When should I eat my exercise calories?

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symmetrek
symmetrek Posts: 1
in Health and Weight Loss
This may seem like an odd question, but I dance at least 2 nights a week and I burn about 300-500 calories each night I do. Of course, the calories I burned aren't added to my calories for the day until after I log it when I get home and check how many calories I ended up burning. By that time it's usually close to midnight and a new day.

I went dancing last night and after logging the calories I burned my net calories were only 990, I try to keep my net at 1200 minimum.

Should I be eating those calories the next day? Should I be eating them before dancing in anticipation of burning them? After dancing even though I'm probably going to crawl into bed soon after?
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Replies

  • ironanimal
    ironanimal Posts: 5,922 Member
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    Whenever you want.

    Eating before bed is only a problem if disturbs your sleep.
  • reddz12
    reddz12 Posts: 350 Member
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    To be honest.. I don't eat mine back.. but that is because, I'm not lacking energy or anything like that. On days where I am hungrier, I might eat more and never think twice about it because I'm hungry for a reason. If you aren't hungry and don't feel the need to eat them back then just look at it as a bigger def. There are days where I'm negative because of a morning workout and softball after work. I wouldn't worry about it too much :-) Good luck on your journey!
  • stephe1987
    stephe1987 Posts: 406 Member
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    I don't think it matters what time of day you eat your calories. But if you eat them the next day it makes logging more difficult because your calorie count will be higher for that day.
  • fadumpt
    fadumpt Posts: 4 Member
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    I wouldn't worry about eating the exercise calories or saving them. What you might want to do, from what I can figure out from looking around, is eat something small before you exercise, preferably with a decent amount of carbs. Then eat something afterwards with a decent amount of protein. Not sure how accurate this is, so do your own research as well.
  • diannethegeek
    diannethegeek Posts: 14,776 Member
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    You can eat them whenever you want. If you know you're going to dance later that day then you can eat them beforehand, earlier in the day. You can eat them when you get home (it's okay to eat late unless it disturbs your sleep or gives you heartburn). You can save them and eat them the next day, too, if you want.
  • fittyinthemaking
    fittyinthemaking Posts: 126 Member
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    eat them on the same day if you are hungry, the next day is a new day and your calories start again
  • shadow2soul
    shadow2soul Posts: 7,692 Member
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    This may seem like an odd question, but I dance at least 2 nights a week and I burn about 300-500 calories each night I do. Of course, the calories I burned aren't added to my calories for the day until after I log it when I get home and check how many calories I ended up burning. By that time it's usually close to midnight and a new day.

    I went dancing last night and after logging the calories I burned my net calories were only 990, I try to keep my net at 1200 minimum.

    Should I be eating those calories the next day? Should I be eating them before dancing in anticipation of burning them? After dancing even though I'm probably going to crawl into bed soon after?

    Doesn't really matter. Some people eat them the day they burn them. Some people save them for later in the week so they can go out with friends/family and not worry about calories for a night. Some eat them the next day. Some people set there calorie goals for the week with exercise already figured in (TDEE method). It is totally up to you.

    Now, if your getting your calorie burn from the MFP database, then you probably only want to eat 50-75% back. The reason behind this, is that MFP and exercise machines will overestimate calorie burns for most people.
  • kgeyser
    kgeyser Posts: 22,505 Member
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    It doesn't matter when you eat them. If dancing is something you do every week as part of your routine, you can always just increase your MFP activity level, which will give you some extra calories each day. Then you wouldn't have to log your dancing calories but would still end up eating them back over the course of the week.
  • madimurrell12
    madimurrell12 Posts: 29
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    To be honest.. I don't eat mine back.. but that is because, I'm not lacking energy or anything like that. On days where I am hungrier, I might eat more and never think twice about it because I'm hungry for a reason. If you aren't hungry and don't feel the need to eat them back then just look at it as a bigger def. There are days where I'm negative because of a morning workout and softball after work. I wouldn't worry about it too much :-) Good luck on your journey!

    Yeah...No.
    Negative calories means that your body has NOTHING to keep up its usual functions, so yeah it may be a bigger def but it also means your body will eat your muscle to get energy, so as long as you're cool with that then keep doing what you're doing, but maybe don't make suggestions like that to others.
  • hearthwood
    hearthwood Posts: 794 Member
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    Be very careful about eating calories back, you could be overeating your workouts. MFP can overestimate calories burned.
  • SLLRunner
    SLLRunner Posts: 12,942 Member
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    This may seem like an odd question, but I dance at least 2 nights a week and I burn about 300-500 calories each night I do. Of course, the calories I burned aren't added to my calories for the day until after I log it when I get home and check how many calories I ended up burning. By that time it's usually close to midnight and a new day.

    I went dancing last night and after logging the calories I burned my net calories were only 990, I try to keep my net at 1200 minimum.

    Should I be eating those calories the next day? Should I be eating them before dancing in anticipation of burning them? After dancing even though I'm probably going to crawl into bed soon after?
    Anytime you want. In fact, you can eat them before your dance if that works better for you. :smile:
  • SLLRunner
    SLLRunner Posts: 12,942 Member
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    To be honest.. I don't eat mine back.. but that is because, I'm not lacking energy or anything like that. On days where I am hungrier, I might eat more and never think twice about it because I'm hungry for a reason. If you aren't hungry and don't feel the need to eat them back then just look at it as a bigger def. There are days where I'm negative because of a morning workout and softball after work. I wouldn't worry about it too much :-) Good luck on your journey!
    This is not good. And, are you sure you're eating at a negative? Some of your calorie estimations looks much too high. I'd guess you are eating more than you think (thus, not at a negative) but still at a deficit.
  • Skrib69
    Skrib69 Posts: 687 Member
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    When you are hungry!! Keep an eye on your weekly average consumption to make sure you stay on track.
  • paperpudding
    paperpudding Posts: 9,081 Member
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    eat them on the same day if you are hungry, the next day is a new day and your calories start again

    Yes but your body doesn't count in 24 hour cycles - it is really the average daily calories that matter, not the exact 24 hour increments.

    I'm with most other posters OP - eat them before you exercise or afterwards or the next day or later in the week or a combination of the above - as long as your weekly calories averages out to your correct daily allowance then all is well.
  • AllOutof_Bubblegum
    AllOutof_Bubblegum Posts: 3,646 Member
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    Whenever you want. If you even want to save them for a big meal out every week, that's perfectly acceptable, too. As long as you are maintaining a consistent calorie deficit over an extended period of time, your weight loss will not be stalled.
  • AllOutof_Bubblegum
    AllOutof_Bubblegum Posts: 3,646 Member
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    eat them on the same day if you are hungry, the next day is a new day and your calories start again

    This is wrong. Your stomach cannot tell time. It doesn't matter when you eat, as long as you are in a deficit.
  • rossraskolnikov
    rossraskolnikov Posts: 29 Member
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    I thought you had to eat them whilst exercising.
  • cwolfman13
    cwolfman13 Posts: 41,867 Member
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    If you know roughly what they're going to be, why not just eat more throughout the day? I pretty much planned my days out that way when I was doing MfP. There's no reason you have to wait until you've actually performed your planned activity you know...so long as you do it, you can eat when you feel like it.

    Ultimately this is why I moved to the TDEE method. It was just easier to include some estimate of my exercise up front in the equation and just gross my calories rather than the MFP net method.
  • shadow2soul
    shadow2soul Posts: 7,692 Member
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    I thought you had to eat them whilst exercising.

    working_it_off_as_he_goes_540.gif

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