Eat back exercise calories or not.? newbie

mojo41mfp

Hi recently joined and I have been given a daily goal of 1700 calories. I'm 5ft 11 and weigh 190 pounds - I'm aiming for a 25 pound loss at 1 pound per week hopefully.

Is it beneficial to eat back activity points. I haven't been to the gym in a while but plan to go 2-3 a week for classes body combat, pump and attack. All these supposedly generate about 600 calories a class.
Any advice gratefully received x

pastryari

http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/818082-exercise-calories-again-wtf

This is a pretty big debate that pops up continually on the main forums.

Should you, or should you not, eat back your exercise calories? The answer is: It depends.

Here are some background definitions before going into this:

BMR (Basal Metabolic Rate): The number of calories you burn at complete rest.
EAT (Exercise Associated Thermogenesis): Caloric requirements of training, or training expenditure.
NEAT (Non Exercise Activity Thermogenesis): Caloric requirements of activity that is not planned exercise. Vacuuming, driving, brushing your teeth, for example.
TEF/DIT (Thermic Effect of Feeding or Diet Induced Thermogenesis): Caloric expense of eating/digestion.
TDEE: (Total Daily Energy Expenditure) = Sum of the above. BMR+EAT+NEAT+TEF


Exercise calories, as they are typically used in MFP specifically, is represented by EAT in the above definition. Whether or not you should eat your EAT (giggity) depends on what system or method you are using to calculate your intake needs.

If you are using most other online calculation tools to determine an intake estimate, that estimate is going to already include EAT as part of the suggested intake. For example, it will ask you an activity factor that includes an average of your exercise, and with this it increases your TDEE to account for the fact that you are exercising.

If you are using MFP to tell you how much to eat, that estimate is NOT going to include EAT as part of the intake estimate.

Myfitnesspal uses a caloric estimation tool that expects you to eat back calories burned during exercise.

Consequently, MFP will essentially give you a LOWER intake estimate than an external TDEE calculator would give you.


In other words:

You tell MFP: I'd like to lose 1lb/week.

MFP says: Hey, you should eat X calories every day to lose 1lb/week.

You then decide to exercise and you burn 400 calories.

MFP says: Hey you pecker, you said you wanted to lose 1lb/week. Now you need to eat X+400 because you told me you wanted to lose 1lb/week.


So based on this:

If you are using MFP to tell you how many calories to eat, you should probably be eating back some portion of your exercise calories.

If you are using an external calculator and then customizing your intake to match that, you should not be eating back your exercise calories.

Lastly: Exercise expenditure is often over-stated.

My general opinion is that it's much simpler and uses less guess-work to use a custom intake and just forget about the exercise calorie model entirely, but that's a different topic of sorts, more discussion of which can be found here: http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/819055-setting-your-calorie-and-macro-targets

hilts1969

Hi recently joined and I have been given a daily goal of 1700 calories. I'm 5ft 11 and weigh 190 pounds - I'm aiming for a 25 pound loss at 1 pound per week hopefully.

Is it beneficial to eat back activity points. I haven't been to the gym in a while but plan to go 2-3 a week for classes body combat, pump and attack. All these supposedly generate about 600 calories a class.
Any advice gratefully received x

Don't bother eat your 1700 cals a day and exercise, if you are losing at a rate you are happy with just carry on, if not just adjust your calories, this is the simplest way of doing it, the figures can vary so much that it becomes a little pointless, count your calories properly and adjust as necessary, keep it simple

mojo41mfp

Thank you. That makes sense I'm going to give it a go and then see as I guess everyone's individual metabolic rate can vary.

No_Finish_Line

If you eat back your exercise calories you are more likely to hang onto the muscle you already have

if you do not you are more likely to lose it.

muscle may not matter to you, but it has a lot to do with how fit you look and the more lean body mass you have the more calories you burn at rest, thus accelerating your fat burn to some degree.

in the end, how many calories you have eaten and how many you have expended in exercise are estimates. if you feel hungry and you have exercise calories to burn, i say eat them. if your not hungry, don't.

__hannah_

I typically eat my calories back, as that is my motivation for exercising. More food. I've been steadily losing about a pound a week since January this way. I know some people who never eat the calories back and some that only eat about half the calories back. Choose whatever you think makes the most sense for you. Good Luck!

dopeysmelly

Hi recently joined and I have been given a daily goal of 1700 calories. I'm 5ft 11 and weigh 190 pounds - I'm aiming for a 25 pound loss at 1 pound per week hopefully.

Is it beneficial to eat back activity points. I haven't been to the gym in a while but plan to go 2-3 a week for classes body combat, pump and attack. All these supposedly generate about 600 calories a class.
Any advice gratefully received x

Don't bother eat your 1700 cals a day and exercise, if you are losing at a rate you are happy with just carry on, if not just adjust your calories, this is the simplest way of doing it, the figures can vary so much that it becomes a little pointless, count your calories properly and adjust as necessary, keep it simple

^^This has worked for me. I try to keep my exercise/calories somewhat consistent, but don't bother logging exercise calories/eating back etc, and I just adjust my calories and macros based on how I lose over a few weeks. I'm losing a bit too quickly right now, so I'll up my calories later this week and wait 3-4 weeks to see what happens before reassessing.

The TDEE calculators make a useful starting point IMO, but nothing beats looking objectively at your own results.

SezxyStef

When I first came here I did eat them back. It was great...sort of a motivator...

MFP sets you up for a deficet with just your food...if you exercise and don't eat those calories back (or at least some of them) you are not fueling our next workout...and you are creating a bigger deficet than planned and will lose muscle and fat and may eventually get to the point where you are lacking energy, lethargic and not doing well.

Unknown

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TeaBea

Hi recently joined and I have been given a daily goal of 1700 calories. I'm 5ft 11 and weigh 190 pounds - I'm aiming for a 25 pound loss at 1 pound per week hopefully.

Is it beneficial to eat back activity points. I haven't been to the gym in a while but plan to go 2-3 a week for classes body combat, pump and attack. All these supposedly generate about 600 calories a class.
Any advice gratefully received x

MFP as designed gave you a calorie deficit BEFORE exercise. That way people who can't/won't exercise still lose weight.

Exercise increases the deficit. The problem is when the deficit is too large, you will lose fat + muscle as opposed to mainly fat. Resistance training + protein can help you stave off muscle loss.....but only if the deficit is not too large.

Re: calorie burns. These are estimates. MFP & machines tend to be generous. HRM's for steady state cardio are pretty good estimates. So when (if) eating calories back, be conservative. Test that for a couple weeks......increase calories if you feel run down.....decrease calories is you are not losing.

hilts1969

Hi recently joined and I have been given a daily goal of 1700 calories. I'm 5ft 11 and weigh 190 pounds - I'm aiming for a 25 pound loss at 1 pound per week hopefully.

Is it beneficial to eat back activity points. I haven't been to the gym in a while but plan to go 2-3 a week for classes body combat, pump and attack. All these supposedly generate about 600 calories a class.
Any advice gratefully received x

MFP as designed gave you a calorie deficit BEFORE exercise. That way people who can't/won't exercise still lose weight.

Exercise increases the deficit. The problem is when the deficit is too large, you will lose fat + muscle as opposed to mainly fat. Resistance training + protein can help you stave off muscle loss.....but only if the deficit is not too large.

Re: calorie burns. These are estimates. MFP & machines tend to be generous. HRM's for steady state cardio are pretty good estimates. So when (if) eating calories back, be conservative. Test that for a couple weeks......increase calories if you feel run down.....decrease calories is you are not losing.

So as i said just eat and exercise and adjust calories as needed

No_Finish_Line

Hi recently joined and I have been given a daily goal of 1700 calories. I'm 5ft 11 and weigh 190 pounds - I'm aiming for a 25 pound loss at 1 pound per week hopefully.

Is it beneficial to eat back activity points. I haven't been to the gym in a while but plan to go 2-3 a week for classes body combat, pump and attack. All these supposedly generate about 600 calories a class.
Any advice gratefully received x

MFP as designed gave you a calorie deficit BEFORE exercise. That way people who can't/won't exercise still lose weight.

Exercise increases the deficit. The problem is when the deficit is too large, you will lose fat + muscle as opposed to mainly fat. Resistance training + protein can help you stave off muscle loss.....but only if the deficit is not too large.

Re: calorie burns. These are estimates. MFP & machines tend to be generous. HRM's for steady state cardio are pretty good estimates. So when (if) eating calories back, be conservative. Test that for a couple weeks......increase calories if you feel run down.....decrease calories is you are not losing.

So as i said just eat and exercise and adjust calories as needed

What the two of you said are not entirely the same thing

hilts1969

Hi recently joined and I have been given a daily goal of 1700 calories. I'm 5ft 11 and weigh 190 pounds - I'm aiming for a 25 pound loss at 1 pound per week hopefully.

Is it beneficial to eat back activity points. I haven't been to the gym in a while but plan to go 2-3 a week for classes body combat, pump and attack. All these supposedly generate about 600 calories a class.
Any advice gratefully received x

MFP as designed gave you a calorie deficit BEFORE exercise. That way people who can't/won't exercise still lose weight.

Exercise increases the deficit. The problem is when the deficit is too large, you will lose fat + muscle as opposed to mainly fat. Resistance training + protein can help you stave off muscle loss.....but only if the deficit is not too large.

Re: calorie burns. These are estimates. MFP & machines tend to be generous. HRM's for steady state cardio are pretty good estimates. So when (if) eating calories back, be conservative. Test that for a couple weeks......increase calories if you feel run down.....decrease calories is you are not losing.

So as i said just eat and exercise and adjust calories as needed

What the two of you said are not entirely the same thing

In the end they are exactly the same thing, you adjust your calories as required, mine is just simpler

No_Finish_Line

sure, if you say so

hilts1969

sure, if you say so

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