Eating what I lose in Exercise

kreat

So is it a good idea to eat the calories you burn during exercise? For instance, If my Calorie goal is 1500 / day, and I exercise, I gain 700 calories from exercising, do I need to eat the extra It tells me I gained?

paeli

Yes, eat your exercise calories back, the food fuels your body so you can work out.

amdahwd

You are going to get a lot of different answers on this and a lot of reasons why. I do not eat my exercise calorie. I used to do weight watchers and they always stressed the fact that if you did not eat all of your food they told you to you were not going to lose weight because you would go into starvation mode. However, with this last program they introduced, even they admitted that you will still lose weight if you do not eat all your food everyday. You eat until you are not hungry.

I was researching this topic and found an article (and if I remember right it came from the Mayo clinic) that said the starvation mode thing that everybody talks about is only correct when you are talking about people who are already thin (men with less than 5% body fat and women with less than 10% body fat).

I guess in the long run, it is up to you to figure out which way works best for you. Good luck!!

SueD66

Thank you for asking this. I had the same question.

amaried621

It's totally up to you but I think as far as making sure you give your body enough of what it needs you should try and eat some back. I would make it so that you are at least back to your 1500 calorie goal. I don't know about you but the more I exercise the more I want to eat!

erickirb

Yes, it is the way MFP is programed and designed to work and is how you meet your daily caloric deficit target to lose your weekly goal amount of weight..

BranMuffin210

What I've been told is that if you eat your exercise calories you'll maintain you're current weight. In order to lose weight there has to be a deficit of some kind. As long as you eat the 1500 calories your body won't go into starvation mode.

MyaPapaya75

MFP is based on the fact that you do eat them...some people do and some dont you need to find what works for you by experimenting ..have some if your hungry..omit them on days your not

RAFValentina

Have to agree with amdahwd. You'll hear a lot of deconflicting advice I'm afraid. Personally, I don't eat all mine back and just eat to what makes me feel satisfied. It's never had any detrimental health/weight loss/performance/mood effects - but this may not work for you too!

Try eating some back and see how you get on, But ultimately, if you are having big workouts daily, then you should eat some back purely for direct fuel!

erickirb

What I've been told is that if you eat your exercise calories you'll maintain you're current weight. In order to lose weight there has to be a deficit of some kind. As long as you eat the 1500 calories your body won't go into starvation mode.

This is wrong you will lose your goal amount of weight by eating them as your inital calorie goal is a deficit, to keep the deficit the same on days you do or don't workout you must eat them back on the days you do otherwise you will not lose your goal amount of weight. (you will probably lose more not eating them but losing faster is not necessarily better or healthy).

sweettoothfairy

Yes you need to eat your exercise calories however MFP over estimate ur calorie burn, if you are using an HRM eat all of them, if u r using MFP to track exercise calories i would say eat 70-80% back..you need to fuel your body.

jamiesadler

My trainer told me no. It kind of defeats the point.

MissMaryMac33

Wow .. the amount of confusion and misinformation every timet his topic comes us is amazing to me.
I can't even respond to these anymore - some of the replies make me want to bang my head against a brick wall.

MaximalLife

So is it a good idea to eat the calories you burn during exercise? For instance, If my Calorie goal is 1500 / day, and I exercise, I gain 700 calories from exercising, do I need to eat the extra It tells me I gained?

Yes, eat all the calories back.
MFP calculates our total daily calorie intake WITHOUT exercise to lose 1 pound or so per week.
And after we log exercises, our daily calorie limit increases.
Why?
Because MFP telling us to eat our exercise calories.
Large deficits are unhealthy, because while you will lose weight, what's the quality of the weight loss?
In many cases you'll lose lean body mass - MUSCLE - which LOWERS your metabolic rate, making weight loss harder.
These crash diets work well for a season -- and sure enough, the pounds melt away. But when you eat so
few calories, you train your metabolism to slow down. Once the diet is over, you have a body that burns calories
more slowly -- and you gain weight.
Be smart.
Exercise well both cardio and resistance, and eat back the calories.
The exercise will RAISE your metabolism and burn more fat at rest.

hiker282

Dang it, Max beat me to it. Just do what he said I can vouch for its effectiveness!

pokeypeep

I was wondering the same thing yesterday.In my opinion,if i try to burn 3500 calories to lose a pound,what would be the point in eating them if i'm trying to lose pounds?

MissMaryMac33

My trainer told me no. It kind of defeats the point.

Your trainer doesn't know that MFP ALREADY calculated a deficit in your calories per day.
In summary, he doesn't know what he's talking about. The only time he would be correct is if you had no deficit built in already and even then, if you work off 1000 calories or some crazy amount one day, you need to eat some back!

JohnnyResets

What I've been told is that if you eat your exercise calories you'll maintain you're current weight. In order to lose weight there has to be a deficit of some kind. As long as you eat the 1500 calories your body won't go into starvation mode.

MFP calculates your deficit for you so even when you exercise, the MFP deficit is built in and still there Like others have said try and eat as much of those as possible;

erickirb

My trainer told me no. It kind of defeats the point.

He probably does not know how MFP works and assumes your intake takes exercise into account. Since MFP ignores you exercise goal you should be eating them back.

Most professionals will tell you not to eat your exercise calories back because they added it into your Total Daily Energy Expenditure (TDEE), whereas MFP ignores exercise and only accounts for it when you perform it. Either setting your intake higher or using MFP's lower and eating back the cals should get you to the same place.

As an example say MFP gives you 1450 calories to lose 1 lb/week, and you plan on exercising 5x/week for an average of 400 cals per workout. well MFP will tell you to eat 1450 on the days you don't workout and 1850 on the days you do whereas a "professional" may tell you to eat 1750 everyday regardless if you workout.

So for the week MFP will have you eat 12,150 (1450*2+1850*5) whereas doing it the other way will have you eat 12,250 (1750*7) almost the same number of cals for the week. The issue in not following MFP is if you don't workout the full 5 days or burn more or less than planned. If that is the case you may lose more or less than your goal, whereas MFP will have you lose your goal amount regardless how much you actually workout.

What many MFPers do is take the low 1450 and not eat back exercise calories which is wrong, if you are not eating them back then your daily activity level should reflect the higher burn with would be covered in the 1750/day above.

MaximalLife

My trainer told me no. It kind of defeats the point.

Your trainer is wrong so far as MFP is concerned.
Why?
Exercise calories are NOT calculated into the daily goals here.
Why?
Because people are not consistent in what they do or when.
MFP calculates daily goals WITHOUT accounting for any cardio exercise. These goals have a daily deficit built in, so if you add exercise calories, eat them back or you will stifle all progress.

awestfall

My trainer told me no. It kind of defeats the point.

I agree my weight loss doc said the same

rebysue

Wow .. the amount of confusion and misinformation every timet his topic comes us is amazing to me.
I can't even respond to these anymore - some of the replies make me want to bang my head against a brick wall.

THIS ^^^^

Just experiment and do what works best for YOUR body. Different body compositions react differently to eating vs. not eating the calories back.

erickirb

I was wondering the same thing yesterday.In my opinion,if i try to burn 3500 calories to lose a pound,what would be the point in eating them if i'm trying to lose pounds?

because you are already eating less than you need, MFP's goal is set so you eat less to lose your goal amount of weight. When you exercise you increase your energy needs so you need to eat them back to get you back to your original deficit.

Say you are on 1200 cals and burn 400 cals, MFP goal is to eat 1200 when you don't workout and 1200+what you burn. Here is how the equation balances 1200-0 = 1600-400 = 1200. if you didn't eat it it would be like eating 800 cals and not working out as 800-0 = 1200-400 = 800, which in not enough fuel for your body.

erickirb

Wow .. the amount of confusion and misinformation every timet his topic comes us is amazing to me.
I can't even respond to these anymore - some of the replies make me want to bang my head against a brick wall.

THIS ^^^^

Just experiment and do what works best for YOUR body. Different body compositions react differently to eating vs. not eating the calories back.

No, unless you have a thyroid or other hormone imbalance you must eat them back to lose your goal amount of weight (provided you estimated your burn correctly)

engineman312

dude, took a quick look at your diary. you are not eating nearly enough. in my opinion, you should be eating all the exercise calories, but besides the point, you just need to eat. how tall are you? i mean, you are 209 lbs, trying to get to 165, and MFP says that you should be eating 1,739 calories? what is your weight loss per week goal set at? if its anything more then 1lb per week, stop and make it 1lb per week. especially being in the air force, you need strength, not just skinny.

MaximalLife

What I've been told is that if you eat your exercise calories you'll maintain you're current weight. In order to lose weight there has to be a deficit of some kind. As long as you eat the 1500 calories your body won't go into starvation mode.

^^^^^^^^
Wow, not this....wow...
Totally self-defeating. There is nothing magic in the number 1500.
MFP sets up our daily goals based on healthy weight loss, so just follow what is outlined and all will be well.

erickirb

What I've been told is that if you eat your exercise calories you'll maintain you're current weight. In order to lose weight there has to be a deficit of some kind. As long as you eat the 1500 calories your body won't go into starvation mode.

^^^^^^^^
Wow, not this....wow...
Totally self-defeating. There is nothing magic in the number 1500.
MFP sets up our daily goals based on healthy weight loss, so just follow what is outlined and all will be well.

So do they think if you eat 1500 but burn 2000 from cardio that they will be fine? If so no, the 1500 is Net, as in 1500 plus what you burn from exercise.

MaximalLife

Dang it, Max beat me to it. Just do what he said I can vouch for its effectiveness!

I am losing more fat eating around 3000 calories per day than some here starving themselves on half that, sniveling about how they can't seem to make progress.

It just boggles the mind how apt some are at self-sabotage.
Don't fall into that trap.
You are going to fail with this approach.

Starvation diets don't work.
Why?
Because if your calorie deficit is too great you can easily suffer from
loss of muscle mass (slows down your metabolism) and impaired general progress.
You have to find what is right for you but you also need to remember that your body
is a machine and without the right type and amount of fuel there could be problems
either with loss of muscle, loss of energy, less weight loss/plateaus, etc.

Stick with the MFP recommendations.

Sl1ghtly

So is it a good idea to eat the calories you burn during exercise? For instance, If my Calorie goal is 1500 / day, and I exercise, I gain 700 calories from exercising, do I need to eat the extra It tells me I gained?

It's not 'eating what you lose' its replenishing what you used. The deficit is still there. But! Gotta be sure your calculations are correct.

kreat

I'm 68" tall, 209. MPF says to eat 1330 per day. However, the BMR site says t oeat 1739. I have my weight loss goal of 2 lbs per week.......

rebysue

Wow .. the amount of confusion and misinformation every timet his topic comes us is amazing to me.
I can't even respond to these anymore - some of the replies make me want to bang my head against a brick wall.

THIS ^^^^

Just experiment and do what works best for YOUR body. Different body compositions react differently to eating vs. not eating the calories back.

No, unless you have a thyroid or other hormone imbalance you must eat them back to lose your goal amount of weight (provided you estimated your burn correctly)

That's kinda what I was getting at (the reference to body compositions wasn't referring just to fat percentage/height/etc). For the record, I always eat mine back...