Do you eat the calories you burn from exercise?

Ariane624

I'm not sure what is best...MFP set my daily calories to 1200, and I usually burn between 300-600 with exercise. What does everyone else do?

Samantha5509

I am about the same. I only eat 1200 calories a day and burn about 400-600 calories when I workout. I make sure NOT use those calories.

BreakingOath

You should eat the exercise calories back. If you do not have an accurate way to measure the calories you burn (such as a heart rate monitor) then you should eat a portion of them back.

You should always NET 1200 calories.

hesn92

Yes. Always. And 1200 might not be enough, you have to fill out all your information (height, weight, age, etc) and it will give you a more accurate calorie amount.

leojsivad

Yes, search the boards. There are numerous threads about why you should eat back your calories. If you don't you run the risk of putting your body in starvation mode.

tigersword

http://shouldieatmyexercisecalories.com

DesignGuy

I try to now (after reading all the info here about BMR, TDEE, etc).

jjelizalde

1200 calories is too low for your body to function properly. Check your BMR and adjust it from there. And yes, eat back those exercise calories to fuel your workout.

Hezzietiger1

There are so many different schools of thought on this. I've been eating about 1300 calories flat for 4 months and I've lost 40 lbs. Most days I burn 500-600. That means my net is 700 based on mfp calculations and I'm not starving and I have energy for my workouts. I have hit a plateau so I just changed my macros to 50% pro 20% fat and 30% carbs and upped my calories by 100 to try and bust it.

I've read all the stuff about finding your tdee and creating a 15% deficit and eating those calories on off days and on workout days never eating less than your bmr.. but I don't have the guts to eat 1800-1900 plus calories a day. I'm afraid of gaining.

My trainer Michael suggested upping by just 100 cals..

My friend Scott who once was a professional body builder said to just cut all carbs (not something I want to do).
My friend Aaron who is also a trainer said I should only be eating about 1090 calories based on my height and I need to cut my calories down to that to break the plateau.

The people who say eat more.. are losing weight.. So that must work. Michael, Scott, and Aaron all have great success either in their own training or with their clients based on the advice that they give and they way they train..

I think you figure out what works for your body. If your goal is 2 lbs/week and mfp was able to create a large enough deficit in your diet by having you consume 1200.. then eat back your exercise cals cuz you don't really wanna lose more than 2 lbs a week anyway.

At this point in my weight loss I use mfp to create a 1lb deficit in my diet and I burn a minimum of 3500 calories throughout the week (that I don't eat back).. in theory i should maintain my 2lb weight loss. But, I'm on a trial and error plan at this point.

Ariane624

Thanks everyone!