Eating back exercise calories... does it work?

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  • rougenoire
    rougenoire Posts: 114 Member
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    As long as you still have a deficit then in theory you will be losing weight still albeit at a slower rate than if you didn't. You do need to make sure your calorie count is accurate though, if you use the readings from machines at the gym say then they are likley to over estimate the calories that you burn and then you will overeat. This is why a lot of people don't eat all of their exercises calories back to give them a margin for error.
  • kerrylippert1
    kerrylippert1 Posts: 2 Member
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    did bmi and weight at 1 store said 249.8lbs.week later other store bmi/weight it said 325.2....wth ?????i i asked at first store if machine is calibrated and correct pharmist said yes......i know i did not gain that much weight in one week....any suggestions????:indifferent:
  • qcman5
    qcman5 Posts: 2
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    I think its ok to eat them back, but i would stop if i'm full
    no reason to stuff your self
  • Kst76
    Kst76 Posts: 935 Member
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    Yes I eat mine back and also plan my exercise around the meals that I want to eat. If I want red lobster I'll exercise a little harder and bank those extra calories and eat them up later just like a little ms. pacman (: It's worked for so far and I've lost 33 pounds since Jan 2013!

    That's what I do too :)
  • babyblooz
    babyblooz Posts: 220 Member
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    did bmi and weight at 1 store said 249.8lbs.week later other store bmi/weight it said 325.2....wth ?????i i asked at first store if machine is calibrated and correct pharmist said yes......i know i did not gain that much weight in one week....any suggestions????:indifferent:

    It's not polite to hijack someone else's post. Start a new one!
  • cutchro
    cutchro Posts: 396 Member
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    It depends on where your Goal is set. If you said you workout 3-5 times per week and set your calorie intake to be at that level the exercise is already counted in your numbers and you probably should not eat them back. If you said you were not working out for your goal but then do workout then you should eat them back.

    I have my Goal set at my activity level so only eat extra on the days I lift.

    You will have to play with your numbers and see where your optimum intake should be working out or not.
  • babyblooz
    babyblooz Posts: 220 Member
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    Do I eat them back? Heck yes! Like others have said- see ticker! :wink:
  • auntygill
    auntygill Posts: 108 Member
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    Yes i eat mine and i have lost so far .x
  • rori_74
    rori_74 Posts: 111 Member
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    Bump
  • jamochalady
    jamochalady Posts: 11 Member
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    I use mine as a cushion. I stay within the lower part of my caloric intake range and I workout. If I get hungry, I have the calories available to use and if I'm not hungry then I just burned an extra couple hundred calories for the day. You have to find what works for you.
  • scotflyboy
    scotflyboy Posts: 1 Member
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    I only eat half of mine back at the most. Once in a great while I'll eat all of them back on a given day, if there's a lot going on that will make it hard for me to watch my consumption. I think I just have a very slow metabolism. I have found if I eat them all back, I either barely lose or don't lose weight that week. Also, if I don't exercise for at least 40 minutes of cardio at least 5-6 times a week, I don't lose weight. My advice.... always strive to NOT eat them back. You can see by my ticker that I've lost a good amount of weight and kept it off for a year by following this MO. Good luck to you!
  • notworthstalking
    notworthstalking Posts: 531 Member
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    I try too. When you use the mfp method exercise is extra. Even if you say your goal is to work out say 180 mins and 600 a week. The light, active ect are your normal daily tasks. If you use a tdee method, you put into it your planned workouts as well as daily tasks. With this you are given a greater total goal, but you don't eat back exercise calories. In most cases it is safer to lose weight slower. I have found though that I burn a lot in daily tasks as I have gotten fitter. Even in that I don't sit down so much. So it is always an advantage to exercise.
  • SCtolulu
    SCtolulu Posts: 154 Member
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    Yes, it works for me:)
  • Tme2change
    Tme2change Posts: 185 Member
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    Good info..I know my husband is physically fit he has to be and often eats most of his exercise calories..but we eat relatively healthy at the house so he doesn't put on much weight unless we slip and start buying junk.
    So I"ve been wondering the same since I"m not as fit as he is if I should eat my calories back...thanks everyone
  • KyndLady1
    KyndLady1 Posts: 4
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    If I eat them back I don't lose as quickly, if I don't eat them the weight drops off.
  • KellySue67
    KellySue67 Posts: 1,006 Member
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    I use mine as a cushion. I stay within the lower part of my caloric intake range and I workout. If I get hungry, I have the calories available to use and if I'm not hungry then I just burned an extra couple hundred calories for the day. You have to find what works for you.

    This, and I've lost 28lbs since January 2013.
  • piggydog
    piggydog Posts: 322
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    i was wondering the same thing !! so i should eat them back even if i'm not hungry ?!!

    That's my thing...If I am hungry I eat... If I am not then I don't
  • JoRumbles
    JoRumbles Posts: 262 Member
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    If I eat them all back I don't lose weight- though I guess I might gain muscle.

    This is complicated by the fact that I am already eating 1,800 cals a day becuase I am nursing an infant. Doing the 30DS and a brisk walk could take me up to 2,200 cals available to eat and for me that means my weight stays the same.

    Its nice to have them available though becuase if I'm hungry then I have a cushion!
  • jacksonpt
    jacksonpt Posts: 10,413 Member
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    i was wondering the same thing !! so i should eat them back even if i'm not hungry ?!!

    That's my thing...If I am hungry I eat... If I am not then I don't

    That's fine if it works for you, but soooo many people on this site (including myself) have terrible eating habits and/or unhealthy relationships with food... so the idea of eating when you're hungry and not eating when you aren't is terrible advice.
  • jacksonpt
    jacksonpt Posts: 10,413 Member
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    Ok everyone... rather than continuing to throw around individual experience and anecdotal "evidence", here's the deal...

    A calorie deficit results in weight loss. The bigger the deficit, the faster the weight will come off. The weight loss may not always be healthy weight loss, but the number on the scale will go down faster the greater the deficit. In time you may see some metabolic/hormonal changes to yoru body that cause weight loss to slow/stop, but in the short term, a greater deficit = greater weight loss.

    The kicker to this is that the greater the deficit, the more restrictive you have to be with cals. The more restrictive you are, the harder it is for most people to sustain the diet, which often times leads to more cheating and yo-yo dieting... both of which will slow/limit/halt your progress.

    So the trick is to find a healthy deficit that you can sustain and be happy with, that also gives you some reasonable results. Then, as you lose weight, you'll periodically have to reassess your cals to continue losing weight. If you read between the lines here, that means you also need to have reasonable expectations for your weight loss, something a lot of people struggle with.

    How you choose to achieve that deficit is up to you - you can do it with diet alone, or with diet and exercise. If you choose to incorporate exercise, you can use an approach based on your BMR (like MFP and BMR calculators) that doesn't factor exercise into your daily calorie goal, in which case you'll want to eat back cals burned working out... OR you can use a TDEE-based approach (like TDEE calculators) which does factor in exercise, and as such you won't want/need to eat back burned cals. But the essential constant has to be maintaining a calorie deficit... the method of how to reach that deficit is up to you.

    .

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