eating back the calories you burn

jenni_d1990

I've read that while trying to lose weight, you should eat back some of the calories you burn and I've also read that you should not... Right now I feel like I don't know anything about anything...

Ninkyou

If you are following MFP the way it's designed, you eat them.

j6o4

If you are following MFP the way it's designed, you eat them.

+1

echofm1

Yes. Just trust that first poster. MFP is designed to eat back your exercise calories.

We can explain why some people say not to if you're using the MFP app like suggested, but it would just be information. It's not something you would follow (just to make sure that's clear)

tdh115

This is good to know because I have heard both ways too. Thanks for asking and sharing.

Mr_Knight

Don't eat them back until you get validation that your burn estimates are reasonably correct. Over-eating exercise calories is a HUGE contributor to stalls in the MFP community, ESPECIALLY by people using HRMs.

The harsh reality is that most people on here are not doing enough exercise to warrant eating them back anyway.

cwolfman13

You've heard correct on both accounts...it just depends on the method.

You have to understand the method...MFP is designed for you to eat back exercise calories because you do NOT include an estimate of that activity in your activity level. It is unaccounted for and must be accounted for somewhere...with MFP, that somewhere is after the fact when you log it. Just be very careful not to over estimate your burn. I would strongly suggest that you only eat a % of your calorie burn to account for estimation error. I would also suggest comparing your burn to a few different sources, especially if you're using a data base like MFP...your burn will be hugely inflated with most data bases.

Other calculators, trainers, nutritionist, etc generally use what is known as the TDEE (Total Daily Energy Expenditure) method where an estimate of your total activity, including exercise activity is included up front in the equation when you select your activity level.

My numbers at a glance...

MFP maintenance with NO exercise = 2,350 calories. To lose 1 Lb per week, MFP takes a 500 calorie cut giving me 1,850 calories. If I exercise and lets say I burn 400 calories...MfP's new weight loss calorie goal for me would be 2,250 calories. I still have the same 500 calorie net deficit though because now my new maintenance would be 2,750 calories and 2,750 - 2,350 = 500.

No_Finish_Line

honestly this is the way most workout/diet models work, its just a little more difficult to understand the way that MFP words it.

The ONLY reason to eat back your exercise calories is maintain a modest (or at least more reasonable) calorie defecit to help prevent the lose of lean body mass while you cut calories.

You don't need to exercise in order to lose weight but it helps keep you healthy.

You don't need to eat back your calories to lose weight, but it helps you hold onto your lean body mass, which helps helps you stay health, look better, and in the long run lose weight FASTER or at least more consistently (because you hang on to that calorie burning lean body mass).

flumi_f

MFP is designed to eat them back. Probably as an incentive to exercise.

Small word of caution - most apps, including MFP overestimate my burns in comparison to my hrm. I log my hrm cals.

So if you work with MFP exercise estimations, eat them back and don't lose as much as you want to....only eat 2/3 back. That worked for me.

ellybeann

Most likley you ae not burning the calories the machines or MFP says you are: so if you want to eat them back try only eat 1/2. I do not eat them back and I asked 2 seperate trainers (1 that uses MFP) and they both said not to eat them back. But overall everybodys body reacts different so you need to find what works for you.
Good Luck!!

No_Finish_Line

Don't eat them back until you get validation that your burn estimates are reasonably correct. Over-eating exercise calories is a HUGE contributor to stalls in the MFP community, ESPECIALLY by people using HRMs.

The harsh reality is that most people on here are not doing enough exercise to warrant eating them back anyway.

accuracy of calories in calories out is really what its all about,

but i think the important thing to take away is that (assuming the numbers are all accurate for your body) the defciet need to reach your goal in your chosen amount of time (on MFP) is automaticaly built into your NET calories when eating back your exercise calories.

If you do not eat them back, your eating at the defceit, minus whatever you burned exercising.

Eat them back, dont eat them back, you will lose weight (assuming everything else is accurate).

But if you don't eat them back the chances of you losing lean body mass go up.

thats pretty much the long and short of it

jenni_d1990

Thanks for all your helpful responses! I have not been eating them back, in fact, I am not eating enough when I exercise. Maybe that could be a reason why I haven't lost weight for 2 or 3 weeks?

Jaeger80

From my understanding of it you eat back your calories, BUT - always a but. You need to realize that no matter what you're doing, you're burning calories. Your HRM does not distinct between the 2. The HRM monitor is unable to differentiate the amount of calories you normally burn, and give you the calories burned from the activity you just performed.

For instance say I sit on my *kitten* for 1 hr watching the tv while I have the HRM monitor actively recording. It records the calorie burned by the info I put into it, weight, resting HR etc. So for that hour it says I've burned 300 calories just by breathing and watching TV. You take that 300 cal per hr and divide the 300 by 60 for the minutes in the hour. It ends up equaling to 5 cal/min.

I will use that as my baseline for my HRM work outs. So say I go walking for 30 min and the HRM says I've burned 415 cal. So take the # of min and multiply it by 5, IE: 5 x 30 = 150 base cal. take the 150 and subtract it from the 415 IE: 415 - 150 = 265 cal for the 30 min I walked. I would consider the 265 calories the amount that I could eat back. The other 150 calories is included as a "base burn" calories you burn whether or not you do anything extra. I've noticed people state that they've burned 800 calories for 45 min of walking, and they eat that 800 cal back in it's entirety without knowing that a certain percentage of that is actually not calories burned during the activity but burned by just being alive.

All be it I am new to this whole healthy eating and exercise stuff, and this is just my opinion and the conclusion I have gathered from the sources I have read since I have started this journey. If I'm incorrect in any of the above please correct me. Would rather be corrected and go ahead with the right knowledge.

No_Finish_Line

Thanks for all your helpful responses! I have not been eating them back, in fact, I am not eating enough when I exercise. Maybe that could be a reason why I haven't lost weight for 2 or 3 weeks?

Not eating enough will NEVER be the reason anyone DOESN'T lose weight to use a double negative. i don't know how this monster got started or how people can really say it with out seeing it for what it is, bs.

not suggesting you don't eat back your exercise calories, but not eating them isn't preventing you from losing

QuietBloom

Thanks for all your helpful responses! I have not been eating them back, in fact, I am not eating enough when I exercise. Maybe that could be a reason why I haven't lost weight for 2 or 3 weeks?

Do you have a food scale? Do you measure out liquids in cups? You may be eating more than you think.

QuietBloom

Don't eat them back until you get validation that your burn estimates are reasonably correct. Over-eating exercise calories is a HUGE contributor to stalls in the MFP community, ESPECIALLY by people using HRMs.

The harsh reality is that most people on here are not doing enough exercise to warrant eating them back anyway.

A heart rate monitor rant is overkill in this thread.

OP, if you want to eat your exercise calories, log it in MFP and eat about 1/2 of them back. MFP estimates are inflated.

But first you need to make sure you are logging your food accurately.

Chairless

The whole thing can be broken down to a very simple thing.

Should i eat my exercise calories back?

I don't know, are you hungry?

If yes, then do it, if no, then why are you eating, that's how we got here.

neanderthin

If we ate back all the calories the body burns we'd be at maintenance, so we need to reduce that, and by how much is an individual matter. Personally I'm cutting right now after a 30lb bulk so I'm being pretty aggressive but also pretty aggressive in my weight training and upped my protein by 20% Compliance is key, if someone is too aggressive they generally fail in the long haul.

Chairless

If we ate back all the calories the body burns we'd be at maintenance is only true if your mfp account is set to maintenance, otherwise the deficit is already in there.

neanderthin

If we ate back all the calories the body burns we'd be at maintenance is only true if your mfp account is set to maintenance, otherwise the deficit is already in there.

There was no mention of a MFP account. I understand what you mean of course but I was just trying to explain it as simply as possible. All deficits should be calculated from maintenance to lessen the confusion of many other acronyms that really don't mean much when we're just looking for a deficit to lose weight.

parkscs

To me it's fairly silly not to eat them back but the trick is to estimate them accurately. If you want to lose weight more quickly, the way to go about it is to lower your caloric target for the week - not to ignore your caloric burn from exercise. It doesn't make a lot of sense to run a more aggressive caloric deficit on weeks when you are active than on weeks when you don't get off the couch.

No_Finish_Line

perhaps this will simplify the MFP model:

If you eat back your exercise calories, you will be eating at a calorie defecit.

If you do NOT eat back your exercise calories, you will be eating at a bigger calorie defecit.

RGv2

I burn about 700 cals a day or 650 and i eat 1100 and im staying at 115-117. im 5'3 also and 22 yrs old

You're saying your maintenance is 400-450 calories a day?

wahmx3

Yes, eat them back, but don't trust the number of calories burned by what you find here....I would do about half of what they say unless you are using an HRM.

If you are following MFP the way it's designed, you eat them.

Mr_Knight

...assuming the numbers are all accurate for your body...

Unfortunately, that' s not a good assumption. We know that people, in general, are even worse at estimating calorie burns than they are at estimating calorie intake.

And like clockwork, we get an example of that from the Land of Impossibility...

I burn about 700 cals a day or 650 and i eat 1100 and im staying at 115-117. im 5'3 also and 22 yrs old...

No, sorry, you don't. 400 net calories a day is half the net calories provided to concentration camp prisoners. If you were truly doing that, your body would start looking like the body of a concentration camp survivor.

jenni_d1990

I am pretty sure I am counting my food calories accurately, but possibly not my exercise calories. It doesn't make sense though because I have been eating just under 1200 calories and exercise 45 to 50 minutes a day on weekdays and I haven't lost weight for 2 weeks. I am eating healthy too and I just eat when I'm hungry.

diannethegeek

I am pretty sure I am counting my food calories accurately, but possibly not my exercise calories. It doesn't make sense though because I have been eating just under 1200 calories and exercise 45 to 50 minutes a day on weekdays and I haven't lost weight for 2 weeks. I am eating healthy too and I just eat when I'm hungry.

Two weeks is not enough time to determine whether or not a system is working for you, especially once you factor in the extra water weight your body tends to hold when you start a new exercise program, which can mask any fat loss that's happening in the background.

Unfortunately, hunger is one of the least reliable methods to be sure that you're getting enough to eat. The hormones that control hunger can be suppressed by a number of different factors, including undereating.

When you say that you're "pretty sure" that you're counting food calories accurately, does that mean you're using a well-calibrated food scale?

JLBurke1

I admit that I didnt read all the way down so I apologize in advance if someone said this...For ME, eating some of the calories I earn from exercising creates huge motivation for me to do the exercise to get the extra calories and then have the room and the right to a treat at the end of the day: like a 1/2 cup serving of icecream or eating a bit more dinner than I normally would. I have been doing this and I continue to lose weight so far. I am often inclined to just use the extra calories calculated by MFP instead of recoding that I was running rather than walking and the time, etc. It seems that MFP gives me less extra calories than entering what I actually did and that keeps me losing weight. Another tip that has worked for me is using the Fitbit Flex and taking the stairs every day. I have to do about 12 flights to get to and from my desk to outside. Since the Flex does not record stair climbing it does not calculate the stairs, it just views them as steps which works for me as it does not then give me extra calories. Good Luck on your journey.

No_Finish_Line

I am pretty sure I am counting my food calories accurately, but possibly not my exercise calories. It doesn't make sense though because I have been eating just under 1200 calories and exercise 45 to 50 minutes a day on weekdays and I haven't lost weight for 2 weeks. I am eating healthy too and I just eat when I'm hungry.

Two weeks is not enough time to determine whether or not a system is working for you, especially once you factor in the extra water weight your body tends to hold when you start a new exercise program, which can mask any fat loss that's happening in the background.

Unfortunately, hunger is one of the least reliable methods to be sure that you're getting enough to eat. The hormones that control hunger can be suppressed by a number of different factors, including undereating.

When you say that you're "pretty sure" that you're counting food calories accurately, does that mean you're using a well-calibrated food scale?

agree that you need to give it more time. sometimes the ball doesn't really start to get rolling for a month or a month and a half, even when things are basically perfect calories wise.

jenni_d1990

Thanks, yeah I lost 9 lbs the first 2 weeks but I suppose maybe that was just water weight? Now I'm not losing, but it's just been a month since I started...

Jaeger80