feel stupid..but why eat your workout calories?

13»

Replies

  • stephdeeable
    stephdeeable Posts: 1,407 Member
    I eat back half or more of my exercise calories. Some days I eat none of them back, I'm not worried about having too much of a deficit because I'm still very big and have around 50 percent body fat, so yeah.....buuuut, one of the main reasons I exercise is to have more calories to eat! Eating is great.

    If your calorie goal is 1200 or 1300 though, you should probably eat back some of your exercise calories for the day unless you want to have a net of 700.
  • WendyTerry420
    WendyTerry420 Posts: 13,274 Member
    when you calculate your calouries and u oputed in there 3 times a week it is calculated in your calorie intake , then u do not eat them back

    It actually is not included. Only your non-exercise activity level is baked in.

    you said baked.


    now i want cake.

    and pie.
    No. "Baked" triggers a craving for a doober.

    :wink:
  • WendyTerry420
    WendyTerry420 Posts: 13,274 Member
    I eat back half or more of my exercise calories. Some days I eat none of them back, I'm not worried about having too much of a deficit because I'm still very big and have around 50 percent body fat, so yeah.....buuuut, one of the main reasons I exercise is to have more calories to eat! Eating is great.

    If your calorie goal is 1200 or 1300 though, you should probably eat back some of your exercise calories for the day unless you want to have a net of 700.

    I am kinda the same, but I don't use the calorie goal that MFP gave me. I am doing 1900 now, and not eating most of my exercise calories. The 1900 goal gives me a deficit of 600/day, and my burns are usually around 200-400. This is why "eating back" is so controversial because it really depends on your calorie goal to begin with. MFP wanted me at 1200. That's a calorie goal for the birds, in my opinion. :smokin:
  • BobSassafrass
    BobSassafrass Posts: 85 Member
    I always eat back atleast half of my exercise calories. I usually burn about 600 a day, and I haven't had any issues with my weight loss stopping.
  • brevislux
    brevislux Posts: 1,093 Member
    Personally I won't go to lengths to eat my exercise cals. I eat them if I'm hungry, but I still wouldn't just not eat them at all because otherwise strength training would be a waste of time.
  • Sparlingo
    Sparlingo Posts: 938 Member
    I'm a short woman and with a 1200 calorie-per-day diet I am only projected to lose 1.1 lbs a week even though I'm technically obese with a BMI of 30.3.

    So my strategy so far has been to always eat my 1200, and on exercise days, eat enough on top of that so that my appetite is satisfied. Some days that's about half my exercise calories, and on somedays I don't need to eat any to feel full enough.

    The way I see it for me, the only way I can create a bigger deficit and lose a little more is through activity. I have no room to create a bigger deficit in my diet because I'm already eating the lowest recommended amount. Also, I like to give myself a buffer because I don't have a heart rate monitor yet and I know that MFP typically overestimates calorie expenditures for exercise.

    You'll find that opinions on this topic run the gamut. Just know that unless your calorie in vs. out calculations are inaccurate (which, to be fair, is a possibility) you're not going to impede weight-loss by eating your exercise calories as MFP already accounts for a calorie deficit in your daily net calorie goal. Make sure you're eating in a sustainable way and not leaving yourself hungry, drained, unable to exercise due to fatigue and ready to jump off the fitness bandwagon. That's not going to get you any further toward your goals!
  • michellekicks
    michellekicks Posts: 3,624 Member
    I just posted this on my blog the day before yesterday... it explains why I advocate eating them back. People seemed to like it:

    http://www.myfitnesspal.com/blog/mrsbigmack/view/finding-the-sweet-spot-452184

    Just as a side note... from April to August, I lost 20 lbs with only a 290 calorie average daily deficit. Of those 20 lbs, 4.6 lbs of it were lean mass. It would have been way more if I'd had huge deficits.
  • kdeaux1959
    kdeaux1959 Posts: 2,675 Member
    Balance in all things. Eat PART OF your exercise calories back but not all.. Here is why.

    1. MFP already figures a deficit for your desired weight loss so by not eating part of that back you will actually have a higher than recommended deficit. Exercise requires fuel and food is fuel. More is not always better so dropping too low may actually work against you in the long term.

    2, HOWEVER, I do NOT recommend eating ALL the exercise calories back... This is because we tend to underestimate what we eat and over estimate our exercise benefit. I like to err on the side of caution (generally)... Has worked for me.

    Best wishes on your journey.
  • elorawood
    elorawood Posts: 68 Member
    I used to do this crazy thing where I would just eat the min 1200 calories per day and work out like crazy. It was very difficult and bad for my body - I messed up my metabolism, I had it a few times where I would skip my period and I put myself through torture that was very unnecessary. I would stay on my weight for a long time or even gain weight because my body was trying to hold on to everything as much as possible.

    Now it´s a lot healthier and easier to maintain - better to make a change of life style than some crazy diet that feels like torture and slows down your metabolism (and will probably yo-yo back).

    So yes, I do eat (or drink) some of the workout calories back - depending on what I did that day and how I feel.

    HOWEVER - I just recently read about gross and net calories burned - so I guess it is VERY important to calculate this correctly. Because if you add your workout as ¨gross¨ instead of ¨net¨ then you will overestimate how many calories you actually burn - eating those calories back would not help you much with your weight loss.

    Here is a really good article about the difference:
    http://www.shapesense.com/fitness-exercise/articles/net-versus-gross-calorie-burn.aspx

    And here is a calculator that will tell you how much of your gross calories (what it will tell you on the running machine at the gym for instant) are actually net calories (the ones you can eat back).
    http://www.shapesense.com/fitness-exercise/calculators/net-versus-gross-calorie-burn-conversion-calculator.aspx

    Hope this helps!
  • EmilyOfTheSun
    EmilyOfTheSun Posts: 1,548 Member
    Because after I workout really hard I'm freakin hungry. And since I've been eating back my workout calories, I've been losing weight and toning more quickly than ever. It's fabulous. NOM!!
  • waldo56
    waldo56 Posts: 1,861 Member
    Working out doesn't build muscle if you're eating at a calorie deficit and your metabolism is a genetic thing not something you can reset by increasing or decreasing your workouts or food.

    Your metabolism definitely changes over time in response to a deficit OR surplus.

    (yes you can plateau and not gain while in a heavy surplus, especially after you've been at it a while, the same phenomenon people who have been losing a while experience, switch the direction of your surplus/deficit and you'll reverse the metabolic adaptation)
  • Ann1964x
    Ann1964x Posts: 76
    I do not eat back my workout calories at all. And I don't buy into starvation mode.




    Agree
  • evapanini
    evapanini Posts: 4
    Same here, it doesn't make sense to eat them.
  • lizziebeth1028
    lizziebeth1028 Posts: 3,602 Member
    I thought the whole point of working out was to lose weight? so why do you eat those calories back?

    MFP is set up with the intent that you are eating back your exercise calories. You need to fuel your workouts! At the end of the day you still have to net a certain number of calories a day to lose weight safely. Rapid weight loss is unhealthy and you'll lose a lot of muscle in addition to fat. Slow and steady wins the race.
  • postrockandcats
    postrockandcats Posts: 1,145 Member
    Balance in all things. Eat PART OF your exercise calories back but not all.. Here is why.

    1. MFP already figures a deficit for your desired weight loss so by not eating part of that back you will actually have a higher than recommended deficit. Exercise requires fuel and food is fuel. More is not always better so dropping too low may actually work against you in the long term.

    2, HOWEVER, I do NOT recommend eating ALL the exercise calories back... This is because we tend to underestimate what we eat and over estimate our exercise benefit. I like to err on the side of caution (generally)... Has worked for me.

    Best wishes on your journey.

    I agree with this. I generally eat within 100 cals of goal as a buffer. :)
  • Ladiebug710
    Ladiebug710 Posts: 133 Member
    I eat some of them but not all of them.
  • aliciapenny
    aliciapenny Posts: 51 Member
    I would suggest using an online calculator (not MFP) to figure up your TDEE and stick to that. If you do that it takes into account your activity level which means no eating back calories.

    If I use the formula to dtermine my TDEE I get about 2050. If I set up MFP to set my goal to gain one lb a week it gives me about the same number. That is not right at all. I trust the TDEE formula much more than MFP for calorie goals. there is no way I could gain a pound a week at 2050 calories a day.
  • bkbinky
    bkbinky Posts: 1 Member
    Mokey41's comment on this is the 1st I read that's true. Every time I get a "starvation warning" for eating 1199 calories instead of 1200 I laugh … in fact I do it on purpose just to feed my sick humor. :bigsmile:

Categories