How many of your exercise calories do you eat?

momofgilliam4
momofgilliam4 Posts: 43
in Health and Weight Loss
Let me start by saying that I am just getting back on track. I used to walk a ton, run a bit and generally "liked" exercise. Unfortunately, the busy-ness of life got me off-track. No excuses... just let it all stop me from keeping focus on the importance of my health.

Anyway, I am doing WW and MFP together. Say you burn 300 calories doing an activity. Do you automatically eat all of those? Or do you play it by ear as to whether your body cues you to eat them? In WW you earn "activity points" and you can choose to eat them or not - but the basic gist is that if you don't eat them you amp up your weight loss. I am in no hurry to lose more than the "norm" so I plan to sometimes eat the extra calories, sometimes not. I imagine if I were burning 1,000 calories that I would need to eat a good portion of them... but I am not near that at the moment.

Just a curiosity thing... maybe there's no all or nothing answer. I just want to know what generally works for those who have had success.

TIA!
Georgia
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Replies

  • Chief_Rocka
    Chief_Rocka Posts: 4,710 Member
    I donate mine to less fortunate inner-city youth
  • leggup
    leggup Posts: 2,942 Member
    Most people on MFP will tell you to eat them back. For me personally, I don't always. Sometimes I am exercising because I went over for my calories for the day. If I wanted to stay at 1,450 calories and I ate 1,650 calories, I'm going to try to burn at least 200 calories on the elliptical. If I end up burning more, I probably won't eat them back. If I have only had 1,200 so far in the day and I take a zumba class that burns 600 calories, I am probably going to eat some of that because otherwise I'll be at 600 calories and my body uses more than 600 calories just in digestion, respiration, pumping my heart, the usual.
  • nineteentwenty
    nineteentwenty Posts: 469 Member
    For weight loss alone? I personally don't' eat any back. It's just math. Why add to what you lose? That being said, if you're somehow working off enough calories to make you unhealthy, certainly eat some back (or cool it in the gym c: )
  • bethlaf
    bethlaf Posts: 954 Member
    donate to inner thigh deficient women
  • Bun_Ya
    Bun_Ya Posts: 174
    In for recommendations.
  • freckles7732
    freckles7732 Posts: 2 Member
    I only eat some of the calories back, if it puts me too far under for the day. For example if I am down to 800 calories for the day, I may eat some of those back, but certainly not all of the calories burned during exercise.
  • magerum
    magerum Posts: 12,589 Member
    All of them.
  • Nancy_hc
    Nancy_hc Posts: 123 Member
    I dont eat them back - I have already accounted for them in the way I calculated my TDEE. If I work out ALOT more or for longer than normal then yes, Ill eat some back .... well... technically I am eating them back since I've figured them into my calorie goal... It depends on if you're using the MFP custom goal option or if you did your own.
  • mreeves261
    mreeves261 Posts: 728 Member
    I do what my body tells me to do. I do 2-A-Days and try to stick to only eating back 1 routines burn back. BUT, if I am truly hungry, I will eat more. The biggest difference for me was learning the difference between real hunger and mental hunger. Once I figured that out, my body started making the call on what i eat back.
  • p_s1984
    p_s1984 Posts: 30 Member
    Don't eat less than 1200 calories in one day. If your at 1200 with eating exercise calories or not then your should be ok at least to sustain your body for that day.
  • cwolfman13
    cwolfman13 Posts: 41,865 Member
    When I was doing MFP's method I ate back most of my exercise calories with some allowance for estimation error..generally about 80% of my HRM calories for a steady state aerobic event and I used various formulas for other things. I ultimately switched to the TDEE method due to just being able to include some estimate of my exercise upfront in my activity level and not have to worry about individual burns.

    I'm a firm believer in providing the body the appropriate energy and nutrients it needs to repair damage done with exercise. As good as exercise is for your health and overall well being, it is also pretty hard on the body...and if you workout like me, you are really breaking your body down on a pretty routine basis. This fact is lost on many and they simply don't understand that you need energy and nutrients to repair and recover and thus make fitness gains and be the best they can be.
  • jstout365
    jstout365 Posts: 1,686 Member
    I use the TDEE (Total Daily Energy Expenditure) method and stick to a flat calorie rate every day since TDEE includes exercise calories. I'm pretty consistent with my exercise so my TDEE doesn't vary much from day to day and I end up between a 15-25% deficit with an average of TDEE -20%. I just find it easier to hit the same calorie goal every day and not worry about mucking with variable calories at the end of the day.
  • wamydia
    wamydia Posts: 259 Member
    I think it's a very individual thing and depends a lot on what activity you are doing and how accurately you are able to estimate your calorie burn. On WW, I used to eat all of my activity points back with no trouble whatsoever. I have found on MFP that I can sometimes have trouble losing if I eat all of my exercise calories. My suggestion would be to start at eating 75% of them back. If you aren't losing at the rate you should be, cut back to 50%. If you are losing too fast, go on up to 100%. Just be willing to play with the numbers and give your body a few weeks to adjust in between changes so you can see the full effect.

    Also, the consensus seems to by the MFP is pretty accurate on calorie burn for walking, but most other things it does over estimate. And that exercise machines also typically over esimtate a little. Just something to keep in mind.
  • Skellwear
    Skellwear Posts: 3
    I try not to eat them as my weight loss goal is very high at the moment but to each their own they say =]!
  • momofgilliam4
    momofgilliam4 Posts: 43
    I really appreciate the responses. So much valuable info!!

    I should add that in whatever activity I am doing for exercise, I am faithfully using my Polar HRM (with chest strap!). Love that thing.
  • oldswimdawg
    oldswimdawg Posts: 11 Member
    I try to never add them to my intake. It makes it easier to plan my menu day not accounting for exercise. Those extra calories burned I treat as a bonus towards my goals.
    One concern I have is the calorie burn rate calculated by MFP. I always find those figures to be much higher than my HRM says. If I went by the MFP calories and added them to my intake I'd never lose weight.
  • mreeves261
    mreeves261 Posts: 728 Member
    I really appreciate the responses. So much valuable info!!

    I should add that in whatever activity I am doing for exercise, I am faithfully using my Polar HRM (with chest strap!). Love that thing.

    Best thing you can do is learn the difference in the signals your body sends when it wants food. You would be surprised how many times it is your brain telling you you to eat.

    Just for reference I tend to eat between 1500-1800 during the week. The weekend it's more like 2100-2400. So it isn't like learning the difference has kept me from eating. It HAS kept me from eating food that offers little nutritional help for my exercise.
  • BlueBombers
    BlueBombers Posts: 4,064 Member
    As many as I possibly can
  • EpicMedic
    EpicMedic Posts: 24 Member
    Never. With MFP and my Bodymedia, I calculated my total daily energy expenditure (I refresh this number every week) and subtract 1000 from it. I eat that, every day. This averages it out, so any "extra" calories I burn winds up in my TDEE. I guess you could say I eat SOME of them back, since they are in the averaged daily burn number, but I never specifically eat back 1000 calories I burned on a good bike ride.
  • Kymwho
    Kymwho Posts: 183 Member
    Bump
  • redwoodkestrel
    redwoodkestrel Posts: 339 Member
    I tend to eat 30-80% of them back (averaging around 50%, I would say)... for me it's more about listening to my body and figuring out how hungry I really am, and also taking into account the type of exercise I did that day.

    Most of my exercise is walking and running and hiking I use a Fitbit so I let it determine my calories burned. It seems to be pretty accurate with walking and running, but when I hike I almost always have a backpack on and I tend to do a lot of uphill which my Fitbit doesn't know (I have a Zip so it doesn't calculate stairs) - so I figure the calories my Fitbit tells me I burned during hiking are probably a bit low. So if I've gone on a *epic* hike that day, I'm more likely to eat a larger percentage of my calories back - plus I'm usually just really hungry afterward too! :happy:
  • sijomial
    sijomial Posts: 19,809 Member
    All of them.
    I burned them, I earned them. I enjoy the burning and I enjoy eating them so it's a win/win.

    (Both when I was losing and at maintenance. )
  • heikejacob4
    heikejacob4 Posts: 38 Member
    I usually tend to have less of an appetite after I exercise (except for swimming, lol) and I try to eat a light lunch before my workout so I don't get nauseous, so I find that on days that I go to the gym, I am well under my daily calorie limit. That being said, I try to force myself to eat back some to get me above 1200 (300 less than goal) since anything less than that is just going to make me binge the next day. :wink: I say just listen to your body (unless it gives you bad cues)!
  • wtw0n
    wtw0n Posts: 1,083 Member
    When I was following the MFP method I ate all the exercise calories back. ALL of them. I know hrms and logging food is not 100% accurate, but I was losing weight just fine so I didn't see any reason for not doing so.

    Now I use TDEE method so I only eat some extra calories if I burn a lot of calories, like 500+.



    Edit.
    I try to never add them to my intake. It makes it easier to plan my menu day not accounting for exercise. Those extra calories burned I treat as a bonus towards my goals.
    One concern I have is the calorie burn rate calculated by MFP. I always find those figures to be much higher than my HRM says. If I went by the MFP calories and added them to my intake I'd never lose weight.

    If you wear a hrm then there's no reason to use the numbers MFP says. After typing the duration you can just change the number of calories burned.
  • sokkache
    sokkache Posts: 220 Member
    I usually don't log my exercise calories because then I feel pressured to eat more calories. So I keep my normal 1590 calories and if I want I'll eat maybe 100 calories more and go over so it'll be -100 something calories and that pressures me to not eat anymore because I feel like I'm eating too much when I'm really still in a deficit.
  • kshadows
    kshadows Posts: 1,315 Member
    It depends on how you calculated your calorie goal. Mine is set to a deficit without any exercise, so I eat back almost all of my exercise calories (logged with a HRM)
  • victoria_1024
    victoria_1024 Posts: 915 Member
    I eat back half of them. I would eat back all of them, but I keep hearing that MFP overestimates so I figure to be safe I'll just do it that way.

    Pretty much my whole purpose of exercising is so that I can eat back more calories. I love food.
  • TeaBea
    TeaBea Posts: 14,517 Member
    All of them.

    This is my answer too.

    It depends upon your set up and how much weight you have to lose.

    MFP is designed in a way ....that you eat them back. MFP gave you a calorie deficit BEFORE exercise. That way, people who can't/won't exercise still lose weight.

    When calorie deficits are too large you are at risk for losing muscle...along with fat. Some people put in aggressive goals....they have a large deficit to begin with. If you have lots of weight to lose.....you can hang onto muscle mass even while eating at a large deficit......closer to goal....eating back calories is more important.
  • culo97
    culo97 Posts: 256 Member
    Say you burn 300 calories doing an activity. Do you automatically eat all of those? Or do you play it by ear as to whether your body cues you to eat them? In WW you earn "activity points" and you can choose to eat them or not - but the basic gist is that if you don't eat them you amp up your weight loss. I am in no hurry to lose more than the "norm" so I plan to sometimes eat the extra calories, sometimes not. I imagine if I were burning 1,000 calories that I would need to eat a good portion of them... but I am not near that at the moment.

    TIA!
    Georgia
    I hardly ever eat the "extra" calories I earned by exercising for 2 reasons.

    1. I occasionally have over calorie days, so I figure it all balances out in the big picture.

    2. I've been watching my diet and exercising for years but my weight has barely budged, except to go up. So I'll take any advantage to help me lose weight I can get. I'm trying to keep my energy expended to calories consumed ratio as high as possible.

    I've lost about 5 pounds in the last month so I'll stick with this strategy until it doesn't work.
  • kimmieb2u
    kimmieb2u Posts: 43 Member
    I donate mine to less fortunate inner-city youth

    Love that! <g> I don't eat mine as a rule either. I'm trying hard to lose weight, and I have a lot to lose. When I get to maintenance I might eat them.

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