Exercise Calories to eat or not to eat?

Locfitgrl35

Hello, I was wondering if I should use the extra calories I earn from exercising. I get 1280 calories a day which seems low, and sometimes I am famished at the end of the day.

voluptas63

I eat the calories from my super heavy workouts (IE I burn 400+ calories) that's just me.

You have to figure out what works for you. However, most find that eating some, half or all of their exercise calories helps them lose weight, actually.

cjjones007

I generally eat back half of my calories from exercise - generally... sometimes I don't though - it just depends on the day - but if you don't eat those back you REALLY need to ensure you don't go under on your daily goal otherwise (so if you need to eat 1,300 + exercise calories - make SURE you get those 1,300 )

MichelleLydia

I generally don't eat my exercise calories, because I find it hard enough to even eat my daily calories! But if I'm hungry and I'm at my daily cals. I'll eat some of my exercise cals

rachrach66

Great advice CJ couldve used that last night! I didnt eat my exercise calories and worked out pretty good. So my body was extremely sore and tired this morning. I was also starving!!! Didn't help that I skipped dinner. This is a big no no! You have to fuel your body or you will burn out!

NanoReefDiver

I eat every one of them back.

VeganGal84

I always eat them.

Plus... MFP calculates them for me, so I'm not even sure how accurate it is. I still eat them. If I stop losing my pound a week, I'll reevaluate, but for now, I'm hungry, so I eat them.

Let's just say that I'm not here because I don't love food...

Seanb_us

I am trying NOT to eat back my exercise calories, only part of them ... because I fear I underestimate my calories in and overestimate my calories out (based on cardio machine and MFP values).

Cheers,

Sean

Punkedpoetess

I eat all of my exercise calories and I am losing at a good rate so far. I find I lose better when I eat at least half of my exercise calories.

nanc94

after a real good intense workout i tend to eat most of it back...i find im hungrier the next morning if i dont
other times if ive had a light/decent workout i just eat half back

FearAnLoathing

I dont unless I go out drinking,which I rarely do. So no I dont eat them havent eaten them since I started trying to lose weight 8 months ago.If I was hungry I would eat them,but im really fully and satisfied with what I do eat.

Locfitgrl35

Thank you all...it seems that most people do eat them back, or at least if you are hungry. Thank you!

Qarol

I think for most people, you shouldn't get less than 1200 net calories. So if you burn 300 calories but only eat 1300 in a day, that's a net 1000. Too low for your body. But this argument has been beat.to.death. If I've learned anything, I can't speed up my weight loss by cutting even more calories. It has a way of backfiring.

LorinaLynn

I aim to eat most of them back. Sometimes I run out of hours in the day, like today.

But I want to share something I wrote in another thread earlier today...

The past month, I've aimed for 1500 calories a day, or a half pound a week loss. I ate back my exercise calories, so my average intake was around 1800 calories a day. I only logged my food Monday through Friday, and played it by ear on weekends. Some of those weekends included going out to eat - a LOT - and a big alcohol infused luau at my brother's. And I lost 4.5 lbs this past month.

When I first started on here, like everyone else on the planet, I wanted to lose weight as quickly as possible and had my calories at 1200, for theoretically a 2 pound a week loss. The only time I lost more than one pound a week was when I had a stomach flu. I lost about five pounds that month.

Then I upped my calories to 1350, then 1400, and STILL lost about 5 pounds a month.

On the other hand, years ago, when I didn't know better, I ate around 700-800 calories a day, with a little more on weekends, but really strict during the week, felt like poop all the time, was tired and cranky, and lost at most a half pound a week. Needless to say, I couldn't keep that up very long. I was frustrated as hell because I thought there was something wrong with me that I couldn't lose weight, and knew it would be crazy to try to eat even less. I really believed it was a simple matter of calories in vs calories out.

It's not.

Just because you physically CAN eat less or CAN workout harder, doesn't mean that you'll get any added benefit from it.

I'd rather eat more and feel wonderful while losing weight than eat less and feel deprived. Especially if I'm going to get the same results!!!

Try different things - eating them back, not eating them back, lower calories, higher calories - and see what works best for YOU.

Locfitgrl35

Thank you very helpful!