do you eat exercise calories as well?

MrsAFR
MrsAFR Posts: 103 Member
edited December 23 in Health and Weight Loss
just what the title says really
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Replies

  • InTheInbetween
    InTheInbetween Posts: 192 Member
    Yes.
  • MrsAFR
    MrsAFR Posts: 103 Member
    Like the simplicity! Thanks
  • justinamay0535
    justinamay0535 Posts: 132 Member
    Yep! :happy:
  • InTheInbetween
    InTheInbetween Posts: 192 Member
    You're welcome. :smile:
  • RedSkinFox
    RedSkinFox Posts: 23 Member
    Usually, but sometimes i don't because i'm full. Then i get a scolding from the "Complete Button" nazi (no offense to complete buttons...or Nazis(?)) saying that i'm eating too few calories.
  • littleblonde200
    littleblonde200 Posts: 95
    I don't eat them all back but i aim to eat at least some of them back. MFP is not accurate with how it works out exercise calories so i tend to 1/2 what it says and aim for that. I need a HRM
  • littlebuddy84
    littlebuddy84 Posts: 995 Member
    Yes I eat at least 70% of them back :-)
  • TeaBea
    TeaBea Posts: 14,517 Member
    Yes 100% - I use a heart rate monitor so calorie burns are accurate.
  • martin1306
    martin1306 Posts: 21 Member
    Earn them, then eat them!
  • Baileys83
    Baileys83 Posts: 152 Member
    I don't, but I think I am in the minority...
  • LuckyLeprechaun
    LuckyLeprechaun Posts: 6,296 Member
    Yes.
    You may also eat them and then earn them. The order makes no difference.
  • lizziebeth1028
    lizziebeth1028 Posts: 3,602 Member
    Yep!!! 80 to 100 percent of them. I sometimes like to leave a little wiggle room for inaccuracy.
  • spragukr
    spragukr Posts: 81 Member
    I do eat them back, but not all of them because I'm not sure how accurate my calorie burns are. If I knew it was 100% accurate, I would eat them all back! But for now I'm generally eating 50-80% back.
  • alexveksler
    alexveksler Posts: 409 Member
    NO. Why? Exercise is your daily deficit. If you are on a weight loss, why would you give it up?
  • LadyIntrepid
    LadyIntrepid Posts: 399 Member
    Yes -- I try to net at least 1200 calories no matter what exercise I do (or don't) do.
  • Lady_Bane
    Lady_Bane Posts: 720 Member
    wow, this is a new refreshing topic :indifferent:
  • rose313
    rose313 Posts: 1,146 Member
    I aim to eat half back, but sometimes end up eating all back, which is fine. I just like to leave a little uneaten in case I overestimated my exercise any.
  • PandaCustard
    PandaCustard Posts: 204 Member
    Some of them, but I always make sure I have at least a 1200-calorie net.
  • Springer007
    Springer007 Posts: 84 Member
    NO. Why? Exercise is your daily deficit. If you are on a weight loss, why would you give it up?

    Exactly! It seems that the people that say "eat them back" complain about not losing weight, and those that take them as a deficit have nice weight loss numbers.
  • myfitnessnmhoy
    myfitnessnmhoy Posts: 2,105 Member
    Yes. MFP has already set you up with a deficit to lose weight, and the intention is for you to eat at that specific deficit to lose weight slowly and safely and without a lot of hunger.

    Having said that, some of MFP's calculations on calorie burn are accurate, a very few are a tad low depending on your intensity, and some are downright fancifully high. If you perform each cardio exercise at high intensity, it's probably close. But if, for example, you get on an elliptical at low resistance in the "fat burning" zone, cut any estimate MFP gives you in half. MFP assumed you spent most of your time at the top of the "cardio" heart rate range, and calculated accordingly.

    So it may be in your best interest to eat about 75% or so of them back until you learn what estimates are close, and what estimates are ridiculous.
  • myfitnessnmhoy
    myfitnessnmhoy Posts: 2,105 Member
    NO. Why? Exercise is your daily deficit. If you are on a weight loss, why would you give it up?

    Exactly! It seems that the people that say "eat them back" complain about not losing weight, and those that take them as a deficit have nice weight loss numbers.

    "Eat them back". I have no complaints about my pace of weight loss. When I don't eat them back, I stop losing weight after a brief but glorious period of faster loss.

    For someone new, my opinion is that it makes sense for them to try the site out the way the people who designed it intended to be used. A way that has worked for a whole lot of people.

    But we're each adults and we get to choose how we experiment. Most of the "help! not losing weight!" posts I've seen are either the result of depending on MFP's fanciful calorie calculations and eating at maintenance, or not eating enough and having plateaued.
  • MessyLittlePanda
    MessyLittlePanda Posts: 213 Member
    Depends on the exercise you do IMO....I'm training for bike races therefore fuelling my muscles properly is important. I am trying to drop body fat/excess weight also but cannot do this at the expense of lean muscle which is strength and stamina. So yes, I do try to eat the exercise calories, but it's actually a struggle on training days to eat as much as I should be. I try and even it out over the week, if you are doing vigorous cardio such as running/cycling or a high intensity sport like kickboxing then the next day you also need to feed the muscles.

    fueling your workouts properly = better workout = more lean muscle = more calorie burn.

    2 hours before - carbohydrate rich snack like a banana, couple of oatcakes, or skimmed milk with a teaspoon of Nesquik

    after - eat a meal with protein in within 2 hours

    you don't have to go crazy but knowing the right things to eat if you are going to use exercise to help your weight loss is important as long term this will help you build fitness and stamina and be able to do more exercise.
  • supplemama
    supplemama Posts: 1,956 Member
    I eat back some of them. But not all...due to my exercise schedule, some days MFP has me slated to eat close to 3,000 calories! No way am I going to eat that in one day.
  • amclaws25
    amclaws25 Posts: 128 Member
    No, I'm always so full, especially after increasing calories to 1700. I might eat like 100 of them on occasion.
  • lizziebeth1028
    lizziebeth1028 Posts: 3,602 Member
    NO. Why? Exercise is your daily deficit. If you are on a weight loss, why would you give it up?

    Exactly! It seems that the people that say "eat them back" complain about not losing weight, and those that take them as a deficit have nice weight loss numbers.

    MFP calculates a deficit in the amount of calories it gives you. By not eating your exercise calories back you are not consuming or (netting) the proper amount of calories. Example - you eat 1200 calories. you exercise and burn 400. You are only netting 800 calories for the day which is too low, not healthy, not sustainable. And eating too few calories can actually result in slow weight loss or a plateau. It is important to fuel your body and work outs!!!
  • Brittany3914
    Brittany3914 Posts: 258 Member
    I don't eat back a certain percentage, I just listen to my body most of the time. If I'm hungry, I'll eat them all or most of them. If I'm not as hungry, I'll eat SOME of them back. I try to at least net 1200 always, though.
  • Baileys83
    Baileys83 Posts: 152 Member
    Perhaps it's best to try one way and if that doesn't work for you, try another? We all function differently and I don't believe there is a right or wrong way - this site is merely a guide, I am a keen zig-zag calorie counter, 1200 for a few days, then drop in a couple of 1600 to confuse the body - it worked great last time I was on here but I personally don't eat my exercise calories :smile:
  • mg234080
    mg234080 Posts: 29
    I try not to eat them because my goal is to lose weight. Plus, if I ever go over on my allowed calories (before exercise) then I know I have some wiggle room.
  • Shrinking_Moody
    Shrinking_Moody Posts: 270 Member
    Absolutely - I tend to have a few hundred left hanging around - but I do eat them back. I also work out harder if I have a special dinner planned :tongue:
  • sjohnson1961
    sjohnson1961 Posts: 7
    i do dip into them a little but try to leave the bulk of them alone
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