Exercise Calories

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xtinalee17
xtinalee17 Posts: 42 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
Hi! I have recently really started keeping track of everything (the good, bad and ugly) and this includes my excercise. I know I "gain" back calories if I work out but the question is- is it necessary to eat those? Do people recommend it? I will admit I eat a bit more on work out days so it is helpful but I am not even coming close to the additional that I get back. Thanks in advance!

Replies

  • tryclyn
    tryclyn Posts: 2,414 Member
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    You can find good information in the group sections.
    I would start here.
    http://www.myfitnesspal.com/groups/home/10118-eat-train-progress
    http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/654536-in-place-of-a-road-map-2-0-revised-7-2-12
  • JesterMFP
    JesterMFP Posts: 3,596 Member
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    Bear in mind that the goals given by MFP are based on the assumption that you eat back exercise calories. Otherwise, it would have given you a higher goal to start with. MFP does not factor in your planned exercise when it calculates the calorie goal. If you follow MFP the way it is designed to work (ie. you haven't customised your own goal) then if you don't eat your exercise calories back, you may end up with too large of a calorie deficit, which may be unhealthy for you.

    This also has some good info: http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/818082-exercise-calories-again-wtf
  • wibutterflymagic
    wibutterflymagic Posts: 788 Member
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    Bear in mind that the goals given by MFP are based on the assumption that you eat back exercise calories. Otherwise, it would have given you a higher goal to start with. MFP does not factor in your planned exercise when it calculates the calorie goal. If you follow MFP the way it is designed to work (ie. you haven't customised your own goal) then if you don't eat your exercise calories back, you may end up with too large of a calorie deficit, which may be unhealthy for you.

    This also has some good info: http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/818082-exercise-calories-again-wtf

    This. The calorie goal that MFP gives us already has a deficit. And depending on how much of a weight lose you have factored in(ie, 1/2 lb per week, 1 lb per week etc.) not eating back your calories could keep your body from performing the way it should. For me, I only have a 1/2 lb weekly weight loss set so I actually have about a 200 calorie buffer so if I eat 200 calories less then what I'm set at I'm ok because I'm still only losing about a pound per week. If someone has their goals set at 2lbs per week then not eating back their exercise calories would make a big difference and their body may not be getting the fuel it needs to function.
  • agggie550
    agggie550 Posts: 281 Member
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    Im not a doctor, or a professional nutrionist in any way, but ill share what knowledge I have gained in reading up on caloric intake. Its important to fuel your body, if you deprive your body of enough calories to operate for to long, it starts to think its not going to get fed very often so rather than using the calories you take in, it uses the bare minimum and tries to store the rest, and once your body is trying to work like that it starts storing alot. The approach I took was set an amount, say 1200 Calories is what you wnat to net in day, so take your MFP recommended calories you get add your exercises calories to it, and subtract 1200, that will give you how many calories you should eat in a day and still only take in 1200. Also 1200 is just an example that is really low for caloric intake. I eat between 2800-3500 Calories a day, and I have trouble netting 1000 most days. Hope that makes sense. Good luck.
  • GrammyNanner
    GrammyNanner Posts: 88 Member
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    Last March I ate back most of my exercise calories and started gaining. I call a nutritionist who said to not eat them. I rarely eat any or much of them and have continued to lose. Each one of us has to figure out what works for themselves. When I'm not physically hungry and have the "mental munchies", drinking water or a cup of hot tea resolves the desire to eat unnecessarily.
  • ames105
    ames105 Posts: 288 Member
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    I don't eat back my exercise calories. My experience has been that eating exercise calories back stalled my weight loss completely. However, every person is different and you should play with it to find out what works for you.

    My experience has shown me that exercise machines and applications greatly over estimate the calories burned. For example, I used an app that told me I burned 445 calories during a walk. MFP said I burned 205 on the same walk. Thats a huge discrepancy. I've also read that exercise machines at the gym are calibrated towards men at a certain body weight. Being a woman at a greater body weight, I may burn more or less, depending on the machine/exercise.

    Also, another interesting article that I recently found suggested that calories burned are greatly over estimated. If you burn an average of 100 calories an hour, just by breathing and existing, but you exercise for a hour and calculate that you burned 200 calories from exercise, you are really only burning 100 calories above and beyond what you would have burned just by breathing. Not sure how true that is or not, but its an interesting theory.

    So, long story short, I don't think there is one right answer to this question. You should play with it and see what works for you. Every person on this site will give you a different answer but only you know how hard you exercise, how long, what you did and how your body reacts to it. Good luck in your journey!!

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