Should I eat my exercise calories?

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dasein83
dasein83 Posts: 8
in Health and Weight Loss
I'm a little confused as to whether I should or not. I'm new to all this. Can anyone help?

Replies

  • Mokey41
    Mokey41 Posts: 5,769 Member
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    It depends how you've arrived at your calorie budget.
  • lewcompton
    lewcompton Posts: 881 Member
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    Here come the trolls... This is the biggest debate on here... Feel free to add me, anyone can!
  • now_or_never13
    now_or_never13 Posts: 1,575 Member
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    If you are using MFP calorie amounts than yes, eat your exercise calories back. Especially if you have a low daily goal. A lot of people don't which causes you to net far too little. If you are netting under your BMR you should be eating exercise calories back to try and minimize how much muscle you lose along the way.
  • dasein83
    dasein83 Posts: 8
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    Oh great, MFP has trolls too? Insidious creatures.

    I put in my height, weight, activity level and goals. It gave me my calories budget. Is this not the right way?
  • IronMan_DuhamNC
    IronMan_DuhamNC Posts: 52
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    Yes Yes Yes
  • cmeiron
    cmeiron Posts: 1,599 Member
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    Oh great, MFP has trolls too? Insidious creatures.

    I put in my height, weight, activity level and goals. It gave me my calories budget. Is this not the right way?

    Yes. In this case, eat back the exercise calories.
  • dasein83
    dasein83 Posts: 8
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    Great.

    Thank you!
  • MrzMallory14
    MrzMallory14 Posts: 3 Member
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    I don't eat my exercise calories in my opinion defeats the purpose of creating a calorie deficit to lose. I eat my alloted calorie budget but again that's what's working for me :) Good luck on your journey.
  • mallen404
    mallen404 Posts: 266 Member
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    Calculate your TDEE and your BMR.

    TDEE is the amount of calories to maintain.. so eat less than this to lose weight.

    BMR is how many calories your body needs in a coma state, eat more than this.

    So eat in between :)

    My TDEE is 2323, my BMR is 1507. I currently eat around 1600-1700 a day
  • now_or_never13
    now_or_never13 Posts: 1,575 Member
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    I don't eat my exercise calories in my opinion defeats the purpose of creating a calorie deficit to lose. I eat my alloted calorie budget but again that's what's working for me :) Good luck on your journey.

    Keep in mind MFP sets up your daily goals based on a deficit that does not include exercise. So, if you selected to lose 1lb per week your deficit is set at that regardless of any exercise you do. When you exercise, following MFP settings, you eat your calories back since your deficit is already built in. Not consuming enough will cause more muscle loss than you normally would with a proper deficit.

    The only time you shouldn't eat your exercise calories back is if you calculate your daily calories via the TDEE method. This way you should of already accounted for your exercise when coming up with your TDEE. That is unless your exercise would require you to net less than your BMR.
  • fausonk
    fausonk Posts: 41
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    When you say you "eat 1600-1700 per day", is that gross or net? I think gross, but want to be sure.
  • ladymiseryali
    ladymiseryali Posts: 2,555 Member
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    Oh great, MFP has trolls too? Insidious creatures.

    I put in my height, weight, activity level and goals. It gave me my calories budget. Is this not the right way?

    I would eat the exercise calories. If not, then you may end up netting too low, which leads to not losing the weight you want. You basically need to net your original calorie goal.

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