Why Eating Exercise Calories is so important.

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  • deedah1216
    deedah1216 Posts: 16 Member
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    I've always thought by not eating my earned exercise calories it would help me to lose faster. I'm not losing as much or as fast as I thought I would by calorie counting. I weigh, meassure and stick to my 1200 calories and I can't seem to get the scale to move downward. Perhaps not eating my earned calories is why. I looked at my net calories report and found that most of the time I'm under my net. Starting today I'm going to see that my net equeals my calorie goal. I'm hoping to see a difference in my weight loss. Thanks for the informaton.
  • geecee77
    geecee77 Posts: 149 Member
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    Bumping :)
  • mandylanerocks
    mandylanerocks Posts: 89 Member
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    Thank you SO MUCH for posting this!!!
    I feel stupid that I'm half-way through my weight-loss journey & I have yet to realize this. You explained it extremely well!!!!!!!!
    I never paid attention to the "net" when tracking my food & exercise. but now I completely understand. I hardly EVER eat back my exercise calories. To me, it seemed to make my work out pointless. Occasionally, I would go over my calories & then go work off the extra, but that would be the extent of it.
    my boyfriend just recently said to me that I should eat back my exercise calories because when you exercise you need that extra nutrition. which made sense, but I was still confused because it felt stupid to work off all those calories & then EAT THEM BACK!! which still seems crazy, but it does make more sense now.

    This also further explains why one week, when I stayed within my calorie goal & did not exercise, I lost 3-4 pounds.
    So the next week, I decided to exercise every day so I would lose more, but that didn't happen. I stayed within my calories & exercised every day for 30-60 minutes & I lost the same amount if not less..... I was so bummed, frustrated, annoyed & most of all CONFUSED. it didn't make sense to me.

    so thank YOU so much for putting it into prospective for me.

    I also want to thank everyone else who added comments, etc. Although some comments did confused me & made me start to think I wasn't doing anything right.... but I know that can't be completely true because I have lost 24 pounds so far. so I must be doing something right. & now I will do another thing right by EATING BACK MY EXERCISE CALORIES!!
    thanks everyone! :)
  • LizKurz
    LizKurz Posts: 340 Member
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    Sooooo confused! Why even exercise if your just going to eat more?

    Because not everyone has just a weight loss goal. Exercise does more than help your body stay trim. And eventually, if you are sedentary, your body will begin to live off an insanely low amount of calories, and there will be no weight loss.
  • Annmarie49
    Annmarie49 Posts: 84
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    I don't, nor never have eaten back my exercise calories, irrespective of 'net'!!!
    I use a HRM for exercise and record my calorie burn. varies from 4000-7000/wk calories (depends on my type of workouts)
    I have consistently lost 1- 11/2lbs/wk for 43 wks by doing this.
    I haven't tried eating them back because what I am doing is working for me!
    I have dropped 4 trouser sizes, 3 shirt sizes, 3 dress sizes, 1 shoe size and have 3kg to my goal (original goal was 5kg heavier).
    you have to find what works for YOU as an individual.
    MFP offers support and direction/focus for us, however, it does grossly over exaggerate calories burned in exercise, I see a lot of people using this as 'gospel' and eating back this amount and wondering why they are not losing/gaining/plateauing.
    record everything (food/exercise/weight/measurements), look back on your graphs and highlight when you lost inches/weight and what you were doing that week. That will inform your future plans!!
    good luck, we are all different and we need to work out 'what fits us'!!!!!!!!!!!
  • kia72736
    kia72736 Posts: 1
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    What do you do in the instance that you are not hungry? Sometimes when I exercise, I am not even hungry. Do you force feed yourself?

    I want to do this in the most healthy way for my body, but I don't want to feel full and bloated all the time. Please help. Thanks!
  • KelliW_runner
    KelliW_runner Posts: 150 Member
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    What do you do in the instance that you are not hungry? Sometimes when I exercise, I am not even hungry. Do you force feed yourself?

    I want to do this in the most healthy way for my body, but I don't want to feel full and bloated all the time. Please help. Thanks!

    Many people skip breakfast because they are "not hungry" in the morning, but that is not a good thing for your metabolism or blood sugar levels. Same thing applies when exercising heavily. You can find some snacks that are small in volume but nutrient dense in order to feed your body after a workout so it can repair muscles (build lean muscle mass).
  • SassyCalyGirl
    SassyCalyGirl Posts: 1,932 Member
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    I don't never have and never will eat my exercised calories back! I lost 10 lbs at 1 lb per week, and lost BF. I am now in "maintenance". What works for one doesn't work for EVERYONE.
  • dancecentral
    dancecentral Posts: 50 Member
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    Interesting.. I was just wondering about this after I found the setting on here where you can calculate your BMR
  • SassyCalyGirl
    SassyCalyGirl Posts: 1,932 Member
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    What do you do in the instance that you are not hungry? Sometimes when I exercise, I am not even hungry. Do you force feed yourself?

    I want to do this in the most healthy way for my body, but I don't want to feel full and bloated all the time. Please help. Thanks!

    NO! You DON'T force feed yourself-make sure you are getting all the nutrients needed throughout the day (ie-proteins so your muscles can repair properly)-if you are not hungry-don't eat! It's just ridiculous to state otherwise.
  • Mompanda4
    Mompanda4 Posts: 869 Member
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    Thank you for sharing
  • natboosh69
    natboosh69 Posts: 277 Member
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    What do you do in the instance that you are not hungry? Sometimes when I exercise, I am not even hungry. Do you force feed yourself?

    I want to do this in the most healthy way for my body, but I don't want to feel full and bloated all the time. Please help. Thanks!

    I wonder this too, I now understand why it's important to eat back exercise calories (thanks OP! :P) but what if you're just simply not hungry??

    Say for example, like myself, you go to the gym at 6pm, get home around 7.30pm and have some dinner. There's no way you can eat 400-500 extra exercise calories on top of dinner as it's just way too much food.

    And if you were to eat the extra calories earlier in the day but then don't end up exercising that day for whatever reason, then you've just eaten a load of extra calories for no reason. Am I making sense lol?
  • joyfulperson84
    joyfulperson84 Posts: 3
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    Love this post!
    I am going to start eating my exercise calories tomorrow and we shall see how it goes. Totally makes sense though. The last time I dieted ( few years ago) I didn't do this and my blood sugar dropped really low. Eating enough this time has been important to me, but I can't always seem to eat enough. This week I'm going in with a new attitude and will do my best to eat more!!
  • Sarauk2sf
    Sarauk2sf Posts: 28,072 Member
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    What do you do in the instance that you are not hungry? Sometimes when I exercise, I am not even hungry. Do you force feed yourself?

    I want to do this in the most healthy way for my body, but I don't want to feel full and bloated all the time. Please help. Thanks!

    I wonder this too, I now understand why it's important to eat back exercise calories (thanks OP! :P) but what if you're just simply not hungry??

    Say for example, like myself, you go to the gym at 6pm, get home around 7.30pm and have some dinner. There's no way you can eat 400-500 extra exercise calories on top of dinner as it's just way too much food.

    And if you were to eat the extra calories earlier in the day but then don't end up exercising that day for whatever reason, then you've just eaten a load of extra calories for no reason. Am I making sense lol?

    You are making total sense. This is just my opinion, but try to eat something calorie dense without making yourself feel uncomfortable, and make the rest up the next day. Focus more on averaging out for the whole week. I workout in the morning, so I do not have that issue, but a couple of times I have had a nap that turned into my actual nightime sleep - so I mssed dinner and I did not eat all my calories - all I do is eat them the next day (or next couple of days).
  • bdotshaw
    bdotshaw Posts: 90 Member
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    Bump.
  • arnpjenn
    arnpjenn Posts: 1,377 Member
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    Very good article!
  • FORGVN
    FORGVN Posts: 20
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    Bump
  • Evelyn2050
    Evelyn2050 Posts: 111 Member
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    bump
  • snailhead
    snailhead Posts: 10
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    This doesn't make any sense to me. If you want to lose weight, you have to burn more calories than you consume. That is the only way to do it. So eating back what you burn will not give the weight loss results that most dieters are looking to achieve. I have consulted with my primary care doctor and a registered dietician, and they both explained that in order to lose weight, you must burn more than you eat, and you need to burn 3500 per week just to lose 1 pound.

    :flowerforyou: To each their own, but I will continue to focus on burning more than I consume, and listen to the medical advice that has been provided to me.

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  • abbiepql
    abbiepql Posts: 45
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    While the OP has some merit in the "math" it's really an over simplification IMHO. Assuming that BMR rates are that cut and dry, which they are not! Sure for an average overweight person it might be that easy to "figure" but for someone that are metabolically challenged, extremely obese and does not move due to physical limitations - I KNOW the BMR rate is often times MUCH lower. Not to mention medicines, hormones, health disorders, etc. all which can play havoc with the body's ability to "burn" calories and therefore alter the numbers. I only eat back my calories once a week. I have been eating 1200 calories a day for over 15 months and have lost to date over 200 lbs. For me - eating back my 900 calories a day is not an option - According to my doctor who monitors my food and exercise I am losing at a healthy rate and while I have hit platues along the way I simply add another 200 calories for a couple of days, and change up my cardio workout to remind my body that I am on a mission! They resolve in a couple of days. I am not trying to be a downer or squash anyone's analogies, but everyone is extremely different and honestly MFP is a "tool" not the "expert" when it comes to losing and managing one's weight. There are medical and other professionals out there that will advise a person based on their "condition" what to eat and how to exercise to achieve the optimum results.

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