Eat your exercise calories/Dont eat your exercise calories?

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  • TaminaShock
    TaminaShock Posts: 191 Member
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    Makes a lot of sense thanks
    I actually think that you should not eat your calories until you get to your goal weight. As long as you are trying to lose weight, the exercise you do will help you burn more cals and shift the weight. If you keep eating the additional cals, you are simply going to stay the same or lose the little bit that you would have done without the exercise and just sticking to a healthy calorie amount.

    For this reason, it is a good idea to remind yourself why you do the exercise - it is to get healthier, not just to eat more Eating too much is what got most of us on this bl..dy website in the first place!

    MFP calorie goal already sets a defict so that people can lose weight woithout exercise. It is unique as it bases the calorie goal on your weight/age/height/daily job, and ignores your exercise.

    so 2 people of the same age, height, weight, job will be given the same calorie goal by MFP if they both chose the same weekly goal of 1lb per week.

    If one then sits on her couch every night watching TV, but the other one is doing 3 hrs of exercise a day, does it still make sense to you that they both eat the same amount of calories?

    Person 2 would need extra calories to fuel their workout, extra protein to help repair/build their muscles etc. They can eat the food to get those extra calories, protein, iron, vitamins etc and still lose the lb per week they selected.
  • taso42
    taso42 Posts: 8,980 Member
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    http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/818082-exercise-calories-again-wtf
  • MoreBean13
    MoreBean13 Posts: 8,701 Member
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    I eat them all. 820 today- GET IN MAH BELLEH!
  • megsmom2
    megsmom2 Posts: 2,362 Member
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    I do..there's no reason not to, I lose weight just fine...and the extra calories give me some leeway in what to cook or eat.
  • Duck_Puddle
    Duck_Puddle Posts: 3,237 Member
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    I actually think that you should not eat your calories until you get to your goal weight. As long as you are trying to lose weight, the exercise you do will help you burn more cals and shift the weight. If you keep eating the additional cals, you are simply going to stay the same or lose the little bit that you would have done without the exercise and just sticking to a healthy calorie amount.

    For this reason, it is a good idea to remind yourself why you do the exercise - it is to get healthier, not just to eat more Eating too much is what got most of us on this bl..dy website in the first place!

    What's so special about reaching goal weight that all of a sudden you could/should start eating more? Hmm...

    I eat every yummy exercise calorie. If I'm craving some sort of crap (bacon cheeseburgers are a weakness), I'll exercise longer just to "earn" the crap. Eating more calories than we use is what got most of this to this website. If I'm using the calories, I can eat them and not gain. As long as I maintain a deficit beyond what I use, I will continue to lose. Mfp gives you a calorie goal that assumes you're not going to do any exercise. Mfp does NOT assume I should be netting less than 0 calories for the day when I burn 1200+ on a long run.
  • djenah79
    djenah79 Posts: 23
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    i try not too...but i don't kick myself if i do. if i'm hungry, it eat. i don't want a "diet" to take over my life, because I'm not "dieting" I'm making healthy life changes. Yes, I'd like to lose a few lbs, but I don't want to be completely miserable or feel like i'm starving myself in order to do it. i think mfp has been a great tool to figure out how much i'm really eating and where i struggle with my diet so i can focus on making healthier choices. If you are concerned about eating your calories back, but are hungry at the end of the day, grab something healthy like fruit or vegetables to snack on!
  • mochalishious
    mochalishious Posts: 97 Member
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    It depends on the day for me. Some days I eat some of my calories but never all
  • taso42
    taso42 Posts: 8,980 Member
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    It depends on the day for me. Some days I eat some of my calories but never all

    keep trying. you'll get there. :flowerforyou:
  • CyberEd312
    CyberEd312 Posts: 3,536 Member
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    If you're accurately tracking your exercise calories AND caloric intake, eating exercise calories will work for everyone. Use a good HRM, properly calibrated, & good food scale.

    Agreed!! and to add to that another reason to eat your exercise calories back is to fuel those workouts!! Your caloric deficit is built in to your MFP (unless you are using TDEE) so you do not need to make a bigger deficit, I eat back 85% of my exercise calories leaving 15% for error in logging or my HRM and have managed to lose some weight in the process. Best of Luck.....
  • taso42
    taso42 Posts: 8,980 Member
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    If you're accurately tracking your exercise calories AND caloric intake, eating exercise calories will work for everyone. Use a good HRM, properly calibrated, & good food scale.

    Agreed!! and to add to that another reason to eat your exercise calories back is to fuel those workouts!! Your caloric deficit is built in to your MFP (unless you are using TDEE) so you do not need to make a bigger deficit, I eat back 85% of my exercise calories leaving 15% for error in logging or my HRM and have managed to lose some weight in the process. Best of Luck.....

    Quoting for emphasis. When a guy with a ticker like that talks.. I pay attention.
  • Elleinnz
    Elleinnz Posts: 1,661 Member
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    Yep - 110lbs lost - and would eat at least 50% of my exercise cals back - every time!!
  • YoungDoc2B
    YoungDoc2B Posts: 1,593 Member
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    I don't eat them back
  • Sharon_C
    Sharon_C Posts: 2,132 Member
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    I've done both and they both work for me. However, over the holidays I wasn't eating enough of them back and I stopped losing. When I ate more back, I started losing again.

    Now, since I'm not as active as I was in December (retail job), I'm trying to find that right balance again. I try to listen to my body. If I'm hungry I eat some of them back but I try to never eat all of them back.
  • Elleinnz
    Elleinnz Posts: 1,661 Member
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    I actually think that you should not eat your calories until you get to your goal weight. As long as you are trying to lose weight, the exercise you do will help you burn more cals and shift the weight. If you keep eating the additional cals, you are simply going to stay the same or lose the little bit that you would have done without the exercise and just sticking to a healthy calorie amount.

    For this reason, it is a good idea to remind yourself why you do the exercise - it is to get healthier, not just to eat more Eating too much is what got most of us on this bl..dy website in the first place!

    ^^^^ First paragraph - jut plain WRONG!!! You can listen to someone with 0 lost - or people like Ed and myself that has "been there - done that"

    Second paragraph - agree with the exercise to get healthier bit here.....

    I always say I eat right to lose the weight - and I exercise to be healthy....BUT - that should not stop you from feeding your body properly!!
  • Colleen790
    Colleen790 Posts: 813 Member
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    I generally eat them back unless I need to save them for the weekend which is when I eat a bit more. I have lost 26 lbs since May and was eating 1200 calories plus exercise calories.
  • kdeaux1959
    kdeaux1959 Posts: 2,675 Member
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    I usually eat back some but not all... This helps to eliminate some of the overestimate of exercise and underestimate of calories.
  • SurfyFriend
    SurfyFriend Posts: 362 Member
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    I eat every single one back, plus have cheat days on special occasions. I lose weight slowly, but consistently. I am happy with that because its easy to stay on track.
  • BlackTimber
    BlackTimber Posts: 230 Member
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    All the numbers are approximate. Eat back 50%-60% for a while. If you lose more than expected then increase a little. If you do not lose then decrease a little.
  • TheCaren
    TheCaren Posts: 894 Member
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    I just recalculated my TDEE based on my past 10 weeks weight loss and customized my weight loss goals/calorie intake/macros in MFP. As a result, I will no longer eat my exercise calories. But when I used MFPs standard calorie setting, I ate most of my exercise calories. When I exercised... LOL
  • Helenov
    Helenov Posts: 56
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    At my weight, some of the exercise I'm doing is burning major calories - 800+ calories burned in a day. I can't eat all that back. I had a day recently I burned something like 1200 calories in a day, I was so tired afterwards I fell asleep for the night. The next day I was so hungry I over-ate by a lot, and I'm pretty sure that was worse because my body probably wasn't burning the calories as well the next day.

    My advice is eat to how hungry you are - eat a bit after you exercise, and if you need more later, eat something else.

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