Do you eat back your exercise calories?

Yasmine91

I don't because it simply does not work for me. I've experimented and it really doesn't work. I only eat maybe like 200 of them if I am desperately hungry.

Enigmatica

I eat back as many as I want

jennajocummings

I am glad to see MOST people don't eat their calories back either. I sort of started feeling like the outcast on MFP. It seems like the one's screaming about it are the one's that do, and if you aren't part of that cult you must be the crazy one. Good to know I am sane!

Crochetluvr

I do sometimes. Or if I have a treat that takes me over, I exercise it off.

Solisci

No one is talking about consuming 700 calories. I am talking about eating the goal calories-not starving myself.

If you eat 1200 and exercise 500, you consume 700 calories, net. If you eat 2000 calories and exercise 1300, you are netting 700. People may not realize they're doing it.

I had a period of a few years where I was netting fewer than 500 calories a day; sometimes even negative calories. I didn't realize it at the time bc I did not count calories or exercise then.

agree!

rciszek

I don't eat my calories back, per say. I don't see how eating back the calories you burned is going to help you to work off the fat that you're still storing because you're replacing it. Sometimes I will slightly go over and will eat a bit of them, but it's usually because I am so hungry or it's my cheat/date night that week. I just try and make sure that I'm being smart and letting my body let me know.

nabak147112

i dont

Solisci

I eat them all; sometimes I go over in a day; sometimes a bit under, but I try to reconcile within 24-48 hours bc that's what works best for my energy level.

I exercise a lot, because my job is teaching dance and fitness (specifically, spin). I teach about 20 hours a week, and outside of that, I also go road cycling, paddleboarding, and I enjoy lifting heavy objects and putting them back down

I eat A LOT of calories, and I burn a lot of calories.

Anyway, here's an old post of mine which may interest you:

---

From one of my old posts from a similar topic:

OK. I'm gonna give this a shot. I am an avid lifelong athlete. I have never been overweight, however, I used to eat too few calories (without knowing it), and a couple years ago, I actually GAINED weight bc of having slowed my metabolism to the point that every little extra treat I ate caused a weight gain, even though overall my calories were too low. THIS DOES HAPPEN.

It is also the reason so many fat people stay fat. They restrict their calories so low, slow their metabolisms, binge (even a little), gain weight, restrict more . . . . and so on and so on. But they are still fat.

It is also the reason most people can't lose that last 10-20 lbs. For real.

1. MFP has a deficit built in. Let's say you're trying to lose 1 lb/ week. That is a 500/day deficit from your BMR (the amount of calories your body needs to complete basic functions.

2. You exercise and burn 500 calories. Now you are at a 1000 deficit. If you eat back those 500 exercise calories, you refuel your body and you still have a 500 deficit for that 1 lb loss. If you DON'T eat back those calories, you have too little fuel. This is bad. This is too much of a deficit for basic functions. If you do this for a long time, you will STOP LOSING WEIGHT. Why? bc your metabolism will slow down -- it's like a brownout--not quite enough electricity to make the whole city (your body) run, so it has to slow down some things. You will probably start being tired a lot, your skin and hair might start to look worse, and you might even gain weight. But you might NOT be hungry -- your body is getting used to fewer calories. That's bad.


That's when you start to gain weight. Let's say you're running along, eating 1200 calories a day, and exercising 400 calories a day, so net is 800. You're losing, you think this is great. You keep doing it, but after a while you stop losing. hmmmmm. One weekend you go out to a special event and have a slice of pizza and a beer. 1 slice of pizza and 1 beer. So you ate maybe 2000 calories that day and exercised off 400, so net 1600. BOOM! You gain 3 lbs! What?!

Next, you freak out and restrict yourself down to 1000 calories a day and work out extra hard, burning 500 calories. Great, netting 500 now. You don't lose any weight, but you sure feel tired. Better get some red bull.

Are you getting the picture?

EDIT: When you work out, you need fuel. Food is fuel. If you don't eat back those exercise calories, you will not only have a big calorie deficit, you will have an ENERGY deficit. Remember, the calorie deficit for weight loss is built in when you use MFP. Exercising basically earns you more calories because you must refuel.
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There are many people who will tell you not to eat exercise calories. Before you take their advice, you might want to see whether they are at goal, have EVER been at goal, or have ever been able to maintain at goal. If anyone says to you 'THE LAST TIME I LOST WEIGHT", just stop listening right there.

Ask some athletes whether or not they replenish their bodies with food equal to the calories they burn. Ask people who are fit and have achieved and maintained a healthy weight for some years. Don't ask people who count walking across a parking lot as exercise.

Here's an interesting case study about how to stay fat while consuming only 700 calories a day. Take a moment, you'll be glad you did:

http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/3047-700-calories-a-day-and-not-losing

blessings.

Thanks for the info! I def eat some of my calories back, just started doing this recently.

JenniBaby85

I don't eat all of them back. Just some.

tourettte

if I ate them i'd probably spend my evenings throwing up from being sick from too much food. I can't eat that much. i barely reach 1000.

doonesbury

N O P E ! !

leejayem

Calorie deficit. Figure it out.

come on, she asked for help.

If one understands the definitions of TDEE and calorie deficit, this question is moot. It's a matter of how one wants to do the accounting.

She framed it as "poll" so it's just going to be the usual split of people who understand calorie deficits vs the "i never eat my calories back; i don't see the point" idiots.

Wow - don't really appreciate being called an idiot!! I am losing weight steadily & I don't eat back exercise calories - my endocrinologist, who recommended this method of weightloss, has successfully helped many of his clients to lose weight & keep it off. What are your qualifications in this field exactly?? You must be an "expert" of some kind to be freely calling other people idiots for doing what works for them!! As would be the case for everyone one here, I will continue to use whatever method gives me results...:noway:

chicbuc

I ignore exercise calories so the exercise log is just to track time spent exercising for me. Exercise calories are highly over rated. You can't exercise away eating too much food. I learned this the hard way most of my life running marathon after marathon (and lifting) and not being able to lose weight and in fact continued to gain year after year. And I don't pig out, binge, snack mindlessly, eat out of boredom, etc, but the portion sizes are too big for a small person like me. (Well I wasn't small when I weighed over 170 lbs at 51'0"!)

Anyway I found what worked for me was separating out the two things:

Eat less to lose weight
Exercise to maintain or build lean body mass
end of story.

I found just ignoring all the complicated stuff everyone throws at us is the key. Day in and day out focus on two things. Eat lless, move more, stay within calorie budget (either weekly or daily). You can eat low one day and high the next, whatever you want. Well, it did work for me. I am the fittest, leanest, strongest, and most muscular I've ever been in my life at age 51 and I'm healthy and don't get sick and have long endurance.

If you have a lot of body fat reserves you would be surprised at how little you can eat (unless you have emotional eating issues or disorders). The leaner you get the less your body has to draw from and then you have to taper up your calories. There is no such thing as starvation mode for women over 12% body fat or men over 6% body fat. I am a living breathing example of that. I went from obese to now under 12% BF and I've maintained for one year and built muscle the whole time. You don't BUILD muscle in starvation mode, so I proved everyone wrong.

You are a prime example of what I DON'T want to be. I'm eating 2000 calories a day, enjoying life, building muscle, getting stronger, improving my metabolism, and losing weight. I'm not trying to prove you wrong. I'm trying to have my cake and eat it too...pun intended if that means it takes me a year to get this last 10 pounds off. So be it. I'll take my time and be able to maintain at twice what you eat which makes me a happy girl.

AmyFett

I do if I'm hungry. I don't if I'm not. I don't bust my *kitten* just so I can eat more.

The_WoIverine

I refuse to comment on forums since the know it all always argue what is right or wrong. Last time I checked most people here are not even in the fitness field, and just because some got good results doing something, it doesn't mean it is the right way of doing things or it applies the same to everybody.

With that said, here are a couple of things. This topic has been discussed plenty of times. Although there's enough useless information posted by people, some posts have very informative stuff.

It is hard to explain in a short comment all you need to know about calories, how the body functions, etc. Remember, fitness and nutrition can be careers that take years of study, and everyday there's new researches that contradict previous ones.

The first major mistake people do is blindly believe what MFP says. There are professionals who work with people and use professional tools other than just a couple of clicks and numbers MFP asks for to calculate what's your LBM, BF, RMR, etc. Therefore, it should raise a flag right away when MFP suggest so many people to eat only 1200 calories a day. Unfortunately, everyone is desperate to lose 2 lbs a week (something possible to do but a little desperate if you ask me since muscle could be part of what's being loss due to malnutrition). Selecting a level of activity based on "active, moderate, sedentary, etc" is also vague, because not everybody burns the same amount of calories, due to factors like gender, LBM, weight, age, and the actual physical activities.

So what happens? MFP suggest that 1200 calories has the "right" deficit for you to lose weight including whatever amount of time you selected you would workout a week. Well, the issue here (aside from 1200 being for the most part incorrect) is that your body needs energy to live. Vital functions like walking, extending your hand to grab a cup of coffee, breathing, thinking, pumping blood thru your blood vessels, etc require energy. This energy comes from Carbs, since it is the preferred source of energy of the body. When create a deficit, you're forcing your body to find energy in other places, such as adipose tissue (body fat) and muscle fibers. Because your body won't magically target body fat only as the energy source, part of your weight loss will involve muscle mass, even when you eat enough protein (which by the way, MFP sucks at the amounts of protein it suggest people to eat).

What comes next? Well, eating 1200 has already a deficit for your regular functions. What happens when you workout? You use extra energy, more than you use just to walk from your cubicle at work to your co-worker's. What this implies is, your body will use in part energy (blood glucose) to keep up with your workout, your liver starts converting glycogen back to glucose to keep up with the demand, and the whole nine yards. Because you're using an excessive amount of energy during the workout, plus your body will be using extra energy to recover and repair the muscle tissue during the rest of the day, the places to look for are body fat and muscle tissue. Why? Because you decided not to eat your workout calories back. In other words, if you burned 400 calories during your workout, your 1200 calories, which already had a deficit for you to lose weight, went down to 800 calories. Because your body is not getting enough energy and nutrients in general, it will target both muscle and body fat.

Eating less doesn't necessarily means losing more weight, or body fat in this case. You'll be losing muscle mass, even when you think you might not.

A car can't run without fuel, just like the body can't run properly without food, and when food is not available, it will find it anywhere it can, and not where you want it to be found.

I'm far from being an expert, since I'm still learning from my mistakes and from new material I believe is trust worth it. So to those who decide to either say my comment is bullsh*t or with lack of scientific evidence, you can go to... you know where.

Whether you (the OP) decide to believe and research about what I just wrote, or not, is totally up to you, but remember, you want to lose weight in a healthy way, and not going crazy by starving yourself.

Edited: And one more thing, muscle burns fat. Building muscle will help you burn fat, and to build muscle you need to eat properly, including protein, carbs and fats. The major misconception women have is that lifting weights of working on building muscle will make them look like a man. WRONG! Is not like you won't be looking at yourself in the mirror and not knowing when is enough for you. Besides, women don't gain muscle as fast as men can because of hormones.

kareinlib

if I ate them i'd probably spend my evenings throwing up from being sick from too much food. I can't eat that much. i barely reach 1000.

Yeah, this is another issue of mine. If I have to make myself eat all of that back, I don't know how I'm going to be able to while still eating healthy. Making it to 1200 can be a struggle for me.

Jacwhite22

Hell yes.....I wouldn't exercise as much if it didn't mean I could eat more.....

seed_of_wonder

if I'm still hungry i might eat some back but I'm not going to force myself to eat

AmandaTWaH

It really comes down to basic math...

If you have MFP set for you to lose 2 pounds a week your goal is already giving you a 1000 cal deficit. So you eat up to your goal and you are at -1000 cals for the day. You exercise and burn 500 cals. That puts you at -1500 if you don't eat more and it is generally NOT healthy to have more than a 1000 cal deficit. If you are only doing light exercise like the occasional walk, it isn't going to hurt you but if you are actually working out, eat some of those cals!

Now, most people are saying the MFP numbers are inaccurate. If you have a HRM it will be MUCH more accurate. Otherwise I would suggest eating around half of your exercise calories to start and watching how your weight changes to decide if you should eat more or less of your exercise cals. (Always give yourself two weeks to test the results of a change like that. The first week usually isn't a good indicator.)

mrsvatitagain

Sometimes I do, sometimes I dont, depends on if I am hungry or not. You have to do what works for you, that being said MFP is designed for you to eat them back believe it or not. Just saying...I know this and still do not comply all the time. LOL