I know its been done before but WHO DOESNT EAT THEIR EXERCIS

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  • CoryIda
    CoryIda Posts: 7,887 Member
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    Well... I have always eaten at least a good sized chunk of mine, and here's what I did:

    I dropped 100 pounds in about 9 1/2 months.
    Then I dropped some more while I transitioned to maintenance (meaning I ate MORE).
    I have been eating even more over the past 2 months to help build lean muscle mass and have shed MORE weight (essentially all fat loss at this point).

    So essentially, eating my exercise calories has resulted in nearly 130 pounds down in around 17 months and my body fat % went from a whopping 56% to right around 22% (healthy for women under 40 is 21-33% fyi).

    Bottom line?
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  • psuLemon
    psuLemon Posts: 38,404 MFP Moderator
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    I don't. Doctor said no! (She's specialized in weight loss, BTW) Plus experience says I'll gain if I even dare to try.

    I'll take your doctor and raise you mine, my kenisiologist and my sports nutritionist who will say you eat your exercise calories if it means you'll stay above your BMR

    people also have to take into considerations that most doctors/nutritionist consider active when they calculate your caloric needs. So it's already include in their TDEE...
  • xcrushx28
    xcrushx28 Posts: 182 Member
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    There are so many factors at play during weight loss.

    When I decide to cut again there will not be any "eating back exercise cals", but exercise will be taken into consideration when devising my cutting plan. Will be dieting on the highest amount of food and the least amount of cardio ;)

    I'm not opposed to people on here eating back those cals, but make sure you have an accurate representation of what you burned. The MFP database is not reliable.
  • dcashin90
    dcashin90 Posts: 8 Member
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    Yes absolutely. I stick to the calorie deficit MFP has set for me - I don't feel any reason to increase that, so I pretty much always eat back my exercise calories. Plus I loves me my food!
  • romanfather
    romanfather Posts: 2
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    I have yet eating the calories earned, even so i am still stuggling, I burn an average og 900 calories a day, and stay below my net calories at least by 200 every day...
  • dieseljay74
    dieseljay74 Posts: 376
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    Depends on your goals and the amount of calories you burned. If you are not getting a sufficient amount of calories you can forget building let alone maintaining any muscle mass. Not saying this is you, but what happens if people don't eat back exercise calories when you already have a built in deficit when you join here. You are now drastically undernourished and you will begin to canabalize muscle tissue.
    Once that happens, there goes your metabolism and here comes a much greater chance of gaining it all back. Entering the "skinny fat" category is the worst scenario for success.
    Everyone is happy when they are losing "weight" on the scale. But weight is a conglomerate of many different variables. Water, fat, muscle etc..
    I ALWAYS eat them back and have lost almost 50 lbs by weight training and strict diet alone. I never do cardio ( except for hockey two nights a week) .
    Physiques are largely built in the kitchen.
  • slara75
    slara75 Posts: 26 Member
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    Thank you happyhiram. Im glad I saw this info. I havent been eating my exercise cals. This is only my first week. But im not exactly sure what im burning. Im doing the couch to 5k running program and the MFP database doesnt have cals burned for the exercise i am doing. I walk ang jog for approx 30 mins.
  • visalynn
    visalynn Posts: 7
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    For me I try not too. But if I have a big night out I use them. I joke with my fiancé that it "Erases" my meal. Like that pasta never happens but it does not allow me to loose for that day, just break even.
  • infamousmk
    infamousmk Posts: 6,033 Member
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    I eat some. Just to give me some space if I need them.

    My net is 1200 and I burn between 200-500 a day.

    I also think exercise cals are overestimated and food cals underestimated so I don't eat them all, ever.

    I was losing 2-3lbs a week until I started 30DS and now I seem to have hit a plateau so not sure what to change to get back on track.

    Try eating more. I was consistently losing weight on a net 1200 calorie diet all last year. Took a few weeks off over the holidays, then decided to start lifting weights and maintaining the 1200 net, and my body absolutely would not shed a pound. I've now upped my net calories to 1500 daily, and I seem to have had a loss this week (although I'm not recording it until I see it stick around for a while.)
  • Christina2187
    Christina2187 Posts: 10 Member
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    I used to eat back my exercise calories but noticed I wasn't loosing any weight. So after that, I would make sure I ate my goal for the day (which is 1200) then would burn however many calories I wanted for that day and I finally started to see the weight come off. Even at the end of the day when I was done with my diary, the message stating "If every day were like today", had much better numbers. It used to say I'd weight only 2 lbs less in 5 weeks. Now it says around 12 lbs less in 5 weeks! And I never get that message saying I'm not eating enough calories and my body is in starvation mode as long as I eat my daily goal of 1200. I usually go over just a tad but as long as I exercise I'm good! Hope this helps!
  • Lala20112
    Lala20112 Posts: 72 Member
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    I only burn 250-300 cals a day so no I try not to. at first I was I started this in nov 2011 and I was not losing weight but the begining of jan 2012 I stopped eating my burned cals and lost 3 pounds.
  • AntWrig
    AntWrig Posts: 2,273 Member
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    Doesn't MFP factor in one's activity level?
  • taso42
    taso42 Posts: 8,980 Member
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    The key is to be mindful of your TDEE, net calories, and the resulting calorie deficit. The bookkeeping is a matter of preference. Another factor is the accuracy of your calorie counts. If you're in a calorie deficit, you will lose weight. Too big a calorie deficit and you sacrifice muscle and/or stall out.

    Most of the people who proclaim they never eat their exercise calories don't know what they're talking about.
  • ninerbuff
    ninerbuff Posts: 48,695 Member
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    I do NOT eat my exercise calories and I have lost almost 15 lbs in 6 weeks
    Do you know how much of that is fat? Loss of pounds could also be a higher percentage of lean muscle, which isn't what you should be shooting for.


    A.C.E. Certified Personal Trainer
    IDEA Fitness member
    Kickboxing Certified Instructor
    Been in fitness for 28+ years and have studied kinesiology and nutrition
  • themommie
    themommie Posts: 5,022 Member
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    I dont eat back my exercise cals as a rule I have eaten 50-200 exercise cals on special occasions. I usually eat 1200 cals a day and exercise 5 days a week burning 200-700 cals a day. I have lost 95 lbs in 17 months. I think you have to just experiment and find what works for your body.
  • psuLemon
    psuLemon Posts: 38,404 MFP Moderator
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    I do NOT eat my exercise calories and I have lost almost 15 lbs in 6 weeks
    Do you know how much of that is fat? Loss of pounds could also be a higher percentage of lean muscle, which isn't what you should be shooting for.


    A.C.E. Certified Personal Trainer
    IDEA Fitness member
    Kickboxing Certified Instructor
    Been in fitness for 28+ years and have studied kinesiology and nutrition

    Or even water, especially if this person is newer to weight loss.
  • NikkieLite
    NikkieLite Posts: 126 Member
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    I don't. I might let myself go a little over on a day with a lot of exercise but besides that I'm not comfortable with it and that method is working for me. I have some friends that do and their weight isn't moving. Some of them also seem to count every move they make (cooking, cleaning, walking to the backyard) as exercise just so they can add it on and eat more. If I ate back my calories I'd probably end up doing that for an excuse to overeat. If my weight loss slows down I'll have spike days but I have no plans on eating back my calories at this point in time.

    (Just wanna add a disclaimer that I don't think it can't work for people or that everyone does that to overeat, it's just what I see a lot and what I expect would happen to me.)
  • slara75
    slara75 Posts: 26 Member
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    Doesn't MFP factor in one's activity level?
    Thats what i thought! There should be a disclaimer when you sign up. Did I miss it?
  • wittlelacey
    wittlelacey Posts: 412 Member
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    I don't eat my calories back. I usually exercise late at night or before dinner so I'm pretty much done consuming around the time I burn calories exercising. Nothing really changes even when I workout earlier in the day. Very rarely do I eat my calories back.
  • thatlook
    thatlook Posts: 58 Member
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    sometime i do sometime i dont.....MFP set me a daily cal intake of 1830 i found it was too much for me so dropped it to1500, i was eating crap for the sake of it when i had more cals, i wasnt hungry just MFP said i had cals to eat so i would! ive tried to be quite disciplined about how many cals i eat for each meal (200 breakfast, 400 lunch, 600 dinner, 300 snacks & hot drinks!) sometimes i go over a 'meal allowance' but generally balance it out over the day, also i dont enter cals burned on my wii fit or dance games!! i dont find that im hungry and dont feel like im missing something as opposed to before i started seriously i always wanted something to eat! but i do drink a lot more (water especially) than i used to!
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