Should you eat back your exercise calories?

AutumnPhade
AutumnPhade Posts: 14
in Fitness and Exercise
Female
172 pounds
5'8
20yrs old
1300 calories a day

I eat 1300 calories a day and I also exercise daily. I have a treadmill and I normally do a 40 minute walk, uphill at 2.7mph. It says I burn 670 calories during that time, which seems extremely high to me considering if it's not uphill, I burn less then half of that. I normally eat half my exercise calories back but I wonder if that's okay and if I'll still lose weight doing this?

Should I be eating my a bit, half, or all my exercise calories back?

My goal is to burn 2 pounds a week, I've been counting my calories and doing this on and off for about 2 months now (more on, then off) and I've lost 10 pounds, but I feel a little bit discouraged because I should be losing more then 5 pounds a month.

Replies

  • jaz050465
    jaz050465 Posts: 3,508 Member
    Firstly as you haven't got a huge amount to lose, I think you should aim for 0.5 to a pound loss. This will be slower but more sustainable.
    MFP is set up so that you DO eat back your exercise calories as you already have a deficit built in. However, that is reliant on an accurate measurement of calories burnt. The best way is to use a HRM. Many people only eat back half to make sure they are not over estimating. If you do a search on here for 'eating back exercise calories' you will find lost of people's opinions
  • jdad1
    jdad1 Posts: 1,899 Member
    eating half your calories back is a good rule to combat overestimating calories burnt.
  • stuffinmuffin
    stuffinmuffin Posts: 985 Member
    I think going for a 0.5 loss as the above poster has put, is a good move.

    I did all my weight loss using just the guestimates on cardio from the MFP database and only in maintenance did I get an HRM and Fitbit.
    I founf generally that the MFP amounts underestimated my calorie burns.

    I guess it also depends on how you are using the logging, I know that some people add everything from food prep to cleaning which is probably skewing results somewhat. Definitely eat the majority of your exercise cals back though, otherwise you wont have the necessary energy for sustaining a fitness routine. I found that the more exercise calories I ate, the better I performed at exercise.

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