How many of your exercise calories do you eat?

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  • redwoodkestrel
    redwoodkestrel Posts: 339 Member
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    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: 19,811 Member
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    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
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    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
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    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
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    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
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    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
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    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
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    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
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    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
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    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.
  • Diondk
    Diondk Posts: 159 Member
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    I never eat extra calories the main reason for it is because i am not feeling hungry!

    I eat 6 times a day and i am not feeling hungry so i eat my normal calories and the dog can have the activity calories ;)
  • ravenstar25
    ravenstar25 Posts: 126 Member
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    I don't. MFP grossly overestimates what I burn in a day anyhow. Of course, my exercise (due to health conditions) tends to be on the lighter side, mostly walking. If you are doing extremely heavy exercise and are trying to actively build muscle you may consider doing things a little differently. It depends on what your metabolism is and what your goals are. Don't let your total intake dip too low on any given day, but then if you are going for fat loss alone don't eat the calories back. For muscle building do. That's the short and sweet version.
  • missylectro
    missylectro Posts: 448 Member
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    The less of them I'd eat the greater the weight loss
  • s1rens0ng
    s1rens0ng Posts: 127 Member
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    In for recommendations.

    ME TOO!
  • kitlynnJ
    kitlynnJ Posts: 78 Member
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    I eat back 50-66% of my exercise calories. I use MFP's estimates, and as others have said they tend to be high.
  • lemon629
    lemon629 Posts: 501 Member
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    Only if I am hungry and need to eat more. I think it's strange and probably unhealthy to make yourself eat more than you want just to hit some number, especially since calorie burn isn't necessarily always correct and calorie counts also may be off a little, even if you weigh and measure.
  • unesemainedecruaute
    unesemainedecruaute Posts: 54 Member
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    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.

    This.
  • QuietBloom
    QuietBloom Posts: 5,413 Member
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    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.

    :huh: 1200 net per day is not a 'one size fits all' number.
  • mrslcoop
    mrslcoop Posts: 317 Member
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    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.

    This. And on days I'm super hungry, I just eat up to my TDEE or my maintenance calories (like today).
  • A_Fit_Mom
    A_Fit_Mom Posts: 602 Member
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    On average..half of them back. But there are definitely days..I eat all of them back. :)

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