Eating Exercise calories?

rajivdubey

I save the exercise calories ..........coz at times one tends to underestimate the calories eaten because of inaccurate portions.

getNskinny2day

Honestly it's like a 50/50 on MFP if people do eat their exercise calories or don't eat them. It's a high debate topic and here is my advice: go 2 weeks eating your exercise cals back and another 2 weeks not eating them back and see what works best for you.

Pebble321

What Trelm said.

The way MFP works out your calorie allowance means that you can eat the calories you burn through exercise and still lose weight .
How good is that??
It's definitely worked for me!

(Of course, that is assuming you are logging food and exercise accurately and have set realistic goals. If you aren't doing these things, why bother using MFP?)

SDkitty

I go by a very simple method. If I am still hungry, I eat some exercise calories. If I'm not hungry, I don't. Our bodies are pretty good about telling us what we need once we get used to listening to them. :flowerforyou:

Nattiejean57

http://shouldieatmyexercisecalories.com/

All the answer you need is there.

No offense, but this is lame.. . . Just sayin'. . .

Why is a website that links to about a dozen extremely informative threads on this very topic lame? If you don't want to hear the answer, don't ask the question. After all, you did ask for everyone's thoughts, I like giving people good resources to educate themselves when they have questions.

Uhm I am the op on this so before you get all huffy about me asking a question make sure you read and know who slammed you....it wasn't me that posted your link was lame

RunningRachel2012

I think you should, because what happens when 3 months down the line you hit a plateau? If you have been eating exercise calories at least you have something to cut back on.

LorinaLynn

Here's my take... I always ate them. I don't like to think of it as "eating them back," because that sounds like double dipping. It's not. The amount you exercise should affect the number of calories you eat. MFP doesn't factor your exercise into your calorie goal unless and until you do it. (Unless you set your activity level to account for the amount of exercise you do, but everyone debating whether or not to eat them always seems to select sedentary.)

I usually had a good idea what I was going to burn through exercise each day, and ate accordingly. I didn't wait until I added the exercise to start using calories earned from exercise, so I didn't have a ginormous surplus at the end of the day. (Well, ginormous surplus by my standards... I actually like to budget about 800-1000 calories for dinner and an evening snack.)

Here's the biggest benefit, though, in my book: Since I lost weight eating a total of 1800+ calories a day, that means that now that I'm on maintenance, I can eat pretty much what I want to stay this way. It would have totally sucked if I'd trained my body to survive on much less calories, screwed up my metabolism, and been forced to eat as if on a diet for the rest of my life to maintain that weight.

And this below bears repeating, too.

I generally eat most of my exercise calories back.
I will try to present this logically.

MFP gives you a recommended caloric deficit to lose weight in a sustained manner (sane). This recommendation assumes a certain activity level that resembles day to day life. For the overwhelming majority of us that did not involve regular exercise. Our bodies are not accustomed to it. When we exercise and log it. MFP compensates to keep the same sane caloric deficit for the sustained deficit that we can live with until we reach our goal. It is practical.

I do not exercise so I can eat more. I exercise because of the health benefits. Losing weight without exercise means losing both fat and muscle. This is a very undesirable outcome for me, because I enjoy outdoor activities that require strength, endurance, and stamina.

Now when I started this at 5'7" and 336lbs, walking 2 miles at 3 mph tore the crap out of my body. My muscles were shocked. My joints pointed out that they were abused. All this great activity to get me healthy was stressing the body and it did not like it.
However my cardiopulmonary health was ecstatic. My blood sugar was much better regulated and my blood pressure and cholesterol were much better.

I chose not to eat them early on and injured myself multiple times. After a few months of frustration I began eating them back.

Those exercise calories I consumed back along with the nutrients contained therein fueled the recovery process. Muscles got stronger along with sinew. Joints were able to recover and rebuild. I can keep exercising for the fitness benefits. I handle stress much better.

Had I not consumed them I would not have enjoyed the benefits of exercise.

UpEarly

Here's the biggest benefit, though, in my book: Since I lost weight eating a total of 1800+ calories a day, that means that now that I'm on maintenance, I can eat pretty much what I want to stay this way. It would have totally sucked if I'd trained my body to survive on much less calories, screwed up my metabolism, and been forced to eat as if on a diet for the rest of my life to maintain that weight.

THIS... everybody should read this and remember it! Why train your body to run on a low-calorie diet when you don't have to!? By following a low-calorie diet so you can lose weight faster, you're setting yourself up for it to be much more difficult to maintain your weight loss down the road. I know everyone's body functions a little differently, but I've been losing weight really easily eating about 2100 calories most days. That includes refueling with the calories I burned off through exercise (aka - eating my exercise calories back). I probably could have lost 41 pounds faster than seven months, but losing almost 6 pounds a month seems pretty reasonable and healthy to me.

jocraw66

I think if you do some more intuitive eating you will find your answer.

I try really hard now to pay attention to my body and if I'm hungry I eat. Period. If I am not hungry I don't. There are days I eat every single calorie I'm allotted and then there are days I don't.

I think that when you create such a deficit though that this never becomes a lifestyle... its always a diet.