Question for those who DO eat their exercise calories...

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skeene07
skeene07 Posts: 57 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
I have seen several posts about eating back exercise cals and also about how many cals to count.
As in...if i run 5miles in one hour and burn 500cals...do you add 500cals to your diary that you will have available to eat? OR do you take out the cals that you would have burned at rest during that hour...

*burned 500cals with exercise but would have burned 100cals at rest....so you enter only 400cals???

Does it really even make a difference?
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Replies

  • lotty1987
    lotty1987 Posts: 176 Member
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    Hi skeene

    I eat my calories back but i always eat only about 75% back - due to rest periods and warm up cool down etc x
  • MissTomGettingThin
    MissTomGettingThin Posts: 776 Member
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    I've asked this before and was told it was negligable.(spelling)
    I eat them all if I feel like it and am losing. :O)
    Best of luck.
  • cerysrhi
    cerysrhi Posts: 262
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    I assume the cals you would burn at rest are already a factor when determining you starting cals so i would add the 500 but I'm not sure its never worried me cos while I eat into my exercise cals I can't eat them all x
  • kwardklinck
    kwardklinck Posts: 1,601
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    I eat them when it's a particularly hard workout and I'm feeling particulcarly hungry. The key for me is eating enough that I don't go crazy and binge.
  • Mamoonie
    Mamoonie Posts: 328
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    I consider eating them all, and not only part of it. MFP adds them all to my allowed calories total, and I stick with that number.
    Most days I go over anyway, with or without all those extra calories. I'm still losing weight... so it can't be too wrong.

    MM
  • HeidiMightyRawr
    HeidiMightyRawr Posts: 3,343 Member
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    I would eat the whole 500 back, although I usually have about 100 cals leftover at the end of the day anyway, just in case I forgot/miscalculated something so I suppose that makes up for resting calories.

    Even if you eat every last one I don't think it would make that much of a difference unless you are exercising and recording HRM readings for a good part of the day. I don't see less than an hours resting calories that you've eaten, going to be anything substantial.
  • thankyou4thevenom
    thankyou4thevenom Posts: 1,581 Member
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    I only eat my exercise calories when I am hungry enough to do so.
  • cgwhite
    cgwhite Posts: 8 Member
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    I believe that you ought to take off your BMR calories from any exercise that you do... But the big question is going to be; Is the exercise calculator that you are using correct. I always wear a Zephyr HxM heart monitor when exercising and you will be surprised how different the figure is from what an online calculator gives. Usually 25% lower. Then I take off my BMR calories of 110 per hour to get a final figure that I eat.

    I would argue that if you don't do this accurately what is the point of counting calories at all! If you are going to ignore 100 calories here or there you might as well not be bothering at all.

    :smile:

    Regards,

    Chris, just added my calories from 10.8 miles road cycling. 580 as opposed to 740 calculator gives. 75% in fat burn or aerobic zones.
  • Beegale
    Beegale Posts: 21
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    I aim to 'eat back' about half of my exercise calories and thats been working for me, a steady 1lbs a week weight loss for that last 6 weeks. I think its important to remember that its not an exact science and that you have to find what works for your body and that may take a little time. I also pay more attention to my weekly average for net calories rather than the daily one.

    Good luck!
  • Leadchg
    Leadchg Posts: 2 Member
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    I eat some or all of my excercise calories. When they set your goals they give you a date (in 5 months etc. ) Example If you eat less than 1500 calories you will loose a total of 20lbs by July 20th. (5month). When you work off 500 calories, your speeding up your burning potential in your muscles, and also working out your heart! Many benefits come from exercise obviously. The biggie is your metabolism continues to rev more through the day actually burning more calories while at rest. Youre body would still not gain if you ate all your exercise calories. You are actually putting your body into calorie deficient when you exercise. So I would say go for it, that's the pay off of exercise, it allows you a few more goodies in the day. As long as you maintain your actual calorie (plus workout calorie)goal you will lose I promise!!!!

    I look at it this way: 1.You are NOT going to gain if you eat your exercise calories. 2. If you don't eat your exercise calories you might lose a few extra pounds quicker, but you might burn yourself out or at times get so hungry that you go off your program just to satisfy an enormous craving. 3. I reward myself when I work out, I dont' eat like a mad woman but I make myself work out hard so it would allow me a few extra calories incase of a huge craving later in the day. 1500 calories isn't a whole lot of food, so to maintain my goal and stay satisfied ( and if I want that chocolate ice cream before bedtime) I have to work out before going to work in the morning! It's all give and take! I have stopped eating blindly I know now instead of eating that brownie I look at a brownie and think "Man that is like an Hour and a half on the treadmill!!!!!) :) Good luck
  • loupammac
    loupammac Posts: 194 Member
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    I operate quite simply -- if I'm hungry, I'll eat something. I try and make sure that my net calories sit at around 1200 but if I end up with a few 1400 days then that's fine. I'm still losing and well on my way to the body I've always wanted. So long as you're consistently losing weight and not going to bed with a growling tummy, then you're fine.
  • skeene07
    skeene07 Posts: 57 Member
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    Thank you everyone for the replies...ESP to the the people who actually answered my question!!

    My question was not wether to eat exercise calories or not...but rather to subtract your BMR cals from exercise cals or not.

    I honestly don't think it makes a difference...maybe I'm wrong :)
  • JillyCornwall
    JillyCornwall Posts: 376 Member
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    I eat some or all of my excercise calories. When they set your goals they give you a date (in 5 months etc. ) Example If you eat less than 1500 calories you will loose a total of 20lbs by July 20th. (5month). When you work off 500 calories, your speeding up your burning potential in your muscles, and also working out your heart! Many benefits come from exercise obviously. The biggie is your metabolism continues to rev more through the day actually burning more calories while at rest. Youre body would still not gain if you ate all your exercise calories. You are actually putting your body into calorie deficient when you exercise. So I would say go for it, that's the pay off of exercise, it allows you a few more goodies in the day. As long as you maintain your actual calorie (plus workout calorie)goal you will lose I promise!!!!

    I look at it this way: 1.You are NOT going to gain if you eat your exercise calories. 2. If you don't eat your exercise calories you might lose a few extra pounds quicker, but you might burn yourself out or at times get so hungry that you go off your program just to satisfy an enormous craving. 3. I reward myself when I work out, I dont' eat like a mad woman but I make myself work out hard so it would allow me a few extra calories incase of a huge craving later in the day. 1500 calories isn't a whole lot of food, so to maintain my goal and stay satisfied ( and if I want that chocolate ice cream before bedtime) I have to work out before going to work in the morning! It's all give and take! I have stopped eating blindly I know now instead of eating that brownie I look at a brownie and think "Man that is like an Hour and a half on the treadmill!!!!!) :) Good luck

    Oh I simply love that way of looking at it....the bit about looking at the Brownie & knowing how much sweat it represents..excellent attitude that I will try to adopt! I am eating back 75% to all my exercise back, but still suffering from that 'guilty' feeling when I do after years of yo-yo dieting which involved sustained periods of 'undereating' then periods of binge eating....so working on that too!
  • fitniknik
    fitniknik Posts: 713 Member
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    Some days I eat them all back, some days I dont eat them all. But I always eat some of them. I wouldnt think that it would matter that much if you took out the 100 that you would usually burn resting instead of running. I dont worry about that with any of my workouts. Plus its a good idea to vary how many calories you eat a day :) hope this helps!
  • amydcarlson
    amydcarlson Posts: 136 Member
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    MFP automatically adds the calories that you earn when you log your exercise. If you eat them back, just log your additional food, and MFP will do the math. :happy:
  • scagneti
    scagneti Posts: 707 Member
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    I don't worry too much about the extra calories from my BMR because it's not typically that many and I figure that the elevated heart rate and sped up metabolism the rest of the day balances things out. My BMR is 1350ish so that's only 56 calories an hour (so 28 for a half hour). I'd like to believe that I burn more than that after exercising for the increased heart rate while I'm cooling down and the afterburn.
  • SHBoss1673
    SHBoss1673 Posts: 7,161 Member
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    it depends on what you used to measure the calories you burned. Some HRM's take RMR into account when calculating exercise calories. Others, Polar for instance, does NOT remove RMR calories.

    For most people RMR is between 90 and 130 calories per hour. For me it's about 120 (assuming I sleep for 8 hours), so when I do my 35 or 40 minute workout I usually subtract about 70 calories from it (since I have a polar), OR I won't start my HRM until after my 5 minute warm up is done, and I stop it before I do my 5 minute cooldown, it just about evens out the calories. It depends on what I feel like doing that day.

    If you're talking about using the MFP calculations, well, that's really generic anyway, so using it is a crap shoot, so I can't really give you an answer. Really, if you're worried about RMR and exercise calories, you should have an HRM already, if not, then you're relying on MFP to be correct for YOU, which it almost certainly isn't.
  • hpsnickers1
    hpsnickers1 Posts: 2,783 Member
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    it depends on what you used to measure the calories you burned. Some HRM's take RMR into account when calculating exercise calories. Others, Polar for instance, does NOT remove RMR calories.

    For most people RMR is between 90 and 130 calories per hour. For me it's about 120 (assuming I sleep for 8 hours), so when I do my 35 or 40 minute workout I usually subtract about 70 calories from it (since I have a polar), OR I won't start my HRM until after my 5 minute warm up is done, and I stop it before I do my 5 minute cooldown, it just about evens out the calories. It depends on what I feel like doing that day.

    If you're talking about using the MFP calculations, well, that's really generic anyway, so using it is a crap shoot, so I can't really give you an answer. Really, if you're worried about RMR and exercise calories, you should have an HRM already, if not, then you're relying on MFP to be correct for YOU, which it almost certainly isn't.

    Mine is about a calorie per minute (5'2" and 125). Since I use an HRM I do subtract my resting calories. Of course if I didn't it probably wouldn't make a big difference in the day. I work out for an hour and I'm subtracting a little over 60 calories. If I ate that it wouldn't hurt.
  • shaunshaikh
    shaunshaikh Posts: 616 Member
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    In my opinion, every number you're working off of to decide your caloric goal for any given day is based on an estimation on top of an approximation on top of a guess. I wouldn't fret about it.

    The only time I think about it is if I do a low intensity workout over a period of hours -- like hiking or playing golf or something. Then, your sedentary MR would be a significant percentage of your exercise calories your HRM might record.
  • ejsmith7
    ejsmith7 Posts: 81 Member
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    Thank you everyone for the replies...ESP to the the people who actually answered my question!!

    My question was not wether to eat exercise calories or not...but rather to subtract your BMR cals from exercise cals or not.

    I honestly don't think it makes a difference...maybe I'm wrong :)

    I log my exercise as my cals burned during exercise - cals burned from normal activity(not BMR)

    Hope that helps :smile:

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