Eating Exercise Calories....ugh!

momma3sweetgirls

There's no problem not eating back your exercise calories once in a while. I wouldn't recommend doing it every single day. Planning ahead works for me. I know I'm going to burn about 300 calories on a 3 mile run I'll do in the evening, so I spread out those 300 calories throughout the day. I don't sit down AFTER I exercise I scarf down 300 calories - ever. Eating the calories in advance also forces me to actually do the exercise!!

hollymurphy4

This probably has nothing to do with the original topic, but you only had coffee creamer for breakfast? No coffee to go with it? I am saying this, because if you aren't counting some of your stuff, not logging it, it may LOOK like you have more calories left over than you do. I am not bashing you or anything, so please don't take that wrong, but you also might want to eat a little more throughout the day. No wonder you have such a high amount left over for the day.

I didn't know coffee had calories.
I usually eat more than I did today, but when I'm physically busy all day such as I was today, it makes me not hungry, and I can't eat when I'm not hungry. Todays food intake was not a normal day for me. But even when I'm eating "normally" I can't bring myself to eat the extra calories I get from exercise.

Darkskinned88

to be honest, i've stopped worrying about exercise calories. I eat (healthily) when im hungry, work out when i can and log to keep myself accountable...like a poster above said, we make things too complicated sometimes

hollymurphy4

I REALLY, REALLY think a lot of people of MFP make this whole losing weight thing to complicated. By and large, the larger the difference between the calories you take in and the calories you burn, the larger your weight loss is going to be. The change in your metabolism from eating "too few" calories is really negligble. Starvation mode doesn't happen until you're sitting at a negative net calorie intake over a long period of time. So...don't sweat it.


If I've eaten healthfully...had a few servings of protein, eating 3 servings of vegetables, eaten whole grains...I don't eat them back unless I'm hungry.

If I go to bed full but have a 500-800 net calorie deficit, I don't worry about. I am especially okay with this because we all tend to underestimate the number of calories we eat and overestimate the number of calories we burn, so the real deficit is likely smaller than what MFP is telling you.


That said, if I am sitting at a 800+ calorie deficit at the end of the day, but not feeling particularly hungry...those are the days that I like to have a small bowl of ice cream before bed.

I couldn't agree more that people sometimes make it more complicated than it really is. Simply....I always thought that if you burn more than you take in you will lose. Thanks so much for your input!

aav903

I have this problem a lot too, especially since I'm training for distance races and filling up on voluminous foods like fruits and veggies (low calories but more water= filling). I've found that adding nut butters or things like avocado to my daily meals helps me incorporate more calories without trying to cram them all in toward the end of the day. Plus, sweet potatoes with a little bit of sunflower seed butter taste amazing... almost like a dessert! And I get some healthy fat/protein that keeps my hunger in check for the rest of the day so I don't wind up overeating like crazy.

I just started training for distance running (well, a half marathon, so not too much distance). Anyway, also do mixed cardio/weights at least 2-3 days a week, so am working out at least 5 days. I have never thought about eating any of my exercise calories back until I started reading these boards as it seems counter productive. I was wondering, has adding some back helped your running?

tooda123

I'm confused. I was doing some research and the majority of what I was reading indicated that eating exercise calories is counter productive unless you exercise for more than 1 hour in the day. What am I missing? Is that why I cannot lose any weight? :ohwell:

aav903

I actually just looked back at my profile, and it takes into account my exercise and is still telling me that if I exercise and hour 5x weekly, I should only be eating 1200 calories a day. So, is seems that I shouldn't be eating back any of my exercise calories. Am I missing something?

I'm 5'4", medium build and hoping to lose about 1-1.5 pounds a week over the next 2 months to hit my goal of 134 lbs.

ShrinkRapt451

I actually just looked back at my profile, and it takes into account my exercise and is still telling me that if I exercise and hour 5x weekly, I should only be eating 1200 calories a day. So, is seems that I shouldn't be eating back any of my exercise calories. Am I missing something?

I'm 5'4", medium build and hoping to lose about 1-1.5 pounds a week over the next 2 months to hit my goal of 134 lbs.

Did you tell MFP that you're "active" when you set your goals? If so, then MFP does include your exercise in its calculations, and you shouldn't eat back your exercise calories. (Of course, if you have a pretty active job AND you work out 5 days a week, you might want to tell it that you're "very active".)

If you just put in fitness goals where it asks for them, though, those are NOT included in the MFP math. They're just so you can track your progress toward those goals.

The way MFP is set up is to estimate your calorie needs based on your regular daily activity, and then subtract calories from that "maintenance" number to give you a calorie goal. The reason it tells you to eat your exercise calories back is so that you're keeping your daily calorie deficit at the same level. (Example: if you tell it you want to lose 1.5 lbs/week, it will tell you to eat 750 fewer calories every day than it thinks you need to maintain your current weight. If you burn 500 calories in exercise, that increases your calorie deficit for the day to 1250, which is more than 2 lbs/week loss if you did that every day. So it tells you to eat 500 more calories, to keep the calorie deficit at 750.)

aav903

I actually just looked back at my profile, and it takes into account my exercise and is still telling me that if I exercise and hour 5x weekly, I should only be eating 1200 calories a day. So, is seems that I shouldn't be eating back any of my exercise calories. Am I missing something?

I'm 5'4", medium build and hoping to lose about 1-1.5 pounds a week over the next 2 months to hit my goal of 134 lbs.

Did you tell MFP that you're "active" when you set your goals? If so, then MFP does include your exercise in its calculations, and you shouldn't eat back your exercise calories. (Of course, if you have a pretty active job AND you work out 5 days a week, you might want to tell it that you're "very active".)

If you just put in fitness goals where it asks for them, though, those are NOT included in the MFP math. They're just so you can track your progress toward those goals.

The way MFP is set up is to estimate your calorie needs based on your regular daily activity, and then subtract calories from that "maintenance" number to give you a calorie goal. The reason it tells you to eat your exercise calories back is so that you're keeping your daily calorie deficit at the same level. (Example: if you tell it you want to lose 1.5 lbs/week, it will tell you to eat 750 fewer calories every day than it thinks you need to maintain your current weight. If you burn 500 calories in exercise, that increases your calorie deficit for the day to 1250, which is more than 2 lbs/week loss if you did that every day. So it tells you to eat 500 more calories, to keep the calorie deficit at 750.)

This makes so much sense, thank you. As I was rethinking this over the weekend, I figured something along the lines of what you were saying. Especially since MFP visibly increases your calorie allotment for the day when you add in the workouts. Since I only marked "moderately active" or something like that, I didn't account for any of my work outs. Thanks again!