Do I eat my calories back?

TheOtherMe22

I am really confused about this. I Googled the question and got mixed answers. I eat my recommended calories each day and workout twice a day burning around 700 total calories. When I put it in mfp it tells me I have X amount of calories left to eat. Do I eat them back? I thought the purpose of burning them off was the point of exercising.

IsaackGMOON

You should already be eating in a calorie deficit

When you exercise, you burn more calories. You eat these calories back or the majority of them, this way, you provide your body with more energy (as it's been through strenuous activity) and you still stay in a deficit.

mtullock

Yes, this is my understanding as well. An additional reason being that you must eat back or your body could consider you in starvation mode thus slowing your metabolism. That you do not want to happen.

downongreenacres

I am really confused about this. I Googled the question and got mixed answers. I eat my recommended calories each day and workout twice a day burning around 700 total calories. When I put it in mfp it tells me I have X amount of calories left to eat. Do I eat them back? I thought the purpose of burning them off was the point of exercising.

Part of the reason to work out is to develop more muscle mass which will burn more calories even when you are not exercising. Of course it also makes you look better and feel better not to mention be more healthy.. You are doing a great job burning all those calories. Keep it up!

susanyounkin

Think about it differently. When you make your plan you choose to eat a deficit of calories in order to lose weight. Or you choose to exercise a certain amount of calories each day and create your deficit by exercising. Or you choose to do a bit of both. I set my mfp account up so that I eat a deficit of 250 calories AND exercise at least a deficit of 250 calories. If I happen to exercise more than my 250 calories (which I do a lot) I eat those calories to nourish my body. I am not "eating back" calories; I have simply gotten the entire 500 calorie deficit I planned. If I start to think about it as eating back my calories, I often choose poorly. I begin to think about it like, "hey, I exercised 200 calories, so now I can have a glass of wine" not exactly nourishing the body, ya know?
When you begin to exercise away or eat less than the deficit that you planned, you might make it harder for yourself. You may feel hungrier or more tired from such a big deficit.

MKEgal

No, don't eat them back.
My doctor told me to ignore exercise calories, and you can see how well it's working for me.
(No, I'm not in "starvation mode", unhealthy, etc. In fact, they're quite pleased with my progress & overall health.)

2 main reasons for ignoring "net" or exercise calories:
most people (and machines, and MFP) overestimate how much you burn in exercise
most people underestimate how much they eat

If you're really hungry at the end of the day, have 1/3 to 1/2 of your exercise calories, but not all of them & don't make a habit of it.

Katelynrain

The simple answer to this is that you *can* eat them back, but you don't have to. You have an alloted budget of calories each day that you adhere to to reach your targeted weekly loss. For some people, this initial allotment isn't enough calories to feel satiated, and they want to eat more. Exercising gives those people the opportunity to increase their daily allowance of calories above the initial daily allotment.

If you don't feel hungry, don't eat it back just to 'spend' it.

brianpperkins

MFP is based upon NEAT (Non Exercise Activity Thermogenisis) calorie calculation and inherently does not include exercise in calculating caloric goals ... hell, it's in the name of how it approaches calorie calculations . MFP calculates a daily caloric target that includes a deficit based upon non-exercise activity (sedentary for most that I've seen) and your weekly loss goal. Remaining at that net deficit target requires eating back calories.

Where many people run into issues is accurate logging of both intake and exercise. Underestimation of calories eaten and overestimation of calories burned through exercise is a common occurrence. The ability to eat back exercise calories to maintain the net deficit to lose X pounds per week requires accuracy with those intake and output numbers otherwise you end up canceling out your deficit through inadvertent logging errors. If you over eat by 300 calories per day before exercise, then log 500 exercise calories when it was only 250 (it happens) ... you're already over before "eating back" a single exercise calorie. It gets easy to blame eating back calories for slow or non-existent losses, but the true error is usually in the accuracy of logging.

The other primary caloric calculating system used by members here is TDEE (Total Daily Energy Expenditure). TDEE includes exercise in its base calculations and provides what is simply described as an average daily intake requirement to meet your deficit for the week ... no eating back exercise calories each day with the corresponding variances. Again, proper setup requires honest and accurate assessments of how much you really burn working out then accurately tracking your intake.

CardiC333

Eat them all back high in protein if your only building muscle.
But for losing fat if you eat them all back, your basically working out just to eat a lot.
But if you keep you cals around 1500 a day with your workouts, you'll lose like crazy.

hilts1969

This is a pet hate of mine as people complicate things far too much and become really anal like asking how many calories does cleaning burn etc...., eat healthy, log your food and exercise, if you lose weight carry on, if not adjust your calorie intake, simple straightforward and works

I eat the same on any given day whether i exercise or not

TheOtherMe22

This is a pet hate of mine as people complicate things far too much and become really anal like asking how many calories does cleaning burn etc...., eat healthy, log your food and exercise, if you lose weight carry on, if not adjust your calorie intake, simple straightforward and works

I eat the same on any given day whether i exercise or not

People usually become anal because they want to get the best results they can. If it's your pet peeve for people to ask questions to get the best understanding of things than my advice would be to stay off the message boards. But congrats on your carefree eating and exercising you have great results.

hilts1969

This is a pet hate of mine as people complicate things far too much and become really anal like asking how many calories does cleaning burn etc...., eat healthy, log your food and exercise, if you lose weight carry on, if not adjust your calorie intake, simple straightforward and works

I eat the same on any given day whether i exercise or not

People usually become anal because they want to get the best results they can. If it's your pet peeve for people to ask questions to get the best understanding of things than my advice would be to stay off the message boards. But congrats on your carefree eating and exercising you have great results.

The more complicated, time consuming and effort that goes goes into anything means more people will give in, it is a pet peeve because i see so many people get bogged down in numbers that are not even that accurate to start with, being slim and healthy in the long term is a lifestyle change, the people who lose weight and keep it off are those who can do it by feel and not a calculator

It becomes the norm for them and requires a lot less effort because of this, i am a big believer in separating the exercise and food intake, if you go to the gym, work out at home etc just see this as a way of getting fit, do your best at working out and put effort in, if you are making an effort the calories burned are irrelevant to some degree

do your exercise eat your food and if it ain't working adjust what you are eating, it is just simpler this way, if i run 30 mins on a monday and burn 500 cals do i have to grab some food to get those back? no

if you are not losing eat less or better if you are losing too much(which i have done) eat more, after a while you just know, i have got the point now when over a week i know if i have had a good or bad week

People calculate too much, weigh themselves too much and i am only trying too help, i see so many on here who worry about the details so much and they seem to be the ones who struggle the most to reach their goals

I don't believe i have counted calories this year and gave up after 3 months as by then i knew i was going in the right direction, MFP is a great way to get started and get into a good routine with regards food intake and foods you should avoid on a regular basis, you don't have to log for the rest of your life

silentKayak

This is a pet hate of mine as people complicate things far too much and become really anal like asking how many calories does cleaning burn etc...., eat healthy, log your food and exercise, if you lose weight carry on, if not adjust your calorie intake, simple straightforward and works

I eat the same on any given day whether i exercise or not

Huh. My pet hate is people who "hate" others for trying to become more informed, or who think that what works for one person works for everyone.

Some of us are really analytical and like to have numbers and a plan so they know exactly what their daily caloric budget is. It's very important for those of us who have constant issues with hunger. You try to eat enough so that you don't get so crazy hungry you'll give up, but little enough to continue losing. It's great for you that you can do a huge workout and not get more hungry. I'm not the same, and perhaps OP isn't either.

What works for ME is knowing EXACTLY how many calories are on my plan for the day. It may not be 100% precise, but it's as close as I can get it, and more importantly, it's working. Going by "feel" is a recipe for failure for me and many others.

As for my advice to OP: be aware that the MFP "calories burned" numbers are really high. My approach is to enter 50% of my actual exercise - if I walk for 60 minutes, I put in 30. I then use "net calories" as my daily budget.

Example:

Base caloric goal: 1450

I walk for 60 minutes, so I enter 30. MFP tells me that's an extra 158 calories. 1450 + 158 = 1608. So that's my allotment for the day. I get a little extra for the workout to manage hunger, but using the 50% rule pretty well guarantees I'm not overestimating the exercise.

Hope that helps.