Do you eat your "exercise" calories?

I don't, but that's because I'm never sure how accurate my exercise calories are. The app I use reckons I burn over 1000 calories in my 90 minute workout, but I could never eat that much more food in a day. I tend to ignore my exercise calories, but not worry too much if I go slightly over.

I have the same goal every day regardless of exercise, it is just easier for me this way.

http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/833500-what-do-i-do-common-sense-cliff-notes
http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/654536-in-place-of-a-road-map-2-0-revised-7-2-12
http://www.myfitnesspal.com/groups/home/10118-eat-train-progress
http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/840082-a-sad-realization?hl=sad

Sometimes I do, depending on how hungry I am or not, but try not to eat them as this is a plus for losing more.

I eat every yummy one of them - just maybe not on the day I actually "earned" them. I generally burn about 3000-3500 cal/week through exercise. If I don't eat those calories, I'm way too tired, hungry, cranky, lethargic and miserable. Plus, I enjoy naughty food every so often-and I generally "need" the exercise calories in order to fit the naughty food into my diet.

Do I have an extra something just because I worked out? No. If my feet are killing me after working out for an hour, that cheeseburger that I'm craving is not worth it. I used to do that, and after I ate, I felt like I wasted my time working out bc I was just going to have to start all over again just to burn off those calories. That is such a letdown to have to start from square one all over again. Not worth it.

NOT THIS AGAIN

A simple search would have resulted in thousands of forum threads answering this very same question.

I'm new to the program (joined last year, but never did anything) ... as a former WW'er I'm wondering ... do you eat the calories you earn for exercise?

TIA :flowerforyou:

Most of the time.

No. I don't even track exercise here (I do strength training 3x a week and cardio 3x a week) .. I just consider them bonus deficit.

Ok, here's the deal. When you set your goals in MFP you select an activity level that does NOT include exercise and then select to lose how many ever pounds per week is your goal. MFP then gives you a net calorie goal that includes a caloric deficit to match your weight loss goals based on whatever it is that you input. The key here is that MFP gives you a NET goal...because exercise is NOT included in your activity selected, you are expected to eat your exercise calories back to net to your caloric goal. This is why, when you log exercise, MFP will up your calorie goal. It's a goal...it's something to be met, not something to shoot under or over.

Depending on what you selected as your weight loss goal and how much exercise you do, eating back your exercise calories may or may not be a big deal. If you selected to lose .5 - 1 Lb per week and don't do that much exercise...and only burn maybe 200-300 calories, it's probably not a big deal as you won't likely be netting below your BMR (Basal Metabolic Rate). If you've selected 2Lb per week loss and exercise with frequency/intensity, this could be a huge issue. If you're on the 1,200 calorie deal and don't eat your exercise calories this IS a VERY, VERY bad thing. This is because, on average a 2Lb per wk loss and/or the 1,200 calorie goal is already somewhat below your BMR and has roughly 800-1,000 calorie deficit from maintenance calories already in it. Now you go exercise and burn another 300 or 400 or whatever...now you don't eat those back and your deficit is massive and unsustainable for your body. Your body is smart...in an effort to defend itself and ward off starvation, it will shut down "non-essential" functions and slow metabolism and instead of losing 1Lb per week or 2Lb per week, the scale doesn't budge and sometimes weight gain occurs.

Bare minimum is 1,200 calories NET OF EXERCISE for your body to maintain proper organ function. Netting below that number with frequency and over a long period of time will ultimately result in all kinds of issues, the least of which will be metabolic stall. Very overweight and obese individuals can do this for longer than people needing to lose 50 Lbs or less because they simply have such a large surplus of fat to unload...less than 50 Lbs to lose and you're really doing yourself a disservice going this route...if you have less than 30Lbs to lose, you should most definitely not be selecting an aggressive weight loss approach as you will plateau in very short order.

The difficulty in eating your exercise calories back comes by way of estimating these calories. Many data bases are overstated...machines are somewhat more accurate, and HRMs are fairly accurate, but not perfect. When I was following the MFP method, I ate back between 50-80% of my exercise calories to account for margin of estimation error. I now use the TDEE method, so it's not an issue.

Normally I don't. I will eat the reccommended amount of calories which is 1540 for me. I will use the exercise calories if I am hungry or we are going to go out for dinner. Keep up the good work. Hope this info helps!