Do you eat back your burned calories?

powership00

If I am hungry I will, if not I wont. I spend some of my burned calories on workout days with protein after the workout.

Hbazzell

Yes. If you're using MFP correctly and logging your exercise calories, you should be eating them back.

Correct. If you are doing TDEE then you dont.

ashlinmarie

Very rarely do I eat them back...usually if I'm going out and know I'm going to be eating more than I usually like to. Sometimes I'll dip into them a bit, but I've noticed when I eat them back, I don't lose.

smartin0181

I do the same. MFP says I burn more than I actually do! I also go by my heart rate. If I can't carry on a full sentence and I am a little winded, I will say I burn about 10 calories per minute. I try to consume it least half the calories I burn, but I am never hungry after a workout. I can barely get down a protein shake for my muscles.

Givemewings

Yes I do!

PoshDinosaur

This is interesting to me. I can comfortably sit at 400 calories under my allowance on a non work out day, and I eat well. On a workout day, my heart rate monitor says I burn between 800 and 1000 calories. So I can end a day under half of my allowance. I use protein powder and am a decent cook so I know the nutrients are there.

All the same, still not sure whether eating it all back is a good idea, somehow seems excessive to me. I imagine it would help with muscle gain, but at a time when I'm actively trying to she'd weight it seems counterintuitive to eat more.

I like the idea of eating back some of it, though.

An added wrinkle is my partner has nowhere near the allowance i do - I'd hate to sit there eating a whole tub of ice cream.

Elzecat

Yes, most of the time. I try to slightly overestimate the calories in my food and underestimate calories burned through exercise, so I leave myself a little margin for error...but I run and workout hard and usually eat into my exercise calories, if not eating all of them at times. It's worked for me for the past 30plus pounds that I've lost, hopefully will continue to work ok for the last 15 or so.

bugsysbak

If you want to lose weight, you need to create a calorie deficit. Burning 3,500 calories more than you consume in a week helps you lose 1 pound. If you exercise off 500 calories, replacing them will slow your rate of weight loss. If you are eating fewer than 1,200 calories per day -- the minimum amount you need to get adequate nutrition -- you should replace at least some of the calories burned during exercise to prevent muscle loss and possible nutritional deficiencies.

KLC2784

Sometimes I will eat some of them back, especially if it was a really intense workout. The more calories I burn in the morning, the hungrier I tend to be throughout the day even though I am eating regularly. I am currently training for a half marathon, and when I am doing 10/11/12 mile training runs burning upwards of 1100 cals I am most definitely eating some of those back.

blleadon

I eat mine back until I reach my tdee -20% number, which is still eating most of them back

sharonhayward775

i started last week and been eating most of mine back and ive still lost 5.5lb this week. think this speaks for itself x

keithf1138

Some of it some of the time.

It makes me feel wrong to get near the end of the day and feel the need to consume simply to consume. If I am not hungry and have had a good nutritious, but active day, it feels wrong to consume for consumption sake. Makes me think that when I am all done with wanting to exercise and loose weight and simply want to exercise and maintain weight I will put myself in a position for bad habits.

twoss9112

Not all of them. I like to leave margin for error.

This.

I make it a point to leave the margin for especiialy when I know I may not have an accuarate number for a certain thing that I had, and if it's something like meat, where I may not have a correct weight and might be off by a couple ounces, I will usually over estimate the food and leave a margin of what I "eat back".

I hate that term though, "eat back exercise calories"... makes me cringe, and I also think it confuses people to say it like that.

You can "eat back" all or some of your exercise calories and still be too far off your net number, depending on what else you ate that day and just how active you were.

You have to pay more attention to your net number, in my opinion. Ever since I started to do that I have been more successful at averaging the 1 lb / week loss (now up to an 11 lb overall loss)

mjeischen

Nope. Maybe a little bit but overall I leave them alone. 42lbs in 3.5 months . . . I'm not going to change whats working. When it stops working I'll re-evaluate

sharonhayward775

this might not work for me later on when am near my target but for now it does. what u need to eat changes with how your body changes so later on i might not eat them back it all depends on what my body needs x

tonyrocks922

nuff said

cherryemma73

I was wondering about this, I eat mine but my weight has gone down then up, so I think I need to try eat way less

girlsjustwanna

Unless you want your muscles to start eating themselves you MUST eat back your calories. At least most days. Have a small deficit on some days but remember you are already eatin at a deficit determined by MFP! The more muscle you build the more calories it needs and muscle burns calories rapidly when used so in the long run you will lose more weight feeding the muscle after it's been exercised hard!

cwolfman13

I was wondering about this, I eat mine but my weight has gone down then up, so I think I need to try eat way less

Eating "way less" will also lead to metabolic stall. My guess is that if you're gaining when you eat back exercise calories that you've already stalled out and your body has to re-boot it's metabolism to consume a healthy amount of food. Either that or you are substantially underestimating consumption and/or overestimating burn.

The world GOAL is right there next to your calorie number...a GOAL is something to be achieved last time I checked.

TxRottie81

i agree you should drop not drop below the recommended caloric intake for the day... However if you dont consume all the calories back you will probably be okay. but make sure you are eating a balanced diet andlistening to your body. Do not drop below the min. caloric intake determined by MFP.. its science.. you cant cheat science...

babydiego87

if im hungry yes. probably wouldnt eat all of them as im hesistant to believe that i burned all of that off :indifferent: just a thing i have

ainsleybtown

not all of them. My trainer has me at 1500 calories so that's what I am eating with 4-5 workouts a week. Averaging 1.5 loss per week.

Sonjalalala

I do.
I try not to eat them ALL back, but I don't stress about it too much. Heck, sometimes I even go over by a bit. Yeah I'll probably lose the weight a lot slower... But once I reach my goal weight, I think I'll be able to maintain it a lot easier than if I starved myself now. I get damn hungry when I work out!
1400 calories are not going to satisfy this food monster, especially when lifting weights!

Andrew_peter

Tried to go without eating them back but found on my cardio days I would just get famished and feel weak. Now eating back half which I find is way better and still losing weight at a decent pace.

sexymuffintop

This thread just makes me sad. :grumble: How can so many people not understand how MFP works. It already creates your deficit without adding exercise in. Anything you burn through exercise is extra. It's not needed to create a larger deficit if you are following MFP generic calorie amounts.

cinrn68

I try not to net less than 1200 calories/day. Some days it's harder than others, but for the most part that's what I've been doing.

marcvandenberg

I don't eat them all, but when I excersise a lot in 1 day, i just eat some more, else i'm realy cold and feel I did to much.
Ending 700 or more under your goal isn't the idea.

Marc

amysue1971

Noooooooooooooooo...

amybg1

I do! I'm always hungry post-workout But eating after a workout refuels your body with carbs and protein and some believe also helps recovery. I've lost pounds as well as inches doing this. I don't necessarily eat back ALL my calories - especially if it's a huge burn but a third to half is satisfactory

ChaseAlder

Almost always, unless I just can't fathom eating another bite of food for some reason. I'm already eating at a deficit if I DON'T work out, so those extra calories are free.