Eating back calories we burn

Nic620
Nic620 Posts: 553 Member
edited October 3 in Health and Weight Loss
Ok so I'm sure this has been asked a lot- so here goes once more.

Are you suppose to eat or be reasonably close to our calories for the day when we've exercised and now have an extra 300-400 calories. Let's pretend my calorie intake goal is 1400 and I run today and burn off 300..so now my calorie goal is 1700. Do I eat those back I earned? This confuses me. I know it's not good to eat too little. Should I go off what my daily allowance is with or with the exercise....or does it not matter?
Thank you!!

Replies

  • trelm249
    trelm249 Posts: 777 Member
    Try to get close to 1700 in that scenario. Your goal calorie is already a healthy deficit. The additional calories added for exercise are to accommodate the additional nutrients and calories needed for recovery from exercise.

    The benefit of the exercise is to increase your fitness level and improve your overall health. Hope that helps.
  • Nurse_krissy
    Nurse_krissy Posts: 102 Member
    In short: Yes. See the link within the moderator post "Newbies - part 2" at the top of this message section.

    Confession: Rarely do I do it! :)
  • chevy88grl
    chevy88grl Posts: 3,937 Member
    The goal of this website is to get your daily calories as close to zero as possible - whether you workout or not. Aim for zero. However, different things work for different people. If you haven't been eating them back and notice you aren't losing weight - try eating half or 3/4 of them back for a few weeks to see if it makes a difference. If you haven't been eating them and are losing weight, well - leave well enough alone. But, know that if you plateau you have to be willing to try something new (and that can mean having to eat half or all those calories back).

    For me, I HAVE to eat them back. So, everyone is different.
  • Lucylaser
    Lucylaser Posts: 94 Member
    I try not to eat too many of them. I think most of the calorie calculators over approximate for caloric burn. I do better and see myself losing when I don't have all of them back.
  • Megan2Project
    Megan2Project Posts: 351 Member
    My take on exercise calories is that you *can* eat them back, but you don't need to... If you are already eating your daily allowance then you won't be going into starvation mode. How do you think they lose weight that fast on Biggest Loser, they exercise like crazy and stick to a low calorie diet.

    Somedays I burn 1000 cals or more.... no way I'm even going to be able to eat that much more food without including some pretty unhealthy choices.

    To each their own, but thats my take.
  • Megan2Project
    Megan2Project Posts: 351 Member
    The goal of this website is to get your daily calories as close to zero as possible - whether you workout or not. Aim for zero. However, different things work for different people. If you haven't been eating them back and notice you aren't losing weight - try eating half or 3/4 of them back for a few weeks to see if it makes a difference. If you haven't been eating them and are losing weight, well - leave well enough alone. But, know that if you plateau you have to be willing to try something new (and that can mean having to eat half or all those calories back).

    For me, I HAVE to eat them back. So, everyone is different.

    Exactly, that makes a lot of sense... I choose not to eat many if any of mine back for now... BUT if its not working for me I will change!
  • keeponkickin
    keeponkickin Posts: 1,520 Member
    Yes, you need to eat them back. I use an HRM to get the most accurate calorie burn as the calorie calculator on MFP is over estimated. If you don't have an HRM, eat back about 3/4 of what MFP said you burned.
  • melkadee
    melkadee Posts: 5,598 Member
    If you don't have one, get a HRM. That way you can be sure that you are correctly determining the amount of calories burned. :smile:
  • deathstarclock
    deathstarclock Posts: 512 Member
    Assuming you know how to correctly use an HRM
  • CoCoMa
    CoCoMa Posts: 904 Member
    I didn't eat my cals back, I figure that I wouldn't lose as much. However, as soon as I started to eat back at least 3/4 of my cals, I started to lose weight steadily. There's actually something to it!
  • Gennawest
    Gennawest Posts: 171
    I never EVER eat them back. Im just sayin....

    Hehe cindy :)
  • HonkyTonks
    HonkyTonks Posts: 1,193 Member
    I don't eat them back either, because I am concerned that the exercise calories are overestimated (and maybe even some food is underestimated)? It's always going to be guesswork and I don't want to risk it!
  • grrrlface
    grrrlface Posts: 1,204 Member
    It depends for me... If I'm hungry I'll eat them but if I'm not hungry I won't force them down me. It depends how you feel about it, if you're hungry, eat! :)
  • Jo2926
    Jo2926 Posts: 489 Member
    Assuming you know how to correctly use an HRM

    I'm interested in this. I have a HRM and often think it could use it better.

    I have set it up properly (weight height etc) and then it counts calories, but never convinced I get everything I could out of it.

    Jodye
  • Jo2926
    Jo2926 Posts: 489 Member
    Let's pretend my calorie intake goal is 1400 and I run today and burn off 300..so now my calorie goal is 1700. Do I eat those back I earned?

    MFP builds into your daily calorie target the deficit you need to meet your weekly goal weight loss. So if you set it at 1lb, it builds in 3500 calories less than maintenance. To hit 1lb, eat them back (or some of them if you think the calories burned might be over estimated).

    My stated weight loss aim is 1.5lb, because in a week where I don't get time to exercise thats what I want to loose. But ideally I'd like 2lb. So I try not to eat all my exercise calories back and create this small extra deficit.

    That said if I am hungry I eat them and don't worry - knowing I'm still heading for 1 1/2lb gone!
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