How many of you eat your banked exercise cals?

sonjalucia

I've always been curious... how many of you actually eat back your banked exercise calories??

Can someone provide a reason why or why not?

BeautyFromPain

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meli_medina

I do if I'm hungry. Most of the time, I am.

I suffer from chronic fatigue and I found that if I don't eat them back, I end up with more fatigue episodes than if I did. I'm still losing weight, so I really don't stress about it.

ShellyMacchi

i eat mine...
and i do so because when i wasn't eating them my weight loss slowed right down and then i hit a plateau ..only thing that shook the plateau was starting to eat most of my exercise calories back.
Doing so started the weight dropping again and it continues to drop nicely *S*

lawtechie

I generally have not been eating them all, but then ['ve only been doing this for under 2 weeks. This weekend I have 2 big work outs planned and I want to see how that affects my weight loss over the coming days, to see whether I'll eat extra calories before or after.

LolasEpicJourney

Are you talking about exercise calories? I ususually do.
I dont always eat back ALL of them - because I might burst..

Someone put it in terms of a gas tank the other day.

i fill my car to full. i run errands all day - groceries, take the kids to the doctor, clothes shopping, visit my mother, send a package in the mail. After my errands its 1pm and I have 1/8th of a tank of gas. So do I fill it and go further - or run out of gas on the way home???

klamont9

I eat them back if hungry.

chevy88grl

I do because I know that if I am below a certain amount of calories for too many days - I gain weight.

For me, I know my body needs them - so I eat them. Considering I've been at or below my original goal weight for almost a year now? I'm pretty sure I know what works for ME.

sonjalucia

These are all fantastic responses so far - thank you!

Can anyone provide me with some numerical or scientific reasons as to why? I often wonder mathematically why this makes sense and my brain needs more information he he!

MoonIite

I do, but sometimes I'm a few calories under. I try to eat most or all of my exercise calories, because if I don't I go hungry. Simple as that. I can't function on 1200 calories.

sarahemily72

i have been very curious about this too....I'm gonna stay tuned! I eat about 1,300 a day and am burning 600 but I'm not hungry.....should i force myself to eat something??????? I surely don't want to gain weight after working so hard!!!! SOMEBODY let me know!

koosdel

I do.

Make'm muscle big and strong like bear.

Phestr

I do most of the time. Since MFP automatically deducts the calories I need to lose my goal, any exercise creates an additional deficit. For example, I want to lose 2 lbs a week. MFP deducts 1000 from my maintainance calories, creating a 7000 calorie deficit a week. That means that by just doing my normal thing, I burn 1000 more calories than I take in each day.
Then I work out and burn 200 calories. For this day, I have burned 1200 more calories than I have taken in, which means I can eat those calories and still make my goal. So, if I'm hungry, heck yeah I'm going to eat them. It's like instant reward for working out. :bigsmile:

MaryEffingPoppins

I JUST posted this on my status: I can have 1,470 calls a day. With what I ate today and all the working out, I still have 1,928 left! I REALLY didn't want to eat any of my calories back but all the reading I'm doing says I should. Sooo, I'm eating a ham & gouda sandwich on a sandwich thin w/ Special K cracker crisps. FIRST CARBS IVE HAD IN 11 DAYS! I'm feeling bad, should I be? I burned 1,222 calls and am eating back 435 of them. I'm nervous because I've been working my butt off and REALLY don't want to plateau!

tiggr62

I try not eat them back but if I get hungry I'll eat a few. My reason is this. Say my elliptical reads that I burned 400 calories when I actually only burned 300. If I would have eaten them back I would be in the red and not know it and wondering why I wasn.t losing weight. I have heard that many machines will give a higher calorie count then what you have actually burned.


This is what I do and others will not agree. This is an on going debate and you need you find what works for you. Good luck on your journey.

Toddahlie

I don't eat it back, because i don't feel hungry.

Somedays maybe i eat some of them back, but not all.

Rae6503

I eat them.

You are "supposed" to in order to maintain the calorie deficit MFP sets for you. It sets this deficit before exercise. If you exercise you increase the deficit to bigger than it is supposed to be. This can be hard to maintain and can slow or stop weight loss.

Brandicaloriecountess

I don't. But if I have worked out on a given day and I am hungry I will eat a little extra.

I'm not hungry so if I were to eat back the calories I would be forcing myself to. Also I have been losing weight at a steady pace doing things they way I am.

sonjalucia

Rachel - thanks for this - it made sense.... TY!