Eating your exercise calories.....

I don't get it, nor do I eat them. I'm losing at a steady pace without even looking at them. My Beachbody consultant advised me not to even worry about them. I do what works for me. It's all too confusing. As long as I know that I've burned some calories for the day, then that works for me!

i feel you....its a hard concept to grasp, but it makes some sense to me....i never eat all my exercise calories, but from i understand it works like this.

Your body needs a certain amount of calories even if you sat on the couch all day and did nothing. Like for me to maintain my current weight just sitting around my body needs like 1750 calories....but of course i cant sit around, i take a shower, walk around and exercise....after all that i may burn 850 to exercise alone leaving only 900 for my body to function.....

the rationale for your eating your calories is that your body needs those calories....i still have problems with the concept.

If your goal is to lose 1 lb/week you have a 500 cal deficit at 1200 cals. To ensure you retain your goal deficit (1lb loss) you must eat back what you burn. So if you burn 500 caloires your deficit would have increased from 500 to 1000 (500 goal plus 500 from exercise) since your goal is 1lb/week you must eat the 500 back to get your deficit to 500 for the day.

Another way of looking at it is eating 1200 and not exercising is the same as eating 1700 and burning 500 calories. Your body need fuel to function and if you exercise it requires more. So to lose your goal amount of weight you eat 1200, if you exercise you eat those back to net 1200 (your goal) 1700-500). Otherwise your caloric deficit is larger than your goal, and if too large you may end up burning off muscle instead of fat to use as fuel. The less you have to lose the smaller your deficit should be or you risk burning more muscle, which will slow your metabolism down.

If you went to a trainer they may tell you to eat 1500 calories everyday regardless if you workout that day or not as long as you do 5 days/week. MFP takes it one step further and says you may not workout so to lose weight without exercise you need 1200 cals. Now say you workout 5 days per week 450 calories per session. MFP tells you to eat 8400 (1200*7) plus exercise calories 2250 (450*5) per week for a total of 10650, while your trainer says eat 10500 (1500*7) per week. These number are only 150 apart, and MFP would have you lose weight if you didn't workout whereas your trainer gave you a caloric intake that you would only lose if you worked out.

It works for me to eat them back, it works for my hubby NOT to eat them back, I'd try it both ways and see!

you eat the majority of your calories back because MFP already sets you at a deficit... you are ALREADY eating BELOW your maintenece.... so by eating your calories back you are providing fuel for you muscles so that they can repair themselves

when you do not eat your calories back your body will feast on your muscles after work out because your body is tired and the quickest thing for it to eat is muscle....


this is the FASTEST way to become skinny fat... sure you will lose weight but it will be muscle weight not fat weight....

Read the link in my signature.....

I think the whole idea of eating your exercise is stupid. I don't do it! And I've lost 30-35 lbs in 9 weeks.

You do NOT have to eat your exercise calories. Read this:

http://www.weightwatchers.com/util/art/index_art.aspx?tabnum=1&art_id=35501

You don't need to... but I definitely do. (Yeah, I just quoted myself. Lol.)

I think the whole idea of eating your exercise is stupid. I don't do it! And I've lost 30-35 lbs in 9 weeks.

That weight loss is a little too fast to be considered healthy, I'm sure you lost quite a bit of muscle along with the fat at that rate.

If you went to a trainer they may tell you to eat 1500 calories everyday regardless if you workout that day or not as long as you do 5 days/week. MFP takes it one step further and says you may not workout so to lose weight without exercise you need 1200 cals. Now say you workout 5 days per week 450 calories per session. MFP tells you to eat 8400 (1200*7) plus exercise calories 2250 (450*5) per week for a total of 10650, while your trainer says eat 10500 (1500*7) per week. These number are only 150 apart, and MFP would have you lose weight if you didn't workout whereas your trainer gave you a caloric intake that you would only lose if you worked out.

No trainer or nutritionist, knowing you workout, would ever give you a calorie goal as low as MFP. MFP assumes you will not be working out, then adjusts your caloires up to account for exercise when you do it.

I think the whole idea of eating your exercise is stupid. I don't do it! And I've lost 30-35 lbs in 9 weeks.

As stated here, and in about 10,000 other forum posts, THIS DOES NOT WORK FOR EVERY BODY!

You have to try it both ways and see what works for you! There isn't really any right or wrong but the basic concept is to keep the body fueled and don't consume less than 1200 net calories per day! :bigsmile:

eating 1200 "Net" requires that you eat back your exercise calories.... if your daily goal is set at 1200...

Oh God, I really do not want to be skinny fat! Aughhhhhh. So torn.

if you don't want to eat your exercise calories back, I would suggest bumping up your weight lifting and lowering your Cardio... I would also bump up your calories to right around your BMR... that is what I did and it has worked wonders.


The more weight lifting you do the more muscle you will build, the more muscle you have, the faster your metabolism will help you burn through fat, and the bigger your muscle to fat ratio is (in favor of muscle) the more you can eat to fuel those muscles... so hit the weights double hard... no worries you wont become the hulk! lol

I agree with the people that says it depends on the person. Everyone is different. I was having concerns so I talked to my doctor because he is meeting with me once a month to help me loose my weight goal of 100lbs this year. For me my doctor recommended 1400-1600 calories on days I am exercising and 1200-1500 on days I am not. This is less than MFP recommends, but my doctor knows me and is monitoring me very closely. When we meet he goes over every day of the month and makes suggestions on things to change the next month. The calculations on this website are a great tool and provide a safe calorie goal for people to shoot for to loose weight safely and successfully. If you are seriously questioning how many calories you should eat or whether you should eat your calories back you might want to think about discussing it with a doctor or nutritionist that can look at you as the whole person.

Quite honestly Original Poster.... you should probably base your answer on what a group of people your same size are doing.... that is going to be the most accurate way to get an answer....


if you ask people that have 100 pounds to lose, they can afford to not eat their calories....

but if you ask someone who only has 10 pounds to lose they MUST EAT THEIR calories... or their body will just burn muscle making their BF % higher... aka "skinny fat"

I don't know how heavy you are or what your work our routine is but

I am 5'3" I weight 142 (goal weight 135)

I work out 4-5 times a week and lift for a half hour and only do 20-30 minutes of cardio.

I lift as much as possible and do three sets... I have increased my muscle mass and lowered my body fat percentage to a point that over the past three months I have only lost 4 pounds....

I bumped my calories up to 1480 this last month and lost three of those four pounds.

Bumping my calories up and eating ALL my exercise calories has made me lose BODY FAT... not very much weight but lots of BODY FAT.

I think the whole idea of eating your exercise is stupid. I don't do it! And I've lost 30-35 lbs in 9 weeks.

As stated here, and in about 10,000 other forum posts, THIS DOES NOT WORK FOR EVERY BODY!

You have to try it both ways and see what works for you! There isn't really any right or wrong but the basic concept is to keep the body fueled and don't consume less than 1200 net calories per day! :bigsmile:

Even if it "works", you are most likely not losing only fat, but a combination of fat and lean muscle tissue which is NOT good in the long run.

I think the whole idea of eating your exercise is stupid. I don't do it! And I've lost 30-35 lbs in 9 weeks.

That weight loss is a little too fast to be considered healthy, I'm sure you lost quite a bit of muscle along with the fat at that rate.

If you went to a trainer they may tell you to eat 1500 calories everyday regardless if you workout that day or not as long as you do 5 days/week. MFP takes it one step further and says you may not workout so to lose weight without exercise you need 1200 cals. Now say you workout 5 days per week 450 calories per session. MFP tells you to eat 8400 (1200*7) plus exercise calories 2250 (450*5) per week for a total of 10650, while your trainer says eat 10500 (1500*7) per week. These number are only 150 apart, and MFP would have you lose weight if you didn't workout whereas your trainer gave you a caloric intake that you would only lose if you worked out.

No trainer or nutritionist, knowing you workout, would ever give you a calorie goal as low as MFP. MFP assumes you will not be working out, then adjusts your caloires up to account for exercise when you do it.

I may have lost a little muscle, but I am moving up in the weights and starting to notice the cut in my arms and back a bit more. People wanna look into the numbers way too much on this site! When I played football I was in the best shape of my life. Strength, stamina, appearance.. never once did I count a single calorie or track my workout's. I just ate healthy and went hard in the gym. That is all people need to do. Do you really think every pro athlete or body builder is on MFP or a similar site tracking everything? Probably not! This crap of counting every little detail is just going to drive people nuts.

And the best part of any article you'll read or "fact" out there. It's opinion based. You can search google for eating exercise calories and you'll get a million different reasons why it's bad or why it's good. And then people on here who had a little weight lose all of sudden becomes experts and preach this crap like it's fact. Everyone is a different, what works for one, might not work for another. I shared my experience with the OP about not eating mine. They need to find what works for them. Because there really isn't a right or wrong way.

Quite honestly Original Poster.... you should probably base your answer on what a group of people your same size are doing.... that is going to be the most accurate way to get an answer....


if you ask people that have 100 pounds to lose, they can afford to not eat their calories....

but if you ask someone who only has 10 pounds to lose they MUST EAT THEIR calories... or their body will just burn muscle making their BF % higher... aka "skinny fat"

I don't know how heavy you are or what your work our routine is but

I am 5'3" I weight 142 (goal weight 135)

I work out 4-5 times a week and lift for a half hour and only do 20-30 minutes of cardio.

I lift as much as possible and do three sets... I have increased my muscle mass and lowered my body fat percentage to a point that over the past three months I have only lost 4 pounds....

I bumped my calories up to 1480 this last month and lost three of those four pounds.

Bumping my calories up and eating ALL my exercise calories has made me lose BODY FAT... not very much weight but lots of BODY FAT.

Just wanted you to reread this It is so spot on!!!! want to add if you weigh your food, or measure it makes a difference weighing can make a big difference over a week if your just eye ball (ex a soft ball is a cup) that will make a difference, If you use a HRM for exercise or just this web site or the gym machines will make a difference there more ways to be on or off calories than just exercise calories to be eatten or not. so figure out a plan stick with it for 3 or so weeks if it doesn't work make a new plan don't flip flop week to week.