Eating back exercise calories?

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  • lorelei68
    lorelei68 Posts: 30 Member
    I don't believe that a baseline of 1200 calories a day is too low. My doctor (who recommended MFP to me) suggested that I cut my calories to 1200 and continue the workout program I was on. I had been at a stalemate for almost a year and was slightly heavier and shorter that what you have said you are right now.

    I am finally losing the weight that I need to. Some days I eat my 1200 plus the exercise calories but most often I am just under. My diary is open if you wish to see what I mean. I have lost 21 pounds in the last 5 months. So that is roughly a pound a week.

    Hang in there and good luck! :flowerforyou:
  • bajoyba
    bajoyba Posts: 1,153 Member
    MFP is designed so that you eat your exercise calories back. If you're not confident in the calories you've burned during exercise, eat back 50-75% of them. But don't be afraid to meet your calorie goal! Food is fuel. Give your body what it needs. :smile:

    I switched to the TDEE method this month, but before that, I ALWAYS ate back my exercise calories. Which means I typically ate 1600-1800 calories a day, and it worked out just fine. For reference, I'm 5'6", and I started in January at 235 pounds.
  • katiemariechapman
    katiemariechapman Posts: 1
    It is important that you eat back your calories!
    Think of your body/metabolism as a fire. Fires need two things to survive: air and fuel. In this analogy, exercise is air and food is fuel. Too much air and not enough fuel and you put the fire out. Too much fuel and no enough air and the fire languishes. But, it you feed the fire and stoke it with air you get a hotter, brighter, stronger fire! So, if you over exercise and do not eat enough (1200 calories on a work out day is not enough!) you start to extinguish your metabolic fire--which is why you have to eat back your calories. MFP overestimates calories burned so, I tend to air on the conservative side and eat back half of my calories (because it is still about calories in - calories out).
    Also, as with real fires, accelerants are never safe and rarely achieve what you want in the end!

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