Calories burned with exercise....eat some back?

drdenise

Okay, I have read that we should not eat back the calories burned in exercise, but.......here is my dilemma. My calorie quota for each day is 1400, and my BMR is about 1350. On most days, I exercise to burn a minimum of 600 calories (I like to exercise 5 to 6 days a week, depending on my work schedule), but the last two days, I have burned over 1100 and 1200 calories. If my calorie intake is only 1400, should I not be eating back some of those calories? I don't want to get too far down in caloric intake and end up weak or burning muscle tissue rather than fat.

kristilovescake

I'm not sure where you read where you SHOULDN'T eat calories back, but MFP calculates as though you eat your calories back.

This is a huge debate, but I believe the general consensus is that you SHOULD eat back your calories. Your body needs fuel!

szczepj

I honestly think it's up to you. If you find that you are hungry eat some of them back. If you don't feel hungry, don't eat them. if you find yourself feeling weak start eating them back. That's probably not very helpful. I'm sorry!

LorinaLynn

The site's design is for you to eat them back. Some folks choose not to follow that plan.

I always ate most of mine back, and it's worked great for me.

HMonsterX

I honestly think it's up to you. If you find that you are hungry eat some of them back. If you don't feel hungry, don't eat them. if you find yourself feeling weak start eating them back. That's probably not very helpful. I'm sorry!

Seems like the perfect answer to me. You dont HAVE to. You dont NOT have to. Everyone finds their own preferred method. Personally i eat back enough to get past 1200 net. Plus it's nice to have a buffer for things you may have missed!

cocolo89

wow if your work out and burn 1,200 calories you should atleast eat 400-600back. its not healthy not to fuel your body if you work it so much!

CMmrsfloyd

Different plans use different methods - some plans give you a number to stay under and then encourage you to workout to bring your net calories even lower, but MFP gives you your *minimum* that you're allowed to eat, then if you workout you are supposed to eat those calories back (or close to it) b/c there exists a certain calorie amount that your body needs on average in order to function in a healthy way. I've just been reading about 'zigzagging' here on the forum, where you can have some days that your net is lower than your MFP target and some days that it is higher, so that over the course of a week or so it averages out as if each day had been right on target. I like that idea b/c it is not so rigid. But yes the way MFP is designed, the calorie goal that it gives you is what you should eat if you're not really working out, but if you do workout you're supposed to log that activity and MFP automatically updates your food diary to let you know you need to eat more. :-)

BabyDuchess

:huh:

dancingj2

I try to eat back most of the extra calories but not all.