Do eat back my excercise calories on maintenance?

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angel101netta
angel101netta Posts: 152 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
I'm really confused I'm on maintenance, can I eat back my excercise calories?
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  • TNR32
    TNR32 Posts: 110 Member
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    I would say yes. Cause other wise you would still lose weight.
  • tami101
    tami101 Posts: 617 Member
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    I agree with above. I plan to when I get to goal.
  • MeanSophieCat
    MeanSophieCat Posts: 200 Member
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    The general answer is yes. If not, you would be at a calorie deficit and not maintenance.

    That said, you might have to play around with the numbers and see what works. Even with a heart-rate monitor you don't always get the correct number of cals burned. If you are overestimating your exercise cals and eat them all back, you might gain weight.

    I tend to be conservative, so I would probably eat back about 50% of my exercise cals for about 3 weeks and see what that does to your weight. If it goes down, try upping to 75% of exercise cals. Do that for three weeks and see what happens.

    Might take a little trial and error but great job getting to maintenance!
  • Meggles63
    Meggles63 Posts: 916 Member
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    Or, you can set your cals. to your TDEE and not eat them back....6 of one, half dozen of the other :wink:
  • PrincessNikkiBoo
    PrincessNikkiBoo Posts: 330 Member
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    The general answer is yes. If not, you would be at a calorie deficit and not maintenance.

    I tend to be conservative, so I would probably eat back about 50% of my exercise cals for about 3 weeks and see what that does to your weight. If it goes down, try upping to 75% of exercise cals. Do that for three weeks and see what happens.

    Might take a little trial and error but great job getting to maintenance!

    This sounds like a good plan. I plan on eating mine back and keeping my profile at sedentary... just because my work out routine varies week to week!
  • angel101netta
    angel101netta Posts: 152 Member
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    Or, you can set your cals. to your TDEE and not eat them back....6 of one, half dozen of the other :wink:

    Okay now I'm confused lol isn't tdee, maintenance!
  • sijomial
    sijomial Posts: 19,811 Member
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    At maintenance you are trying to balance your calories in and your calories out.
    The MFP way would have you eating them back. (I do.)

    If you don't eat them back all your exercise will create a deficit and therefore a weight loss.
  • lambchoplewis
    lambchoplewis Posts: 797
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    I am maintaining my goal weight and it is hard. I liked losing better as I loved to see the drop on scale. BUT... I now know that seeing the SAME number on scale is the important part and fitting into my clothes!!! I had to play with calories in including my exercise until I maintained. It took a while to figure it out. I am 53, 5'2" and maintain at 100 lbs (I am very small) so... I can't eat that many calories/day to maintain. I exercise so I can eat what I consider a "normal" amount of food.
  • Meggles63
    Meggles63 Posts: 916 Member
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    Or, you can set your cals. to your TDEE and not eat them back....6 of one, half dozen of the other :wink:

    Okay now I'm confused lol isn't tdee, maintenance!
    TDEE includes all exercise/exercise cals., so no, you wouldn't eat them back. The maintenance MFP sets you up on does not include exercise, so you would eat those cals. back. It all depends on whether or not you are consistent in your workouts.
  • kristen6022
    kristen6022 Posts: 1,926 Member
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    Yes, eat them, if you don't you'll be in a deficient and you will keep losing. Yes, TDEE is maintenance. The above poster may have been confused. Don't freak if the scale goes up a bit, you more than likely won't maintain the exact weight, but a range of 3 pounds is realistic!
  • Bigmitch41
    Bigmitch41 Posts: 73 Member
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    Why not? otherwise you will no longer be maintaining ;)
  • LorinaLynn
    LorinaLynn Posts: 13,247 Member
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    You should have been eating them all along, if you were using MFP to calculate your calorie goals.

    Here's how it works... you tell MFP your basic stats - height, weight, age and your activity level. It generates a number based on the average person of your gender with those stats, but that doesn't include your exercise. To maintain at lightly active, it gives me 1730 calories. But I run 3x a week and lift weights 3x a week, burning an average of 400 calories. So that would put me up to 2130.

    If I use another site to calculate my calories, it uses all those same basic stats, but you would include your exercise in that calorie goal. It might also include your body fat percentage, so if you're more athletic, you'd get more calories. Doing that, my maintenance is about 2300. Which all in all, is pretty close to the 2130 MFP could calculate, and loads higher than the 1730 MFP would give me before I include exercise.
  • sijomial
    sijomial Posts: 19,811 Member
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    Don't know if this will help but this is how I'm managing the transition from weight loss to maintenance.
    Over a period of four weeks I slowly increased my calories (custom set your goal calories) until I got to the number of calories I think will be my maintenance level.

    I'm now at that maintenance level and wil stick to that number for another four weeks and see what my weight does - at the moment I seem to be very slowly losing (one pound in three weeks). If that loss continues I will add another 100 calories and see how that goes for another four weeks.

    In reality your ideal weight isn't one specific number, it is a range to allow for normal weight fluctuations.

    All the time I'm eating back my exercise calories - MFP method suits me better as my daily burn varies from zero to 1200+.
  • kdub67
    kdub67 Posts: 181 Member
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    I've been on maintenance for a month and I generally eat back about half of my exercise calories. I usually fluctuate about half a pound or so at my weigh ins, though I did have a weird 1.9 pound loss one week. My thought is that I know my calorie counting isn't entirely accurate, especially when eating food I haven't prepared myself. I do use a HRM but like others have said, who really knows if it's completely spot on. I err on the side of caution and try to leave a couple hundred calories of wiggle room.

    I also drop down to 1200 net for a couple of days after eating a cheat meal to try to regulate myself. I don't starve myself or go hungry, but I really watch my calories, eat food I've prepared and can track accurately, and get my exercise in.
  • CoraGregoryCPA
    CoraGregoryCPA Posts: 1,087 Member
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    I'd vote yes! I wish I was there! I don't believe in eating them while I'm losing, but I do while I'm in maintenance!! Soon, soon! I guess this depends on if you increase your calories to the "normal" amount. I would keep mine at 1400-1500and then eat back my exercise calories while in maintenance. I wouldn't change my basic calorie intake-but that's me.

    Just watch the scale, and let us know the result and your experience!
  • jmyoung971
    jmyoung971 Posts: 32 Member
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    So if you are still trying to lose, should you eat back your calories? I try not to but I have gotten into them at times.
  • LorinaLynn
    LorinaLynn Posts: 13,247 Member
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    So if you are still trying to lose, should you eat back your calories? I try not to but I have gotten into them at times.

    Yes. It's how the site was designed to work.
  • angel101netta
    angel101netta Posts: 152 Member
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    Thanks heaps for your replys everyone.
  • SamanthaClarexo
    SamanthaClarexo Posts: 353 Member
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    Yes eat them back :happy: Yum!!
  • jenilla1
    jenilla1 Posts: 11,118 Member
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    Yes!!! I've been on maintenance for a couple of years now and from my experience, if I don't eat back my exercise calories I start to lose again. I'm right where I want to be, so I eat ALL my exercise calories. EAT and ENJOY! :drinker:

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