eat exercise calories?

ethanjosh
ethanjosh Posts: 5
in Food and Nutrition
hi everyone!
My fitness pal measures your daily calorie intake and adds the calories you have burned through exercise to your daily calorie intske, but i am being told different information by my personal trainer and aerobic instructors (mind you neither sound too confident on giving me an answer so i wonder if they really know) who inform me that i shouldnt be eating calories burned by exercise. i have been on a weigh loss diet since october 2012 and have lost 44 pounds (an average of roughly 600g (1/2 pound) per week but feel as though its slowing down now and i still have roughly 26 pounds to go. have just introduced weights into my exercise program so interested to see if that makes a difference. your help is much appreciated.

Replies

  • ssaraj43
    ssaraj43 Posts: 575 Member
    Hi,congrats on your weight loss:). You are doing great. If your going to start lifting,I feel you should definitely eat back your exercise calories. Aim for at least half at first. I try to net at least 1200 to keep my body going but on lifting days i need them all. Eating the right foods fuels our body and let's it know we are not going to deprive it in the future. Hope you enjoy lifting,it's so empowering.
  • grimendale
    grimendale Posts: 2,153 Member
    MFP calculates calories a little different than a lot of places. The calorie couontit comes up with assumes you do no activity beyond what you have set (probably low activity), so anything above that needs to be eaten back to prevent your diet from dropping too low into a deficit. If you are using the defaults from the site, you do eat exercise calories back. If you don't, you can end up in a place where your body starts burning lean muscle tissue instead of fat since muscle requires more calories to maintain than fat. I eat back my exercise calories (1600 net, 2200 total after exercise) and have lost steadily. Trainers at gyms often have no good concept of proper nutrition, and are certainly not familiar with MFP's setup. They are going off of a different way of setting up calories (equally valid, but different) wherein you set your caloric intake based on assumed weekly exercise. In that case, your daily calories are going to be significantly higher and you won't eat exercise calories back. This has to be set up manually, though, so you would know if you had set this up.
  • georgiapeach1965
    georgiapeach1965 Posts: 27
    I know I'm replying to an older post, but wanted to comment on this topic. I definitely eat back my exercise calories. I have a heart rate monitor and use it to tell me how many calories I burn, so I just adjust the numbers when I find my exercise in MFP's database (i.e., spinning). Anyway, as everyone is stating, please listen to your own body. Everyone is so different. The more muscle you have, the more you are going to burn and continue burning throughout the day. Some days I feel like I'm hungry all day and that I'm going to black out if I don't eat all day long. Of course, these are small snacks and/or meals, but I usually eat about 6 times a day. I keep my calories lower than is indicated for me to lose weight. I keep them between the fat loss and extreme fat loss levels, but never go below around 1300 net calories. I did that the first week and thought I was going to die! I wasn't eating back my exercise calories and for me, that was not the way to go. Even though I have a desk job, I am up and down all day. Remember too, that your brain uses 20% of your daily calories, so if you are foggy feeling, you need to eat more. Your brain and body are fighting over the food you are eating. Eat enough, just don't eat too much. Again, it is very important to find your own balance, as has already been mentioned. Just remember that this is a WOL (way of life), NOT a quick fix. If you starve and binge, you will eventually get sick or give up and gain your weight back. Be balanced. Some days we are hungrier and some days we can go without. Some days we work out and some days we sleep in. I wish everyone the very best in your endeavors!:flowerforyou:
  • RoyBeck
    RoyBeck Posts: 947 Member
    @Westcoast - very good post/points.
  • georgiapeach1965
    georgiapeach1965 Posts: 27
    Thank you, Roy! :happy:
  • Bekahmardis
    Bekahmardis Posts: 602 Member
    I agree with Westcoast with the addition of the fact that not everyone uses the same methods to calculate their daily intake/burn. For instance, some people use what MFP gives them, some people use the TDEE-20% method, and some people (me, for instance) go the custom route and use a FitBit or Jawbone UP to calculate their calories and burn.

    Listen to what your body tells you, look at the method at which you record your calories eaten and burned and go from there!
  • erickirb
    erickirb Posts: 12,294 Member
    Most professionals will tell you not to eat your exercise calories back because they added it into your TDEE, whereas MFP ignores exercise and only accounts for it when you perform it. Either way should get you to the same place.

    As an example say MFP gives you 1450 calories to lose 1 lb/week, and you plan on exercising 5x/week for an average of 400 cals per workout. well MFP will tell you to eat 1450 on the days you don't workout and 1850 on the days you do whereas a "professional" may tell you to eat 1700 everyday regardless if you workout.

    So for the week MFP will have you eat 12,150 (1450*2+1850*5) whereas doing it the other way will have you eat 11,900 (1700*7) almost the same number of cals for the week (250 dif). The issue in not following MFP is if you don't workout the full 5 days or burn more or less than planned. If that is the case you may lose more or less than your goal, whereas MFP will have you lose your goal amount regardless how much you actually workout.

    What many MFPers do is take the low 1450 and not eat back exercise calories which is wrong, if you are not eating them back then your daily activity level should reflect the higher burn with would be covered in the 1700/day above.
  • cwolfman13
    cwolfman13 Posts: 41,865 Member
    hi everyone!
    My fitness pal measures your daily calorie intake and adds the calories you have burned through exercise to your daily calorie intske, but i am being told different information by my personal trainer and aerobic instructors (mind you neither sound too confident on giving me an answer so i wonder if they really know) who inform me that i shouldnt be eating calories burned by exercise. i have been on a weigh loss diet since october 2012 and have lost 44 pounds (an average of roughly 600g (1/2 pound) per week but feel as though its slowing down now and i still have roughly 26 pounds to go. have just introduced weights into my exercise program so interested to see if that makes a difference. your help is much appreciated.

    That is because professionals usually either 1) include your exercise in your activity level...so those calories are already accounted for in your calorie goal...or 2) they have you trying to create a deficit of energy (calories) with exercise. Usually it is some combination of both. This is essentially the TDEE method or variation thereof.

    MFP doesn't do this. When you set your activity in MFP you are NOT supposed to include exercise. You're supposed to assume only your day to day hum drum. That way, exercise is an extra activity that needs fueled...this provides incentive to people who don't workout to get off their *kitten* and start doing so....they get to eat more if they workout. This is essentially the NEAT method.

    These are two different methods that when done properly really come out 6 of 1. When I did MFP to lose 1 Lb per week, my calorie goals was 1,850 NET calories...with exercise I grossed 2,100 - 2,200 per day depending on the workout. I ultimately became very consistent in my workout and was tired of having to log exercise all the time and worry about whether or not I was properly estimating my burn, etc...so I moved to the TDEE method which now included all of my exercise as part of my activity level. My TDEE (maintenance calories) is around 2700...my -20% cut from that put me at 2,160 gross calories per day.

    MFP = 1,850 net calories...2,100 - 2,200 gross calories per day (eating back exercise calories)
    TDEE = 2,160 gross calories per day (exercise calories are included in activity level)

    6 of 1, half dozen of the other.
  • georgiapeach1965
    georgiapeach1965 Posts: 27
    Most professionals will tell you not to eat your exercise calories back because they added it into your TDEE, whereas MFP ignores exercise and only accounts for it when you perform it. Either way should get you to the same place.

    As an example say MFP gives you 1450 calories to lose 1 lb/week, and you plan on exercising 5x/week for an average of 400 cals per workout. well MFP will tell you to eat 1450 on the days you don't workout and 1850 on the days you do whereas a "professional" may tell you to eat 1700 everyday regardless if you workout.

    So for the week MFP will have you eat 12,150 (1450*2+1850*5) whereas doing it the other way will have you eat 11,900 (1700*7) almost the same number of cals for the week (250 dif). The issue in not following MFP is if you don't workout the full 5 days or burn more or less than planned. If that is the case you may lose more or less than your goal, whereas MFP will have you lose your goal amount regardless how much you actually workout.

    What many MFPers do is take the low 1450 and not eat back exercise calories which is wrong, if you are not eating them back then your daily activity level should reflect the higher burn with would be covered in the 1700/day above.


    Agreed. Explained well.

Categories