Question on exercise & food intake :)

manrae

Ok just a quick question... When you log in your exercise for the day, do you really consume those calories that you burned? I just feel if I do a workout that burns 600 calories and then eat them that defeats the purpose of trying to lose. Kind of a stupid question, Im just curious to what everyone else does.

dore0021

Hello. This question gets asked probably daily. And the answers range from eating none of their exercise calories to all of their exercise calories.
Eat 1200 cals a day.
When it comes to exercise cals, eat what you feel you need to be comfortable.
That's my two sense.

leesey1

I think i asked this question before. I think we all do actually. lol. honestly when i first started counting calories, I would eat my exercise calories not all of them, but enough to feel full. Now i do not rely on exercise calories to get through the day. I have to force myself to eat the calories that are already given to me. So i say eat some of them if you are hungry and it will eventually taper off. Good luck!

ErinGiam

Hi! If you go to "search" you can type in exercise calories and like dore0021 said, you will find LOTS of useful information regarding this matter. I personally eat about half of my exercise calories back but its up to the individual.

barbiecat

The calories that MFP recommend already have a deficit for weight loss.....exercise adds to the deficit.......if you do some serious workouts, your body will need some more calories for nourishment so you should eat a bit more.......I found a balance and ate some of my exercise calories especially when I felt weak and needed the nutrition......the other key is to make sure that every calorie you consume is nutritious ( that means that you leave out empty calories that don't nourish your body.):bigsmile: :bigsmile: :bigsmile:

faithstephenson

There are several good posts in the forums on this topic, but basically, your daily goal is already at a deficit, so when you exercise that increases your deficit. You eat those calories (at least part of them) to maintain the deficit you have as your goal. Your body needs more energy when you exercise, so you eat more.

manrae

Awesome Thanks everyone, that really help's me!!

ashlee954

I eat em! If your goal is 1200 calories, for example, that is 1200 calories your body needs that are NOT BURNED. So if you eat 1200 and then burn 600 you have only given your body 600 calories for its regular daily activities. That is not enough. You need a total of 1200 that are not depleted, if that is your goal calorie intake. Hope that helps!

byHISstrength

I agree with the others. I personally will eat some of my exercise calories. The way I look at is: my daily allowance is 1200 calories, and if I burn 500 calories through exercise and if I don't eat them back (or least some), then at the end of the day I could have only taken in about 700 calories. Personally, I do not think that if someone does that continually it would be a benefit in the long run.

But as many will say, you need to figure out what works best for you.

Best,
Lisa

AMOMONAJOURNEYTOCHANGEHERLIFE

Unless you have a monitor that tells you exactly what you body burned it's impossible to truly know how many cals you really are burning. I have seen that people have said the cals burn on this site are way over estimated. I personally don't have monitor yet and am looking forward to getting one. My theory is stay a bit under the cals the site tells ya to eat when you work out. And like others have said make sure it's good food. Don't always eat ice cream to fill that gap for example.

islandnutshel

If you are hungry then eat some of those well earned calories. If not used, those calories will add up to more weight loss as long as eat enough (don't under eat or you mess up the metabolism). Remember if you are exercising, especialy building muscle, even if you eat all your calories, you still have increased your metabolism for the day. You will still burn more calories then if you hadn't exercised. Don't let yourself get hungry or low in blood sugar, it will work against you.
Enjoy Health.