Eating back your exercise calories?

essa78

I'm new to MFP, and my goal is to lose 40lbs. I stared bicycle commuting to work (11.6 miles, one way) and MFP gave me extra calories to eat after I logged my exercise. I thought it was cool, but I never ate all my calories on that day. I recently read a thread that mentioned needing to eat back ALL the cals burned during exercise. It surprised me because it would be adding 1200-1400 cals a day!!:huh: It seemed like a ton of calories and kinda counter-intuitive.
HOWEVER, I have no problem eating past my calorie goal on days that I don't commute to work, sometimes I can't seem to help it


My questions are:
1. How do you lose weight by eating back calories you burn?
2. Can my calories "roll over?" If I go over my calorie goal on monday but on tuesday I commute and don't even come close to breaking even on my calorie goal, am I burning the cals i over consumed on Monday?

Sorry if this post is confusing, I tried to make it as clear as possible. If you have any tips or answers I'd be so very grateful

3dogsrunning

You don't have to eat "all" of them back. While I am not in the "MFP over exaggerates all calorie burns" camp, I do find the cycling ones high and tend not to eat all of mine back.

To answer your question
1. MFP figures your calorie needs without factoring in exercise. Then, depending on what weight loss goal you chose, subtracts the amount needed. So if you need 2000 calories a day (before exercise) and aim for 1 lb a week, it will tell you to eat 1500. If you eat at this number and not exercise, you should lose weight.
When we add exercise on top, you are increasing your calorie needs. Not a big deal if it is 100 or 200 calories extra. But if you are doing a lot of activity, you can create a very large deficit. Some people prefer to keep a moderate deficit for a lot of reasons.
If you are only eating 1500 calories, your body needs 2000, then you burn another 1000, you leave your body 500 calories.
If you eat those 1000, you are back up to that 1500 net.
Again, I strongly urge balancing eating enough to fuel your body with not overestimating calories burned.

2. A lot of people here will roll calories, myself included.

mammahawk25

MFP has already calculated a deficit for you. Any exercise you do just adds to that deficit. Some people don't like to eat their calories back because it creates a bigger deficit which leads to quicker weight loss (in theory). Personally, I like to think of exercise as a way of earning more calories to eat Some days I will eat all my exercise calories...if I am hungry. Other days I'm not hungry enough to use them all.

As for rolling over the calories, I sometimes do that too. Our bodies are not on a punch clock. We all go through cycles of some days being hungry and some days not so much...I have found there to be days when I burned a lot of calories, but not really be hungry, and some days when I didn't burn as many calories, but feel famished all day. I've found that if I just listen to what my body is telling me it all evens out in the end.

I tend to find that the overall weekly picture is a more accurate assessment than the daily.

essa78

Thanks Mammahawk25!

Thanks 3dogsrunning!