Do you eat back your cardio cals?

sunshinelively
sunshinelively Posts: 249 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
I've been eating back cardio but nothing from weight training. Would like to get everyone's experience with this - what works? Put myself on a 1200 goal per day, which forces me to exercise, since without the extra eat-backs, I wouldn't make it.

So what do you do with this? What works best?

Replies

  • Ninkyou
    Ninkyou Posts: 6,666 Member
    To use MFP as it's intended, you are supposed to eat those calories back.

    The only time you shouldn't be eating them is if you're using the TDEE method, which already accounts for your exercise.

    You are probably following MFP's guidelines, so you should be eating at least half of them back.
  • blueboxgeek
    blueboxgeek Posts: 574 Member
    Yep, as the above poster said, eat at least half. MFP (for me anyway) tends to over calculate the calories burned so I generally eat between 50 - 80% of the calories it gives me for exercise. If you have a more accurate way of calculating your calories burned then just eat them up :)
  • rpmtnbkr
    rpmtnbkr Posts: 137 Member
    I eat them back... It's recommended to.
  • emma8970
    emma8970 Posts: 3 Member
    I definitely eat back at least half as after exercising, I am starving and then need a banana and maybe some oatcakes too. Like someone else said though, MFP does overestimate the calories burned. I do Spinning and Circuit training and have been wearing my heart rate monitor for accuracy and it seems to overestimate by about 20%, so that's why I stick to half to be sure.
  • jvl1973
    jvl1973 Posts: 36 Member
    I only eat them when I am hungry. If you aren't hungry then why eat them? That is my rule. I would say I eat them 50% of the time.
  • sunshinelively
    sunshinelively Posts: 249 Member
    thanks everybody, awesome.

    do you find that it's working? are you losing weight as you expected?

    trying to go for 2 lb a week -
  • ChrisS30V
    ChrisS30V Posts: 157 Member
    i eat back part of what I think I burn, but don't stress out if I don't eat all of it back. Calorie-burn is an educated guess, at best.
  • emma8970
    emma8970 Posts: 3 Member
    Yes, this definitely works as it is based on clear scientific principles of calories in must be less than calories out to lose weight and it's working well for me. I am also aiming for 2lb a week which I think is manageable:smile:
  • DrJenO
    DrJenO Posts: 404 Member
    If you only have a few pounds to go to reach your goal, 2lb/week may not be reasonable.

    Don't worry about every single day being under your goal - aim for the week to average out. I have strength days and cardio days, and sometimes I "borrow" calories from a cardio day. On the app there is a "nutrition" setting that you can look at your macros for either the day or the week. It will tell you how many net calories you are over or under your weekly goal (including whatever calories you haven't eaten yet for the day).

    This ONLY works if you track every single day.
  • MissLeelooDallas
    MissLeelooDallas Posts: 145 Member
    It worked for me (a little too well, I suppose). I have and still do eat back my exercise calories.
  • sunshinelively
    sunshinelively Posts: 249 Member
    make sense. i've looked at the weekly calorie counter also and have thought if you can stay within your total week's count it might work. good to know that it actually can!

    i don't give myself calorie credit for any weight training. i know i must be burning some there since i start to breath heavy, but i figure it's too hard to calculate that anyway. and, i'm only weight training 3x a week.
  • lisajsund
    lisajsund Posts: 366 Member
    You can add strength training calories in by finding strength training under the cardio section.
    Do you know what your BMR is?
    Or your body fat %?
    More muscle means your BMR is higher and you can eat more to maintain and lose.
    I eat most of my exercise calories back - no matter where they come from.
    I burned 3200 calories yesterday according to my lifetrak (similar to a fitbit).
  • DrJenO
    DrJenO Posts: 404 Member
    I agree. I only add calories for strength if it's intervals or something - and only if I break a sweat :)
  • becsnz1
    becsnz1 Posts: 85 Member
    Sometimes I do sometimes I don't. Sometimes I go over cals, sometimes I don't. I'm still consistently losing weight. Do what works best for you and your lifestyle
  • smithem65
    smithem65 Posts: 7
    I only eat my calories if I'm hungry. Most of the time I'm on target with my 1200 calories a day. However, I burn quite a bit and have seen a difference in how my clothes fit.
  • ruffnstuff
    ruffnstuff Posts: 400 Member
    OP - are you asking because you are no longer losing eight on 1200 a day? Just curious about why you posted this question.

    I do eat back some of my exercise cals, whether from cardio or my weight training. Just recently avg out a 31 day period and found that while my calorie consumption does vary day to day (depending on hunger, special occasions, work out days, etc), my monthly average is actually about 1800/day. Oh, and I've lost 50 lbs so far. If you are feeling hungry (which is kind of sounds like you might be from your first post there), perhaps you actually need to up your calories. Certainly, with only 16 lbs to go until goal, you need to adjust your weekly goal from losing 2lbs/week to maybe .5-1lb/week. It's unrealistic to expect the weight to come off that quickly so close to goal.
  • bciloveme2014
    bciloveme2014 Posts: 213 Member
    When I started on MFP I wasn't eating my burned calories and I lost 3 lbs. the first two weeks, but I felt weak, so the third week I started to eat my burned calories and lost 1.5 Lb. but felt more energy to work out, and this last week I was more excited to work out because I knew that I can eat my burned calories and lost 2.4lbs.
  • bwogilvie
    bwogilvie Posts: 2,130 Member
    I eat back all calories from cardio exercise, since my results show that my Garmin HRMs are pretty accurate.

    I don't do much weight training, but I don't eat back any calories from it. It's not that much (20-30 minutes, 2-3 times a week, plus core exercises for my lower back pain).
  • magerum
    magerum Posts: 12,589 Member
    Yes. That's main reason I do cardio.
  • sunshinelively
    sunshinelively Posts: 249 Member
    lol it's the main reason i do cardio too. i'm hungry and can't survive on 1200 it's too hard. so at the end of the work day i do maybe an hour of working out including cardio and abs, weight training. reduces the hunger pains plus i actually get a reasonable dinner of around 700 calories, which i can totally stick to.

    problem is if i don't work out - then i only get the 1200. and i'm on a 4 days on 1 day off schedule which seems to be working as far as strains and injuries go. the body seems to need recovery time. but for the days off it's hard to stick to 1200.

    i was losing weight but then found out my scale went kaput and had to buy a new scale. the new, correct scale is weighing me 5 lb heavier and its like a mental mind warp getting over that. i'm almost there though. looking forward to sunday when i can weigh myself again and see if i lose any after a week of clean eating and exercise!
  • sunshinelively
    sunshinelively Posts: 249 Member
    OP - are you asking because you are no longer losing eight on 1200 a day? Just curious about why you posted this question.

    I do eat back some of my exercise cals, whether from cardio or my weight training. Just recently avg out a 31 day period and found that while my calorie consumption does vary day to day (depending on hunger, special occasions, work out days, etc), my monthly average is actually about 1800/day. Oh, and I've lost 50 lbs so far. If you are feeling hungry (which is kind of sounds like you might be from your first post there), perhaps you actually need to up your calories. Certainly, with only 16 lbs to go until goal, you need to adjust your weekly goal from losing 2lbs/week to maybe .5-1lb/week. It's unrealistic to expect the weight to come off that quickly so close to goal.

    very intuitive - i'm actually struggling a bit, feeling pretty hungry. the days i weight train it's really pronounced, so i started making protein shakes after the work out, helped a little but i feel totally ravenous after weight training. then there's the unfortunate debacle with my scale ^ see above post. i actually have 20 lb to go but i can't bring myself to change my weight on MFP (i know i lost the weight because of how my clothes feel, but the starting weight was probably wrong) so now i have to wait until i really weight what it says before i start inputting my weight again. if that makes any sense.
  • train_01
    train_01 Posts: 135 Member
    I go by my weekly totals moreso than daily ones. On Zumba days, it's hard for me to even eat back half but on rest days, I almost always go a little over. It all averages out and I've lost 14 lbs in 10 weeks. I agree with the other posters that if you truely are only 16 lbs from your goal, a more reasonable calorie setting is .5 lbs per week.

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