excercise cals... what do u do?

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Jess21684
Jess21684 Posts: 202 Member
in Food and Nutrition
okay just so i can decide what the best option for me to do for myself is, im just curious what you guys do with the excercise calories. do you guys ignore them and try not to eat them back, do you only eat some or half of them back or do you try to eat all of them?! I just wanna see what seems to be the most used way of dealing with these excercise calories so i can determine what i think would be best for me cause im struggling with this it seems
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Replies

  • ebkins7
    ebkins7 Posts: 427 Member
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    I try to eat most of them back. It's hard sometimes for me because I workout in the afternoon mostly which leaves really only 2 meals (post workout and dinner) to consume that many calories.

    It's best to eat them (or the majority of them) because as it is you are all ready on a deficit, when you workout you are expecting your body to function on FEWER calories than that. So it's best to get at least 1200 NET calories!!!

    Just my 2 cents!
  • ♥_Ellybean_♥
    ♥_Ellybean_♥ Posts: 1,646 Member
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    I usually eat some of them.. I don't eat if I am not hungry. If I have eaten all my food for the day and am hungry and have exercise calories i use them. But I don't FORCE myself to eat just cuz they are there
  • AKosky585
    AKosky585 Posts: 607 Member
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    I only started to lose weight when I started to eat mine back. I typically eat 80% back, depending on the burn..some days it might be a bit less...but I usually do 80% for a safe number in case I didnt burn as much as my HRM said I did.
  • themommie
    themommie Posts: 5,023 Member
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    I usually ignore them and dont eat them back. If I happen to work out alot that day then I might eat back 100-300 cals of them. I think different things work for different people this seems to work for me, you just have to fine what works for you
  • kimballtracy
    kimballtracy Posts: 94
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    im not sure what to do either... good question.
  • Adsnwfld
    Adsnwfld Posts: 262 Member
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    I know you are supposed to eat them, I frequently don't. When I had 50 lbs to lose it wasn't a big deal, now my weight loss as slowed and I'm experimenting with eating them v not.
  • EvelynForsyth
    EvelynForsyth Posts: 272 Member
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    It depends! yesterday i did lotsof exercise because i wanted to eat pizza in the evening but usually i eat a few back leaving a couple hundred (i usually burn approx. 500 cals) because i dont know how accurate this website is.
    You need to make sure the calories you consume are minimum of 1200....so if you ate 1400 but burnt 500 you're need to make sure eat some back.....if you dont regularly then your body may go into starvation mode and prevent you losing weight!
  • danielled6875
    danielled6875 Posts: 53 Member
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    bump
  • gillian2004
    gillian2004 Posts: 1
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    but if you eat the calories you have just worked off there is no point in doing the exercise unless your trying to get fit and not loose any weight. And when you stop exercising you will just pile on the weight
  • Hourglass25
    Hourglass25 Posts: 340 Member
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    It depends on what kind of day im having. trust me i eat them must of the time, but there is days that I am not that hungry so i dont get to eat them all.
  • smelmel
    smelmel Posts: 98 Member
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    Hi, I don't eat all my exercise calories, For the first year I usually had about 250 left and for the past few months now I'm fitter and exercise more I have about 400 left. My weight loss has been steady and I am down to 63kg but I do exercise everyday so I always eat about 1500 cals a day and I never get hungry,
    Maybe just trial and error, I remember when I started I wasn't sure either but everyone is different and you have to find what works for you.
  • freerange
    freerange Posts: 1,722 Member
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    I use my exercise (cardio) calories as a buffer, try to eat at least some of them back, but not all. And I don’t count my weight lifting at all, so any calories burned during weight lifting should all go to fat loss (hopefully :). BUT I’m not close to my ideal weight (yet), the closer you get to your goal weight the more you want to eat your exercise calories, to avoid kicking your body into storing fat because it thinks you are starving.
  • JillyBean819
    JillyBean819 Posts: 313 Member
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    I eat about 95% of my workout calories.
  • freerange
    freerange Posts: 1,722 Member
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    but if you eat the calories you have just worked off there is no point in doing the exercise unless your trying to get fit and not loose any weight. And when you stop exercising you will just pile on the weight

    Remember exercise for fitness, diet for weight loss. AND YOU SHOULD DO BOTH :) sorry for yelling.
  • neelia
    neelia Posts: 750 Member
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    A majority of the time I eat them. Other times I don't.
  • koolgurl84
    koolgurl84 Posts: 35
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    Thats what I thought too. But some people on here say eat some of the exercise calories back, then other choose not to add their exercise calories to prevent throwing off net goal. I say do whatever works for you, bc our bodies work diff.
  • jessieinblue
    jessieinblue Posts: 287 Member
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    but if you eat the calories you have just worked off there is no point in doing the exercise unless your trying to get fit and not loose any weight. And when you stop exercising you will just pile on the weight

    Why would you stop exercising?
  • darrenw74
    darrenw74 Posts: 86 Member
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    but if you eat the calories you have just worked off there is no point in doing the exercise unless your trying to get fit and not loose any weight. And when you stop exercising you will just pile on the weight

    This is actually not true. Try not to think of it as calories that are going right back into your fat stores. Your body needs the fuel from the food. The calories you burned are already burned. Also, consider that your body is using energy to process the food, and it's keeping your metabolism going. The calories you burn working out are great, but really it's about the longer term goal of increasing your overall metabolic rate (BMR).

    I wish I could find it, but there was a poster in the forums earlier today that revealed being stuck at a weight for multiple months until she started eating her workout calories.
  • DeAunte
    DeAunte Posts: 3
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    So should we or shouldn't we eat the calories we burn? I want to see the weight come off, however I've been running 3 miles a day on a 1490 calorie diet. When I enter the exercise I bumps my daily allowed calorie intake up. Still not sure what to do :happy:
  • DeAunte
    DeAunte Posts: 3
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    Good point. Sometimes I eat them and sometimes I don't.

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