Why you shouldn't eat back excercise calories.

Onesnap

The rule is that ANYONE that has a desk job (versus say a factory job where you are on your feet 8/9 hrs/day) is considered sedentary. Even those that workout EVERY day.

This is quite true. Unless you are spending a significant amount of your typical day on your feet (at least several hours), you are sedentary. One hour of exercise a day, even if it's every single day, doesn't change that fact. Your 1 hour of exercise is still but 1/24th of your day. A lot of people overestimate their activity level. This is exactly the reason why I am "sedentary", set a calorie deficit from my sedentary TDEE, and eat my exercise calories back.

Thank you for replying!

waskier

My exercise routines vary between 500 and 2,000 calories per day. I eat back my exercise calories and am down 56 lbs.

'nuf said!

Ljkshs

Thanks. I have always wondered about that...

sizzle92

I don't always eat them ALL back, but if I didn't eat some of them back, I would die. I burn between 400-1000 calories per workout. Some days even when I eat them back I'm only netting like 800-1000 calories.

Bobby_Clerici

My exercise routines vary between 500 and 2,000 calories per day. I eat back my exercise calories and am down 56 lbs.

'nuf said!

Same here - down 76 lbs -- :drinker:

Yanicka1

Nothing like having a newbie tell us how it is done. We obviously have no idea what we are talking about

markymarrkk

That's totally over generalizing. Some people as myself chose to track our own exercise and activities and SHOULD eat back exercise calories:

I set my shtt as "Sedentary"... It is Waaaay more accurate to track your calorie expending activities than to let MFP estimate it for you.

if you're setting your MFP calories to account for your activity level than *DON'T log your exercise, simple

ginique

I set my activity level at sedentary precisely so that I could have the freedom to eat back my exercise calories whenever I feel the need. But yes, if you are setting your activity level above sedentary, then you should not eat back your exercise calories since you've already added them into your TDEE equation.

KCoolBeanz

My exercise routines vary between 500 and 2,000 calories per day. I eat back my exercise calories and am down 56 lbs.

'nuf said!

Agreed!

emmymae22

There's alot of debate among people here as to whether you should or shoul not eat bac excercise calories. Let me offer you an explanation as to why you should not eat back excercise calories, and hopefully this will put the topic to a rest.

When you set up your goals for myfitnesspal it asks you what your activity level is, based on your activity level it roughly calculates what your daily energy (calorie) expenditure is. From this you select what your weight loss goal is, let's say you want to lose 1 pound of fat a week. It then subtracts 500 calories (500 calories x 7 days = 3500 calories (1 pound of fat is equivalent to 3500 calories)) daily. So at this point the amount of calories that you consume already takes into account your activity level because you would have had to choose it when setting up your profile. So if you are now consuming an extra 700 calories that you "earned" from excercise you are in fact just consuming an extra 700 calories, and are consuming 200 calories above your goal so you will very slowly gain weight instead of losing weight.

Now if you are planning on gaining weight as some do, for weightlifting, powerlifting or even body building purposes then it would be ok to eat back calories as your goals differ from simply cutting fat. For everybody else, eating back excercise calories is counter-intuitive to your weight loss efforts and should be avoided.

You may say, I feel sapped after a workout... well plan your daily calories in such a way that you can afford a protein shake after your workout and you'll feel 100% better.

I hope this helps people understand and clarifies the "excercise calories" fiasco.

Completely agree!

McBully4

My exercise routines vary between 500 and 2,000 calories per day. I eat back my exercise calories and am down 56 lbs.

'nuf said!

Same here - down 76 lbs -- :drinker:

45lbs & I eat back every single calorie

aristel

There's alot of debate among people here as to whether you should or shoul not eat bac excercise calories. Let me offer you an explanation as to why you should not eat back excercise calories, and hopefully this will put the topic to a rest.

When you set up your goals for myfitnesspal it asks you what your activity level is, based on your activity level it roughly calculates what your daily energy (calorie) expenditure is. From this you select what your weight loss goal is, let's say you want to lose 1 pound of fat a week. It then subtracts 500 calories (500 calories x 7 days = 3500 calories (1 pound of fat is equivalent to 3500 calories)) daily. So at this point the amount of calories that you consume already takes into account your activity level because you would have had to choose it when setting up your profile. So if you are now consuming an extra 700 calories that you "earned" from excercise you are in fact just consuming an extra 700 calories, and are consuming 200 calories above your goal so you will very slowly gain weight instead of losing weight.

Now if you are planning on gaining weight as some do, for weightlifting, powerlifting or even body building purposes then it would be ok to eat back calories as your goals differ from simply cutting fat. For everybody else, eating back excercise calories is counter-intuitive to your weight loss efforts and should be avoided.

You may say, I feel sapped after a workout... well plan your daily calories in such a way that you can afford a protein shake after your workout and you'll feel 100% better.

I hope this helps people understand and clarifies the "excercise calories" fiasco.

I disagree. As MFP tells you to ignore exercise when picking your activity level. In other words base your activity level on your non exercise related activity and log and eat exercise cals separately.

This is a great way of doing it as if you are using TDEE it assumes each week you are doing the same amount of exercise, whereas with MFP you only eat based on the work you did do, not what you planed on doing.

this

Vailara

From what I can work out there are two basic ways to do it:

1. Set your activity level to what it normally is without "extra" exercise (taking into account whether you have an active job or not, etc.). Then add in any exercise above and beyond that. Then eat back those exercise calories.

2. Set your activity level to include your average amount of "extra" exercise. (For instance, if you have sedentary job, but cycle to work and go to the gym in the evenings you might count yourself as active). You don't need to log any exercise and you don't need to eat back any extra calories because they are included in your daily calorie allowance.

In both cases YOU ARE EATING BACK YOUR EXERCISE CALORIES. The difference is whether you're logging them individually or going by an estimate of daily activity.

Now, the activity descriptions imply that you should do the first option, as they are about the type of work you do, rather than how much physical activity you do outside of work. I'm not saying that the first option is the correct way to do it, but it's the one that seems most obvious, and the one that I have chosen. I have described myself as sedentary, so I log my exercise and add those calories to the allowance for a sedentary person. I eat back those calories (not necessarily within the same 24 hours as the exercise).

If we really weren't supposed to eat back exercise calories then that would mean that EVERYBODY should set their activity at sedentary. Those calories that are added for being active are exercise calories.

PaveGurl

Eh, I have to join the dissenters. When I set my energy expenditure to "sedentary" to reflect my desk-driving job, it set my calories at 1200 - which is less than my BMR, as calculated across ANY iteration. If I let my caloric intake be what MFP sets and refused to eat back my exercise calories, I'd be in a bad way pretty fast, sometimes netting negative intake for the day.

I set my targets based on my own research - I think it's an overgeneralisation to assume everyone uses MFP the same way. I use it to a) keep up with what I'm putting into my system b) track macros and trends, and c) provide myself support from others. Sure, I want to lose, but the main reason I'm here instead of somewhere else is the calorie DB.

Most of my day involves sitting on my tuchis, but when I work out - and I do, anywhere from three to seven times a week, at an hour or more each time - I need the calories to increase my strength and lifting goals. I'm losing weight - very slowly, but at an acceptable pace for my needs and goals - but more importantly, I'm losing inches (this morning, I realised I was 3" past the last hole on a belt I'd not worn in a while). So I think the OP's assertion that eating my calories back is an epic fail is kinda an epic fail unto itself. Sorry, bro.

halejr23

Absolutely wrong conclusion. If you do not eat back your exercise calories you calorie deficit is not the 500 (or whatever) for the day. It is 500 PLUS whatever you burned exercising. Anyone who follows this "logic" is creating an unhealthy deficit that can lead to plateaus, fat storage and low energy.

Legoeggo

bump

EmCarroll1990

The line that gets me is saying something along the lines that if I eat my exercise calories, I'll gain weight. Funny, considering I eat them and am now sitting at my GW. Thanks for coming out though.

heybales

Why you can't really setup MFP to include exercise, unless you workout infrequently or few hrs per week.

So you can see where you rate in the activity levels normally given by MPF or other sites. This table may of course help in nailing a better estimated TDEE.

MFP activity levels and multiplier and description (doesn't include exercise)
Sedentary_____ 1.25 __ Spend most of the day sitting (e.g. bank teller, desk job)
Lightly Active___ 1.35 __ Spend a good part of the day on your feet (e.g. nurse, salesman)
Active________ 1.45 __ Spend a good part of the day doing some physical activity (e.g. waitress, mailman)
Very Active_____ 1.55 __ Spend most of the day doing heavy physical activity (e.g. bike messenger, carpenter)

TDEE activity levels and multiplier and description (does include exercise) most other calculators use.
Sedentary_____ 1.2 ___ little or no exercise, desk job
Lightly active___ 1.375 _ light exercise/sports 1-3 days/wk
Mod. active____ 1.55 __ moderate exercise/sports 3-5 days/wk
Very active_____ 1.725 _ hard exercise/sports 6-7 days/wk
Extra Active____ 1.9 ___ hard daily exercise/sports & physical job or 2X day training, i.e marathon, contest etc.

sandrajune72

I have to question why so many people opt to be members of this site but then blatantly disregard the system it promotes! If you don't like the way it works why not find a program you do agree with?

^Exactly this!^

clintbritt3

There's alot of debate among people here as to whether you should or shoul not eat bac excercise calories. Let me offer you an explanation as to why you should not eat back excercise calories, and hopefully this will put the topic to a rest.

When you set up your goals for myfitnesspal it asks you what your activity level is, based on your activity level it roughly calculates what your daily energy (calorie) expenditure is. From this you select what your weight loss goal is, let's say you want to lose 1 pound of fat a week. It then subtracts 500 calories (500 calories x 7 days = 3500 calories (1 pound of fat is equivalent to 3500 calories)) daily. So at this point the amount of calories that you consume already takes into account your activity level because you would have had to choose it when setting up your profile. So if you are now consuming an extra 700 calories that you "earned" from excercise you are in fact just consuming an extra 700 calories, and are consuming 200 calories above your goal so you will very slowly gain weight instead of losing weight.

Now if you are planning on gaining weight as some do, for weightlifting, powerlifting or even body building purposes then it would be ok to eat back calories as your goals differ from simply cutting fat. For everybody else, eating back excercise calories is counter-intuitive to your weight loss efforts and should be avoided.

You may say, I feel sapped after a workout... well plan your daily calories in such a way that you can afford a protein shake after your workout and you'll feel 100% better.

I hope this helps people understand and clarifies the "excercise calories" fiasco.

I do agree somewhat but when you set up your MFP acct you shouldn't include your exercise in your activity level, your exercise should be considered EXTRA activity on top of what you do for normal daily activity, that being said you should eat back most of your exercise calories to fuel or refuel your body after a workout....