and obviously more in Combat.
  • Strudders67
    Strudders67 Posts: 980 Member
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    Eat the calories. In 6 weeks time, look at your weight then vs your starting weight and calculate your loss rate. If it's in line with what you selected in the MFP set up, carry on eating all your calories. If you're losing slower than expected, only eat a percentage (perhaps 75%) of your exercise calories and track for a further 6 weeks.

    One caveat to that - how aggressive a rate loss did you select? Don't be too hard on yourself. You shouldn't be trying to lose more than 1% of your body weight per week (0.5% if you're at normal BMI).
  • AnnPT77
    AnnPT77 Posts: 32,195 Member
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    Mandy72CM wrote: »
    I’m estimating what mfp has estimated. I don’t have any devices but I have full sweat in pump and obviously more in Combat.

    Without knowing how big you are, looks like that would be 300-some for an hour of Pump, 400/500-some for Combat? On top of a base of 1200, without knowing more about you?

    Yes, eat them all, stick with it for 4-6 weeks, and adjust if necessary. (If you're female, and premenopausal, compare weights at the same relative point in two different menstrual cycle.)
  • Anabirgite
    Anabirgite Posts: 502 Member
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    I do Les Mills workouts and eat my calories back. I am at the end of my weight loss journey so doing weight loss much more slowly have upped my calories to 1400 plus exercise. I do have an apple watch which gives me a more accurate calorie burn. I do find the estimated burns in the MFP database much higher than my actual burn.
  • richardgavel
    richardgavel Posts: 1,001 Member
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    You should eat your exercise calories. The issue is generally figuring out an accurate count of the exercise calories.

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