Eating back workout calories

mis251190

So MFP has me eating 1200 calories which is perfect! I work out regularly and i was wondering how the workout calories worked!

Yesterday i burnt 875 Cal off in my Group Training Class but i had only eaten 750 Cal (before dinner) and i needed to get up to 1200 with dinner which is fine but am i supposed to be eating some back?

Pebble321

Yup, MFP has worked out your daily calorie allowance (1200 in your case) without considering exercise.
If you exercise and burn off 800 cals you can eat some or all of these and you still have your deficit to let you lose weight. that' means that if your food and exercise calories are accurate - you could eat up to 2000 cals a day and still lose weight. How cool is that?

Not everyone thinkls eating these cals is a good idea - my opinion is that you probably should but that it's a personal choice and it depends on your particular situation. Basically, if you don't eat them you are making your daily calorie deficit much bigger.
- If you have a fair bit to lose then this might work out OK.
- If you don't have much to lose then it seems that a large calorie deficit isn't always a good thing. It can have the effect of making your body try to work more efficiently with the small amount of energy it is getting in and your weight loss can slow down or stall.

I don't see the point in depriving myself unnecessarily - and my goal was to get into good habits of exercising regularly and eating a healthy amount of good food. So, eating exercise cals fitted perfectly into my goals and has worked really well for me.

mis251190

Yes thats what i thought. Its so confusing!