eating back your exercise calories.

cathynicolette

I was just wondering what is the point of exercising and using up all these calories if we are supposed to eat them back. Sorry, it may seem like a stupid question but it seems to me like paying off part of your credit card bill and then going immediately on a shopping spree.

foremant86

because your body has to have a certain amount of calories everyday to run properly


if you eat 1200 calories but burn off 500 then your body only has 700 to work with and that's not good...get it?

baisleac

MFP builds in a caloric deficit for you so you will lose weight whether you exercise or not.

If you exercise and do not eat those burned calories back you are increasing the built in deficit to a potentially harmful size.

The purpose of exercise is not to "lose weight" but to become healthier and more fit as you lose weight.

luckygrrrl

I thought that was good - the whole point is to have a calorie deficit.

IMDABEAST

I dont eat back my exercise cals and I have lost 216 lbs...so it must work for me.Good luck and take one day at a time

sabrinalg

You have to find what works for you. Some people like myself can't lose weight if I eat back my exercise calories; so I don't or I'll eat very few of them. I just make sure that my total intake of food for the day falls no lower than 1200 calories and if I'm hungry I'll eat and if I'm not hungry then I won't.

janiecorona

I don't eat back my exercise calories. But it's working for me so far, once I reach a plateau, I plan to up my calories and eat some of them back. It all depends on what works for you and how you feel. If you feel weak and don't have enough energy to exercise, then yes, eat more. But if you feel fine, I don't see why you would have to eat them back. But I'm not a doctor, just saying what works for me! (:

baisleac

I thought that was good - the whole point is to have a calorie deficit.

MFP starts you off with a deficit. Too large of a deficit is unhealthy.

pappycanoli

If you ever try to NOT replace those calories, you will find yourself very tired the next day. It is all about NET calories.
Now, with that said, i do not always replace all the calories burned.

WWhitaker

I'm going to tell you what I FINALLY had someone explain to me. First of all, you have to do what works for YOUR body. Secondly, you should only eat back your exercise calories if you're already in good shape so your muscles have more fuel. If you're overweight and have a lot of weight to lose, don't eat them back! I am an example of that. In my first 2 months here, I wasn't eating back my exercise calories (because I didn't know I was "supposed" to) and lost 8 lbs my first 2 months. These last 2 months, I haven't really lost anything and I've BEEN eating back my exercise calories. So now, I'm not going to eat them back and see if I start losing. I think the deficit MFP gives you if more to help you maintain weight, because that's certainly what it was doing for me. And if you're eating back those calories, that's exactly what you'll do....well again, for me anyway! Best of luck!

rgalisky

Look at your calorie deficit from a weekly basis and not a daily. you will find thing levels out as you will over eat on some days.


ensure you eat 80gm of protein per 100lbs body weight to avoid muscle loss

Your body will tell you if you are starving if you you become quickly tired when you exercise. When I lose 20% of my full strength (full calorie) power, I know I need to eat more.

WifeMomDVM

Read me:

http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/173853-an-objective-look-at-eating-exercise-calories

spngebobmyhero

I don't know all the details of the science behind it, but every day that I eat back all of my calories, I end up seeing a weight loss the next day. It works for me!

catwrangler

FOOD---the very best incentive to exercise EVER! :bigsmile:

I joined in June, started at 230 and am down 12, eating back every single little calorie.

cathynicolette

Thanks all for your advice. Very helpful. Good luck to you all and God bless.

rgalisky

Excellent points - You are 100% correct.

weightofyourskin

If you ever try to NOT replace those calories, you will find yourself very tired the next day. It is all about NET calories.
Now, with that said, i do not always replace all the calories burned.

Yep... I'm not good at eating back all my exercise calories because I do a lot of cardio - I'm trying to eat more before I start exercising so I end up with less of a deficit at the end of the day - but I try to eat at least half of them back.

I had two days when I didn't eat back any of my exercise calories and had a huge deficit... I felt tired and headachey all the time.

complejo

I eat back the bulk of my calories and have lost weight each week for the two weeks I have been here. The site works this into your calorie total but it is not a perfect science. Everybody's body is different and everybody's lifestyle is different. When I first joined I put I had an "active" lifestyle because I do exercise, but when I was not seeing progress, I realized I should have put my lifestyle without the exercise as MFP fits that in later. So once I changed it to Sedentary, my calorie totals became more in line with what I needed to lose the weight I wanted.

That said, I do a crazy amount of exercise daily and if I did not eat back my calories like I should I'd probably pass out one day.

Lauren38570

I try not to eat them back but on the nights I really want the chicken select meal and a large coke from mcdonalds it covers it just enough to get that

complejo

Another thing to consider is what someone said in another thread, which is the fact that calculating how many calories you burned during exercise is not accurate all of the time. Some machines will over estimate and others will under estimate, and unless you have one of those monitor things, the best you do is probably a close approximation.

For this reason I don't log every little thing I do and under estimate my exercise on a daily basis to give me some leeway on that. For example, my daily walk includes a pretty grueling climb up two hills and 8 sets of steps and I walk it slightly faster than what I input into my diary.

mrk34

I don’t eat exercise calories back.

It doesn’t make any sense to me.

zml_mom

i called and talked to a nutritionist yesterday and this is what he told me.

depending on how much you eat daily depends on if you should eat them back or not FOR EX: I was eating 1200 a day if that and burning a minimum of 600-1200 a day so I wasn't netting much so he told me to eat around 1500-1600 a day if I am burning that much,
but if you already eat that much and aren't burning as much then I wouldn't touch them
did that make sense?

MzMiller1215

because your body has to have a certain amount of calories everyday to run properly


if you eat 1200 calories but burn off 500 then your body only has 700 to work with and that's not good...get it?

Great, simple explanation!!

rgalisky

because your body has to have a certain amount of calories everyday to run properly


if you eat 1200 calories but burn off 500 then your body only has 700 to work with and that's not good...get it?

Great, simple explanation!!
[/I totally disagree]