Eating back the calories I worked off

andst5001
andst5001 Posts: 45 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
Hi everyone, I'm fairly new to MFP. About 40 days in and 25 lbs down. I've been seeing people lately mention eating back the calories they have worked off. Can someone clarify this for me please? It just seems counterproductive to me. Thanks!

Replies

  • diannethegeek
    diannethegeek Posts: 14,776 Member
    MFP sets your goal a little lower than other calculators assuming that you'll log your exercise and eat back the extra earned calories. This calorie goal already has the deficit you need for weight loss built into it. When you exercise and burn more calories than MFP's calculations planned for you, you make that deficit larger, possibly larger than your body wants to handle safely. If you're letting MFP set your goals, then yes, you're meant to eat at least a portion of them to help keep you at a healthy deficit. If you're setting your calorie goals through other sites/calculations then it will depend on how they're set.

    With the caveat that MFP or gym machine readouts have a tendency to overestimate the calories burned during certain activities. A lot of people choose to eat only 50-75% of those earned exercise calories just in case of any inaccuracies. Pay attention to how you feel, your energy levels, mood, gym performance, etc.

    More info: http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/818082-exercise-calories-again-wtf
  • andst5001
    andst5001 Posts: 45 Member
    Thank you so much for the explanation!
  • iLoveMyPitbull1225
    iLoveMyPitbull1225 Posts: 1,690 Member
    First of all congratulations on your achievement so far!

    I second what dianne says, MFP already sets a calorie deficit into your daily goals which will cause weight loss (if properly adhered to). Assuming you are logging accurately then the calories you burn from excersise ADD to that deficit.

    Whether or not you eat them back is up to you. I don't know how much you are burning or how you feel. If I burn 600 calories in a workout session (according to MFP/machines/my phone's fitness APP) I'm gonna be hungry. So, I usually eat some of them back if not all. Are you hungry and left with extra calories? If the answer is yes, then go ahead and eat them back if you want to! Obviously you don't have to eat them all. If you aren't hungry, don't eat. It seems that you have already found success in some way to have lost that much weight in such a small time frame.
  • Kalikel
    Kalikel Posts: 9,603 Member
    Some people log all their exercise. For a lot of it, MFP automatically adjusts your calories. If you have 1300 and work off 200, MFP will raise the 1300 to 1500.

    Some people go with it. They eat back what they work off. Some don't eat any back (or even log the exercise.). Others eat half the exercise calories back...or some other percentage.

    I agree with you. If you feel strong and aren't hungry, no need to eat them back. I don't even log my daily workout. But if I do a lot of extra working out, I will get hungry and I'll eat more, usually in the form of a meal and not a snack.

    You have to do what works for you.
  • andst5001
    andst5001 Posts: 45 Member
    Thank you! That makes sense to me! I think when I read that people were eating back the calories that had burned off that I took it as they were eating all of them back. At the end of the day I am satisfied. Every once in a while MFP will tell me that I ate too few calories that day even though I eat the original amount that I am given, but when I exercise that number goes way up. I think I'm in my groove with this; proud of myself so far! Thanks again!
  • rileyleigh
    rileyleigh Posts: 106 Member
    Basically what has already been said explains it perfectly. I just wanted to add my personal experiences as well. I usually don't eat back my exercise calories because A) I don't trust the amount of calories it says i burn in my exercise, and B) even though i am diligent in my food logging, I know there are innacuracies hidden that i just can't see. I assume my exercise calories make up for my innacurate logging.

    That being said, if I hit my calorie goal, have a few hundred exercise calories earned, and am still hungry, i never feel bad about eating some of the calories back.
  • cwolfman13
    cwolfman13 Posts: 41,865 Member
    Thank you! That makes sense to me! I think when I read that people were eating back the calories that had burned off that I took it as they were eating all of them back. At the end of the day I am satisfied. Every once in a while MFP will tell me that I ate too few calories that day even though I eat the original amount that I am given, but when I exercise that number goes way up. I think I'm in my groove with this; proud of myself so far! Thanks again!

    Here's the math (and when I did MFP I did eat all of them back, adjusted for estimation error)

    Let's say I put in light active for my activity level...that's just my day to day...NO exercise...and I tell MFP I want to lose 1 Lb per week. MFP gives me a goal of 1850 calories. This means that MFP is assuming my theoretical NON EXERCISE maintenance to be 1,850 + 500 = 2,350 calories (because the 1850 represents a 500 calorie per day deficit to lose 1 Lb per week.)

    But hey...I don't want to just lose weight, I want to be fit...and fitness needs to be fueled. Particularly as workouts become more intense and go for longer durations, proper fueling becomes more and more important. Exercise is good for you...but it is also hard on the body and requires energy to recover and rebuild what has been broken down...calories provide that energy...that's what a calorie is...it's a unit of energy.

    Anyway...so now I exercise and lets say I burn 300 calories...MFP ups my goal to 2,150 but I still have the same net deficit in place because my theoretical maintenance number will have also increased by those same 300 calories...so maintenance would no longer be 2,350, it would be 2,650. 2,650 - 2,150 = 500 calorie deficit still
  • andst5001
    andst5001 Posts: 45 Member
    Thank you! That makes sense to me! I think when I read that people were eating back the calories that had burned off that I took it as they were eating all of them back. At the end of the day I am satisfied. Every once in a while MFP will tell me that I ate too few calories that day even though I eat the original amount that I am given, but when I exercise that number goes way up. I think I'm in my groove with this; proud of myself so far! Thanks again!

    Here's the math (and when I did MFP I did eat all of them back, adjusted for estimation error)

    Let's say I put in light active for my activity level...that's just my day to day...NO exercise...and I tell MFP I want to lose 1 Lb per week. MFP gives me a goal of 1850 calories. This means that MFP is assuming my theoretical NON EXERCISE maintenance to be 1,850 + 500 = 2,350 calories (because the 1850 represents a 500 calorie per day deficit to lose 1 Lb per week.)

    But hey...I don't want to just lose weight, I want to be fit...and fitness needs to be fueled. Particularly as workouts become more intense and go for longer durations, proper fueling becomes more and more important. Exercise is good for you...but it is also hard on the body and requires energy to recover and rebuild what has been broken down...calories provide that energy...that's what a calorie is...it's a unit of energy.

    Anyway...so now I exercise and lets say I burn 300 calories...MFP ups my goal to 2,150 but I still have the same net deficit in place because my theoretical maintenance number will have also increased by those same 300 calories...so maintenance would no longer be 2,350, it would be 2,650. 2,650 - 2,150 = 500 calorie deficit still

    Appreciate the break down! Helpful to see it that way. :)

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