Eating Back Exercise Calories

novembersuse

I'm never sure if this is a good idea. I do it.... but I'm unclear if I should.

I don't tend to exercise and then eat more for the hell of it though. My routine is to build in extra runs to cover extra calories. So if I know I'll be having company in the evening involving beer or pizza etc, I get a run nailed before work so that I've already burned off 500 calories or so. I know that alot of people on here are horrified by eating back exercise calories, but I think I see exercise as a kind of magic eraser rather than bonus work...

CrusaderSam

The reason why this doesn't work so well is, what happens if you get hurt or sick and cant run? That is why better eating habits win out over exercising in the name or poor ones. I am not saying what you are doing is bad or doesn't work but it does have that flaw.

sloseph

i try not to eat back my Calories but if it happens i still think im winning as long as i'm not in the red

on this subject you might find this as hilarious as i did http://theoatmeal.com/comics/running2

GillianMcK

It depends, are you currently trying to lose weight??

If you're trying to lose weight then I would be eating back some of the exercise calories (maybe up to 50% of them depending on how many calories I was eating and how much exercise I was doing), if you're maintaining weight (or trying to gain) then you should be eatng back your exercise calories.
It's difficult to know how many calories are actually involved in exercise as saying your doing 60min of circuits can give you 600 calories according to MFP but really this depends on the effort you're putting into the workout, you could do the bare minimum and not burn 600 calories or you could knock your pan in and burn more.

I'm still losing weight but I'm also training for a marathon, if I didn't eat back at least some of my calories I would be unconcious (you couldn't consider doing a 20mile long run in training and eating less than 2000 calories).

Good eating habits are important but so is cardio-vasicular health so eating and exercising are important, but your body needs fuel so if you're exercising you should be fueling appropriately (you can't expect an engine to go further and do more on less fuel).

novembersuse

Definitely trying to lose weight, and to stick to 1200 calories per day. But I would ALWAYS rather enjoy good meals, and go over my calories by maybe 300/400 calories, then claw it back by doing a 40 minute run which burns about 500 calories. It does feel a bit like cheating though when I am officially under my calories allowance, but I know very well that I didn't deprive myself. I would struggle enormously if I had to stick to 1200 calories, and not do much exercise.

...And 20 miles runs? Amazing. Good luck with the training

trhendersonNC

I think you have to look at how you feel, too. At one point I was not eating back my exercise calories, and my workouts began to suffer. I find I can't really "bring it" on less than 1800-2000 calories. How much I net depends on the amount and intensity of the exercise I do for that day - about 1/3 of the time I end up netting under 1250 calories.

SezxyStef

Definitely trying to lose weight, and to stick to 1200 calories per day. But I would ALWAYS rather enjoy good meals, and go over my calories by maybe 300/400 calories, then claw it back by doing a 40 minute run which burns about 500 calories. It does feel a bit like cheating though when I am officially under my calories allowance, but I know very well that I didn't deprive myself. I would struggle enormously if I had to stick to 1200 calories, and not do much exercise.

...And 20 miles runs? Amazing. Good luck with the training

then why stay at 1200 calories...it's not needed to lose weight.

I eat 1800 and still lose...

1200 is the minimum for women...and that alleviates the requirement to run to get calories back...I mean if you love running great do that but if you are doing it just to eat more...well you don't have to.