Eating back your exercise calories

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gobifree59
gobifree59 Posts: 56 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
I've seen many times in different threads that some people suggest eating the extra calories you burn by exercise. I was wondering why that is a good idea? I always thought that if you stayed close to eating the calories you need per day, that anything over that would be burned and great for losing weight. Help me out please.

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  • warpedlogic
    warpedlogic Posts: 30
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    The reason why is because MFP already calculates a calorie deficit for you if you put in any weight loss for a weekly goal. If you put in maintenance for your goal, then MFP will not calculate a calorie deficit and then you shouldn't eat back the calories if you plan to lose weight.
  • JesterMFP
    JesterMFP Posts: 3,596 Member
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    When you set up your goals on Myfitnesspal, it calculates a calorie deficit for you based on how much you say you want to lose and what you say your activity level is. That deficit exists even if you do no additional exercise. The way Myfitnesspal was designed, the deficit is created for you on the assumption that when you do additional exercise, you log that and eat back the "extra" calories, to bring your calorie deficit back to what was originally calculated for you.

    Some people choose not to eat back those calories and so make their calorie deficit bigger than was originally calculated. Other people set up their calorie goals in a different way and rather than deal with "exercise calories", they include their exercise in their activity level to start with.

    If you calculate your calorie burn using MFP's calculators, it may be quite inaccurate. You may end up overestimating your calorie burn and inadvertently overeating. For this reason, a lot of people only eat back a percentage of their exercise calories, to leave room for error.
  • gobifree59
    gobifree59 Posts: 56 Member
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    Thanks for the explanations! I never eat back my exercise calories and used MFP for my weight loss goals so I guess I'm ahead!
  • supplemama
    supplemama Posts: 1,956 Member
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    I eat back half of mine and I'm losing weight at a nice steady clip :)
  • floridaboater
    floridaboater Posts: 20 Member
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    I have poured over the message boards to understand this concept and now it makes sense....I didn't fully understand how the mfp calculated it to begin with...thank you!!
  • Heyyleigh
    Heyyleigh Posts: 268 Member
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    I'm the same I would never eat them all back, because I am not a scientist and this is all pretty much a guess. I measure and have learned, but really its not an exact science. I might eat back a small portion and leave the rest for my guestamation errors.
    I tend to follow what my fitbit tells me since I wear it 24/7. The 2 sync so its nice.

    I do notice when I eat more I do lose a bit more. Just hard to learn its ok...
  • mrk34
    mrk34 Posts: 227 Member
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    I don’t eat "exercise calories" back. Consuming "exercise calories" on purpose doesn’t make any sense to me. I don't create calorie deficit to waste it by eating additional calories. I lost 91 pounds.

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