exercise calories confusion

angel1419

Im so beyond confused with this eating back calories thing. So my bmr is 1980 MFP has my daily calorie count at 1680. If i were to walk and burn 300 calories does that mean i can eat 1980 calories and still be able to lose weight or should i ignore the 300 calories i burned and jus eat the 1680?

phoenixgirl81

Simply put, you can eat back the 300 calorie and still lose weight (a gross of 1980 - nett of 1680)

candicelh79

Agree with phoenixgirl81...some people choose to eat back the whole 300, others half. I make my decision from day to day based on my hunger levels.

kels1152

Yup, you can eat them back if you want. Depending on the day that I have I either end up eating them all back or around half. Just play it by ear and if you are hungry and have the extra calories then eat them as long as they are healthy calories : )

box_of_rain

You can definitely eat the 300 cals to bring you back up to your goal intake. A lot of times my motivation for working out is that tasty meal or scrumptious cocktail I know I'm going to enjoy later. I just make sure to stay at or slightly below my calorie goal no matter what. cheers love! :drinker:

grimendale

BMR is the level required for just being alive. If you were in a coma, you would burn BMR. Do you mean your TDEE is 1980? Whether you eat the calories back or not depends on how you determined your calorie goal. If you used the MFP method (NEAT), then no exercise is assumed, and the calorie goal given to you includes a deficit. If you burn additional calories through exercise, you are expected to eat them back to prevent you deficit from growing too large (there are a host of reasons you want a small deficit, including minimizing muscle loss and ensuring you get all necessary nutrients). If, however, you used the TDEE method and accounted for your exercise in your weekly goal, you would not eat extra. I use the TDEE method and assumed 3 one hour weight lifting sessions a day, so I don't eat extra on days when I lift. I did not factor in any runs, however, so when I run on top of my weight lifting, I do eat extra calories for the runs.

MelissaPhippsFeagins

You are allowed to eat them back. Sometimes I eat all of mine back, sometimes I don't. Depends on the day, really. One of these days, I'm going to reach my goal weight and have to eat them back to maintain, but I'll cross that bridge when I get there.

wild_wild_life

Make it easy for yourself. Forget about BMR and TDEE.

Tell MFP how much weight you want to lose per week. How much you should try to lose depends on how much you have to lose. Use this as a guide:

75+ to lose = 2lbs 
50-75 to lose = 1.5-2lbs 
25-50 to lose = 1-1.5lbs 
15-25 to lose = 1lbs 
0-15 to lose = 0.5lbs

MFP will then give you a calorie goal with no exercise factored in. This is the goal you want to reach, not come in under. If you exercise, you will need to eat more in order to "net" this goal, which is why your green "goal" number goes up. So eat your exercise cals (or 1/2 of them or some other proportion of them if you think, as many do, that MFP is overestimating calorie burn).

Hope that helps. It doesn't have to be complicated.

angel1419

Thanks everyone.

GemmaRowlands

In theory, you can eat back exercise calories and still lose weight. However, you should be aware that the majority of calculations for the majority of people will be overestimated, so you may struggle if you eat back all exercise cals.