Eating your workout calories back...pros & cons need advice!

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rachtxaggie
rachtxaggie Posts: 14
in Food and Nutrition
Hey MFP peeps! So I was thinking I know it is better not to eat your workout calories back and now that I have lost a little bit my calorie intake has changed twice and now I am down to 1320 calories a day from 1390 and sometimes I have to say after I work out I am hungry and end up eating some of my workout calories back and I guess my questions is mainly is it just going to take me twice as long to reach my goal if I do this or is it ok to do sometimes or what is preferred or referred?? I am curious because I don't really know and this is my first go around with MFP and I really like it so far but I find some bumps in the road with calorie intake changes because I get so hungry and grouchy and headache and moody.....lol!

Thanks for all the responses in advance all help is appreciated!

Replies

  • KAS0917
    KAS0917 Posts: 172 Member
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    MFP is designed for you to eat your exercise calories back. If you are at 1320/day, it has already subtracted 500 calories (if you have it set to lose 1 pound/week) from that 1320, so it would be 1820 if you didn't want to lose weight.

    Eat them if you want/need them. You shouldn't ever really be netting less than 1200 calories/day unless you're on a medically supervised diet. I usually eat at least 1/2, sometimes more, if my body wants them. I'm losing steadily.
  • caseythirteen
    caseythirteen Posts: 956 Member
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    MFP is designed for you to eat your exercise calories back. If you are at 1320/day, it has already subtracted 500 calories (if you have it set to lose 1 pound/week) from that 1320, so it would be 1820 if you didn't want to lose weight.

    ^^ This. If you have set up MFP to use it using their settings, you ARE supposed to be eating back exercise calories. A deficit is already built in so your body needs the extra it uses from the exercise. Eat them! Or at least most of them.
  • TheCaren
    TheCaren Posts: 894 Member
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    If you are using MFPs calorie calculations, eat back your calories.

    If you are basing your intake on TDEE minus a reasonable deficit (15-20%) and you accurately described your activity level when calculating your TDEE, then you don't eat back exercise calories.

    IMHO
  • trainguy917
    trainguy917 Posts: 366 Member
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    I eat about half my calories back most of the time, which seems to work for me. I am a big guy and get a lot of calories to start with and I don't use a heart rate monitor, so I usually assume the machine I'm on or the number given to me by MFP is high. Therefore, I hedge my bet by meeting it halfway.
  • daj150
    daj150 Posts: 815 Member
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    As noted, MFP is by default set to have you eat back your exercises calories. You can change this setting if you want. But you need to listen to your body....if you are exercising, and burning say 500 calories per workout, and you are not hungry, don't eat them back just to eat. If you are hungry and belly is getting to or at the rumble-state, then eat. It's different for everyone.
  • rachtxaggie
    rachtxaggie Posts: 14
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    Thanks for the info !!

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