do you lose weight when you eat exercise calories back

Jacium

The law of conservation of energy is an inescapable law of nature. It ensures that if you burn off exactly x calories, then consume and metaboize exactly x calories, your weight will not change. However, as you convert fat into muscle, the muscle is metabolic and will burn more calories than fat even when you're not excercising. This gives many people the perception that they are losing weight even though they are replacing the calories indicated by a fitness machine. The overall result is good (assuming one is trying to lose weight).

rmcannell

I would be in big trouble if I didn't consider exercise calories as part of my diet, considering I am burning 600 - 1500 calories per run 5 or 6 days a week and some days even more.

I'm sure if you're doing light exercise it's not as critical, but if your goal is to get fit not just skinny it may not be wise to ignore them completely.

Goal_Driven

No, I try to avoid eating any of my exercise calories back if I can unless I get super hungry, then I'll eat back about a 1/4 to 1/2, but never all. Seems to be working

WDEvy

I upped my calories to TDEE -20% so I no longer eat them back but when I was following the MFP suggested calories I ate back about 50% and I have a steady weight loss.

Sick_Beard

Eating your exercise cals back is not about losing more weight, but about preserving precious muscle mass. Those that don't eat their exercise cals back will only end up being skinny fat and have a harder time to lose on the long run since the more muscle you have the more cals you burn in a resting state.

purpleipod

Considering the deficit I need is there before I even exercise, yes.

larbot3000

Another thing to note is that exercise calories are often a guesstimate rather than an exact science, this is when it may not work for some. A deficit is still a deficit though..

Consider the following:

Person A eats 1800 calories and burns 1400 calories doing a boxing class
Person B eats 1400 calories and doesn't do any exercise

Weight loss outcomes should be the same provided Person A hasn't overestimated their calories burned..

Then you have Person C, they eat 1400 calories and burn 500 calories. They've actually created a much larger deficit than the two above. Typically it's not a good idea to consistently create such a large deficit - it's not sustainable.

if a person burned 1400 cals and only ate 1800 it is NOT the same as someone eating only 1400.;....do u mean if someone burned 400 in a class?

Yes.... Obviously a typo

ipsamet

Yep, I've lost all 71 pounds while eating back my exercise calories. I'm going for fit not just skinny, and to do that I need to feed my muscles!

WeekndOVOXO

It doesn't for me. Although I think it was the type of calories i was consuming, i.e. sweets.

Julicat6

I eat back some exercise calories, but not all. I have 3 reasons for this..
1. I think MFP overestimates calories burned.
2. It allows for discrepancies in measuring foods or hidden calories in prepared foods
3. It works for me I don't lose at 1230 which is where MFP put my daily intake, I also don't lose eating all back(learned this when doing a different program.)
I don't believe in One Diet Rules Them All. Everybody is different and is at a different point in their health and fitness journey. I will probably eat them back as I get closer to goal and shift my focus from loss to maintenance. Experiment and find what works for you. I will say this regarding eating less than 1200, it's really hard to get a good nutrition level at that low intake. If you are doing below that it needs to be under close supervision of a Dr. and needs to focus on optimal nutrition.

psuLemon

Its in my tdee calculations... and since i prefer to lose fat and not muscle i fuel myself with 2600-2800 calories a day which is a 20% deficit below my tdee.

And P.S, jealous! I get 1340 cals a day...doesn't give me much room to slip up!

If you exercise consistently, you can eat more than that. Especially with as little weight you need to lose.

psuLemon

The law of conservation of energy is an inescapable law of nature. It ensures that if you burn off exactly x calories, then consume and metaboize exactly x calories, your weight will not change. However, as you convert fat into muscle, the muscle is metabolic and will burn more calories than fat even when you're not excercising. This gives many people the perception that they are losing weight even though they are replacing the calories indicated by a fitness machine. The overall result is good (assuming one is trying to lose weight).

I would like to point out, it is impossible to convert fat into muscle. It is also, almost virtually impossible to gain new lean body mass while cutting fat.



But I will note, if you don't feed your body, your body will feed itself by taking the amino acids in your muscles to create energy. This means, you lose muscle if you don't eat enough. Now, I will note, it is normal to lose some lean body mass throughout your weight loss journey, but you want to minimize it (as noted in the below thread).



http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/729141-exercise-calories-to-eat-or-not-to-eat-results?hl=to+eat+or+not+to+eat

pkw58

It depends. If I eat every meal at home so I can measure and weight, then yes, I eat a portion back. If I am eating out 1-3 meals a day, generally, no as I am estimating!

I would suggest adding 50-100 calories a day of the exercise calories to see how it works for you. We are all different.

klwells08

Absolutely eat my exercise calories back. That being said, I use a HRM to estimate my calorie burn versus MFP. I found MFP to estimate the burn too high.

acpgee

I eat all of mine back, and am nonetheless losing at my target rate of 1.5 pounds a week. I've lost 8 kg in 11 weeks. That said, you need to be careful about estimating burn rates. I use an elliptical trainer for cardio work, and the machine typically says I burn 500-700 per hour depending on my speed. The MFP database gives 1000+ for the hour, which I override with the machine reading. I wouldn't be losing if I didn't.

mulderpf

Two things I wish to say:

1. I exercised, but never broke into a sweat (it's all just walking, cleaning etc). There are many people who look down on people who log stuff like cleaning or walking down to the bus stop, but I was moving more than I would if I didn't do that!
2. I ate back many of those calories - to be fair, I only logged them when I needed them if I wanted to have some wine. (So no, I didn't eat them back to have fruit and veggies and healthy stuff, it was mostly so that I could have wine or beer or a chocolate).

It worked for me - I consistently lost weight every week.

(I have to add lastly, that I still looked at my total food intake and made sure it never went over my maintenance calories - but at no point was there a week where I only maintained - and if there was, my body made up for it the next week by dropping around double).

LorinaLynn

I had my activity set to lightly active, logged exercise, ate most of my calories back, and on average, lost exactly what my weekly goal was set to. When I was aiming for one pound a week, that's what I lost. When aiming for a half pound a week, that's what I lost.

There was some variations because weight loss is never linear. Some weeks I'd lose more, some less, some none at all, sometimes I'd even show a slight gain. But averaged over time... right on schedule.

momofthreesons

Yes! I have my activity set to sedentary and only log actual exercise. I normally eat most earned exercise calories back. I've lost 37lb since April

NJL13500

I usually eat about half of mine back and try to leave 300-400 at the end of my day for mistakes that I have made...underestimating food calories (when I don't have my scale handy) or overestimating exercise calories. I have lost fairly steadily. I find that I can't function with only 1200 per day when I exercise between 60-90 minutes. I usually end up anywhere between 1400-1600 in food before exercise factors in.

mle58

My workouts range from 400 to 800 calorie workouts...so for each workout I only consume an additional 150 calories the rest i consider a faster way tolose weight. The 150 healthy calorie snack 30 mins after the workout gives me the energy i need to reenergize and keeps me full until the next meal. I do lose weight by doing this about 1.5 pound a week.

nxd10

Yes. I put myself as sedentary, log my exercise, and eat most of it back - all of it if I'm hungry. I've lost steadily and have gained muscle. If I did more heavy lifting, I'd have lost the same, but have more muscle - which, frankly, would have been better.

debs6

It worked for me and continues to do so while I am in maintenance - I lost 99lbs and since then have been maintaining since May- in fact I have inadvertently lost a bit extra weight since starting maintainance.