Extra calorie allowance from exercise

You're meant to eat back whatever calories you've burnt. When you put exercise into MFP it adds the calories to your daily goal, so you just eat until you've hit 0.

Personally I don't eat back my exercise calories because they're so hard to measure. There are posts all the time about how the machines and MFP overestimates the amount of calories you're burning by loads, and even heart monitors aren't all that accurate, so I just don't bother.

Hello,

I was wondering what people generally do about the extra calorie allowance that you earn when you record exercise on the app. Do you still aim for your normal daily calorie intake, or do you eat a bit more when you've done exercise?

Thank you in advance!

eat it?

I allow myself to eat a little more than normal but still healthy as you need to increase your food intake somewhat if you are exercising heavily. But just because you have extra calories from exercise doesnt mean you need to eat them otherwise you'll see no weight loss. Instead I allow myself 1 cheat day a week where I eat what I like and don't feel guilty because I have all those extra calories I didnt use from exercise I took during the week.

This is incorrect; you're misunderstanding how MFP works. MFP gives you a calorie goal with a calorie deficit already built into it, based on your normal daily activities, but not based on any planned exercise. Therefore, if you never did any exercise, you should still lose weight with that goal. MFP gives you that goal on the assumption that you will log exercise and "eat back" those calories. They're not supposed to be optional extras, they are there to make sure you don't end up with too large of a calorie deficit, which would no be healthy.

That fact that it's impossible to get 100% accurate data for calorie burns is another issue, and only relevant (imo) if you are eating back exercise calories and not seeing progress over several weeks. I don't see the point in not eating any of them back on the basis that it's hard to estimate burn. You'll never get a 100% accurate value for calorie consumption either, it's all based on estimations.

It depends what you have down as your activity level. If you have your calories set with activity included, you should not eat them back (unless you exercise beyond this level). If you have your activity level set to sedentary, then eat back all your exercise calories.

I have a body media fit. I set my desired deficit on there and it tracks all my daily activity. At the end of the day, I usually have several hundred to a thousand plus EXTRA calories. It gives me projections on daily burn so I can adjust throughout the day accordingly. I still allow for a hundred or so calories as cushion.

When I was just using the machines/MFP estimates of activity, I wouldn't log my exercise (limited cardio and weight lifting doesn't really burn it up) but wasn't afraid to go over by a hundred calories if I was hungry or didn't feel well.

Hello,

I was wondering what people generally do about the extra calorie allowance that you earn when you record exercise on the app. Do you still aim for your normal daily calorie intake, or do you eat a bit more when you've done exercise?

Thank you in advance!

Seems like a simple equation: when calories eaten is less than calories burned you get fat loss. It depends on how accurate your resting calorie burn rate has been entered, and how many exercise calories you are burning. If you are not burning a lot of calories, i.e. short cardio, weight lifting, etc, then I wouldn't bother with eating back the calories. However, if you are doing large calorie burns (an hour or more of running, swimming, biking, etc), then I would eat more calories on days you burn a lot of calories so that the calorie deficit is not too large.

My wife and I get an extra Corona Light ...or two....or maybe three....I tend to enjoy this bonus , especially on the weekend....works for us!

^^^ I like them for this reason too! I like my beer!

What they said!

I've always used the calorie estimates on MFP and I've lost weight- I don't think they're inaccurate, but I'm always careful not to be too generous with my calorie/portion details - I weigh all cereal, pasta, potatoes for example, and especially cheese! I even measured how much wine my glass hlds so i can make sure I don't give myself more than the calories I'm entering (well, not much )

As others have said, eat them - that's what they're there for!

ETA I do look across the week though and try to save a few for the weekends, so say I earn 500 calories one day I'll try to only eat 350-400 of them and save the rest. As long as my average intake for the week is on or slightly below the line I'm happy