Eating back exercise calories

Belleartist
Belleartist Posts: 40
in Health and Weight Loss
Do you eat back none, some, or all of you calories you burned from exercising? The main purpose of exercising is to burn calories and gain muscle right so why would you eat those calories back. I don't like eating all my calories back and I just want to make sure I'm doing this right.

Replies

  • snazzyjazzy21
    snazzyjazzy21 Posts: 1,298 Member
    You eat them back because MFP has already created a calorie deficit. So by exercising you're only increasing it, when can be bad in the long run. Also, you won't be gaining muscle while eating a deficit, unfortunately. Personally I eat them back, because I love food and find that if I don't I can't do my HIIT workouts without feeling ill.
  • 120by30
    120by30 Posts: 217 Member
    If you're going by MFP's recommended calorie intake, then yes, you should eat back at least a good portion of your exercise calories. They already have your deficit needed for weight loss built in. Burning calories through exercise is increasing your deficit, which isn't good over the long run.
  • Wonderob
    Wonderob Posts: 1,372 Member
    Do you eat back none, some, or all of you calories you burned from exercising? The main purpose of exercising is to burn calories and gain muscle right so why would you eat those calories back. I don't like eating all my calories back and I just want to make sure I'm doing this right.

    The main purpose of exercise is definitely not to burn calories

    Person A consumes 1500 calories per day and never exercises
    Person B consumes 2000 calories a day and burns off 500 calories a day exercising

    They each have 1500 a day Net calories - who has the healthier lifestyle?
  • Wonderob
    Wonderob Posts: 1,372 Member
    Do you eat back none, some, or all of you calories you burned from exercising? The main purpose of exercising is to burn calories and gain muscle right so why would you eat those calories back. I don't like eating all my calories back and I just want to make sure I'm doing this right.

    Why don't you like eating your calories back?
  • phoenixx866
    phoenixx866 Posts: 173 Member
    A lot of people say you should be eating back atleast half your burned calories from exercise, so I try to do that.

    Some days I just want to eat so I eat back them all.
  • unesemainedecruaute
    unesemainedecruaute Posts: 54 Member
    It depends on how did you set up your goals (on MFP and on your diet).

    If you want to have a consistent deficit (between the energy you consume and the energy you "waste") then you should have the exercise into consideration, either by setting it up in the MFP goals, or eating the calories back on your diet.

    If you don't care or you're more like "the more (deficit) the better" then you wouldn't want to eat them back. In this case you should take care of not creating a deficit huge enough that you fall into "starving mode".

    That's regarding burning calories. Regarding gaining muscle, you should have a quality meal after working out, to replete the storing into your muscle that you have spent, and also to start recovering.

    Personally, I like to combine those three things: I always eat after working out (40' to 2hs), and if I feel like, I eat all the calories back. I've already set up my goals on MFP so that with only dieting (and no-exercise) I'd create a good deficit, so eating them -or not- is more a matter of strategy rather than need.
  • manicautumn
    manicautumn Posts: 224 Member
    I have a 1200 goal, so I try to eat as many back as possible to ensure I get enough nutrients. Netting 600 is not good.

    It's so much more important, imo, if you have a lower goal.
  • Wonderob
    Wonderob Posts: 1,372 Member

    If you don't care or you're more like "the more (deficit) the better" then you wouldn't want to eat them back. In this case you should take care of not creating a deficit huge enough that you fall into "starving mode".

    Is that like the mythical 'Starvation mode'?

    http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/1279532-starvation-mode-is-a-myth?hl=starvation+mode
  • earlnabby
    earlnabby Posts: 8,171 Member
    On the days that I work out, I generally eat back about 1/2 to 2/3 of the extra calories. Since I coordinate MFP with Fitbit I will sometimes get a few additional calories from additional steps. Those I do not eat back.
  • Belleartist
    Belleartist Posts: 40
    I do eat about 1/2 of them back and I make sure I net at least 1200
  • CA_Underdog
    CA_Underdog Posts: 733 Member
    The main purpose of exercise is definitely not to burn calories

    Person A consumes 1500 calories per day and never exercises
    Person B consumes 2000 calories a day and burns off 500 calories a day exercising

    They each have 1500 a day Net calories - who has the healthier lifestyle?

    Yup. Exercise is more about increasing your fitness level. This can enable you to enjoy more activities, do better at them, live longer, live better, look better, decrease your chance of injury, etc.
  • unesemainedecruaute
    unesemainedecruaute Posts: 54 Member
    Is that like the mythical 'Starvation mode'?

    http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/1279532-starvation-mode-is-a-myth?hl=starvation+mode

    Lol, it is, is just that I wrote it wrong, sorry for that.

    I don't think that is mythical though. I do think that the relation between causes and effects might not be -still- well determined, but at the level of MFP is not that much relevant. It's the same with the "after-burning effect": the EPOC alone cannot justify the results. But that doesn't mean that the relation do not exists, it means that we (humans) haven't determined fully/truly the process behind the relation, but the relation remains the same and, again, it's not that much relevant (I think) here on MFP.

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