EATING BACK EXERCISE CALORIES?

tiffany5839

I noticed when I add my exercise to my food diary that it adds the extra calories for me to eat.
I'm a little confused on why someone would spend all that time working out and then just eat the extra calories that they burned off. Doesn't that kind of defeat the purpose of exercising to burn off extra calories? I feel like I would lose weight way slower....
Someone please explain to me what's more effective for getting the weight off? Thanks!

Just_Dot

*sigh*

Long story short, because the site builds in a calorie deficit to your allotted calories. So, if you just eat your daily calories, and don't work out, you will still be in a caloric deficit. Some people here will tell you that they lose weight just fine without eating back their calories, but most people (me and most of my friends, included) believe that NOT eating back those calories will put your weight loss at a standstill...it may not happen right away, but it will happen.

If you use the handy search function, there are about a bajillion threads dedicated to this topic. Feel free to peruse at your leisure.

Best wishes!:flowerforyou:

tiffany5839

I have my calories set at 1200 a day and I burned off 500 exercising today which means I could eat 1700 cals and that sure seems like a lot for someone who's trying to lose weight!

Just_Dot

It's really not...considering that 1200 is the minimum that is recommended for women to eat--and this would be a woman that is just vegging on the couch 24/7. Did you log your food before you set goals through MFP? I bet you were consuming way over 1700 on a daily basis...I know I was.

Do what you want...I just know that I was STARVING on the 1200 a day and not eating my calories back.

morrowsarah

I always eat my exercise calories and I have done well. A few months ago when I was working really hard to get in shape I lost 9 pounds in a month and I ate all my exercise calories. Try a couple weeks of each and see how you feel and what works for you. If you don't eat them then technically your body only received 700 calories and too many days of that will put you in starvation mode and all your work will come to a halt!

visiri

It's all about the existing calorie deficit, and that the site refers to NET calories.
The calorie counts keep me at the right number of calories to lose and I get to reward myself in the process. I exercise so I can drink a glass of wine or have a small dessert AND exercising is giving me more energy and is helping me build back my metabolism.

TazzytheMotivator

I agree! I know of many people who eat back their exercise calories. But i never did..

Ruz456

Basically when you imput info about yourself and your weight loss goals the website calculates how many calories you should be consuming to lose weight. so for me for example if I imput in the website that I wanted to maintain my current weight with no exercise I would have to eat 2700 calories a day. If I wanted to lose 2lbs a week which is what its set to now I am slotted 1780 calories a day so those calories are what im supposed to eat to lose 2 lbs a week. now if I add in exercise and burn 500 calories that will give me 2380 calories a day I can eat while still losing 2 lbs a week. If i were on maintenance I could eat 3380 calories and maintain my weight.

so whatever weight loss goal you had set for yourself on the website your calorie total will reflect that, so eating back your calories will not prevent you from losing weight.

Hopefully this has helped you somewhat

tiffany5839

Thanks for the info everyone! I guess I never heard of doing this before until I joined this site. As you can see in my pics, before I got pregnant with my 2nd son I went from 196lbs(size 18) to 128lbs(size 4) from eating 1200 cals a day only and exercising and it always worked good for me. I am currently 155lbs right now. But if it speeds up your metabolism more from eating exercise cals back and makes you lose weight even faster then hey I would wanna do that instead! I just wanted to get educated about this!

gennybunny1

My opinion is this: each person is different and there is no right or wrong way to do this. Sometimes I eat half back sometimes I eat all and sometimes I don't eat any. For me it depends on how hungry I am and how I feel. I have been under 1200 cals some days just because I am not hungry and I am losing weight, I have also been over. It does average out.

Play around a bit and see what works for you.
Good luck