Do you eat back your exercise calories?

Options
135

Replies

  • malibu927
    malibu927 Posts: 17,565 Member
    Options
    For the most part, yes. Today I only ate back a tiny bit because my Fitbit activity wasn't as great as I wanted.
  • curiousgemfit
    curiousgemfit Posts: 42 Member
    Options
    Yep I eat back roughly 85% of my calories burned through exercise leaving 15% for error in calculations and lost weight... I am a firm believer that you must fuel your body for the workout you are demanding of it to do....... Best of Luck

    ^^^ Hmm.. ok, thinking aloud here.. If I eat back most of my calories, I won't have much of a calorie deficit. So, how will my body experience a weight loss? Wouldn't what you suggested be more relevant closer to the maintenance period? I am just wondering how it works..

    My calorie deficit has already been established in to daily caloric intake so any calories burned through exercise have nothing to do with my weight loss but as more to do with refueling my body for the exercise that I am asking it to do.... If your using the MFP approach than this is they way you should be doing it unless you are doing TDEE if that is the case then your exercise calories are already calculated in.....

    Ok, this reply really puts things in perspective for me.
    I realize now that I was probably having the wrong idea of weight loss when I started using MFP. I thought the goal was to have a huge deficit in calories at the end of each day.
    I am starting to understand that is the wrong way to go about a sustainable weight loss. Really appreciate your reply. Thanks so much !!
  • HanamiDango
    HanamiDango Posts: 456 Member
    Options
    I eat back 1/2 of my exercise cals and have my profile set on active with 1lb a week to lose. I think I might burn more than 1/2 but so far I lose at that rate so not changing things. I also do an excel chart of calories and weight lost to get a better idea of my maintenance intake.

    Check out both links
    http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/1080242-a-guide-to-get-you-started-on-your-path-to-sexypants
    http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/1235566-so-you-re-new-here
  • hatrammell
    hatrammell Posts: 36
    Options
    I just eat if I'm hungry or need something. If I'm fine and I don't, then I just take the extra calories as a big win. If I am hungry, I eat the calories and make sure I don't go over. if I do, even by a little bit, I may walk around the block once or twice. =)
  • hearthwood
    hearthwood Posts: 794 Member
    Options
    When I do,it's only half of burned calories. MFP and other electronic devices have a history of overestimating calories burned, henceforth if you eat them all back, you could end up overeating your workouts.
  • Hadabetter
    Hadabetter Posts: 942 Member
    Options
    Yes I eat back my exercise calories. I'm trying to avoid having an excessively large calorie deficit on any given day so as to preserve as much lean mass as possible.

    If you have your goals set to lose 1 or 2 lbs a week, your calories (including your exercise calories) will have the necessary 500 or 1000 calorie/day deficit included. So yes, eat those bad boys!
  • williams969
    williams969 Posts: 2,528 Member
    Options
    Yep. Just about every single one of them, too :smile: I use a Fitbit, and am very confident in the calorie number it gives me, and set MFP to lose 1/2 lb/wk (1lb/week for the first month I was here). It's worked brilliantly for me so far.

    Even before I had the Fitbit, I chose to take the time to calculate my calorie burns from exercise (mostly steady-state cardio like running, walking, aerobic video, etc.) using my heart rate, rather than the "sometimes" inflated numbers MFP gives (in quotes, since YMMV). I still ate back those calories. Same thing, lost weight at roughly the rate MFP forecasted. I'm never over hungry, nor have the need to have a "cheat" day, since I've decided to trust the system and go with it.
  • curiousgemfit
    curiousgemfit Posts: 42 Member
    Options
    Thanks for all the replies! Appreciate it :)
  • WhatMeRunning
    WhatMeRunning Posts: 3,538 Member
    Options
    Ok, that was beautifully explained! Thanks for taking the time to give me such an elaborate answer. Appreciate it :)

    But I still have a question for you.

    You said that MFP calculates my calorie deficit using my original input of "sedentary" lifestyle.
    But, now that I have incorporated exercise into my daily life, I am no longer sedentary. So, does this mean that the calorie calculation MFP did for me is no longer relevant?
    Do I need to change my settings to update my new lifestyle which includes exercise?

    Thanks again !
    I'm pretty sure that "lifestyle" is based on a normal day without exercise. Just what you do every day regardless. In my case I have a desk job, parked in a sitting position basically all day. Outside of that, there is no sort of real athletic actiivty in my day, just normal stuff, making food, taking care of the kids, that sort of thing. So in my case, I pick "sedentary" as my normal default day.

    I exercise at least every other day now, but that is on top of all that. So that is why I eat back those exercise calories, because those activities are not done every day at a set level.

    You get to pick what activity level you have in your normal every day life that does not change, and if that means you exercise some every day, then calculate it in. If you have a job that has you on your feet all day, or a physically demanding job, then definitely also pick something higher than sedentary.

    For me, and I think this is how the site was designed to work with the whole "eating back calories" thing, is to set that baseline of what calories you need just to survive you normal every day life at your current weight. Any activities you add on top of that are extra activities that burn calories you eat back since you can not account for those every day.

    Hope that helps.

    I'm sure there are many ways to work this, as there are a lot of variables. This is just how I do it, and how I understood the MFP program to work.
  • Trez32
    Trez32 Posts: 84 Member
    Options
    I eat back every single one of my exercise calories and have been losing weight at a steady pace. I figure once I plateau I'll make adjustments to eat less of them (or in some cases just eat more) in order to continue losing. I do however understand why some people will not eat them back. Personally I (mainly) exercise so I can eat more :laugh:
  • mbbseb
    mbbseb Posts: 124 Member
    Options
    I use to eat them but I stopped just this week because I'm not losing any weight eating them. But if I have a day of wanting more food then I will have something to fall back on.
  • besaro
    besaro Posts: 1,858 Member
    Options
    every.single.one. its the only reason i run.


    eta the why in ever.
  • LoneWolfRunner
    LoneWolfRunner Posts: 1,160 Member
    Options
    I try to eat every last one. And I still lose....
  • crazymommy5
    crazymommy5 Posts: 65 Member
    Options
    I don't ever eat my calories back.
    I see calories burned as creating the deficit I need in order to lose weight. IMO, if I ate them back, I might as well have not even worked out. I know there are other reasons for working out and that MFP already sets our calories/macros at a deficit, but this is what works for me.
  • arrielle10
    arrielle10 Posts: 35
    Options
    I have 1 1500 calorie goal too. I am very rarely hungry, even on days I burn 500 calories exercising. But I take a medication that has a side effect of decreased appetite.
  • Amelia0471
    Amelia0471 Posts: 44
    Options
    Sometimes I will eat them back, but if I do I make sure its from fruits and vegetables or something healthy and not cake lol
  • Timelordlady85
    Timelordlady85 Posts: 797 Member
    Options
    Hi all,
    Do you regularly eat back a portion of your exercise calories?
    If yes, then how much can you eat back and still achieve weight loss?
    Thanks !

    I use a heart rate monitor and eat back all of them most of the time.It hasn't effected my weight loss in any way

    Ditto, my polar hem seems pretty accurate and actually was stalling from not eating enough of my calories, i started eating the net amount mfp told me and bam 1.2 pound drop after no loss for a week and a half.
  • TeaBea
    TeaBea Posts: 14,517 Member
    Options
    I don't ever eat my calories back.
    I see calories burned as creating the deficit I need in order to lose weight. IMO, if I ate them back, I might as well have not even worked out. I know there are other reasons for working out and that MFP already sets our calories/macros at a deficit, but this is what works for me.

    If you are using MFP as designed you got a calorie deficit BEFORE exercise. That's because some people can't/won't do any exercise at all.

    Yes - by eating back zero calories you are creating a larger deficit. But is that larger deficit healthy? Depends............obese people can carry large deficits without lean muscle loss....people closer to goal cannot.

    As you get closer to goal eating calories back (subject to inflation).....will become more important if you want to lose fat (just fat). I strength train to KEEP lean muscle.....not eating enough defeats that.
  • tigerblue
    tigerblue Posts: 1,525 Member
    Options
    Yep I eat back roughly 85% of my calories burned through exercise leaving 15% for error in calculations and lost weight... I am a firm believer that you must fuel your body for the workout you are demanding of it to do....... Best of Luck

    ^^^ Hmm.. ok, thinking aloud here.. If I eat back most of my calories, I won't have much of a calorie deficit. So, how will my body experience a weight loss? Wouldn't what you suggested be more relevant closer to the maintenance period? I am just wondering how it works..
    The idea is that you already establish a calorie deficit. Say your BMR + your activity level works out to you needing 2400 calories a day just to maintain your current weight. A 500 calorie per day reduction should work out to roughly 1 lb per week of weight loss. So you target 1900 calories per day to lose 1 pound per week.

    So, if on a given day you eat exactly 1900 calories, but then go for a run and burn 500 calories, you have now netted only 1400 calories for the day because you just burned 500 calories you had not previously accounted for in your calculations (BMR + sedentary, nowhere in there is a 500 calorie burn figured in).

    Given that, if you eat back that 500 calories, you are still on target to lose 1 pound per week, because that puts you back to your 1900 "net calories/day" goal.

    For me, why this is important is that I am targeting 2 pounds per week of weight loss, which is about as high of a safe recommended level that any sane long term weight loss is good for. That means a net reduction of 1000 calories per day. If I do a long run burning 800 calories, plus that 1000 calorie deficit, I have a total deficit of 1800 calories that day, roughly a 3.5 pound per week calorie reduction. That is not sustainable long term, my body will run out of energy or start storing extra energy as fat to compensate for not taking in enough.

    That's the theory.

    All I know is that I am still losing 2 pounds per week after several weeks of eating back my calories. I'm happy with that. It works. Keep in mind that my target daily calories is a 1000 calorie reduction to begin with, so I am only eating back calories to that point, so that in total I have a 1000 calorie per day reduction even after eating back the exercise calories. If I don't exercise, I don't eat anything back.

    Good explanation.

    OP, just make sure you are not including exercise in your activity level when you do your MFP settings. Even though I work out 6 days a week I set MFP to sedentary, because for the rest of my day, that is how I would describe my activity. And then I eat back exercise calories. Some people prefer to include exercise in their initial settings. In that case you would not eat back your calories.
  • RET68
    RET68 Posts: 88
    Options
    I have been eating back all my calories, or nearly so, and losing 2 pounds a week. I know it's tempting to make it lower, but this is literally like the fifth time I will be losing this weight, and I would really like to keep it off this time. I also am hoping to discover some muscle under my blubber as I have been working out all along. :laugh:

Categories