Pros/Cons of Eating Exercise Calories?

AliciaBeth78

Here is my dilemma:

4-5 days a week I am at the gym and I usually burn anywhere between 350+ calories to 1000 calories during my workout routines. While yes, eating back 350 calories is pretty easy - eating back 1000 calories is not.

What are the pros and cons of just setting a caloric goal and sticking to it regardless of it I am working out or not?

PS: I'm not sure if this will help, but this is my TYPICAL calorie burn per week
Monday - 600+ calories
Tuesday - if I'm not to sore from the personal trainer from hell on Monday, 350+ calories
Wednesday - 350+ calories
Thursday - off
Friday - 600+ calories
Saturday - 1000+ calories
Sunday - off

koosdel

Pro- You will be much healthier.

Con- There aren't any.

The diet must support the excersize.

Gee45

I suppose since you burn 2900 a week, you could set your calories at about 100 less than maintenance and you should get your 1 pound a week loss. Then you dont' have to worry about eating exercise calories back. Sounds like that might suit you better.

docHelen

you've earnt the calories so eat them! no point in not as you#ll send your body into starvation mode. but make sure your exercise calories are accurate! some sources vastly overestimate the amount burnt

sc1572

I try to eat my exercise calories back, but if I'm not hungry, I won't eat!

unicornassassin

If you eat some pretty calorie dense, but healthy foods, you can eat back 1000 calories pretty easily. Nuts and beans do the trick for me.

SarabellPlus3

I am not a slave to the logging, but I generally log, and I eat my exercise calories back. The way I look at it, if I didn't eat them back (but didn't create TOO big a deficit, unhealthily), I suppose I would lose ever so slightly faster. But in eating my calories, I'm enjoying life so much more.

So I suppose that's the biggest, and the determining, pro for me. It makes everything so much better.

taso42

You can figure your TDEE including average exercise, subtract a calorie deficit and hit that target every day on average w/o "eating exercise calories".

Or you can follow MFP, which separates out the exercise from the equation. The deficit is taken from your TDEE sans exercise, and the exercise calories are added back in.

Both ways will get you to the same place. But be aware of what you're doing. If you follow the MFP number, you're expected to eat the exercise calories. If you do it the first way I mentioned, you will need to do a little number crunching and manually set a calorie target.

Do whichever way is easier for you to manage the accounting of. But be aware of which way you're doing it.

engineman312

today i burned close to 1900 calories in an hour and a half run. can i eat all those exercise calories back?? maybe. maybe not. but i'm going to enjoy trying!!

AriannaTiyen42

I concur

Pro- You will be much healthier.

Con- There aren't any.

The diet must support the excersize.

engineman312

Here is my dilemma:

4-5 days a week I am at the gym and I usually burn anywhere between 350+ calories to 1000 calories during my workout routines. While yes, eating back 350 calories is pretty easy - eating back 1000 calories is not.

What are the pros and cons of just setting a caloric goal and sticking to it regardless of it I am working out or not?

PS: I'm not sure if this will help, but this is my TYPICAL calorie burn per week
Monday - 600+ calories
Tuesday - if I'm not to sore from the personal trainer from hell on Monday, 350+ calories
Wednesday - 350+ calories
Thursday - off
Friday - 600+ calories
Saturday - 1000+ calories
Sunday - off

i'd rather know what kind of work out you're doing, rather then how much you burn.

AriannaTiyen42

http://www.bodyrecomposition.com/fat-loss/why-big-caloric-deficits-and-lots-of-activity-can-hurt-fat-loss.html

This article was posted on the forum last night. It is pretty good.

ksloop00

I don't eat mine back. In order to lose weight, U need to burn more than U consume. U exercise to get rid of calories, why eat them back? I'm under Dr. care and have a dietician and that's what they have told me. I find it interesting when people on here say eat your calories back and their ticker shows 0 pounds lost. I wonder why?

Lainn

I do not eat my calories back. I try to stick to the calorie goal before exercise.

However there have been times that about an hour after exercising that I am very hungry. In those cases I will have a low calorie snack. Something with good protein in it. If your body is hungry then it NEEDS the food. Not giving it the food will make it think it is starving and it will start storing the calories you do consume.

Listen to your body...it will tell you when it needs food. Don't just eat back calories cause you burned them. Eat because you are hungry (not bored, but actually hungry).

robin52077

I don't eat mine back. In order to lose weight, U need to burn more than U consume. U exercise to get rid of calories, why eat them back? I'm under Dr. care and have a dietician and that's what they have told me. I find it interesting when people on here say eat your calories back and their ticker shows 0 pounds lost. I wonder why?

Your deficit is already built into your calorie goal...

When you exercise you increase the deficit you already have, and while that SOUNDS like a good thing, for active people it is NOT. You need to fuel your workouts and eating too little is horrible for you.



To answer the original question:
Pros = everything
Cons = none

robin52077

U exercise to get rid of calories, why eat them back?

Do you?
That's nice.
I exercise to get faster, stronger, healthier...etc.

If exercise was only to "get rid of calories" then everyone who was fit and healthy would stop exercising and get fat and lazy. They KEEP exercising after reaching goal because it has many many benefits other than "getting rid of calories". In fact some people greatly enjoy eating the 2000+ calories they get to eat every day, thank you very much!:drinker:

aregensb

You NEED to fuel your body properly. I don't know what your caloric restrictions are for each day, but if it's low (I feel like most people on MFP are on 1200 or 1300 cal diets), it's absolutely necessary. If you exercise a lot and don't eat enough, your body will go into starvation mode and you will stop losing weight.

Some people say that they lose weight just fine on 1200-1300 cal diets and don't eat their cals back... but what they're doing is slowing their metabolism. As they get closer to their target weight, the WILL plateau. What may work when one has more weight to lose is not necessarily what will work as one gets closer to their target weight.

Treat your body right - give it the proper nutrients and you will be rewarded.

AliciaBeth78

Here is my dilemma:

4-5 days a week I am at the gym and I usually burn anywhere between 350+ calories to 1000 calories during my workout routines. While yes, eating back 350 calories is pretty easy - eating back 1000 calories is not.

What are the pros and cons of just setting a caloric goal and sticking to it regardless of it I am working out or not?

PS: I'm not sure if this will help, but this is my TYPICAL calorie burn per week
Monday - 600+ calories
Tuesday - if I'm not to sore from the personal trainer from hell on Monday, 350+ calories
Wednesday - 350+ calories
Thursday - off
Friday - 600+ calories
Saturday - 1000+ calories
Sunday - off

i'd rather know what kind of work out you're doing, rather then how much you burn.

Usually Mondays I'll train with my psycho trainer and we will box and or do a circuit strength training session that has me sweating bullets after 30 minutes, and then I'll do 30 minutes on the elliptical (usually at level 5-6)
Tuesday - like I said If I'm not hella sore - I'll try for 30 minutes on the elliptical again
Wednesday is strength training followed with 30 minutes on level 7-8 on the elliptical
Friday - 5 mile walk or run followed by at least 45minutes to an hour of strength training
Saturday - Circuit strength training session and an hour of cardio spred out between 2 sessions.

I should also mention that I'm not one of those girls that believes in light weights/high reps!

rhce40

I agree with this. It is important to still eat the right calories even if they are extra ones.

CoraGregoryCPA

If your not hungry, don't eat them. I maintain if I eat them back. I lose when I don't eat them back.

westcoastSW

I don't eat mine back. In order to lose weight, U need to burn more than U consume. U exercise to get rid of calories, why eat them back? I'm under Dr. care and have a dietician and that's what they have told me. I find it interesting when people on here say eat your calories back and their ticker shows 0 pounds lost. I wonder why?

From my experience and understanding, it becomes more crucial to eat your exercise calories back when you are closer to your goal weight. When you have 200 lbs to lose, you can create a huge deficit and your body will be happy to get rid of poundage. But when you're down to 10-15 pounds left to lose, your deficit will be smaller and the difference from exercise becomes more important.

UpEarly

I don't eat mine back. In order to lose weight, U need to burn more than U consume. U exercise to get rid of calories, why eat them back? I'm under Dr. care and have a dietician and that's what they have told me. I find it interesting when people on here say eat your calories back and their ticker shows 0 pounds lost. I wonder why?

I eat my exercise calories. In fact, I've averaged about 2000 calories a day since joining MFP in April. My ticker doesn't show 0 pounds lost. In fact, I've lost 41 pounds... same as you, it seems.

CyberEd312

I don't eat mine back. In order to lose weight, U need to burn more than U consume. U exercise to get rid of calories, why eat them back? I'm under Dr. care and have a dietician and that's what they have told me. I find it interesting when people on here say eat your calories back and their ticker shows 0 pounds lost. I wonder why?

My deficit is built in by MFP (1 lb. a week= 500 calorie deficit a day) so if I did nothing but sit on my butt I would still lose weight. but I workout 6 days (if not 7) a week and burn anywhere between 1200-1800 calories a day. If I didn't eat those exercise calories back (normally consume 70% of them) I would put myself in to a massive calorie deficit and would put myself into Starvation mode (which I have done when I don't eat enough). Eating calories back is a non-issue for those that only exercise and burn a few hundred calories or less a day or a few times a week but for those that are hitting the gym hard everyday you Must Fuel your workouts....

engineman312

I don't eat mine back. In order to lose weight, U need to burn more than U consume. U exercise to get rid of calories, why eat them back? I'm under Dr. care and have a dietician and that's what they have told me. I find it interesting when people on here say eat your calories back and their ticker shows 0 pounds lost. I wonder why?

My deficit is built in by MFP (1 lb. a week= 500 calorie deficit a day) so if I did nothing but sit on my butt I would still lose weight. but I workout 6 days (if not 7) a week and burn anywhere between 1200-1800 calories a day. If I didn't eat those exercise calories back (normally consume 70% of them) I would put myself in to a massive calorie deficit and would put myself into Starvation mode (which I have done when I don't eat enough). Eating calories back is a non-issue for those that only exercise and burn a few hundred calories or less a day or a few times a week but for those that are hitting the gym hard everyday you Must Fuel your workouts....

don't listen to this guy. he's only lost 285 lbs. and look at that avatar picture. he's just SITTING there. what does he know?

amcanzo

I don't eat mine back. In order to lose weight, U need to burn more than U consume. U exercise to get rid of calories, why eat them back? I'm under Dr. care and have a dietician and that's what they have told me. I find it interesting when people on here say eat your calories back and their ticker shows 0 pounds lost. I wonder why?

My deficit is built in by MFP (1 lb. a week= 500 calorie deficit a day) so if I did nothing but sit on my butt I would still lose weight. but I workout 6 days (if not 7) a week and burn anywhere between 1200-1800 calories a day. If I didn't eat those exercise calories back (normally consume 70% of them) I would put myself in to a massive calorie deficit and would put myself into Starvation mode (which I have done when I don't eat enough). Eating calories back is a non-issue for those that only exercise and burn a few hundred calories or less a day or a few times a week but for those that are hitting the gym hard everyday you Must Fuel your workouts....

don't listen to this guy. he's only lost 285 lbs. and look at that avatar picture. he's just SITTING there. what does he know?

I 'bout spit my drink all over my screen when I read this ^^^ :laugh:

Honestly, I was just marveling over the 285 lbs lost - 285??? :noway: Holy cow - awesome, incredible job!!

To the OP: Great job with your exercise routine - sounds phenomenal!!

Stocks2

this is my first post ever. I have lost 14 since mid september with a published goal of 20 by May, so looking at the unpublished. When I add from exercise, I will sometimes add a little intake, but I never try to eat the whole thing. I just look at it as ok, closer to the goal

taso42

I don't eat mine back. In order to lose weight, U need to burn more than U consume. U exercise to get rid of calories, why eat them back? I'm under Dr. care and have a dietician and that's what they have told me. I find it interesting when people on here say eat your calories back and their ticker shows 0 pounds lost. I wonder why?

I find it interesting when people who don't get the whole exercise calorie thing post topics complaining of stalls, plateaus, and binges, when their ticker is about halfway to goal..

Actually I'm lying. I don't find it interesting at all. I find it frustrating and aggravating.

The information is out there, and it's not rocket science.

wolfchild59

There is no blanket answer of yes or no for anything having to do with weight loss. If there was, this would be a lot easier and everyone would be as fit as they want to be.

For me, eating back my exercise calories doesn't really work. I tried it for awhile and even with accurately logging every bite of food I ate during the day and only entering HRM-based calories, and still leaving some calories left at the end of each day to allow for margin of error, I stalled and gained.

So I actually sat down and did a lot of hand calculations of different numbers along with using online calculators as well. I got my BMI from about five different formulas, my TDEE from four or five calculations, looked at my average daily burn, my average exercise calories burned based on what work out I was doing and after lots of averging out and (literally) three and half pages of formulas and calculations, I found that I really shouldn't be eating back more than a few of my exercise calories, when needed.

I adjusted my settings and my mindset and went back into this with my new info. And finally, after nearly six months of struggling to get back on a losing track after having stalled, found these forums, paid attention to what people were saying here and starting to gain based on that advice, I went got back to losing.

It's now been a couple of months and I have lost enough that I almost back to the weight that I was before I found these forums doing Googe searches on how to break a plateau. Though, I'm about the same size as I was, because I've been doing more strength training and my body fat percentage has gone down and I've got a little more muscle definition showing now.

And I've lost that weight by only eating back a fraction of my exercise calories, and not even always diving into them. If I have a high burn day, then I eat maybe 25-30% of them. Mid-range burn days, maybe 10% of them and low burn days I don't even touch them.

Now that I'm getting back closer to my goal, I may adjust that a bit as I will likely be looking to reduce m y daily deficit soon, but I don't see myself eating back even close to all of them. But, again, this is all based on my personal experience and calculations done specifically for my needs and how my body works. Really, I would recommend doing the same and experimenting with what works best for you because no one on this board is truly going to be able to tell you what is going to work for you, only what has worked for them.

mdebbie1026

Are you going by the machine's calorie burn numbers or are you wearing an HRM? I got one for my birthday this year and was devastated to learn that the machines are (greatly exaggerated) not even close to accurate. I could burn 400 in a half hour or so acccording to the elliptical and another 50 to 150 depending on how long I stayed on the recumbent bike, well, according to my HRM I was doing good to get 300 calories TOTAL after a 40-45 minute work out.

mhig011975

I don't eat mine back. In order to lose weight, U need to burn more than U consume. U exercise to get rid of calories, why eat them back? I'm under Dr. care and have a dietician and that's what they have told me. I find it interesting when people on here say eat your calories back and their ticker shows 0 pounds lost. I wonder why?

AMEN!!!!!!! This so true, you have to burn more calories then what you consume. What is the point if you eat your calories back?!?

taso42

I don't eat mine back. In order to lose weight, U need to burn more than U consume. U exercise to get rid of calories, why eat them back? I'm under Dr. care and have a dietician and that's what they have told me. I find it interesting when people on here say eat your calories back and their ticker shows 0 pounds lost. I wonder why?

AMEN!!!!!!! This so true, you have to burn more calories then what you consume. What is the point if you eat your calories back?!?

"Joined May 2011"... You've been here 6 months and missing the premise of how the site works and calorie deficits. smh