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Calories and Exercise

tknizri
tknizri Posts: 1 Member
edited March 2023 in Health and Weight Loss
This is such a dumb question, and I'm sure it's been asked in some form before me. But when you exercise and burn x number of calories, are you supposed to eat the lost calories? So, for example, I eat 1200 calories in a day, then I burn 500 calories, do I need to eat 500 more calories?

Replies

  • Retroguy2000
    Retroguy2000 Posts: 1,965 Member
    edited March 2023
    "need" is up to you. That is the way it's supposed to work, yes. If I eat at maintenance and do 300 in a workout, I typically wouldn't eat those back, but if I'm already in a deficit and then workout, I probably will.

    Do take into account if a machine or estimate says you maybe burned X in an hour say, first of all X may be too high, and secondly your base TDEE estimate already includes an estimate of burning Y per hour on average. So your additional calories burned is actually X-Y. In MFP's case if you choose Sedentary for your day to day level, Y will be 1.25xBMR.

    I enter a conservative estimate for my workouts. Others are more conservative there than I am, choosing to enter 50% to then eat back.
  • Lietchi
    Lietchi Posts: 6,987 Member
    Eating 1200 and burning 500 in exercise is like eating 700 calories and not exercising. Not a good idea 🙂 (presuming those 500 exercise calories are accurate - it's quite a high number)
  • kshama2001
    kshama2001 Posts: 28,055 Member
    tknizri wrote: »
    This is such a dumb question, and I'm sure it's been asked in some form before me. But when you exercise and burn x number of calories, are you supposed to eat the lost calories? So, for example, I eat 1200 calories in a day, then I burn 500 calories, do I need to eat 500 more calories?

    My daily goal for exercise is 500 calories worth. It takes me over two hours of moderate exercise to get that, so I just want to make sure that, if your 500 calories was not a hypothetical, you are getting them accurately. Some activity trackers include BEE (Basal Energy Expenditure) not just exercise calories. I use the MFP exercise database.

    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.

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

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