Exercise Calories - do you eat them?

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  • akaMrsmojo
    akaMrsmojo Posts: 762 Member
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    Remember that calories burned is only an estimate, and probably a high estimate. The more you do a particular exercise the more adapt your body is at doing it and the less energy you actually burn. So eating all of you exercise calories probably will have you over eating. Eating about 1/2 is reasonable, but don't use exercise as an excuse to binge.

    Speaking personally, I do not exercise for an excuse to binge. I exercise for my health first and for most. Plus MFP does not take exercise into account. They assume you don't, so exercise is a bonus. Food is not the enemy. Considering my mom had an eating disorder, I am not about starving myself or damaging my metabolism.

    I find people on her under eat in many cases when they do not eat their calories back.
  • GlorianEversea
    GlorianEversea Posts: 22
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    Food is not the enemy.


    THIS!

    One of the best parts of this journey so far was realizing that I don't actually have to be at war with hunger! If you don't eat some of the exercise calories back, don't you feel like you're starving???

    There are reasons weight loss may slow if you eat the calories back...the biggest being that your body may actually begin to better produce muscle! But long-term, the science seems to show you should lose weight, sustainably and safely. I am wary of treating the bottom line weight as though the scale can tell you how healthy you are. And isn't health the goal?

    I also hope everyone is staying safe.
  • grobekg
    grobekg Posts: 12 Member
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    It somewhat depends on how you setup your profile. If you selected Active or Very Active taking into account your exercise routine, then the exercise calories are already part of your goal. But if you select Sedentary and then log your exercise, those exercise calories are there to be eaten if desired.
    This seems to be a popular misconception. Activity level is NOT meant to include exercise, but the amount of time you spend on your feet during your normal daily activities and job. MFP only increases your daily calories a little bit (in my case, 120) if you go up to the next activity level.

    MFP is set up to eat your exercise calories no matter which activity level you choose.

    It is not as much a misconception as it is a perspective. I set my profile to Sedentary because I have a desk job and then I log my exercise. However some people prefer to have the initial goal set with everything already accounted for, so if they know (or at least plan) to exercise everyday, they decide to set their profile to a more active level and figure they are offsetting it with their exercise. It probably is not as precise, but it is a method used.
  • psuLemon
    psuLemon Posts: 38,401 MFP Moderator
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    It somewhat depends on how you setup your profile. If you selected Active or Very Active taking into account your exercise routine, then the exercise calories are already part of your goal. But if you select Sedentary and then log your exercise, those exercise calories are there to be eaten if desired.
    This seems to be a popular misconception. Activity level is NOT meant to include exercise, but the amount of time you spend on your feet during your normal daily activities and job. MFP only increases your daily calories a little bit (in my case, 120) if you go up to the next activity level.

    MFP is set up to eat your exercise calories no matter which activity level you choose.

    it's not a popular misconception, it's popular alternatives to setting up MFP.. Essentially, it's estimating your TDEE and then forming a deficit from there. In this case, TDEE includes exercise. And I can tell you, this approach generally works better than the traditional MFP way as you are not estimating exercise calories and you eat the same thing every day.
  • cnlargent
    cnlargent Posts: 199 Member
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    I attempt to eat about 1/2 my exercise calories back, but some days I eat most of them back.
  • amyshiel
    amyshiel Posts: 9
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    LOL thanks everyone!

    I ate them ALL back yesterday mwuahahaha. I burnt 500cals this morning on a run and I have my lifestyle set to sedentary as when I am at work I am sat at a desk. Though I run in the morning and ride in the afternoon.

    I will eat back at least half of my exercise cals and see where that gets me. I only want to lose 7 to 10lbs that have been hanging on since my daughter was born....that and I am getting older...gah! :laugh:
  • majope
    majope Posts: 1,325 Member
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    It somewhat depends on how you setup your profile. If you selected Active or Very Active taking into account your exercise routine, then the exercise calories are already part of your goal. But if you select Sedentary and then log your exercise, those exercise calories are there to be eaten if desired.
    This seems to be a popular misconception. Activity level is NOT meant to include exercise, but the amount of time you spend on your feet during your normal daily activities and job. MFP only increases your daily calories a little bit (in my case, 120) if you go up to the next activity level.

    MFP is set up to eat your exercise calories no matter which activity level you choose.

    it's not a popular misconception, it's popular alternatives to setting up MFP.. Essentially, it's estimating your TDEE and then forming a deficit from there. In this case, TDEE includes exercise. And I can tell you, this approach generally works better than the traditional MFP way as you are not estimating exercise calories and you eat the same thing every day.
    You're talking about something very different. Estimating your TDEE and eating between that and BMR is a great way to go, but it's not how MFP is set up. The different activity levels on MFP do NOT take exercise into account, and several times in the past few days I've seen people claim they do. Just wanted to clarify that since there are indeed people here who seem to think that if they choose anything besides "Sedentary" then they shouldn't eat back their exercise calories.

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