Do you eat your exercise calories?

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  • OhKelsey1
    OhKelsey1 Posts: 139
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    I eat back every single exercise calorie for 3 reasons

    1. I am trying to lose FAT, not just weight. If my calories are too low ... I lose muscle too.
    2. I use a heart rate monitor, so I know my calorie burns are not grossly exaggerated.
    3. That is how MFP is designed. The calorie deficit is built in before exercise. Not eating them back is INCREASING the deficit (see reason #1).

    This.
  • 1holegrouper
    1holegrouper Posts: 323 Member
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    If I am hungry, I eat them. If I'm not, I don't. Typically I'm always at or near my calorie goal for the day, I exercise almost daily. I'm not going to starve myself so I eat when I'm hungry.

    I think this is a very healthy way to look at it. When we are not treating our bodies well it gives us bad signals (ex; eat this donut!) but when we are treating it well then we really need to listen to our body and start trusting it again. There are times we just need to eat more. To consistently burn fat while preserving or even building muscle is a daily fine balance. 'Less calories is better' is not always the healthiest and best approach.
  • perpetuarose
    perpetuarose Posts: 4 Member
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    I ate them at first but noticed I wasn't losing, so now I try to only eat a 1/4 of them if I feel physically like I need it. Now I'm losing more quickly, about 1.5-2lbs a week, as opposed to stalling out for 2-3 weeks, then losing a pound.

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