Do you HAVE to eat back your exercise calories?

stacifahlsing

OK... so I have a question about exercise calories that might help the weight come off. I have been diligent for a few weeks and weight was coming off and then I have plateaued for about a week. I go sick of not losing so rather than exercise last night I went to the Chinese Buffet! I know right!?! Not a way to eat right off of the Chinese Buffet! I tried my best, but certainly went over... LOST A POUND LAST NIGHT!!!!! Haven't lost at all for a week and splurge and lose!

So, I looked back at my diet. I am eating around 1500 calories. I am exercising about 500 calories. On some days I will eat a couple hundred, but never the full 500. So, my net calories have been running around 1000-1200. Would that have caused my body to hold on to the weight??? Should I eat more food even if I am not very hungry right now? For example, I am at 1053 net calories right now... 8:00 at night. I don't think I should eat this late, but... I want to lose the weight!

Coolhand1969

You might be better served posting this question in the main MFP forums.... From what I've seen, there is a lot of debate if it is necessary to eat exercise calories. I can tell you that the MFP numbers are designed for you to do eat back your exercise calories. The problem is being able to know exactly how many you've burnt, because really all you can get are estimates. A good HRM will help, but even that isn't totally accurate. So, personally, I've ended up usually eating back half to 3/4 of my exercise calories normally.. But, like I said, I've seen a lot of different varying opinions on it on the main boards - from a lot of people that seem to know what they're talking about. So, I'd say, experiment and find what works best for you... The only problem with that is that you should stay consistent for a period of several weeks. Just like your weight, you can't get an accurate measurement day to day because of fluctuations in various things like water retention, so you need to track over a longer period to get a true measure. That is probably why you lost weight when you went to Chinese even though you went over your calories. Also, even if you slightly go over your calorie allowance for a day, you could still be in an overall calorie deficit...

amyj000

Agree with Coolhand1969 about looking in the main forums. Lots of relevant information for you. To me, 1,053 calories sounds low, but everybody's body is different. Some of the good advice I read was to shake things up. Maybe one day eat 1400 and the next 1200. Keep your body guessing so it doesn't get used to one thing and expect it.

This post is pretty informative:

http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/654536-in-place-of-a-road-map-2-0-revised-7-2-12

tweak222

2nd the good HRM and eating about 3/4 of my exercise calories back! It is important to replenish your body ESPECIALLY after an intense workout! Your body is going to look for some nutrients to begin replenishing and strengthening your muscles. So I would look into what kinds of food you should eat after a good workout! I try to eat something with a good amount of protein after an intensive workout. I have definitely become a believer in eating some calories back! Being obese while doing the P90X program, I end up burning around 900-1000 calories a workout. When you're in that territory you gotta replenish your body! If you start to feel grumpy and grouchy then that is usually a good indicator that you need to eat something.

Yesterday after I burned around 1000 calories total, I started getting grouchy at everyone trying to cook some tuna patties to eat after my workout. My body was nutrient deprived and my attitude was reflecting that. Once I ate, I felt a lot better. So I would look for subtle indicators like that. As you burn calories you also need to make those calories back up if you want your muscles to repair properly otherwise your body may decide to eat at lean muscle mass because it is far more efficient to break down muscle when your body is starving for energy. Like everyone else says, every body is different! I'd recommend eating some calories back from my personal experiences but you should poke around and do some more research on it and make your best educated decision!

Durginal

Just wanted to reiterate one of coolhand's points - you cannot weigh yourself after one meal to determine the extent to which that meal has/will affect your weight. Don't do that. Haha.

Philllbis

Just from my own experience I can say that I never ate back my exercise calories. I averaged a weight loss of 2lbs a week pretty consistently for 10 months. I used a heart rate monitor to get a better idea of how many calories I was burning from exercise. If you do adjust your calories or eating, give it a few weeks to really see how it affects your loss.

Mighty_Rabite

I eat back most of mine usually but it depends. I actually do caloric cycling but I'm always emphasizing high protein intake too, especially since I've been cutting. These have been my general goals:

Monday: net deficit of 700 or more
Tuesday: net deficit of around 300-600
Wednesday: net deficit of around 200-500
Thursday: net deficit of 200-400
Friday: net deficit of 100-400
Saturday: net surplus of ~500
Sunday: net surplus of ~500

All the while I've eaten roughly 40-45% of my calories from protein. Focusing generally on these goals (I've had plenty of variance, a couple of weekends ago I followed a +2500 Saturday with a -1300 Sunday), I've actually dropped 15 pounds in a bit over five weeks.

angrabus

I was wondering this same thing...I get 1200 calories a day and I burn between 500-700 calories a night in my workouts. I usually eat back most of those calories. I was wondering if I should be doing that. It sounds like from what you all have posted that I should eat some or most of those exercise calories since I've burned them to help replenish the body. I haven't seen my scale number go down as fast as I would like, but I've noticed it in how my clothes fit. So I hope I'm doing something right! I wear a pretty good HRM watch so I get a pretty good feel of what I've burned which helps! I'm still going to check out the main forum for other opinions and ideas...thanks!!:happy:

_chiaroscuro

This post is pretty informative:

http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/654536-in-place-of-a-road-map-2-0-revised-7-2-12

^^^This, you probably aren't eating enough. If you increase your calories to the proper amount, don't panic if the scale creeps up a bit at first. It falls right back down and then some.