What do you do with earned calories from exercise?

JcMey3r
JcMey3r Posts: 431 Member
in Food and Nutrition
I tend not to use them but when I do I use only a small amount for a protein shake that I know would be beneficial to keeping muscle mass.


How many of you work with decent numbers meaning which of you actually use a heart rate monitor to measure calories burnt and not just what MFP says?
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Replies

  • pinkraynedropjacki
    pinkraynedropjacki Posts: 3,027 Member
    Well I end up with about 1500 or more from exercise each day so I tend to have to eat most back.
  • lauren3101
    lauren3101 Posts: 1,853 Member
    images_zpsf9ce10bf.jpg
  • TavistockToad
    TavistockToad Posts: 35,719 Member
    i made mine into a beautiful exercise calorie quilt...

    or ate them, because thats how MFP is designed!
  • tigersword
    tigersword Posts: 8,059 Member
    images_zpsf9ce10bf.jpg
    This. You're supposed to eat them, that's why they are there.
  • Joannesmith2818
    Joannesmith2818 Posts: 438 Member
    I use them as an excuse to eat peanut butter.....mmmmmm PB
  • Frankii_x
    Frankii_x Posts: 238
    I eat a decent amount back say about two thirds/three quarters
  • JcMey3r
    JcMey3r Posts: 431 Member
    How many of you work with decent numbers meaning which of you actually use a heart rate monitor to measure calories burnt and not just what MFP says?
  • annenhie
    annenhie Posts: 91 Member
    I don't eat mine back most of the time coz I have a lot to lose but when I see that the lost is slowing down, I start eating a bit more for a few days then go back to not eating them back once I start losing again.
  • JuliMagenta
    JuliMagenta Posts: 79 Member
    I usually eat them back. At least some of them :) I don't force myself to eat, but most of the time I am happy to snack something or that I can have a beer in the evening or something like that :)
  • awenasangster
    awenasangster Posts: 12 Member
    I try to eat back around half of them :)!
  • BlueAngelChar
    BlueAngelChar Posts: 1,364 Member
    Nothing, it contributes to my weight loss... I try to have approx. 3500K surplus at the end of each week and to me that equates to roughly me losing a pound a week ;0)

    don't get me wrong, the exercise calories do sometimes contribute to that burger or Chinese I'll have but I don't feel guilty about it

    And I use my Polar Rx300 religiously to work out my calorie burn as its all to do with your VO2 rate and MFP can't tell you that.
  • Mguilmot
    Mguilmot Posts: 232 Member
    I throw them out. I don't look at them :-) Didn't go into "starvation mode" or hit a "plateau" :-)
  • MyJourney1960
    MyJourney1960 Posts: 1,133 Member
    i've been selling them on ebay

    :laugh:

    seriously - i used to eat about 3/4 back. now i do the TDEE method so it's automatically built into my daily goals - i eat most of them back.
  • thegilly6
    thegilly6 Posts: 137 Member
    I use them as an excuse to eat peanut butter.....mmmmmm PB

    THIS!
  • Samstan101
    Samstan101 Posts: 699 Member
    Cardio I always train with a HRM so can log accurately and I've found that general busy day at work running about my Fitbit is pretty accurate at getting. I eat back pretty much all of the cals most of the time - they're my 'luxury' items such as chocolate & alcohol. There are the odd day (like yesterday) where I'm pretty active but the physically struggle to eat them back as I don't want to eat when I'm not hungry (that's how I got to 300+lbs!).
  • over_oxers
    over_oxers Posts: 47 Member
    I've started using a heart rate monitor to accurately log my calories burned. I have PCOS and have a hard time losing weight. My goal is not to eat back my calories but I like the cushion. For examples my bunless turkey burger was 800cal at finder last night!
  • jackielou867
    jackielou867 Posts: 422 Member
    I used to eat some of them back, now I eat all of them back and mostly as protein. I am trying to rebuild muscle that I now realise 2 decades of bad diet choices have wasted away.
    I don't have a HRM so I research a lot on internet and I work out some reasonable averages to work from. This seems to be working so far.
  • 3laine75
    3laine75 Posts: 3,069 Member
    i use a mix of MFP estimates and my HRM and tend to try to hit the projected protein without eating them all - doesn't always work out that way though :/
  • avskk
    avskk Posts: 1,787 Member
    I use a FitBit and have everything set up to only give me exercise calories if my activity for the day exceeds the activity level I set MFP to when I chose my calorie/macro goals. I usually end up with about 250 exercise calories at the end of a normal day (work, home). I don't tend to eat those back, although two or three times a month I will (meaning those days I net around 1800kcals instead of my goal of 1550). When I do a weight workout I log it on FitBit.com -- NOT here on MFP -- and eat back 100-150kcals of my ~200 "earned" calories in protein. When I do a step-based workout I end the day with about 500 exercise calories (so 2050kcals as my goal rather than my standard 1550) and what I do with them depends entirely on how I feel; if I'm hungry I'll eat back 200-300 of them, and if not I ignore them.

    Basically, the only exercise calories I reliably eat back are the ones I earn from strength training, and I try to keep those as bonus protein. Otherwise, while I keep an eye on how my activity is affecting my daily goal, I usually tend to eat roughly the same amount of cals every day. And once in a while, I have a higher-calorie day (whether I go out drinking or have a restaurant meal or just cook something special) and don't feel too badly about it because a) my exercise cals for the day usually mean I'm still under that day's goals, and b) my deficits are kind of huge 90% of the time due to not eating back on the reg.
  • kowajenn
    kowajenn Posts: 274 Member
    I eat most of them. If I don't, the weight loss stalls.

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