Exercise and daily calories HELP needed

BrendaPetersen

Why do you want to eat the calories that you have burned in exercise? I eat 1200/day and the calculator tells me I can add my amount of exercise into the daily calories.

To me this is defeating the purpose. Do the activies to loss weight not eat them back?

So confused

Amber82479

MFP adjusts your calories so that you NET 1200 at the end of the day. The theory being that if you net to less than 1,200, it's unhealthy for the body and your body may resort to starvation mode and hold onto your fat because it thinks it's not going to be getting enough food to function at a normal level. You'll find that something different works for everyone and that this is a huge source of heated debate, with varying opinions to be found. Some eat back the calories and some don't. I do if I'm hungry. Personally, I would suggest eating them back if you're hungry and see how it goes. If you're not losing, then you could always try not eating them back. Sometimes I struggle with eating them back myself, because I too am more concerned about losing weight than eating. LOL

Oh and I would suggest searching MFP on this topic. You'll find probably hundreds of posts on the subject, some of which include detailed information on why you should/shouldn't eat back your exercise calories.

Best of luck!

richx83

Check out this website:

http://shouldieatmyexercisecalories.com/

dchss80

I get the samthing. I spoke with a gym instructor who stated that you should not eat the calories you burn because this does defeat the purpose. I told her about the tracker. She stated tha once you have completed your dail food tracking then add your exercise calories this will give you a more accurate count. I used to think that when i burn this gives me room to eat more. WRONG this just means you put back on the calories you just burned off.

morganadk2_deleted

Check out this website:

http://shouldieatmyexercisecalories.com/

Agreed

Silvercivic

Some people eat all of their exercise calories back, some people eat part of their exercise calories back, and some people eat none of their exercise calories.

I eat them all for the following reasons:
1. With 1200 calories a day, I'm already at a 500 calorie deficit. If I burn say 300 calories working out, that puts me at an 800 calorie deficit for the day. I feel that my body needs more calories to survive my day-to-day activities without me turning into a crazy person.
2. I love to eat. I am so motivated to workout because it means I get to eat more. We're not talking about binge-eating amounts of calories here. But 400 calories can go a long way and it just makes me feel like I'm not on a diet. (which I'm not- this is a lifestyle change!)
3. I've tried this without eating back my exercise calories before. I lost the weight quickly but then I gained it all back. Eating the exercise calories back has given me a slower rate of weight loss but I feel very energetic and happy and I feel like I can stick with this for the long haul.

There are probably more reasons but I'm gonna go workout now Good luck to you!

2knoxs

That link was awesome!

I personally think it depends on how muchyou exercise. So I stalled for two weeks at 138, and was hungry and cranky all the time and netting around 1000 give or take a little bit....mind you NET calories. So I did some reading around the forums and decided I would aim to NET 1200 calories....I feel better, my bra isnt fitting right, my cloths feel loser...havent been able to weigh in because my batteries are dead, but the point is I FEEL BETTER. I dont eat all my exercise calories back that would be a gross amount of food, but there is only so much nutrients that your body has to work with if your hard core exercising. Good Luck with finding what works for you. I know it can be stresssfullll.

MummyOfSeven

To begin with, the bare MINIMUM you should be eating is 1,200 calories per day to prevent your body going into starvation mode.
Consider....you consume 1,200 calories, you burn off 300 calories in exercise. You are now at 900 calories NET. This is NOT healthy.

Before I spoke to the manager of my gym (who is a senior health/gym insructor) I wasn't eating back my calories, I was at a max intake of 1,200 calories per day and I wan't losing weight.

I am now at a max of 1,400 calories per day, I am eating back my exercise calories and I am losing about 1.5 lb per week, which is a healthy loss, if you lose too fast you gain it back.

BrendaPetersen

Thank you everyone! You all amaze me with knowledge and all your weight loses

I think for me I will be eating back 1/2 the calories at least. It does make sense...but the old stigma..."Diet" means starvation in socieity and I need to adjust my head yet... lol

cycle_babe

in order to lose weight you have to burn more than you consume -- so logically i don't eat back my exercise calories. once i hit my goal weight i will eat them back to maintain that weight. if i see that im gaining, i will adjust until i find the right answer.

MikeSEA

There's an amazing amount of threads on this, but since I just started actually using MFP to track my exercise, I thought I would chime in with my own personal experience as of late.

MFP sets my calories per day at just under 1400. That's 1k caloric deficit by itself. Additionally, 1400 calories really isn't enough for a guy. Really, it isn't. I'm compelled to exercise, and eat those calories back, just to get the proper nutrients in a day.

So yes, I eat my exercise calories back because there's already a fairly huge deficit built into my numbers. It's not like 1400 cal/day could possibly be maintenance for me.