Do you HAVE to eat your work out Cals?

lhorton84
lhorton84 Posts: 27 Member
in Introduce Yourself
Hi,

Im new and just wondering do you HAVE to eat your work out cal?

Thanks Lesley

Replies

  • DaniKenmir
    DaniKenmir Posts: 387 Member
    99% of people you talk to will say yes. I don't I'm just not hungry enough
  • coliema
    coliema Posts: 7,646 Member
    In my opinion, no you don't HAVE to eat your workout calories back. I will not eat them back unless I'm hungry, otherwise I very very rarely eat them back.
  • tropical24
    tropical24 Posts: 19 Member
    A lot of people do.

    I don't though, I couldn't eat that much ><
  • lilgemforgets
    lilgemforgets Posts: 285
    totally depends, they say your cal intake should always be above 1200, so if you exercise and bring it down alot then yes. They say if you eat less than 1200 then your body just stores the fat (thi is why i didnt lose for a while as i was eating way to little). I tend to eat back half of my workout calories and it is working so far for me!
  • dmdv22
    dmdv22 Posts: 22
    I am new too, I don't really know the answer to this either. If you are wanting to lose weight don't you want to be under calorie goal.If that is the case it seems you wouldn't want to eat your calories back, however if you wanted to gain weight it would seem you do, is that correct? Also if you put in your profile that you are going to workout a certain amount each week does it take into account that and adjust your intake?If so would that mean eating your calories back would be really bad for losing weight? I wish I understood this better.

    Funny thing is I have been giving myself a couple of snacks a day of an apple (if MFPis correct roughly 100 cals) and it really fills me up but I rewarded myself with a bag or salted peanuts yesterday out of the snack machine because I was way under goal and it was 310 cals. I was still hungry after that. I just have a hard time grasping that the large apple which was fulfilling would cause me to gain less weight than the 2oz bag of peanuts.
  • dlwyatt82
    dlwyatt82 Posts: 1,077 Member
    You'll need to figure out what works for you. Some people, myself included, see our weight loss slow down or stop if we try to keep too much of a deficit, which NOT eating back the exercise calories helps to create.

    Try it both ways for a few weeks at a time, and compare the results.
  • lilgemforgets
    lilgemforgets Posts: 285
    I am new too, I don't really know the answer to this either. If you are wanting to lose weight don't you want to be under calorie goal.If that is the case it seems you wouldn't want to eat your calories back, however if you wanted to gain weight it would seem you do, is that correct? Also if you put in your profile that you are going to workout a certain amount each week does it take into account that and adjust your intake?If so would that mean eating your calories back would be really bad for losing weight? I wish I understood this better.

    MFP works out your ideal caloire intake for losing weight, this includes your work out calories. In theory you could not exercise at all and still lose weight just by sticking to the calorie intake. Try to be patient and see what works for you, under eating can be really bad for you (learnt from experience!)
  • neverstray
    neverstray Posts: 3,845 Member
    You should eat them back, but you don't have to.

    Eventually, on 1200 cals, you will stop losing weight. That's because you are not fueling your body. But, you won't understand why. It will go on and on, and no matter what you do, you just won't drop any lbs. when that happens, go on over to the eat more to lose more board here on MFP and learn how to fuel your body for maximum weight loss. Until then though, do what "seems" like the right thing to do. Most people have to go through it before they believe it.
  • rosalang
    rosalang Posts: 49 Member
    i use my exercise calories as my daily treat
    i am only on 1200 cals a day as i am near my normal weight and if i ate less than the 1200 cals i would stop loosing weight
    i dont really like exercise so saving my exercise calories for my evening treat gives me something to look forward to and makes me do the exercise i wouldnt normally do
    hope that helps
  • zealousmissjj_wechange
    zealousmissjj_wechange Posts: 445
    You should eat them back, but you don't have to.

    Eventually, on 1200 cals, you will stop losing weight. That's because you are not fueling your body. But, you won't understand why. It will go on and on, and no matter what you do, you just won't drop any lbs. when that happens, go on over to the eat more to lose more board here on MFP and learn how to fuel your body for maximum weight loss. Until then though, do what "seems" like the right thing to do. Most people have to go through it before they believe it.

    /\/\/\ I didn't believe this at first, but I'm eating more now and still losing the weight just as fast! Must be true then :wink: !
  • rbrown112
    rbrown112 Posts: 1
    Oh, it's true! Luckily for us, our bodies have built-in mechanisms that keep us going, even in times of trouble. When you don't get enough calories your body goes into "starvation mode." Your metabolism slows down because your body figures it doesn't know when its next meal will be. When you eat throughout the day, your body feels like it's feast, not famine, and burns burns burns! Higher metabolism = better results! There are a lot of reasons you burn more and see better results when you eat more, but I'm no expert and can't list them all.
  • brittanypeters1990
    brittanypeters1990 Posts: 39 Member
    I was told not to by a dietician, the one who reccommended this site to me.
  • grrrlface
    grrrlface Posts: 1,204 Member
    You don't have to.
    I very, very rarely do. I will only eat them if I am hungry, my other meals are generally well balanced so I'm not often so hungry that I eat my exercise calories. :-)
  • Pebble321
    Pebble321 Posts: 6,423 Member
    You don't HAVE to do anything - but every calorie calculator I've ever seen suggests you eat more if you are more active.... Not sure why you feel you need to create a much larger calorie deficit than is necessary to lose weight?

    Www.shouldieatmyexercisecalories.com
  • marycmeadows
    marycmeadows Posts: 1,691 Member
    I recommend eating back at least half of your exercise calories - ESPECIALLY if you're eating low low calorie - like 1200 cals. I had to get up to 2000 calories a day to break my most recent plateau, and I still eat back some of my exercise calories. it works.

    edit - and it's not that hard to eat back your calories people. You eat more calorie dense foods. nuts, avocado, peanut butter, etc. don't fall into the trap of only eating low cal stuff. Not the right way to lasting weight loss.
  • AmyFett
    AmyFett Posts: 1,607 Member
    I usually do, but the past few days I've been burning over 700 calories which would have me net 2000+ and I don't do that. I'm supposed to net 1300 a day, and usually, on days that I burn over 700-800 or whatever, I usually eat like 1500 or 1600. To me, it's hard to even get to 1300 some days, so getting to 2000, forget it. But I had a regular coke the other day, and I haven't really had soda much at all, to kind of kill some calories, and yesterday, went swimming with the kids and I was over 2000 net calories for the day, I ate about 1600, i splurged and got a burrito and taco from taco bell lol.
  • laurensgettingfit
    laurensgettingfit Posts: 41 Member
    oh how can you NOT eat them. I only get 1410 a day and it is a STRUGGLE to stay in that limitation so I usually end up exercising at least 400 calories a day just so I can eat more (I love food and eating... well obviously thats how I ended up here in the first place).

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