Do you eat your exercise calories or leave them alone?

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  • albayin
    albayin Posts: 2,524 Member
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    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
    mcarter99 Posts: 1,666 Member
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    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. :smile:
  • camar123
    camar123 Posts: 4
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    I leave them alone. For me, 1200 calories is more than enough for one day.
  • catwoman131
    catwoman131 Posts: 55
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    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
    takumaku Posts: 352 Member
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    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
    catwoman131 Posts: 55
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    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
    crzyone Posts: 872 Member
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    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
    rose313 Posts: 1,146 Member
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    I eat some of them back if I need to. Otherwise, if I'm not hungry, I don't eat.
  • susannamarie
    susannamarie Posts: 2,148 Member
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    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
    susannamarie Posts: 2,148 Member
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    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.
  • LorinaLynn
    LorinaLynn Posts: 13,247 Member
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    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 consider it a great day if I'm within 100 calories, under OR over, of my goal.
  • catwoman131
    catwoman131 Posts: 55
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    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.

    Thanks, that helps a bunch!
  • vallemic
    vallemic Posts: 278 Member
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    I eat them... unless I'm not hungry... and that's rare! HA!
  • TheyCallMeTaterSalad
    TheyCallMeTaterSalad Posts: 41
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    I eat them if i'm hungry but if i'm not I don't. It's working for me so far. :)
  • virichi
    virichi Posts: 2
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    What exactly ARE net calories? is the amount i need just to breath and for my organs and all that to work?
    and i hve a heart rate monitor but it never tells me how many calories I burn, is there a certain brand that i should buy?
  • lolly2721
    lolly2721 Posts: 56 Member
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    For me it depends on the day. Some days I just need the calories. I eat my calories (1500) and sometimes will eat back about half of the exercise calories. Tonight will be one of those nights as Wednesdays I run 3.5 miles then do 2 hours of martial arts. I need the carbs :) I say that you need to just make sure that you stay healthy while you slowly lose weight. At the very least, eat your daily calories. If you go over a day or two then don't worry about it.
  • marieautumn
    marieautumn Posts: 932 Member
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    i used to not eat mine back, but recently i bought a HRM which caused my work outs to become much more effective. Instead of burning 100-200 calories, now i'm burning 600-1000 calories at the gym and i go almost every day. So now i eat them back because if I don't I feel drained of energy and some times dizzy because my body doesnt have enough fuel. (MFP has me at 1200 net calories)
  • AllDIVA
    AllDIVA Posts: 45 Member
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    Absolutely NOT. LOL My trainer would kill me. Calories in vs calories out. If you are not hungry then why eat them back? It will take longer to lose the weight. There are other calorie counters that don't add them. Try it will out eating them back and see how the weight loss works for you. If you insist on eating them back then do, but see how the weight loss works that way.
  • workkoutchick96
    workkoutchick96 Posts: 145
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    LEAVE THEM ALONE! i think it kind of defeats the purpose of working out if your just going to eat back your burn.
  • Katie1951
    Katie1951 Posts: 314 Member
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    If I'm hungry then I do, if not, why waste the calories?

    Calories in vs calories out. Pretty simple.

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