Do you eat back the calories you burned off from exercise??

jscns

I'm just curious as to who eats back the calories worked off and who doesn't. How does it affect your weight loss?

Scorpioangel

I usually don't but if I did a long run that day and am hungry I may eat some it just depends on how hungry I am

rubysphoto

For the first 6 months I didn't and was losing the weight but then I hit a plateau for almost 3 weeks so I increased my calories an extra 300 plus started eating back my exercise calories and started losing the weight again.

Anyaaaa11

At first when I started dieting and didn't know what I was doing I was on 1200calories and burned off 600 and didn't eat my exercise cals. Big mistake led me to develope binge eating. To make a long story short... I now eat 1550net cals and eat back all of my cals so I must eat around 1700-1900 on days I exercise and 1600 on normal days. This is definitely wiling for me. I'm fortunate enough to be losing a pound a week (but the rate is declining probably because I'm already at a healthy weight)
So I guess I just got away with eating more, thankfully or I wouldve never gotten this far.
Just experiment with your intake. I had to tweak my cals a lot before I figured it out.

_AllieCat_

ALWAYS eat back your exercise calories. I have lost a steady one pound a week doing this. If you don't, your body will not get what it needs to function properly. Trust me on this.

MindyG150

I don't set out to eat back my exercise calories but I don't stress about using them also.

RedMotoRider

I don't eat back my calories and its not even on purpose, after I exercise I'm exhausted and hungry, I eat dinner, carbs and all but it's still not enough to make it to my daily allowance of calories, so I normally leave upwards of 1000 calories on the table on the days I exercise.

Tdk4685

I eat back most of my calories burned from exercise. I found that it made the weight come off quicker that way.

TrailRunner61

I quit losing weight because I was eating back too many of them. Now I just eat some IF I'm hungry. I refuse to stuff myself to prevent 'starvation mode'. I really get sick of hearing about it. The best thing to do is do what works for YOU. Try eating some for a few weeks, try not eating some. If you're hungry, eat but I wouldn't eat all of them. Also, make sure that the calories you do eat are from quality, healthy food to nourish you. Not junk.

irisheyez718

Yes, I do eat back my exercise calories. YUM!

mom2mozart

I almost always eat them. Most of the time I exercise so I can eat more. It is insurance against hunger for me.

dfair1967

I rarely ever eat back the calories. If I have a huge surplus I may go over a hundred or so but not doing a couple thousand extra.

bigd65

have been eating everyone of them for the last 7 months, and dropped weight right on schedule, now I have upped my calories 500 under my TDEE as an experiment and low and behold still loosing, but exercise calories are included in so I don't have to track them anymore, and I get to eat 700 more calories a day. Don't be afraid to experiment, the weight doesn't go back on over night. One note now that I upped my calories I eat almost 500 calories at each meal and about 30 minutes after eating I am hungry, so the furnace is burning

MoreThanMommie

If exercise drops my calories for the day too low, then I eat some of them back. But usually not all.

TanyaCurtis

I always eat them back, I'm losing weight

dlpnrn2b

Yes..

kpetty60

I'll eat half the calories earned by exercise... but then again, I'm not eating all my daily calories either.

Railr0aderTony

YES, not always all of them but as many as i can.

dfair1967

ALWAYS eat back your exercise calories. I have lost a steady one pound a week doing this. If you don't, your body will not get what it needs to function properly. Trust me on this.

I lost on average a pound to a pound and a half the past four days not eating any more than two hundred extra calories I got from all the cardio I been doing which was close to 4,000 calories I could ate back. instead I did eat 1500

goosepappa

I eat about half of mine. When I first started I ate all of them and it didn't matter. But the closer I got to my target weight it seemed like it was harder for the lbs to come off.

Mommsue3

Sometimes I do but normally as long as I'm satisfied I'm good to go. My trainer said that as long as I don't go overboard on the days I workout then it's okay. Your body will let you know if it needs more so listen to what it's saying and go from there. On the days that I do eat back the exercise calories it causes a minor flux in the numbers but nothing to get worried about. Just mark it down and remember - since you can't un-do the past no need to worry over it just learn from it.

77tes

Yes, I eat back my exercise calories. I think that is the secret to my success on MFP. I never knew that was an option before, so exercise always seemed like a punishment. If I want to go out for a big dinner, I fit in a workout in the morning, so I can "afford" the splurge. I never feel deprived, so I don't get discouraged. I eat pretty clean, but I can have a candy bar or an order of fries if I budget for it.

xochi71

Thank you for asking this!!!! I had hit a plateau when I started here at MFP. I was surprised that i needed to consume nearly 300 less calories but I was determined to lose the weight so I never ate my exercise calories. For the last 6 months I have struggled and actually gain back 10 lbs. I am frustrated but now after reading this I think I just might need to play with my calorie intake. A few more calories for the amount of exercise that I do might be the trick!

oats4breakfast

I just setup my activity level and quota to include exercise cals and the adjust over time. So I end up eating the same each day regardless of exercise. Effectively, I'm zig-zagging my cal intake.
I do crossfit and run different distances and swim, and sometimes just do active stuff. I also walk golf a few times a week. But I'm basically sedentary in other parts of my life. So if I were to set me at sedentary and then add back exercise, I'd have like 1800 cals to eat each day, then add anything from 200-800 cals back in exercise. One of the problems I found, asides from the inaccuracies, was that it was very hard to plan just what I was going to eat during the day. What if I planned to workout but didn't get to because something came up at work ? Then I might overeat or undereat or whatever.
So now, I setup to eat 2200 cals a day, every day, regardless if I work out or not.
There are some days where this is hard to make, so I may only eat 2000 but the next day, I might do a big workout and run too so I will need extra cals (you can feel it) so I'll eat 2400 cals that day. Over two days, I'm still at 2200 cals. So, as I do this, I can plan my diet easily and then after two weeks, if I only lost 1.5 pounds but was expecting 2 pounds, well then I can adjust my daily quota and reduce it be 125 cals per day.
Why 125 ? Because the theory is 3500 cals per pound per week which is 500 a day. I was off by 1/4 pound per week so that's 125 cals.
The same formula will be used if I loose 2.5 pounds instead of 2.

I don't tweak it every two weeks, it was just an example.
But I will also tweak if I find that I'm hungry all the time and are still loosing. Or if I'm always tired or whatever. It's a long game so I have time. 2200 seems to work really well for me. I'm fueled, feel good and perform well. Occasionally I will get more into me, but sometimes I don't need it too. It's certainly simpler and makes planning easier.

EDIT: Often, what I eat post workout will make the difference between me eating 2000 or less versus 2200 or more. So I have a "eat back workout cals" function in there too. Almost all other planned meals are the same (same in cals, but variety to eat).

jscns

Thank you everyone for answering. I am noticing that i seem to eat about half of my exercise calories back and i lost 4 lb in 2 weeks so i think i might stick with what i'm doing for now and see how it goes. Then maybe experiment with it a bit to see what works for me.

JesterMFP

I eat every single one of them.

Mommsue3

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megsmom2

I eat most of them back...love having those calories to use!

gsager

ALWAYS eat back your exercise calories. I have lost a steady one pound a week doing this. If you don't, your body will not get what it needs to function properly. Trust me on this.

Thank you! I flip out every time I see people not eating their exercise calories. You're right, it's how the site is set up, at the end of the day our goal and net should be equal.

dixiewhiskey

Well I don't and those exercise calories just go to waste sometimes... No biggie.. I've kept weight off before, its only due to pregnancy that I'm overweight. I DO zig zag my calories though which in a sense means I do sometimes eat them back.. sometimes I don't. I know that I've created a 500 cal food deficit and up to 500 cal working out everyday so that's always worked for me.

Whatever floats your boat. No need to get up in arms