Exercise Calories

melkadee

After you exercise, do you eat back the calories burned? If so, why is this a good practice?

bry_all01

Depending on where you are at with # of calories you eat, you do not want to create a deficit, if you do this consistantly, your body goes into starvation mode and thus you will most likely not lose weight.

MFP took into account everything you plugged in when determining your goals. You definitely want to try to eat back at least half, if not all of your calories, if possible.

Plateaus happen, and when they do, that only means that it is time for a change, because your body has grown accustomed to what it was used to doing. Once it is adjusted, you will get stuck on a plateau and start to feel discouraged.

***I personally do not, BUT I am maintaining, not losing weight***

meggonkgonk

Yes you should. It's the way MFP is designed. Check out the boards for new users- they have earmarked a lot of good articles and board discussions outlining the 'how' and 'why' of eating exercise calories. But it is how MFP was designed- around a NET calorie goal with a deficit already calculated regardless of exercise level.

deadstarsunburn

I eat half, I read it in an article written by a dietitian that's recommended lol. I really don't know what's best though I know I'm less sleepy if for example I burn 500 then eat all but 200. So I guess play around with it everyone is different =]

dorisholaway

I personally try not to eat them back, but I don't feel as bad if I do eat some of them back.

MrsCon40

www.shouldieatmyexercisecalories.com

:bigsmile:

click through... there is very good information as to the intent of how MFP works.

MinnieInMaine

MFP already figures in a calorie deficit based on what you put in for weight loss/week goal. Technically that means you can lose the weight without exercise if you stay within your goals. So, when you do exercise, in order to properly fuel your body, you need to eat some of those calories back.

If you're using calorie burn numbers from MFP or cardio machines, you may want to try eating back half to 2/3rds of them as many have found that they're overestimated. If you use an HRM with chest strap, you'll get a more accurate calorie burn and can feel confident eating back most, if not all of those earned calories.

I have been eating back exercise calories since I started this journey last year and it's worked very well for me. If I don't eat enough, I'm way to hungry and would rather plan on eating those calories than wing it and end up eating junk.

Try it out, see what works for you.

MayhemModels

You will get a million different opinions to this question, I personally DO NOT, most every research article i have read have done limited studies like most studies do not have enough hard fact that support it either way. I do what works for me, some have better results eating back those calories but it didn't work for me and I feel great and have never hit a plateau

olivia3263

I used to feel that eating all my exercise calories back seemed like a lot (especially when I was using MFP's calculations). Then I started using my heart rate monitor and my VO2 max to figure out the calories burned - because it turned out I was a lot fitter than I thought I was, and wasn't burning as many calories as what MFP said. Now I believe it's very accurate so I eat them all. I would highly recommend getting a heart rate monitor and figuring out your VO2 max number to get a more accurate read on what you're burning

pghfan

As has been stated on these boards, it mostly has to do with how much you need to lose. The greater amount you need to lose, the less important it is to eat your exercise calories back. I personally do not, as I still have about 30 pounds to lose. As I get closer to goal, I will re-address this issue.