Do you eat your earned exercise calories?

WinterWait
WinterWait Posts: 7
in Food and Nutrition
Working with the MyFitnessPal app has been going well. I've had good success losing 1-2 lbs per week. I eat my 1200 calories every day but I haven't been eating my earned exercise calories. My question is should I be? Just wanted to get some feedback on what others do with their earned activity calories.

Replies

  • hill8570
    hill8570 Posts: 1,466 Member
    Depends on how many calories. For my daily workouts (30 minutes, roughly 250 calories) I don't try to eat them back, but they're my buffer if I go over my target. For larger workouts (like when I spend half a day skiing) I have to eat some of them back, otherwise I'm walking into walls the next day from low blood sugar.

    Sounds like your system is working for you...I'd keep with it.
  • whatsername182
    whatsername182 Posts: 11 Member
    I try to keep it to eating half of my earned workout cals but I do go over from time to time and I'm still making progress! I suppose it all depends on how fast you want to lose the weight
  • WinterWait
    WinterWait Posts: 7
    I have 3 full ski days coming up next week. I have a feeling those are going to be my calorie neutral days. Something about being in the mountains skiing wakes up hibernation instinct!
  • zeal26
    zeal26 Posts: 602 Member
    I eat back about half. :)
  • hill8570
    hill8570 Posts: 1,466 Member
    I have 3 full ski days coming up next week. I have a feeling those are going to be my calorie neutral days. Something about being in the mountains skiing wakes up hibernation instinct!

    Sweet! You've got better endurance than I -- two back-to-back days and I'm wiped for at least a day after that.

    Even on ski days I wouldn't recommend eating all of the calories back (maybe half) -- the MFP database seems to overestimate calories burned from downhill skiing by a significant amount...I certainly don't see any significant downward blips even on weeks where I spend more than one day on the mountain.
  • cwolfman13
    cwolfman13 Posts: 41,865 Member
    Let me ask you this...why do you think MFP gives you those calories? Also, have you read the stickies on the particulars of this tool and how to use this tool and why you would eat back those calories? Sorry to be snarky, but there is a reason MFP tells you to read that stuff when you sign up...it's the instructions...and this comment comes up like a million times per day...and I'm always baffled that people think MFP is trying to trick them or something.

    I'll give you a hint...yes. Because they aren't included in your activity level...if you were to eat your calorie goal without any exercise whatsoever you would lose the weight at roughly the rate at which you said you wanted to lose provided your intake was accurate (if you're not using a food scale for pretty much everything and measuring cups for everything else, I can pretty much guarantee you are underestimating your consumption).

    You also have to be very careful not to overestimate burn. If you're just grabbing some number from the database or other calorie calculator, it's likely to be an inflated burn...there are just too many variables. When I was doing this I took about 80% of what my HRM told me for a steady state cardio event and that worked well...I also always did a reasonableness test using a factor of 5 calories per minute for what amounted to a nice walk all the way up to a factor of 10 calories per minute for an intensity level which would not let me hold a conversation...I never booked more than 10 calories per minute because it's really hard to burn more than that.
  • TeaBea
    TeaBea Posts: 14,517 Member
    Working with the MyFitnessPal app has been going well. I've had good success losing 1-2 lbs per week. I eat my 1200 calories every day but I haven't been eating my earned exercise calories. My question is should I be? Just wanted to get some feedback on what others do with their earned activity calories.

    MFP gave you a calorie deficit BEFORE exercise. When you add exercise....you increase the deficit more.

    Eating back, all, some, none .....depends on several factors

    1200 is as low as MFP will go....so you are at the biggest deficit already

    Calorie burns are estimates.MFP and machines are "generous" .....many people eat a portion back....and adjust as needed

    Goals:
    The number on the scale ?.....not eating back calories and you lose "weight" faster.
    OR A healthy body fat %? - a modest deficit helps you retain more muscle mass. This looks better (look up skinny-fat).
  • forever_winter18
    forever_winter18 Posts: 13
    i don't even log my exercise anymore cause i would go by my net calories and over eat my calories back
  • WinterWait
    WinterWait Posts: 7
    I'm going to add in half of my earned calories and go from there. With the potential for overestimation of calories burned and under estimation of calories consumed, this should be a happy medium. I'm going to stuff my pockets with healthy snacks for my ski trip. It's -27 degrees celcius here today, yikes! Thanks everyone for sharing your opinions.
  • ChaplainHeavin
    ChaplainHeavin Posts: 426 Member


    I'll give you a hint...yes. Because they aren't included in your activity level...if you were to eat your calorie goal without any exercise whatsoever you would lose the weight at roughly the rate at which you said you wanted to lose provided your intake was accurate (if you're not using a food scale for pretty much everything and measuring cups for everything else, I can pretty much guarantee you are underestimating your consumption).

    You also have to be very careful not to overestimate burn. If you're just grabbing some number from the database or other calorie calculator, it's likely to be an inflated burn...there are just too many variables. When I was doing this I took about 80% of what my HRM told me for a steady state cardio event and that worked well...I also always did a reasonableness test using a factor of 5 calories per minute for what amounted to a nice walk all the way up to a factor of 10 calories per minute for an intensity level which would not let me hold a conversation...I never booked more than 10 calories per minute because it's really hard to burn more than that.

    This
  • MckeyDee
    MckeyDee Posts: 7 Member
    If you are only eating 1200 calories you may find you need to eat more in order to workout, since 1200 is for someone with a sedentary lifestyle. And as has been said above, you will still lose weight at a healthy rate if you 'eat what you burn."
  • mamahannick
    mamahannick Posts: 322 Member
    If I am hungry I do, which I generally am.
  • kshadows
    kshadows Posts: 1,315 Member
    Let me ask you this...why do you think MFP gives you those calories? Also, have you read the stickies on the particulars of this tool and how to use this tool and why you would eat back those calories? Sorry to be snarky, but there is a reason MFP tells you to read that stuff when you sign up...it's the instructions...and this comment comes up like a million times per day...and I'm always baffled that people think MFP is trying to trick them or something.

    I'll give you a hint...yes. Because they aren't included in your activity level...if you were to eat your calorie goal without any exercise whatsoever you would lose the weight at roughly the rate at which you said you wanted to lose provided your intake was accurate (if you're not using a food scale for pretty much everything and measuring cups for everything else, I can pretty much guarantee you are underestimating your consumption).

    You also have to be very careful not to overestimate burn. If you're just grabbing some number from the database or other calorie calculator, it's likely to be an inflated burn...there are just too many variables. When I was doing this I took about 80% of what my HRM told me for a steady state cardio event and that worked well...I also always did a reasonableness test using a factor of 5 calories per minute for what amounted to a nice walk all the way up to a factor of 10 calories per minute for an intensity level which would not let me hold a conversation...I never booked more than 10 calories per minute because it's really hard to burn more than that.

    +1

    My goals are calculated based on my BMR and TDEE at the lightly active level. I eat back my calories and have been sucessfully losing 1-2 pounds per week.
  • ME0172
    ME0172 Posts: 200
    I eat them back. If I don't I feel weak and hungry. If you're feeling strong and not hungry then don't worry about it.

Categories