Losing while eating back exercise calories

Andrea222

Has anyone ever eaten back all their exercise calories consistently and still lost weight? Or has anyone tried it and then the weight loss stopped. I’m never sure how much of my exercise calories I can eat

Rockmama1111

I take kind of a hybrid approach. I have my Fitbit synced to MFP, which is set to not very active. I allow myself to use the Fitbit calorie adjustment IF I want/need it. I don’t log any other non-Fitbit exercise at all, it’s just bonus if I do it. I’m losing about a pound a week. (I wanted to lose 20.)

lynn_glenmont

People are going to differ in how intensely they exercise, how accurately they log, and how close they are to the average BMR for someone of their height, weight, age, and gender, among other things. You just need to try something for a while, look at your own results, and adjust as needed.

But to answer your question, I have lost weight as expected when eating my exercise calories, and I have lost extra weight when I wasn't hungry enough to eat them all back.

cwolfman13

Andrea222 wrote: »

Has anyone ever eaten back all their exercise calories consistently and still lost weight? Or has anyone tried it and then the weight loss stopped. I’m never sure how much of my exercise calories I can eat

Yes, but I have a power meter on my bike which is very accurate for calorie burn. Prior to that I just used my HRM and at back around 70%

AnnPT77

I ate all my exercise calories back while losing weight, after estimating them as carefully as I could. I lost weight fine, and have maintained a healthy weight for around 7 years since, still doing the same.

If someone targets a relatively slow weight loss rate (for their current size), and doesn't do a lot of exercise (small percent of daily calories), it may be fine to let exercise increase one's calorie deficit to lose weight faster . . . especially if they don't have any other major stress in their lives besides the calorie deficit and the exercise. (Stress is cumulative across all sources, physical and psychological, so too much stress - even "good stress" like exercise - is counterproductive.)

However, if someone has a very aggressive weight loss plan, like 1% of body weight weekly (let alone more), or does a large volume of exercise (in context of their total calorie needs), then not fueling that exercise is a recipe for disaster: Exhaustion, over-stress, mood problems, unhealthfully rapid weight loss, possible negative health consequences, and unsustainability to the point of periodic binges or giving up altogether.

In between those extremes is a judgement call, based on how much health risk a person is willing to take.

Someone with fitness goals is likely to be best off fueling their exercise to some extent, because underfueling will hinder athletic/fitness performance.

There are two general ways to account for exercise calories: Either set base calorie goal based on pre-exercise activity and log exercise calories when we do some and eat those, too (the MFP method); or use an outside-MFP TDEE calculator and average planned exercise into one's calorie goal.

In the MFP way, setting activity level (in one's profile) to include exercise, then logging and eating exercise, can lead to double-counting, and slow down weight loss. So can materially over-estimating the exercise calories, and some of the MFP database's exercise estimates can be excessive. (Other methods also have pitfalls, but this post is already too long.)

In the TDEE way, a common problem is to plan an optimistically aggressive exercise program up front, use that plan to get a calorie estimate . . . then not get around to doing all the exercise. That, too, can slow down weight loss.

For me, my exercise load is moderately high (10-20%+ of TDEE most days), plus seasonal and weather-dependent, so the MFP method works best for me as a practical matter.

cmriverside

I just used the numbers myfitnesspal gave me. I joined this site and lost 80 pounds before there were Fitbits or other devices, so I was always Keeping-It-Simple.

Early on I decided to eat all the calories "earned" by exercise. I lost weight at almost exactly the predicted rate, so for me the exercise calories worked.

As I got closer to my Goal weight, I had plenty of Real Life self-logged data with which to work. I decided to just use a flat 300 calories per hour of moderate exercise. I've done that now for almost 15 years of maintaining my weight loss.

Under-eating isn't a good thing. Over-eating isn't a good thing. Find your sweet spot. Log accurately for a couple months and discern your numbers.

spiriteagle99

I lost weight and have maintained that loss for several years while eating back all of my exercise calories. I don't have my watch synced to MFP, but I do manually enter deliberate exercise, using MFP's numbers. The numbers at the end of the day are similar to those my Garmin gives me. I actually burn more than expected, which gives me some leeway for inexact food entries.

westrich20940

Yes, I ate back my exercise calories. 100% of them.

If you use the guided set up for MFP...you are supposed to eat them. MFP uses the information you put in to calculate your maintenance calories, then when you say 'want to lose weight'...and put in how much you want to lose it takes away calories from your maintenance to create a deficit. If you then do intention activity on top of that, you should eat that back and you will *still* be in a deficit.

When MFP asks your activity level - they do not include intention exercise, it's just your lifestyle.

Retroguy2000

Of course you can eat back all the exercise calories, if you don't want to exceed a certain deficit. e.g. if your goal is a deficit of 500, say you're on track for that, and then you burn a few hundred more exercising, yes you should eat those back. OTOH if you've indulged that day, the workout may be the thing which gets your deficit back on track, in which case don't eat it back.

The key is to not over-estimate those exercise calories, as is common.

Gym machines may inflate calorie estimates by as much as 50%. You can't trust YouTuber's with their "burn X hundred calories in Y minutes doing this!" The calories used in strength training are going to vary widely based on your weight, your intensity, etc. Then there's the fact you would have burned calories while at rest if you weren't working out instead, and is that being double counted? e.g. if I would burn 100 calories in an hour while doing nothing, and instead I workout and the estimate is I burned 400, the net there is 300 additional burned... again assuming the estimate is right in the first place.

That's why I manually enter conservative estimates for my exercise.

mcdriffill

To a degree, I would not eat back "earnt" kj/cals. They are bonus to weight loss.
However, working out gives your body needs other than the energy it gets from fat, it needs protein to repair damages done by working out.
Not ingesting enough my lead to your body seeking the building blocks (protein) from your bodies own muscles...leading to muscle loss.
Fine balance of intake and output....in your macros and micros. Enjoy.

glassyo

mcdriffill wrote: »

To a degree, I would not eat back "earnt" kj/cals. They are bonus to weight loss.
However, working out gives your body needs other than the energy it gets from fat, it needs protein to repair damages done by working out.
Not ingesting enough my lead to your body seeking the building blocks (protein) from your bodies own muscles...leading to muscle loss.
Fine balance of intake and output....in your macros and micros. Enjoy.

Yes, the bonus is the extra food you can eat since you're presumably already in a deficit if you're using mfp the way it was intended.

OP, on both Weight Watchers and here, I ate every last damned calorie I was alloted and did just fine (more or less).

I_AM_ISRAEL

Don’t eat back the calories you’ve burned. Keep it simple.

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.

https://support.myfitnesspal.com/hc/en-us/articles/360032625391-How-does-MyFitnessPal-calculate-my-initial-goals-

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 are able to lose weight while eating 100% of their exercise calories.

Retroguy2000

I_AM_ISRAEL wrote: »

Don’t eat back the calories you’ve burned. Keep it simple.

And you're *still* posting that awful advice again, which goes against how the site works too.

You've been told it is dangerously bad advice too.

panda4153

Yes, while I was losing I ate every single calorie back. The last couple years I’ve been very loose with logging but am getting back into being consistent again and once again I am eating all of my exercise calories.

PAV8888

I_AM_ISRAEL wrote: »

Don’t eat back the calories you’ve burned. Keep it simple.

💩

kshama2001 wrote: »

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...... (and all the rest of her post).

✔️

Wynterbourne

I_AM_ISRAEL wrote: »

Don’t eat back the calories you’ve burned. Keep it simple.

No. No. No. No. So tired of seeing this completely erroneous blanket statement over and over again. It's not a simple yes or no and saying don't ever do it could be dangerous depending on the individual circumstances.

XxAngry_Pixi

I eat back some of mine.

I was insulin resistant and needed to eat much less calories than the calculator said to lose weight, and even though I am not insulin resistant any more this is still the case, though not as extreme.

I have my mfp set to sedentary, have my garmin synced and I eat back about half my exercise calories, though if I am very hungry/feel I need them I will eat them all.

I am losing slightly slower than mfp says I should be, but still slowly steadily and most importantly, sustainably this time.

tomcustombuilder

It doesn’t matter. What matters is your weekly calorie consumption.

cmriverside

.

tomcustombuilder wrote: »

It doesn’t matter. What matters is your weekly calorie consumption.

...which involves calories used during exercise. PLEASE read the replies in this thread. I see you're new here and you likely don't understand HOW myfitnesspal differs from TDEE calculators. In this case, it does matter how exercise is treated, calorie-wise.

In general, yes, the weekly calories can be used. In general, exercise has to be calculated in, whether it is using myfitnesspal's calculation method or some other way - but additional calories need to be accounted for one way or another. Myfitnesspal does not use them in the weight-loss calorie calculation when you set your Goals unless you do some tweaking of the Goal yourself.

Please also read this so you understand how this site works. https://support.myfitnesspal.com/hc/en-us/articles/360032625391-How-does-MyFitnessPal-calculate-my-initial-goals-

tomcustombuilder

You can calculate till you’re blue in the face however weekly/monthly results will determine if you’re on the right track.