To eat back calories? Or to NOT eat back calories?
jlneibauer
Posts: 88
After exercising, should you eat back the calories you burnt off? In some ways I feel like this would be counter productive. But if you're eating 1500 cals a day and exercising away 300-400, would that put your calorie intake for the day at an unreasonably low level?
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Replies
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at 1500 a day I'd eat them back, the general rule as far as I've seen is as long as you're over 1200 it's up to you really.0
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Eat them back if you are hungry, if not, then I would not make myself eat them back thats just my opinion0
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Since MFP already gives you a calorie deficit built into your goal, you are suppose to eat back whatever you burn during exercise. Not doing so would result in a very low NET calorie intake, technically starving your body of the fuel it needs to even run properly. It also results in greater loss of lean muscle mass, which is a bad thing.
Just be very sure that you are burning the calories you think you are, a chest strap HRM is the most accurate estimation. MFP is known for exaggerating calorie burns for certain exercises like Zumba and elliptical trainer.0 -
After exercising, should you eat back the calories you burnt off? In some ways I feel like this would be counter productive. But if you're eating 1500 cals a day and exercising away 300-400, would that put your calorie intake for the day at an unreasonably low level?
If you're using MFPs settings you should eat them back.0 -
I know they've posted before and I've noticed that what you put on here exercise wise, was over exaggerated caloric wise on MFP. I've run on a treadmill for 60mins and burnt just under 700 calories, but MFP stated 900 and consistently over shoots them. I would say in my personal endeavors I eat 0-50% of the calories back and it's been working for me. There are some other methods that make it much more accurate but for the simple post and track that's what I go with.0
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It has been my experience if I do not eat part or most of them back, I am unreasonably hungry the next day.
It has also been my experience that I lose weight at the same rate if I eat them back or not, so I would rather eat, but I am a big fan of food and eating.0 -
MFP has been designed with eating them back in mind, just make sure that you are not over estimating your burns.
Why select a healthy deficit using MFP calculations only to try and lose 0.5 - 0.75 lbs per week with exercise?0 -
Not counter productive at all. If you need 1500 to lose weight with no exercise, you need more fuel to fuel the exercise.
Exercise is for health and fitness, the caloric deficit is for weight loss. So 1500 already gives you a deficit, so if you burn 300 and eat 1800 your deficit is the same as 1800-300 = 1500-0, the difference is you will have more energy eating more. another option would be to eat 1700 cals everyday whether you workout or not. that way days you workout you would be under, and days you don't you will be over, but on average for the week it would be relatively the same.0 -
If you eat 1,500 calories, and then burn 400 calories through exercise, your body will have 1,100 calories remaining--which sends your metabolism into what is called "starvation mode" where your body will burn muscle for energy and store fat cells to try to keep you alive. This is bad for your body long-term, as well as being counter-productive to your fitness/weight loss goal.
You don't have to eat back all of your exercise calories, but make sure your body is getting at least 1,200 calories a day. Many of us try not to go lower than 1,300 just to keep the body away from starvation mode.
Also, remember that not all exercise is created equal. You may need to augment your diet to support your work outs. If you do yoga and pilates, bulk up on veggies, nuts and legumes. If you're doing lots of cardio, then protein shakes (made with high-calcium milk and a magnesium additive) are going to become your new best friend. Look for foods that are high in vitamin B12 to keep your energy up. You'll need to adjust the type of calories you're eating back in order to get the best results.0 -
NOT eating back calories can be counter productive. When your daily calorie deficit is too large you are at risk for losing muscle mass along with fat. To keep the muscle ....FUEL your workouts.
Hunger is NOT a good indicator. People learn to fight off hunger with careful planning. Example: drinking several hundred calories in soda is NOT filling. Several hundred nutritous calories ARE filling......protein, fat & fiber.0 -
Exercise has to be accounted for somewhere...you can do that either in your activity level (TDEE method) or leave it out of your activity level and account for it after you do it when you log it (MFP method). Either way, you account for it...with MFP you purposely eat back your exercise calories...with TDEE it is happening i the background because that activity is accounted for in your activity level and thus is included in the number that your cut is taken from to lose weight.
Exercise increases your output...which increases your body's calorie requirements. let's say you tell MFP you want to lose 1 Lb per week and your activity level only includes your day to day stuff and MFP gives you 1500 calories. What this means is that MFP is assuming your maintenance WITHOUT any exercise whatsoever is around 2000 calories. Now...if you were to exercise, and say you burned 300 calories per day. Your new maintenance with exercise would be 2300 calories...and thus the calories to lose 1 Lb per week would increase to 1800 calories...do the math...it's the same deficit. This is what MFP does...you just account for that activity on the back end rather than the front end of the equation.
One of the biggest mistakes people make with MFP is that they overestimate their burn. We really don't burn that much doing exercise. Databases are notoriously inaccurate for your calorie burn...there are just too many variables for a database or calculator to be accurate. Machines are a little more accurate and a HRM is more accurate still...but they're all estimates so you're going to have to use some common sense and do some research on calorie burns. Really....it is pretty hard to burn more than about 10 additional calories per minute (above your basal rate of burn)...that's working pretty hard. When I was doing MFP I always ate back about 70-80% of what my HRM said to account for estimation error. I also compared my burns to calculators and various formulas on-line; ultimately I became pretty comfortable in my estimates for various activities.0 -
Not counter productive at all. If you need 1500 to lose weight with no exercise, you need more fuel to fuel the exercise.
Exercise is for health and fitness, the caloric deficit is for weight loss. So 1500 already gives you a deficit, so if you burn 300 and eat 1800 your deficit is the same as 1800-300 = 1500-0, the difference is you will have more energy eating more. another option would be to eat 1700 cals everyday whether you workout or not. that way days you workout you would be under, and days you don't you will be over, but on average for the week it would be relatively the same.
Ok, sounds good
thank you! 0 -
It depends on how you calculated your calories.
If they're calculated using the TDEE - x% method, where you calculate your TDEE including exercise (i.e. with an activity factor) then you *don't* eat back your exercise calories, as they're already counted in your TDEE.
If you're doing the MFP default method, then yes you should eat your exercise calories, as your calorie goal doesn't include exercise. Too big a deficit is bad for your physical and mental health and also makes long term compliance difficult and can lead to binge eating. So if you do the MPF method, you should eat back your exercise calories. (or if you're concerned about overestimating of calorie burns, eat back 80% of them)0 -
Thank you everyone! Your answers are very helpful!0
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If you eat 1,500 calories, and then burn 400 calories through exercise, your body will have 1,100 calories remaining--which sends your metabolism into what is called "starvation mode" where your body will burn muscle for energy and store fat cells to try to keep you alive. This is bad for your body long-term, as well as being counter-productive to your fitness/weight loss goal.
You don't have to eat back all of your exercise calories, but make sure your body is getting at least 1,200 calories a day. Many of us try not to go lower than 1,300 just to keep the body away from starvation mode.
Also, remember that not all exercise is created equal. You may need to augment your diet to support your work outs. If you do yoga and pilates, bulk up on veggies, nuts and legumes. If you're doing lots of cardio, then protein shakes (made with high-calcium milk and a magnesium additive) are going to become your new best friend. Look for foods that are high in vitamin B12 to keep your energy up. You'll need to adjust the type of calories you're eating back in order to get the best results.
Pretty much none of this at all.
MFP is designed to eat your exercise calories back. The problem that I have found, however, is that MFP also greatly over-estimates the number of calories burned during many (read: most) exercises....as do most machines and such.
What I would want to know is more about what your calorie goal is currently, what you have your loss/week set to and what your activity level is.0 -
If you eat 1,500 calories, and then burn 400 calories through exercise, your body will have 1,100 calories remaining--which sends your metabolism into what is called "starvation mode" where your body will burn muscle for energy and store fat cells to try to keep you alive. This is bad for your body long-term, as well as being counter-productive to your fitness/weight loss goal.
You don't have to eat back all of your exercise calories, but make sure your body is getting at least 1,200 calories a day. Many of us try not to go lower than 1,300 just to keep the body away from starvation mode.
Also, remember that not all exercise is created equal. You may need to augment your diet to support your work outs. If you do yoga and pilates, bulk up on veggies, nuts and legumes. If you're doing lots of cardio, then protein shakes (made with high-calcium milk and a magnesium additive) are going to become your new best friend. Look for foods that are high in vitamin B12 to keep your energy up. You'll need to adjust the type of calories you're eating back in order to get the best results.
No, no, no. Your body cannot physically "hold on" to fat stores if you are eating at a defiicit. As long as you are eating at a calorie deficit, you will lose weight.
As far as eating back your workout calories, make sure they are accurate before you eat them back, or you could overeat and not lose weight.
The risk with not eating enough is that you will lose muscle along with fat.1 -
This is what I do:
My BMR is about 1800 calories (the amount of calories I burn in 24hrs at rest)
I have my calorie intake set to 1300 calories (which is a 500 calorie deficient)
I also have my fitbit synced with MFP so exercise calories that I burn are just automatically added to my calories in MFP so it adjusts all on its own resulting in me eating 1300 calories plus any I burn.0 -
If you eat 1,500 calories, and then burn 400 calories through exercise, your body will have 1,100 calories remaining--which sends your metabolism into what is called "starvation mode" where your body will burn muscle for energy and store fat cells to try to keep you alive. This is bad for your body long-term, as well as being counter-productive to your fitness/weight loss goal.
You don't have to eat back all of your exercise calories, but make sure your body is getting at least 1,200 calories a day. Many of us try not to go lower than 1,300 just to keep the body away from starvation mode.
Also, remember that not all exercise is created equal. You may need to augment your diet to support your work outs. If you do yoga and pilates, bulk up on veggies, nuts and legumes. If you're doing lots of cardio, then protein shakes (made with high-calcium milk and a magnesium additive) are going to become your new best friend. Look for foods that are high in vitamin B12 to keep your energy up. You'll need to adjust the type of calories you're eating back in order to get the best results.
No, no, no. Your body cannot physically "hold on" to fat stores if you are eating at a defiicit. As long as you are eating at a calorie deficit, you will lose weight.
As far as eating back your workout calories, make sure they are accurate before you eat them back, or you could overeat and not lose weight.
The risk with not eating enough is that you will lose muscle along with fat.
Yea I guess that's why I'm concerned. I've been on the road to weight loss for a while now and I eating back calories or not eating them back has always been a touchy subject. I'm just going to eat them back since I have my calories set to 1500. I think that's pretty low.0 -
I don't personally prescribe to the "eat back your exercise calories" school of thought because I can't be sure that the "burn" I am supposedly getting is accurate. I'd rather be cautious and under calories than consume more than I should.
With that said though if I'm hungry I do eat but not because I feel I 'earned' the extra calories through exercise.0 -
This is what I do:
My BMR is about 1800 calories (the amount of calories I burn in 24hrs at rest)
I have my calorie intake set to 1300 calories (which is a 500 calorie deficient)
I also have my fitbit synced with MFP so exercise calories that I burn are just automatically added to my calories in MFP so it adjusts all on its own resulting in me eating 1300 calories plus any I burn.
If your BMR is 1800 and you are eating 1300, that is more than a 500 cal deficit, as you forgot the cals you burn from sitting, standing, eating etc. If you are sedentary (desk job, etc) and your BMR is 1800 then your maintenance is about 2160 (1800*1.2), so eating 1300 cals is a deficit of 860, not 500.0 -
I don't personally prescribe to the "eat back your exercise calories" school of thought because I can't be sure that the "burn" I am supposedly getting is accurate. I'd rather be cautious and under calories than consume more than I should.
With that said though if I'm hungry I do eat but not because I feel I 'earned' the extra calories through exercise.
Then why not just change your activity level to active, then they will be accounted for there, no need to log, and if you don't lose what is expected, drop another 100 or add 100 depending.0 -
I don't personally prescribe to the "eat back your exercise calories" school of thought because I can't be sure that the "burn" I am supposedly getting is accurate. I'd rather be cautious and under calories than consume more than I should.
With that said though if I'm hungry I do eat but not because I feel I 'earned' the extra calories through exercise.
Yea...it my gut I'm on your side. But I don't want to get what they call "skinny fat" again. I've definitely been there. I guess it's a matter of trial and error?0 -
You need to eat your calorie goal. If you've calculated your calories on MFP it already has a deficit so you will lose weight. Your body needs fuel in order to function properly. Yes, you will lose weight but it will be muscle. You need calories to build your body. If all you are concerned with is losing the weight then eat as little as possible but you will pay for it later on by destroying your metabolism.0
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I don't personally prescribe to the "eat back your exercise calories" school of thought because I can't be sure that the "burn" I am supposedly getting is accurate. I'd rather be cautious and under calories than consume more than I should.
With that said though if I'm hungry I do eat but not because I feel I 'earned' the extra calories through exercise.
Yea...it my gut I'm on your side. But I don't want to get what they call "skinny fat" again. I've definitely been there. I guess it's a matter of trial and error?
Definitely some trial and error. There are soooo many ways to screw this up. Your activity level is a "range".....I use sedentary, but I do believe I am less sedentary than others. I use a HRM for cardio.....this is likely a "better" estimate.....but it's still an estimate. I measure my food ....I don't weigh it. MFP has some bogus calorie counts (user added) ....I do try to check.....but still not perfect.
I would rather lose slowly than lose muscle mass.....I'm over 50 and already (likely) lost a fair amount of muscle.0 -
I don't personally prescribe to the "eat back your exercise calories" school of thought because I can't be sure that the "burn" I am supposedly getting is accurate. I'd rather be cautious and under calories than consume more than I should.
With that said though if I'm hungry I do eat but not because I feel I 'earned' the extra calories through exercise.
Yea...it my gut I'm on your side. But I don't want to get what they call "skinny fat" again. I've definitely been there. I guess it's a matter of trial and error?
It also depends on your exercise. If your primary exercise is just walking or otherwise not that intensive then it's probably not a huge deal...I train for triathlons and century rides...I needz fuel. No way you do any intense activity for a prolonged period of time trying to stick to 1500 gross calories...you'd be a puddle of gooey flesh after a good brick session.0 -
I don't personally prescribe to the "eat back your exercise calories" school of thought because I can't be sure that the "burn" I am supposedly getting is accurate. I'd rather be cautious and under calories than consume more than I should.
With that said though if I'm hungry I do eat but not because I feel I 'earned' the extra calories through exercise.
Yea...it my gut I'm on your side. But I don't want to get what they call "skinny fat" again. I've definitely been there. I guess it's a matter of trial and error?
It also depends on your exercise. If your primary exercise is just walking or otherwise not that intensive then it's probably not a huge deal...I train for triathlons and century rides...I needz fuel. No way you do any intense activity for a prolonged period of time trying to stick to 1500 gross calories...you'd be a puddle of gooey flesh after a good brick session.
My point is that whenever this subject comes up most everyone says that you should or must eat back your exercise calories. Obviously if someone is training for an event then yes, they need fuel but the normal person doesn't necessarily need to eat back all the calories "burned" through exercise.
I know that when I start training for my duathlon I'll have to fuel properly but other than that I don't find it an absolute necessity after a normal workout (30 minutes hard cardio, 60 minutes heavy lifting) to eat back my calories just for the sake of eating. If it turns out that I do then fine but I don't set out to do it purposely.0 -
After exercising, should you eat back the calories you burnt off? In some ways I feel like this would be counter productive. But if you're eating 1500 cals a day and exercising away 300-400, would that put your calorie intake for the day at an unreasonably low level?
It is all calculated in when you complete your profile... You always eat back the calories.... unless you want to lose more weight than you told MFP in the first place... Any questions, I can send you it from MFP
Joanne Moniz
The Skinny on Obesity Group0 -
I don't personally prescribe to the "eat back your exercise calories" school of thought because I can't be sure that the "burn" I am supposedly getting is accurate. I'd rather be cautious and under calories than consume more than I should.
With that said though if I'm hungry I do eat but not because I feel I 'earned' the extra calories through exercise.
Yea...it my gut I'm on your side. But I don't want to get what they call "skinny fat" again. I've definitely been there. I guess it's a matter of trial and error?
It also depends on your exercise. If your primary exercise is just walking or otherwise not that intensive then it's probably not a huge deal...I train for triathlons and century rides...I needz fuel. No way you do any intense activity for a prolonged period of time trying to stick to 1500 gross calories...you'd be a puddle of gooey flesh after a good brick session.
My point is that whenever this subject comes up most everyone says that you should or must eat back your exercise calories. Obviously if someone is training for an event then yes, they need fuel but the normal person doesn't necessarily need to eat back all the calories "burned" through exercise.
I know that when I start training for my duathlon I'll have to fuel properly but other than that I don't find it an absolute necessity after a normal workout (30 minutes hard cardio, 60 minutes heavy lifting) to eat back my calories just for the sake of eating. If it turns out that I do then fine but I don't set out to do it purposely.
Maybe not, depending on size of deficit and number of cals burned, but keep in mind the larger the deficit the large the % of your loss will be lean muscle, not fat.0 -
Two very common mistakes on MFP are over-estimating exercise burn and over-estimating BMR/TDEE. This is especially true for people with "a lot" to lose, as the standard BMR/TDEE formulas exaggerate their base burns.
While eating back exercise calories is, in theory, the right thing to do when using MFP as intended, in practice, most people will have more consistent results if they don't, because it counteracts the mistakes cited above.0
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