Do you eat your exercise calories or leave them alone?

NWCyclingBeast

Heck Yes I eat 'em! Well, some of them, anyway... I try to burn enough calories during the day to create a LARGE ENOUGH deficit, so I feel like eating a little "poorly" , I can without throwing my diet off. Works for me.

gauchogirl

I try to eat them all because then I'm still netting only the 1280 MFP sets for me.

snowyd20

Leave em!

Jackieonappy

I eat them back only to get to get to net of at least 1200. Like someone said, that's hard some days if you're burning 1000+ calories to eat back ALL of your calories and i'd be too scared to do that.

TrutHurtZ

I usually eat most back ;-)

jennaworksout

Most day I do eat them. lately I have been trying to cut back on doing that, even though I am maintaining my weight, i still want to lose 6 more pounds, and I think not eating them I will be able to achieve that...but I get hungry!! 1200 is not enough for me...might have to up it to 1600 - 1700 :grumble:

JeSuisPrest

Educate yourself about TDEE and BMR, and yes eat those exercise calories. That is part of MFP's plan. When you chose the activity level, MFP created your deficit based on that. So it is important to eat those calories back, otherwise you will be depriving your body!

montana_girl

I believe everyone is different and you need to find what works for you. That being said, over the years I've come to learn that I needed to eat back ALL my exercise calories in order to lose weight. Same goes for maintenance. The more active I am the more I get to (have to) eat. But that's what works for me.

carriempls

The idea of eating your exercise calories is so that you eat less than you burn, but still get enough nutrition to be healthy. If you're eating 1200 and burning off 500, you aren't leaving a lot of fuel for your body.

The 1200 minimum is mainly becasue it's difficult to get all of your body's needed nutrients (not calories/energy needs) on less than that. If those 1200 calories are healthy calories, you're probably good to go.

Having an extreme caloire deficit isn't good either, but a small(er) person with a low bmr doing lighter exercise is just fine on a 1200 cal diet and not eating back exercise calories.

I eat 1200-1300 on weekedays and generally don't eat my exercise cals back unless I'm really hungry, and then it's usually just a 100 cal snack. This allows me to eat a bit more on a Fridya or Saturday (closer to 1800) and still see good losses for the week.

I work a desk job and am not exercising a ton right now, though. As I increase that, my calories will probably increase slightly.

rlmadrid

Another one of these threads? You guys should start by reading the stickies. Super helpful on stuff like this.

Cathy_Daydreams

I on the othe hand feel I have earned them so they are mine to eat, and I do.

I totally agree I personally just eat when I feel I need to eat and do my best to get an hour of exercise a day, more if I can manage it. I think it's more personal choice and can't you just deduct your exercise calories from your normal calories, so to speak?

BigAardvaark

I don't eat them. I DRINK THEM!!!

mcarter99

I don't have 'exercise calories'. I use a Fitbit to track my total expenditure. If I do some workout the Fitbit doesn't track, I don't worry about it. It's usually kettlebells or cycling and it's not that huge a burn in the big picture.

The 'facepalm' pics are just so adorable and inoffensive. /sarcasm

lowry12

i generally never eat back my burnt cals i dont see the point your working out to burn calories just to turn around and eat those calories back??? wth im good i eat and i burn and most of the time it tells me im not eating enough because i burnt more then i consumed but,,,,,, im not hungry and i dont feel run down or anything so my body is saying hey wth adn if i do feel hungry i eat sumthing light fruits or thin wheats (my fav)

deksgrl

Nope. Mine are already figured into my calorie goals.

I eat 1900 cals every day, whether I work out or not. I just make sure I bust *kitten* when I work out so that I can justify having an active lifestyle.

It comes out to about the same if I used MFP's method....1200 cals + exercise cals or my TDEE - 20%. For me it's a mental thing...I did not like having to workout so that I could eat more. On non workout days I would feel so deprived.

I do this. I set my calories manually to TDEE - 20% and eat that amount every day whether I exercise or not.

ourwickedlies

I only eat what I'm hungry for, but I always make sure I get over 1200 regardless. However, I do get a lot hungrier when I workout so I usually end up eating most of my exercise calories back.

JessMySize

Okay, I might get people a LITTLE offended, but this is the best way it works for me.

I drink 8 glasses (or near, or a little more) of water each day.

I exercise, but I don't add the exercise onto MFP, simply because I can't find it...
but only eating what they give me is my plan, if I need a few extra calories, then I'll add some exercise.

zonah

I usually don't eat them all back. But I usually do eat extra on work out days. If I feel full I don't want to force myself to eat.

mswn02

I, unlike most people on this forum, do not think it necessary. Eat if you're hungry! I end up eating like 80 - 100 back after intense workouts. My goal is 1200/day.

I personally don't agree with the "eat if you're hungry" attitude that a lot of people have toward weight loss. I believe that you should NEVER let yourself even get hungry. I call it "staying ahead of the hunger" which works well for me. My metabolism is "off the chain" nowadays; I eat every 2 to 3 hours a day. I'm rarely hungry when I eat, because if I waited until I was hungry, I'm guaranteed to overeat. (By "hungry" I can only compare it to my previous eating habits when I thought I was hungry all the time or would wait until I'm nearly about to pass out from hunger then would sit down and eat large meals consisting of obscene size portions.) So yes, I do eat back some (or on other days, most) of my exercise calories. Because for me, it is more important to eat on a regular schedule. Ten months later, I've lost 50 pounds ... AND COUNTING!

laurenmcallister

I eat extra food so I can use enough to fuel the workout. I am too hungry and can't perform well if I don't.

That being said, today I'm starving so I'm going to eat more!

albayin

I try to leave them alone as I don't really know how much I burned. I often read that overestimating exercise calorie is one of the biggest problems for those who are not losing. I am not losing...:(

mcarter99

Usually the 'intuitive eating' books recommend you try to listen to the type and severity of the hunger and make decisions based on that. A lot of people find they do best staying within like 3-7 on a 1-10 scale of hunger. And of course if you don't eat pretty slowly and want to wind up around a 7 for fullness, you probably need to stop eating around a 5 and you'll 'coast in' to that 7 shortly afterward.

camar123

I leave them alone. For me, 1200 calories is more than enough for one day.

catwoman131

To those who eat them back... so at the end of the day you end up "in the green" with extra calories? I don't want to eat mine back but I just feel hungry and those little green numbers make it so tempting...

takumaku

I eat back all my calories now. I have my setting set to sedentary since I am a software engineer. However, I am at the gym 4x a week (with 3 times a week running a 5k on the treadmill) and walk a mile or two daily. Not eating them back caused me to dip a little too low for my dietitians liking.

catwoman131

Why do people make this so complicated? If you are hungry, EAT. If you are not hungry, don't force yourself to get those extra calories in. That doesn't even make sense to me lol.

For me anyway it does seem complicated because I've never established good eating habits so, hate to admit it but indeed it's not so simple for me to determine whether I am hungry or not. I use the MFP calorie budget to guide me, so I know if I am eating an appropriate amount. Kind of sad to admit.... but I don't really know when I'm hungry and when I'm not!

crzyone

I eat my calories, your calories, their calories, and every calorie I can get my hands on. Unfortunately, that's why I'm not losing weight.

LOL.....just had to say it.

However, when I'm doing good, I do eat EVERY calorie I can get my hands on!!!

rose313

I eat some of them back if I need to. Otherwise, if I'm not hungry, I don't eat.

susannamarie

I eat mine. But I'm a) pretty careful to avoid overestimating -- I don't track things like showering or a few minutes of housework, as I figure that's already included in the sedentary activity multiplier, and b) I'm 18 lbs from goal.

I think higher deficits are more sustainable when you're further from goal, because your body has a lot more fat to feed off. And if you track large amounts of extremely light activity, you're also at more risk for overestimation, because MFP doesn't seem to deduct the calories you would have burned anyway just sitting in a chair.

Example: If Sally would burn 150 calories in an hour of sitting, but is doing some light work and burns 300 calories that hour instead, and just enters it into MFP, it'll tell her she has 300 more calories to eat. But really, she only has 150 more, because she only burned 150 extra.

I think this is one reason some people don't lose well when they eat exercise calories, because they're tracking *too much* and counting it as exercise.

susannamarie

To those who eat them back... so at the end of the day you end up "in the green" with extra calories? I don't want to eat mine back but I just feel hungry and those little green numbers make it so tempting...

I try to end up pretty close to my goal. For some things, though, like Aikido, I think the calorie calculations are going flat-out for the full period of time, and our classes just don't do that. So I enter between 1/4 and 1/2 of the time I *actually* worked based on perceived intensity, and then eat THOSE. So for a 120 minute class I would enter 30-60 based on energy level of the class. It seems to be working well so far.

Edited: This solves the 'but it's greeeeeeen' problem which I also have. It's a lot more work to enter 120 minutes and then figure out how many calories I really should eat.

Really -- try it for a month (or two weeks if you start gaining rapidly, but I doubt you would) and see how much you lost. If it's right where MFP says you should have been, your calculations are good. If you're losing faster, you're likely underestimating exercise calories or overestimating food calories. If you're losing slower, the opposite is likely. Adjust and continue.