Eating exercise calories

emmajane_2288

i know everyone is probably bored of this discussion now, but I was just wondering if any one has any success story to tell because they DIDN'T eat back their exercise calories?
I exercise in the evening after work, so it's getting harder for me to account for the exercise calories I'm going to create later on, therefore sometimes I am under by 200-300 cals.
The majority of people on the message boards say that you should eat back your exercise calories so I'm a bit worried that I'm 'doing it wrong'

I have always thought that the basis of losing weight was to simply burn more calories than you consume?

I'm interested to know of other people's experiences on which method they have used to lose weight

bellinachuchina

Here's one

Never ate back mine.

Went from 244lbs.-135lbs. in 11 months, and have been maintaining my goal weight for over a year now.

You have to do what works for you, but I knew that eating them made me feel that I just sweated my *kitten* off, only to eat back what I burned. I know you have to "fuel" your body, and I did...with nutritious healthy foods all day long.

cframe800

I think its amazing that you have lost 110 pounds......I weigh 250, lost 6 pounds so far.....I just find it so hard to get motivated to exercise! I really need to get my *kitten* in gear though.....I want to focus on loosing 50 pounds first and then go from there....

melaniecheeks

I never really fussed about eating back exercise calroies, as long as I was taking in at least 1200 cals per day. That's GROSS not NET, ie the actual amount of food consumed.

I went from 159 lbs at the start of Decmeber, met my first goal of 140 lbs in March, reset my goal to 135 lbs, and am maintaining at that now.

This gives me 1490 calories a day. I'll aim to eat between 1200 and 1490, more if I'm hungry and more if I work out....if I feel like it. I dont record my exercise any more.

Different things work for different people. However, I think there's a danger in trying too hard - the amount of calories in the food you eat, and in the amount you exercise, are estimates. In some cases wildly inaccurate estimates. So your calculations could easily be plus or minus 300 cals.

Plus I know the math behind the calories in- calories out equation, I just dont believe my body is a predictable robot.

bellinachuchina

I think its amazing that you have lost 110 pounds......I weigh 250, lost 6 pounds so far.....I just find it so hard to get motivated to exercise! I really need to get my *kitten* in gear though.....I want to focus on loosing 50 pounds first and then go from there....

Thank you!

I habitually exercised about 4mo. out of my journey, then made my diet the primary focus. Just try to get active once or twice a week to start out, but you should really be concerned with caloric intake. Exercise was not the factor of my weight loss, just a little helper and strengthener

stenochick0417

I work out in the evening, too, and this was kind of a struggle for me to figure out. If I know for darn sure I'm going to work out, I add a little more calories to my meals. So I'll be eating a little more calorie-wise, but by that, I'm adding those (going to) exercise calories back in. (Instead of worrying about eating some of them back at the very end of the day) My biggest thing is that I have to make DARN SURE I'm going to exercise, no matter if I feel like it or not or I'm basically just eating more and will go over my daily goal for no good reason.

As far as eating ALL my exercise calories back -- I don't eat them all. But, by exercising (and accumulating some extra calories), I'm allowing for a pre-workout snack since I don't eat dinner before working out. (I'd make myself sick if I did that) So, I have my normal afternoon snack, get home around 5:00, eat a Luna bar, go work out and then come home, have my "recovery" drink (normally it's 1/2 a glass of chocolate milk) and then about an hour or so later, I'll be hungry enough for dinner. Normally my dinner is pretty light and sensible since I'm not ravenous after working out. But by this way, I'm getting all of my calories in and not having MFP tell my I'm eating too few calories. And, I don't have to worry about cramming them in at the end of the day.

Anyway, some people say eat them all, some say don't eat them at all. It took me a few weeks of experimenting and I find that I don't need to eat them *all* back, but I do need to eat some back. I'm just simply not hungry enough to eat them all back. But I know that I have to fuel my body for my workouts, so I plan my meals around adding some of those anticipated exercise calories back.

Hope that helps.

emmajane_2288

You have to do what works for you, but I knew that eating them made me feel that I just sweated my *kitten* off, only to eat back what I burned. I know you have to "fuel" your body, and I did...with nutritious healthy foods all day long.

Thank you!!
This is exactly how I feel when I hear that I should eat back my exercise calories! If I burn 400 calories in the gym, why should I allow myself to eat a chocolate bar and a packet of crisps just so I can up my calorie intake? Cos that's honestly what I would probably eat at that time of night if I were to eat them back. After I've eaten dinner, I don't like to eat anything else now. I don't normally have dinner until 7:30 so I'm never hungry to eat after.

Thank u all for your replies. I'm gonna give this not eating calories back thing a go to see if it works for me. I don't exercise every day anyway, 3-4 times a week only! So I don't think it should cause me any harm not to eat them back.

I'll have to see how I get on and let u know

mpfand

I exercise about 3-4 days out of the week, too, and I don't eat them all back. It just doesn't work for me. If I'm hungry, I'll end up eating some of them, but I look at my exercise calories as more of a buffer. I know I don't have to be as strict with my food choices on the days I exercise, but on those days I try to get plenty of protein. Exercise days are when I might choose to eat peanut butter or treat myself to a Skinny Cow or something like that. I've been consistently losing since I started mfp 90 days ago so until I stop seeing results I'm just going to keep doing what I'm doing!

samanthakatecallan

I don't eat them all back but I do eat half or 3/4 of them back and I still lose 1 - 2lbs per week and my deficit is set to 1lb per week.