Confused

victay3
victay3 Posts: 14 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
Hi guys I am hoping someone can help me understand when you should eat exercise cals back and when you shouldn't. I have been reading alot or threads on here some say you should and some say you should not. And I guess I am wondering how to tell if I should or shouldn't. I am really trying hard to do this weight loss thing the right way to make it a life change and not just a weight change. I only have 20lbs I want to loose. So thank you in advance for the advice.

Replies

  • cyberiarob
    cyberiarob Posts: 229 Member
    My guess is you'll get a lot of varying answers to this question. I guess I'll start...

    I would say try it both ways and see what works best for you. Personally, I eat back some just because I'm already on pretty low cals. On non-workout days, my intake is around 1450. On workout days I burn around and extra 400-450 cals and I eat about 1700-1800.
  • quirkytizzy
    quirkytizzy Posts: 4,052 Member
    My guess is you'll get a lot of varying answers to this question. I guess I'll start...

    I would say try it both ways and see what works best for you. Personally, I eat back some just because I'm already on pretty low cals. On non-workout days, my intake is around 1450. On workout days I burn around and extra 400-450 cals and I eat about 1700-1800.

    This is solid advice. What's your daily calorie goal and activity level? Those two are usually the biggest factors in determining how much of your exercise calories you should be eating back.
  • ILiftHeavyAcrylics
    ILiftHeavyAcrylics Posts: 27,732 Member
    http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/818082-exercise-calories-again-wtf

    Read this, hopefully it'll help.
  • BurtHuttz
    BurtHuttz Posts: 3,653 Member
    Mathematically speaking, you burn 2000 calories in a day, you eat 1500, you're at a 500 calorie deficit. If you burn an extra 500 and don't eat those back, you're at a 1,000 calorie deficit. You should lose that weight in fat, right?

    I think that, in reality, it doesn't quite work that way. Stick with your normal deficit. As long as your exercise isn't calculated in your average daily energy expenditure, eat the calories back.

    If you spent a day on the weekend helping a friend move, you're going to burn 2,000 extra calories lifting heavy boxes and so forth. You definitely wouldn't lose 2000 calories in weight, it would just take you forever to recover.
  • prokomds
    prokomds Posts: 318 Member
    One more thing to add to the mix: how did you calculate your daily calories? What did you set your activity level to?

    Some people set their activity level as "sedentary" or "lightly active" to reflect their activeness when they're not working out. Then you log your exercise on top of that, and (in my opinion) eat half to all of your exercise calories. For me, eating exercise calories keeps my energy levels high, and I like being able to eat a little more when I've worked for it. Some people say to never eat back your exercise calories, because then you get "extra" weight loss, but I've never personally had any success that way. I like fueling my body!

    Or you say, your activity level plus your normal exercise routine puts you at "moderately active" (or whatever). Then the numbers you are getting already include your exercise, averaged out over the week. This means you eat about the same every day, and don't add in exercise, because it's already accounted for. Some people like the consistency of this rather than the up-and-down of eating more when you exercise, less when you don't

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