Do you eat back your exercise calories?

curiousgemfit
curiousgemfit Posts: 42 Member
in Getting Started
Hi all,
Do you regularly eat back a portion of your exercise calories?
If yes, then how much can you eat back and still achieve weight loss?
Thanks !
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Replies

  • IsaCaliBel
    IsaCaliBel Posts: 99 Member
    Yes, I eat back between 50%-100% of them depending on how hungry I am that day.

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  • Rachinator92
    Rachinator92 Posts: 62 Member
    I eat what MFP tells me to! If you add your exercise to your diary it generally adds it into the calories that you're supposed to eat. So I'm assuming that you are supposed to eat your exercise calories. :)
  • tabicatinthehat
    tabicatinthehat Posts: 329 Member
    Some of them. It's a nice reward for getting my butt out there in the 100 degrees and doing something.
  • higgins8283801
    higgins8283801 Posts: 844 Member
    Not all of them. I account for error in my burn and what I eat. So if I burned 400 calories and mpf says I can eat an additional 400, I only eat 200.
  • arrielle10
    arrielle10 Posts: 35
    I will sometimes eat some of them. Sometimes I do not eat any of them. I have never eaten all of them. I personally try to burn between 300 and 500 calories a day. To me, I see it as extra weight loss. Everyone is different though. I have a lot of weight to loss and am trying to get it off quickly.
  • MrsWashington82
    MrsWashington82 Posts: 50 Member
    If I do 60 min cardio I eat back half. If I do 30 I don't eat back any and it works for me.
  • sassabella
    sassabella Posts: 98
    Not always, if I do eat them back a bit sometimes, I don't freak out too much.
  • lisanangel
    lisanangel Posts: 148 Member
    I don't
  • 365andstillalive
    365andstillalive Posts: 663 Member
    It depends, I work a pretty active job, so if I have a day where I work an 8 hour shift, and also happen to do a walk. run, zumba, whatever, I'll eat back somewhere between 50-100% of those calories. I basically just judge by if I'm extra hungry.

    If it's a day where I'm off, and other than a short workout, I've been pretty lazy, I'll probably eat back more like 0-30%.
  • tigerblue
    tigerblue Posts: 1,526 Member
    Yes definitely! If I am hungry. And I'm pretty much always hungry! Especially as you get close to your goal you will need to. First because it gives you more to eat, and second to help you back into maintenance.
  • simplydelish2
    simplydelish2 Posts: 726 Member
    I don't unless I have a massive calorie burn day that makes me extra hungry - then I eat back some of them.
  • Tanie98
    Tanie98 Posts: 675 Member
    Hi all,
    Do you regularly eat back a portion of your exercise calories?
    If yes, then how much can you eat back and still achieve weight loss?
    Thanks !

    I use a heart rate monitor and eat back all of them most of the time.It hasn't effected my weight loss in any way
  • librarydebster
    librarydebster Posts: 177 Member
    I don't usually eat all the exercise calories. On days when I do a long bike run oddly enough I'm not always super hungry.
  • asciident
    asciident Posts: 166 Member
    I try to eat 50% or so of my exercise calories to account for inflated estimations.
  • throoper
    throoper Posts: 351 Member
    I eat somewhere between half and all of them back. I'm on a pretty low calorie goal though (1200) so eating back some helps me keep to that goal. I also tend to lowball my exercise calories because I think MFP calculates them too high for a lot of activities.
  • Skout528
    Skout528 Posts: 17 Member
    The advice from a personal trainer and physical therapist were to NOT eat back what MFP recommended because it was much too high. At first I was eating them back, but now I will not. I am just starting to work out regularly and it makes me proud to not eat them back.
  • david2831g78
    david2831g78 Posts: 79 Member
    I do most of the time and after 11 weeks, I avg 2.5 lbs down a week.
  • TrailNurse
    TrailNurse Posts: 359 Member
    I don't add my exercise so I am not tempted to eat the calories back.
  • CyberEd312
    CyberEd312 Posts: 3,536 Member
    Yep I eat back roughly 85% of my calories burned through exercise leaving 15% for error in calculations and lost weight... I am a firm believer that you must fuel your body for the workout you are demanding of it to do....... Best of Luck
  • arussell134
    arussell134 Posts: 463 Member
    I usually do eat a good chunk of mine back - I find that with some of my intense workouts I do get much hungrier! I've been steadily dropping about a pound a week (which is what MFP has been estimating), so I figure I'm good. ;)

    Of course, everyone is different.
  • Shalaurise
    Shalaurise Posts: 707 Member
    I did not used to eat them back and I was seeing regular consistent weight loss. Now that I have started to (mostly cause I have lost track of eating right/appropriate amounts) I do, but I have seen nearly no weight loss since that started.
  • arussell134
    arussell134 Posts: 463 Member
    Yep I eat back roughly 85% of my calories burned through exercise leaving 15% for error in calculations and lost weight... I am a firm believer that you must fuel your body for the workout you are demanding of it to do....... Best of Luck

    See, this is me. On the days like yesterday where I ran a very hard 4 mile run, followed by heavy deadlifts, I would've been famished had I stuck to the 1,500 calories normally recommended!

    The folks that aren't eating your calories back at all - do you find those days you're hungrier???
  • terri_journey
    terri_journey Posts: 287 Member
    The advice from a personal trainer and physical therapist were to NOT eat back what MFP recommended because it was much too high. At first I was eating them back, but now I will not. I am just starting to work out regularly and it makes me proud to not eat them back.
    this is what I was told and so I usually don't eat any of mine back.
  • WhatMeRunning
    WhatMeRunning Posts: 3,538 Member
    Yes, it's working for me. I have my settings targeted for losing 2 pounds/week, and eat back my exercise calories. I have been losing an average of 2 pounds per week, so I'm quite happy with it.
  • curiousgemfit
    curiousgemfit Posts: 42 Member
    Yep I eat back roughly 85% of my calories burned through exercise leaving 15% for error in calculations and lost weight... I am a firm believer that you must fuel your body for the workout you are demanding of it to do....... Best of Luck

    ^^^ Hmm.. ok, thinking aloud here.. If I eat back most of my calories, I won't have much of a calorie deficit. So, how will my body experience a weight loss? Wouldn't what you suggested be more relevant closer to the maintenance period? I am just wondering how it works..
  • El_Cunado
    El_Cunado Posts: 359 Member
    Yes, When I was trying to lose weight I ate 70 to 75 percent back and lost an average of 8 pounds a month.
  • bethanyboomstick
    bethanyboomstick Posts: 52 Member
    I eat back a little, but not much at all.
  • cookmtn
    cookmtn Posts: 156 Member
    The deficit is built in already. That being said, I play competitive badminton which is NOT steady state so I eat back only half.
  • WhatMeRunning
    WhatMeRunning Posts: 3,538 Member
    Yep I eat back roughly 85% of my calories burned through exercise leaving 15% for error in calculations and lost weight... I am a firm believer that you must fuel your body for the workout you are demanding of it to do....... Best of Luck

    ^^^ Hmm.. ok, thinking aloud here.. If I eat back most of my calories, I won't have much of a calorie deficit. So, how will my body experience a weight loss? Wouldn't what you suggested be more relevant closer to the maintenance period? I am just wondering how it works..
    The idea is that you already establish a calorie deficit. Say your BMR + your activity level works out to you needing 2400 calories a day just to maintain your current weight. A 500 calorie per day reduction should work out to roughly 1 lb per week of weight loss. So you target 1900 calories per day to lose 1 pound per week.

    So, if on a given day you eat exactly 1900 calories, but then go for a run and burn 500 calories, you have now netted only 1400 calories for the day because you just burned 500 calories you had not previously accounted for in your calculations (BMR + sedentary, nowhere in there is a 500 calorie burn figured in).

    Given that, if you eat back that 500 calories, you are still on target to lose 1 pound per week, because that puts you back to your 1900 "net calories/day" goal.

    For me, why this is important is that I am targeting 2 pounds per week of weight loss, which is about as high of a safe recommended level that any sane long term weight loss is good for. That means a net reduction of 1000 calories per day. If I do a long run burning 800 calories, plus that 1000 calorie deficit, I have a total deficit of 1800 calories that day, roughly a 3.5 pound per week calorie reduction. That is not sustainable long term, my body will run out of energy or start storing extra energy as fat to compensate for not taking in enough.

    That's the theory.

    All I know is that I am still losing 2 pounds per week after several weeks of eating back my calories. I'm happy with that. It works. Keep in mind that my target daily calories is a 1000 calorie reduction to begin with, so I am only eating back calories to that point, so that in total I have a 1000 calorie per day reduction even after eating back the exercise calories. If I don't exercise, I don't eat anything back.
  • loralye211
    loralye211 Posts: 29 Member
    The only time I do that is if I'm having a day when ice cream cannot be denied. Or if I go somewhere that I have little choice of what to eat. Generally, I like to see that net calorie number go down looooowww ⏬

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