Eating Excercise Calories

mogriff1

I know there are numerous post on this subject.... but I'm new to the site and have hit a plateau. I work out about 6 days a week and eat pretty healthy. I wasn't eating back all of my burned calories and am guessing that is what I should be doing.

I want to know how many of you out there eat back ALL of you excercise calories so that your goal calories equal your net calories. If you have had success doing it this way I want to hear from you.

darkchocolate_78

I've heard that you supposed to eat most of them back but when I was working out I didn't because I didn't know to do so and in the process I still continued to lose the weight regardless! Now I wasn't losing the 2 pounds a week I aimed for but one week could be less than a pound and another week could be three so I don't know if me not eating all over burned played a factor in that. But I was happy because I still was losing. Now there were days that I did eat a bit more but still was not close to what I burned. I burned over 800 calories a day and to me that was too much to put back so I didn't lol. But once I start back working out going to start eating half of a bit more of those burned calories and see what it do in week one.

susieq101178

I'm wondering the same thing - thank you for posting!!

It seems wrong to "eat them back" . . . everything I've read on losing weight talks about creating a deficit with cutting calories and burning calories. So, then doesn't eating them back defeat the whole purpose?? It's all very confusing . . .

:huh:

verbalriot

When you make a diet profile on MFP, it automatically creates a deficit for you. The exercise is just an added bonus for calorie burn and health improvement!

If you're hungry, you should eat. That's how I see it. Nothing wrong with not eating back the exercise calories and nothing wrong with eating them if you feel hungry.

shan_0517

bump

mogriff1

This is my comment from a recent thread on the same subject. I think I got it now. We'll see how it works for me.

I'm at a plateau myself, but I think I've finally wrapped my brain around the fact that I've got to eat back what I burned off because the goal calories MPF has set for you already has your weight loss goal you set built in. (That's why that number is on the lower end as opposed to other calorie calculators). The deficit includes the 1 lb or 2 lb weight loss goal you preset in your settings.

So for example, in my case:

My MPF Goal calorie number is 1330, today I burned 600 calories in excercise, so if I don't eat back those burned (excercise)calories my NET calories would only be 730 cal (1330-600=730). This is extremely too few calories for my body to thrive on. So if I eat the excercise calories, my Net calories will be 1930 total caloric intake (1330 + 600=1930). This is more realistic for my body 5'3", 135.5 lbs with the excercise workout I did today. I workout 6 days a week. (Your body needs the fuel for the excercise load). Now if I did not excercise today, I would just consume the 1330 Goal calories. (Never below 1200)

I'm going to stick with this and see how I make out. It makes sense to me, typically on the days I work out I am constantly feeling hungry...my body is telling me to eat those calories. I'm going to listen to my body.

Good luck to you!

AmyRhubarb

I eat most of my exercise calories back - depends on whether or not I'm hungry. I'm set for 1710 calories per day, target weight of 139lbs, set to lose 1/2lb a week. I'm nearly to my goal, so the loss has slowed, but I'm okay with that - my body is changing for the better, and I bought smaller jeans a couple of weeks ago. :bigsmile:

I was at a standstill on weight until I upped my calories a bit. Took a couple of weeks, but then the scale finally dropped another pound. The more I read on the subject (from various resources), the more I realize that the old adage of "exercise more and eat less" is like expecting your car to go farther and faster with less gas in the tank. Eat less junky stuff maybe, but eating enough healthy foods to fuel your body and the exercise you do is crucial.

"Trying to lose fast by eating less and running (or exercising) more doesn't work. The more you exercise and the less you eat, the more likely your body is to hibernate. That is, you'll conserve calories and thwart your efforts to lose fat." ~Runners World Complete Book of Running

So I eat plenty of healthy foods throughout the day (and have treats once in a while, too!) and my body uses it all efficiently. The fat is coming off (hubby even said my "back fat" is gone - yay!) and I'm not going hungry.

Fat2Fit is a good website for info and tools to calculate your body fat, goal weight, BMR, etc: http://www.fat2fitradio.com/tools/ On the advice of another MFP member, I used the Military Body Fat Calculator there to figure out my own goals - very helpful! Check it out.

mogriff1

Thanks AmyRhubarb, I went to Fat2Fit and calculated my Body fat. :-)