Eating back exercise calories... does it work?

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Replies

  • Ashshell
    Ashshell Posts: 185
    I don't eat back my exercise calories. It works for me and I'm not going to force myself to eat when I'm not hungry and I feel fulfilled. I am very happy with my progress at this point. I'm not losing too fast or too slow (around 1.5-2lbs per week) and I never feel restricted.
  • toutmonpossible
    toutmonpossible Posts: 1,580 Member
    I see a lot of people on these forums saying that they don't eat back their exercise calories, or that they only eat half of them/some of them back. I just wondered if there was anyone on here who has eaten all their exercise calories back and still lost weight?

    You can eat all your calories back and lose weight. If:

    1) You are accurately recording your food and creating an appropriate calorie deficit; and
    2) You are expending the amount of energy you think you are during exercise.

    It's easy to be wrong on both counts and gain weight, which is why some people simply don't eat their calories back, or eat back only a portion.

    For weight loss, I focus on calories. Exercise, while important for health, is not part of my equation.
  • Tomhoffman84
    Tomhoffman84 Posts: 99
    This question is also very relative to the person and the exercise being done.

    If you are burning 600+ calories during a workout, its rather unhealthy not to eat those back, unless you have your MFP goal set to "maintenance."

    If you take the dog for a 30 minute walk and burn 150, then I get not eating them back. However, if you are doing anything high intensity, strength related, endurance, I dont see how you get the full benefits of those activities without eating properly? Using the scale as the only measure of your success seems foolish to me.

    I'm much happier judging my progress by saying my half marathon time is now under 2 hours than the weight I have lost.
  • Diamond05
    Diamond05 Posts: 475 Member
    When I was counting my calories, I wasn't eating them back. I do drink a whey protein shake after... But that's 140calories
  • Msdirection
    Msdirection Posts: 54 Member
    YES, it works! I eat back every singe exercise calorie and have lost those difficult last 5kg doing it. The only thing I would suggest is picking up a heart-rate monitor - some of the estimates on MFP can be wildly optimistic, so at least with a HRM, you know exactly what you burnt!
  • wendybird5
    wendybird5 Posts: 577 Member
    I eat them back and didn't have any issue losing weight.
  • fufi04
    fufi04 Posts: 471 Member
    I never eat them back. I have trouble even eating 1490/day :/
  • EmmaKarney
    EmmaKarney Posts: 690 Member
    I never eat them back. I have trouble even eating 1490/day :/

    How did you put the weight on in the first place?
  • Cheeky_and_Geeky
    Cheeky_and_Geeky Posts: 984 Member
    I don't eat back my exercise calories. It works for me and I'm not going to force myself to eat when I'm not hungry and I feel fulfilled. I am very happy with my progress at this point. I'm not losing too fast or too slow (around 1.5-2lbs per week) and I never feel restricted.

    Same here. Ill usually eat back my exercise calories twice a week but that's it
  • pavrg
    pavrg Posts: 277 Member
    This question is also very relative to the person and the exercise being done.

    If you are burning 600+ calories during a workout, its rather unhealthy not to eat those back, unless you have your MFP goal set to "maintenance."

    If you take the dog for a 30 minute walk and burn 150, then I get not eating them back. However, if you are doing anything high intensity, strength related, endurance, I dont see how you get the full benefits of those activities without eating properly? Using the scale as the only measure of your success seems foolish to me.

    I'm much happier judging my progress by saying my half marathon time is now under 2 hours than the weight I have lost.
    This +100.

    I run 3 miles for my cardio, so that's fairly easy to calculate. I put that into MFP, and I eat that back.

    I don't put weights into MFP because the calories burned lifting weights is miniscule. I also don't log calories burned if I do a lot of chores, if I happen to walk more that day or go on a hike, if I happen to do a low intensity sport like softball/baseball, or anything like that. I consider that all part of the 'sedentary maintenance' calories that MFP calculates.
  • MarcoFerreiraFit
    MarcoFerreiraFit Posts: 9 Member
    It's all about energy balance. If you're eating back calories already taken into account in your activity level setting for your TDEE then you'll even out and stay the same weight. However, if you for example have your settings as "sedentary" and your goals are on a weight loss (eg. Lose 1 or 2lbs per week) setting then you've already been given a caloric deficit by Myfitnesspal due to the settings you entered and can eat back the calories for any additional exercise which hasn't yet been accounted for in the initial settings of your profile and goals. You can do this and continue to lose that 1 or 2lbs per week as entered in your settings. You can also choose not to eat back the calories and therefore create a larger deficit and lose weight even faster but eventually if you do to much of that on a regular basis you will face a bit of metabolic adaptation and reach a point of diminishing returns due to a slightly slowed metabolism.
  • megsmom2
    megsmom2 Posts: 2,362 Member
    Yes. It works.
  • SaiSrini
    SaiSrini Posts: 13 Member
    Yes, I eat them back... I don't try to stay under my goal for "Total calories eaten". That's too hard. The only thing I look at: is my net calories for the day atleast 300 calories (it not more!) less than the daily goal. I do this for "margin of error" so that if I overestimated my food intake, I need to account for them through a "margin of error" process. And its been working for me so far.
  • peachybum21
    peachybum21 Posts: 22 Member
    It's all about energy balance. If you're eating back calories already taken into account in your activity level setting for your TDEE then you'll even out and stay the same weight. However, if you for example have your settings as "sedentary" and your goals are on a weight loss (eg. Lose 1 or 2lbs per week) setting then you've already been given a caloric deficit by Myfitnesspal due to the settings you entered and can eat back the calories for any additional exercise which hasn't yet been accounted for in the initial settings of your profile and goals. You can do this and continue to lose that 1 or 2lbs per week as entered in your settings. You can also choose not to eat back the calories and therefore create a larger deficit and lose weight even faster but eventually if you do to much of that on a regular basis you will face a bit of metabolic adaptation and reach a point of diminishing returns due to a slightly slowed metabolism.

    This confuses me. So i put my activity level as medium activity or whatever it is, which affects my TDEE by increasing my calorie needs (right or wrong?!)
    I adjusted my weight loss goal to 1lb/week which gave me 1460 cals/day as opposed to the 1200 i had before.
    So i now try to eat 1460/day plus eat back whatever i burn off through additional exercise. Will this make me gain if i eat back my exercise calories but when im not exercising, just sitting down!?
    I work 12 hour shifts so only do 3 days per week, and its a pretty labour intensive job.
    Im just struggling to get my head round this...and wondering if i should change my activity level to sedentary. I don't want to gain but i don't want to be eating too little.
    XD
  • spikrgrl503
    spikrgrl503 Posts: 247 Member
    I eat mine back. My fitbit says I burn anywhere between 500-900 cals from exercise. I walk a lot in my job, and I run somewhat frequently. If I dont eat those back I get shaky and lightheaded. I lose at approximately 2000-2500 a day). I'm a 6' female 179 lbs.

    Dont change to sedentary. I would choose lightly active. That's what I use, and my fitbit always tells me that I need to eat even more than that.
  • MarcoFerreiraFit
    MarcoFerreiraFit Posts: 9 Member
    It's all dependent on your individual circumstances and body. There's really no exact one-size-fits-all TDEE formula. The TDEE calorie estimate is exactly that. If it were 100% accurate then what I wrote on my previous post would apply perfectly but what I suggest is to try adding back exercise calories (or not adding them back) and stick to that for at least a week and then base what you do next on the weight change results after that time is over. If you weight loss continues at the rate that you're after then keep doing what you tried. If it slows down or you gain weight then try to reduce your daily intake by 10% and continue that for a week and so on until you find the right balance. Most people tend to overestimate their activity and underestimate their calories so being 100% honest with your tracking and using the above feedback loop method is the best suggestion I can make.

    .
  • MarcoFerreiraFit
    MarcoFerreiraFit Posts: 9 Member
    Long story short: in a perfect world where TDEE estimations are 100% accurate, any extra activity which you didn't account for in your activity level can be eaten back. That's why MFP lists total calories and net calories to account for that extra activity.
  • kimosabe1
    kimosabe1 Posts: 2,467 Member
    I eat about 1/2-2/3 back....
  • caseyjamshack
    caseyjamshack Posts: 2
    Everybody is different. I'm supposed to eat 1840 cals a day according to MFP, but I typically only eat around 1500. Then I do my daily exercise routine and burn around 800 cals. I never eat any of it back, and I'm down 42 lbs in 74 days.

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