Do you lose more when you eat back exercise cals?

skinnyjess15

I am literally racking my brain trying to figure this out. Help me out, MFP friends!

Right now this is the calorie breakdown:

1300 is my goal and I've had 560 in exercise cals, I've got 484 cals remaining. Are those calories to be eaten back? I don't understand. Do I aim to have a low number of calories remaining at the end of the day?

It's all about your NET intake. On the home page in the big box where it says "Calories Remaining," it lists your "net" for the day on the right hand side. MFP has told you yours should be around 1300, it can be under on some days, but you usually want to make sure it's always at least 1200, otherwise your body is not getting what it needs.

I hope this helps! In my head I get it, but it doesn't always come out in words that are easy to understand :laugh:

Thank you, that makes perfect sense! I just get nervous when I see '0 calories remaining' or something like that. I weigh in every Monday morning, so tomorrow is another moment of truth. I didn't log my weight last week because of TOM, so I'm hoping I'll have a loss tomorrow. If not, I have to take a different approach to the way I'm eating.

FitAtFifteen

I eat about half of them back, I think MFP over estimates my calories.

bilzprincess

build muscle-build muscle-build muscle-eat healthy. and don't leave too many calories "in the bank". the LAST thing i'd teach MY metabolism is "live with less than 1200 calories per day". no way.

cirellim

You certainly wouldn't lose more however if you are still steadily losing while eating exercise calories back then continue to do so until you hit a plateau. That way you have a way of continuing the weight loss (stop eating the exercise calories) without having to reduce your actual calorie intake just be careful that you're very accurate with how you track exercise calories I see so many people on here logging "cleaning the house" or other things like that.

skinnyjess15

You certainly wouldn't lose more however if you are still steadily losing while eating exercise calories back then continue to do so until you hit a plateau. That way you have a way of continuing the weight loss (stop eating the exercise calories) without having to reduce your actual calorie intake just be careful that you're very accurate with how you track exercise calories I see so many people on here logging "cleaning the house" or other things like that.

I log cleaning house, too, because I do it everyday and there's always lots to do. I wear my HRM when I do it, though, so I know my cals logged are accurate.

sleepytexan

You certainly wouldn't lose more however if you are still steadily losing while eating exercise calories back then continue to do so until you hit a plateau. That way you have a way of continuing the weight loss (stop eating the exercise calories) without having to reduce your actual calorie intake just be careful that you're very accurate with how you track exercise calories I see so many people on here logging "cleaning the house" or other things like that.

I beg to differ. I lose more eating exercise calories than when I didn't. And I eat a LOT of exercise calories.

prairiedawg2014

everyday i have anywhere from 150 - 400 + cals left to eat....but im not hungry. do i really need to eat these cals even if im not hungry? also everyday iam over my protein as much as 45g. is this ok?

3dogsrunning

everyday i have anywhere from 150 - 400 + cals left to eat....but im not hungry. do i really need to eat these cals even if im not hungry? also everyday iam over my protein as much as 45g. is this ok?

What are you netting? That is your total calories eating - calories burned through exercise = net
What is your weightloss goal set at? 150, not bad. 400 is a little questionable depending on how much of a calorie deficit you are already at. If you are at a lower level, like 1lb a week, then it isn't so bad, but if you are at 2lbs you may be going too low.
150 calories isn't hard to make up. Look at adding calorie dense foods like nuts, seeds, avocado, olive oil, even cheese.
If you are using low calorie versions of food, use the full ones instead.

And the protein setting here is very low. It is likely ok unless you have a health issue.

thejackswild79

One of the biggest issues with eating back all the calories burn is that I tend to believe it is common to underestimate calorie consumption and over estimate calorie burn. Over time, that little bit (or in some cases a lot) of error can result in slower weight loss or in weight gain. I personally learned this the hard way and really had an eye opening experience when I started using a heart rate monitor. I was very active even at my heaviest weight which meant that my heart rate didn't get up as high as it might for other people at that weight, which meant that the programs were calculating my calories burned at a much higher rate than I was actually burning.

Instead of focusing on eating back those calories, I work to eat a balanced recovery meal or snack (depending on the workout intensity) and otherwise eat normally. For moderate work outs, that is normally 100-150 calories. For more intense work outs that is 200-300 calories. I do have a few days a month where I have huge calorie burns that result in an extra meal entirely but that is by far not the norm.

lloydmel

In my opinion it really depends on what you eat. IF you eat processed foods and packaged things... you will have a higher calorie intake and therefore should make sure to not eat over what you have set for yourself, and your progress will be slow. You won't be able to eat as much food and you won't have as much progress because you aren't getting as much nutrients for the amount of calories that you eat.
HOWEVER, if you eat very healthy and clean, it is darn near impossible to eat all of your exercise calories back. I eat very clean nearly every single day and I have a huge deficit.
When I started MFP, I would eat my calories back, and was eating decently healthy; healthier choices but I was still eating more processed or packaged food that I should have. Now, I rarely eat half of my calories back but I eat A LOT of food, and I am not hungry.
Do not deprive yourself... eat 5 or 6 small meals a day and try to make those meals nutrient dense foods; if you follow those guidelines, you can't really go wrong, either way.... I sometimes don't even get to 1200 calories a day... and this is not from lack of trying, it is from the foods I eat being very low in calories because I eat very cleanly.

lloydmel

You certainly wouldn't lose more however if you are still steadily losing while eating exercise calories back then continue to do so until you hit a plateau. That way you have a way of continuing the weight loss (stop eating the exercise calories) without having to reduce your actual calorie intake just be careful that you're very accurate with how you track exercise calories I see so many people on here logging "cleaning the house" or other things like that.

I log cleaning house, too, because I do it everyday and there's always lots to do. I wear my HRM when I do it, though, so I know my cals logged are accurate.

Cleaning the house can be a major workout... especially if you do it all day... chasing and cleaning up after my two kids is definitely a workout! :laugh:

prairiedawg2014

the cals left are total cals + net if that sounds right. i only excercise every 2nd day right now. so the days i don't excercise its total cals....the days i do excercise its both. this is my first week of dieting and i have lost 5 lbs....im sure the first 3 lbs were just water.
i can't eats nuts....or rather im not supposed to. they don't sit well with my stomach.

funkycamper

I am literally racking my brain trying to figure this out. Help me out, MFP friends!

Right now this is the calorie breakdown:

1300 is my goal and I've had 560 in exercise cals, I've got 484 cals remaining. Are those calories to be eaten back? I don't understand. Do I aim to have a low number of calories remaining at the end of the day?

Here is a post of mine from another similar thread:

OK. I'm gonna give this a shot. I am an avid lifelong athlete. I have never been overweight, however, I used to eat too few calories (without knowing it), and a couple years ago, I actually GAINED weight bc of having slowed my metabolism to the point that every little extra treat I ate caused a weight gain, even though overall my calories were too low. THIS DOES HAPPEN.

It is also the reason so many fat people stay fat. They restrict their calories so low, slow their metabolisms, binge (even a little), gain weight, restrict more . . . . and so on and so on. But they are still fat.

It is also the reason most people can't lose that last 10-20 lbs. For real.

1. MFP has a deficit built in. Let's say you're trying to lose 1 lb/ week. That is a 500/day deficit from your BMR (the amount of calories your body needs to complete basic functions.

2. You exercise and burn 500 calories. Now you are at a 1000 deficit. If you eat back those 500 exercise calories, you refuel your body and you still have a 500 deficit for that 1 lb loss. If you DON'T eat back those calories, you have too little fuel. This is bad. This is too much of a deficit for basic functions. If you do this for a long time, you will STOP LOSING WEIGHT. Why? bc your metabolism will slow down -- it's like a brownout--not quite enough electricity to make the whole city (your body) run, so it has to slow down some things. You will probably start being tired a lot, your skin and hair might start to look worse, and you might even gain weight. But you might NOT be hungry -- your body is getting used to fewer calories. That's bad.


That's when you start to gain weight. Let's say you're running along, eating 1200 calories a day, and exercising 400 calories a day, so net is 800. You're losing, you think this is great. You keep doing it, but after a while you stop losing. hmmmmm. One weekend you go out to a special event and have a slice of pizza and a beer. 1 slice of pizza and 1 beer. So you ate maybe 2000 calories that day and exercised off 400, so net 1600. BOOM! You gain 3 lbs! What?!

Next, you freak out and restrict yourself down to 1000 calories a day and work out extra hard, burning 500 calories. Great, netting 500 now. You don't lose any weight, but you sure feel tired. Better get some red bull.

Are you getting the picture?

EDIT: When you work out, you need fuel. Food is fuel. If you don't eat back those exercise calories, you will not only have a big calorie deficit, you will have an ENERGY deficit. Remember, the calorie deficit for weight loss is built in when you use MFP. Exercising basically earns you more calories because you must refuel.
--

There are many people who will tell you not to eat exercise calories. Before you take their advice, you might want to see whether they are at goal, have EVER been at goal, or have ever been able to maintain at goal. If anyone says to you 'THE LAST TIME I LOST WEIGHT", just stop listening right there.

Ask some athletes whether or not they replenish their bodies with food equal to the calories they burn. Ask people who are fit and have achieved and maintained a healthy weight for some years. Don't ask people who count walking across a parking lot as exercise.

Here's an interesting case study about how to stay fat while consuming only 700 calories a day. Take a moment, you'll be glad you did:

http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/3047-700-calories-a-day-and-not-losing

blessings.

If this post isn't in the sticky section, it should be. Love it.

Personally, I'm still struggling with this and am trying to up my calories more and eat back my exercise calories. It's a difficult concept to wrap my head around but I believe it to be true. Taking baby-steps in trying to get there. Thanks for stating it so clearly.

Kaylee_law_123

My friend who referred me to here (after losing 40 pounds) halved the exercise calories to eat back as sometimes the estimates in terms of calories you burnt can be generous. I'm only a week in and haven't weighed in yet but am sticking to this plan, especially after burning 800 calories yesterday as I did not want to add 800 calories to my food intake!

prairiedawg2014

thank you funkycamper!! this all makes so much sense now. this is exactly what has happened to me in the past, and why i have never been able to keep the weight off. everytime i lose weight, it comes back and more!

CallmeSbo

I dont eat mine back. I like consistency. I dont wanna be in a situation where some days i eat 2000calories, some days 1200. I have been an emotional eater all my life and to me this spells trouble. I do not starve myself either. I vary by 300calories at the most.

heybales

I log cleaning house, too, because I do it everyday and there's always lots to do. I wear my HRM when I do it, though, so I know my cals logged are accurate.

Calorie estimates based on HR are only as accurate as they are going to get when the HR is between 90-150, outside that range the accuracy drops way off.

So if this is an everyday thing, you might want to examine your setting for activity level. If you entered sedentary but you actually clean for 4 hrs every day, then you might actually be the next level up, or close to it.

So you might adjust your goal a tad higher.

Or perhaps vice-versa, you did do a higher level but it should be sedentary but with slightly higher goal.

That's where the differences enter in between those who do and do not eat back their exercise calories. The foundation of their goal calories is off, and perhaps the estimate of exercise calories is off.

So all you can do is test.

Sadly, the many posts that have mentioned if you eat too few, your body does slow down can occur. So you may think you must lower your goal or not eat back your exercise calories, but fact is it should have been higher to start with, and the goal calories had you too far under and metabolism already slowed down.

Several people have also mentioned listen to your body and you'll know. Sadly this advice is based on nothing that makes sense.
I'd wager the vast majority of folks on here are trying to lose weight, and of those, probably the vast majority have been listening to their body, and have gained or found it hard to lose weight for years.
Listening to your body is what got many to the point they need to turn it around, and the mind needs to tell the body what to do, not the other way. So skip that advice except for some basics.
If energy level starts going way down, your HR goes up for the same level of effort, if you are hungry all the time - need to examine the diet level, perhaps too low. Some of the assumptions in the calculations could be wrong.
And if you are holding to the routine and weight goes up, time to re-examine the basis for those calculations. As your weight goes down, your maintenance calories goes down. As you are more aerobically fit, you'll burn less at same effort.

MangoAmanda

I rarely eat back all my exercise calories unless there is a reason to, like a special event or something. For the most part I have days where I eat them and other days I do not. That being said I don't plan to eat them just because they are there and my body has responded fine to either situation. I think you have to find what works for you. This question is asked all the time and some people are believers of eating them all back, others never eat them back, another set of people do sometimes and dont other times. Find what your body responds too.

My only advice is don't allow yourself to be hungry. Eat if you are hungry, period!

Spot on. Best response I've read on this never-ending question. Rarely in life does one size fit all. I'm always put back a bit when folks preach to others and say you must do this or must do that. The truth is it is up to you and how it makes your body feel. I workout hard and burn heavy calories each week. If I tried to consistently eat them all back my stomach would hurt. I go by how my body feels and if it tells me to eat more when I workout heavy I do. Some days it tells me all is good and just rest. Only you know your body.

I have to agree with pp. One size definitely does not fit all. I know that prior to MFP that both over eating & undereating can cause weight gain. However, I eat as clean as possible to I make every calorie count. I'm at 1200 cal per day & often burn 260-400 cal per day (I'm limited with my exercise due to injury). I find that I'm at a 200-400 deficit by the end of the day, but I am so full that I just can't imagine eating another bite at the end of the day, or any other time of the day. My food diary is full, and I feel like I've eaten like a pig. I'm feeling great, not tired. I eat 3 "meals" and 3 "snacks" a day. I find for me that having small "meals" throughout the day keeps me feeling very level and active all day. I personally don't skip breakfast and don't let myself feel hungry. My only problem ever had been too much sugar/chocolate... I'll own it... I'm fat because of my sweet tooth... I'm 7 days sugar/chocolate free now :-), and 7 lbs lighter... The tools are there for you to use, review your eating habits, and maybe make adjustments accordingly.

Best wishes to you.

erickirb

Pretty self-explanatory.

I'm wondering if I should eat back my exercise calories or keep my net at a certain amount. Is there a certain number your net calories should never fall below?

Mathematically you should not lose more by eating them, you should lose your goal amount by eating them. Plus by eating them you will reduce the amount of muscle you lose while you cut fat. Slow and steady wins the race.

wellbert

Depends on the accuracy of the calculator... I gain weight if I eat back even 80% of the exercise calories calculated here.

livinginwoods

I struggle with this too. Many nights I am just not hungry. Sometimes very full. I don't want to eat when I am not hungry and twice recently I still had 600-800 calories to go. When I force myself to eat when I am full I then don't feel well and also feel like I am going backwards and not forwards. Yet we are supposed to eat all those calories?

Amberetta82

I rarely eat back all my exercise calories unless there is a reason to, like a special event or something. For the most part I have days where I eat them and other days I do not. That being said I don't plan to eat them just because they are there and my body has responded fine to either situation. I think you have to find what works for you. This question is asked all the time and some people are believers of eating them all back, others never eat them back, another set of people do sometimes and dont other times. Find what your body responds too.

My only advice is don't allow yourself to be hungry. Eat if you are hungry, period!

Spot on. Best response I've read on this never-ending question. Rarely in life does one size fit all. I'm always put back a bit when folks preach to others and say you must do this or must do that. The truth is it is up to you and how it makes your body feel. I workout hard and burn heavy calories each week. If I tried to consistently eat them all back my stomach would hurt. I go by how my body feels and if it tells me to eat more when I workout heavy I do. Some days it tells me all is good and just rest. Only you know your body.

THIS.

When I do eat back calories, its usually an after workout snack. Something like yogurt or scrambled eggs.

karenwill2

it is different for me. If I eat them back I do not lose anything. So maybe one or two days a week I eat them but for the most part I stick to my 1500 cals a day.

meg7399

I am literally racking my brain trying to figure this out. Help me out, MFP friends!

Right now this is the calorie breakdown:

1300 is my goal and I've had 560 in exercise cals, I've got 484 cals remaining. Are those calories to be eaten back? I don't understand. Do I aim to have a low number of calories remaining at the end of the day?

YES! Eat them all....did you read everything else above this post! EAT THEM BACK! The only number that matters for weight loss is calories!

erickirb

it is different for me. If I eat them back I do not lose anything. So maybe one or two days a week I eat them but for the most part I stick to my 1500 cals a day.

If this is the case at least one of the following must be:
1. You have a slower metabolism (BMR) than MFP calculated for you (Thyriod issue, or less than average amount of muscle)
2. You are burning less than you think you are from exercise (use HRM to determine burn and back out BMR cals)
3. You are eating more than you think you are. (Use a kitchen scale to weigh your food, measurement can be off by quite a bit)
4. Your weekly weight loss goal is not correct for you:
(If you have 75+ lbs to lose 2 lbs/week is ideal,
If you have 40-75 lbs to lose 1.5 lbs/week is ideal,
If you have 25-40 lbs to lose 1 lbs/week is ideal,
If you have 15 -25 lbs to lose 0.5 to 1.0 lbs/week is ideal, and
If you have less than 15 lbs to lose 0.5 lbs/week is ideal.)

If all of the above are correct, you should be losing your goal amount of weight (on average) hydration levels etc. may affect weekly actual scale loss.

DST513

this is good information

emmyvera

When I eat my back for days in a row, that's all it takes and I see a difference. I've been working out almost every day for the last two weeks and I've already started dropping. I'm getting in good workouts and eating my calories back.

It's worked for me in the past and it's working for me now. My body needs the fuel and I've noticed more muscle definition in my legs, which is what I really want.

If I go in the red here and there, I don't let it bother me. :ohwell:

SocraticS

EXACTLY what I needed to hear. You described my situation for the lat two years to a T. I'm going to eat my exercise calories back starting TODAY! THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR POSTING THIS!

3dogsrunning

I struggle with this too. Many nights I am just not hungry. Sometimes very full. I don't want to eat when I am not hungry and twice recently I still had 600-800 calories to go. When I force myself to eat when I am full I then don't feel well and also feel like I am going backwards and not forwards. Yet we are supposed to eat all those calories?

You can plan ahead, eat them over the course of the day instead of waiting until after burning them.

Eandretta96

Guys im having this problem too, usually it says i have about 700 calories left that i can eat but im always full with around 1200. My goal is 1400, I usually eat around 1200, and burn off around 500 a day exercising.So im always left with like 700