Should you eat your exercise calories?

kiawya
kiawya Posts: 73
edited September 2024 in Health and Weight Loss
I've been on a plan for 5 weeks now, and joined this site yesterday. That was the first time I saw that you can
add to your daily food caloric intake according to how many calories you burn off.
I've never done that before, and I did it yesterday, and I feel full and bloated this morning..
Do you eat your exercise calories?
I'm curious to know...

Replies

  • live2smyle
    live2smyle Posts: 592 Member
    Yes I try to eat as many as I can
  • emmap123b
    emmap123b Posts: 17
    i sometimes have an extra bit of fruit but dont eat all my exercise cals x
  • michelle4271
    michelle4271 Posts: 194 Member
    you will have to find what works best for you, but rule of thumb is to eat about 80% of the exercise calories back. I zig zag them, when I feel hungrier, I eat close to that, if I dont, ....well then I dont. I've really learned to listen to my body this way. good luck to you
  • sar586
    sar586 Posts: 40 Member
    I just bought a HRM. The number of calories that I actually burned was less than the number of calories the website told me I should have burned. My suggestion is that if you're eating the exercise calories, be sure you know exactly how many calories you're really burning, or you may end up overeating.
  • captnesshowdy7
    captnesshowdy7 Posts: 61
    I would suggest eating some of your exercise calories. If you don't, your body might do what mine did: Think you're starving and then hold one to your weight. Good luck!
  • butterfly_lvr
    butterfly_lvr Posts: 88
    most on here will agree you should eat all or at least a good portion of your exercise calories; my only problem is the calories burned on exercises listed on here are usually high and the pedometer I have is not accurate (found that out this morning) so now I have no clue how to log my exercises. I am beginning to feel like logging exercise on here based on MFP's numbers or going with my pedometer are both giving me false readings and maybe I have been eating back more calories than needed and that is why I am stuck where I am. I just don't know anymore and I know there will be a whole lot commenting after me. Before anybody can suggest a HRM with chest strap - that is just not in this family's budget anytime soon so I am limited as to what I can work with.
  • therealangd
    therealangd Posts: 1,861 Member
    I do eat my exercise calories. Sort of. I use my BMR (active lifestyle) less 1000 calories (2 lbs per week) to caluclate my goal caloric intake (calories eaten - exercise calories). And that's what I eat.
  • LovelySnugs
    LovelySnugs Posts: 389
    before i got my HRM, i ate back about half of my exercise calories, just cuz i was afraid the calculators were overestimating. turns out, i was right. after i got my HRM and started seeing what my numbers were. . .well, i still eat back about half my exercise calories. it's just that now i know how many calories i actually burned.

    but you gotta figure out what works for you. for future reference, i give you The URL: www.shouldieatmyexercisecalories.com

    that should have a bunch of information for you to make a better-informed decision.
  • lphoenix129
    lphoenix129 Posts: 21
    you will have to find what works best for you, but rule of thumb is to eat about 80% of the exercise calories back. I zig zag them, when I feel hungrier, I eat close to that, if I dont, ....well then I dont. I've really learned to listen to my body this way. good luck to you

    I agree...listen to your body! I burned a little over 900 calories yesterday, but I couldn't bring myself to eat them back because I wasn't hungry. I really paid attention to what I was eating yesterday and made sure I had snacks in between meals. I barely ate my 1200 calories. Any more than what I ate would have been overdoing it. On the other hand, I've had days where I only eat some of my exercise calories back, and days where I almost eat all of them. It really just depends on the day.
  • cbpirie
    cbpirie Posts: 15
    I have to admit, I am stil trying to wrap my head around this concept it seems so contrary to what we have heard before. I am trying to eat some back but I can't get myself to eat them all. I work out a lot and that would be a lot of calories. But on the other hand I have lost 4 lbs in 2 weeks. Perhaps I would be losing more if I were eating more. I am going on a cruise next week and I am so afraid I will backslide. I plan to workout as much as possible so I can eat!!
  • realrayne10
    realrayne10 Posts: 388 Member
    I do not eat back my exercise calories unless I am feeling fatigued. This is usually on a 600+ calorie burn day. Then I will eat back no more than 1/2 just to be safe. I too can not afford a HRM right now and would rather err on the side of caution. The bottom line is though, listen to your body. You will figured out it's queues with practice.
  • JMJohnson1005
    JMJohnson1005 Posts: 209 Member
    Yes, I really try to. Sometimes I can't eat all of them, but I always eat most of them.
  • dperez108
    dperez108 Posts: 22 Member
    MFP allows me to eat 1600 calories per day. I usually burn about 600 calories per day doing cardio. Usually my net calories are around 1000 and I've been losing about 2.5 pounds a week since i joined in Jan. I find it real hard to eat my excercise calories, because it's so much food. I find it hard to eat a lot of calories when I eat healthy foods. But everyone is different you have to find what works for you. good luck on your journey.
  • DoReMiFaSoLaTiDo
    DoReMiFaSoLaTiDo Posts: 296
    MANY people mistakenly think they are in starvation mode when in fact they have overestimated calories or underestimated calories burned.... ( easily happens)

    that said, when you are morbidly obese, you will NOT go into starvation mode.... DO NOT EAT BACK YOUR CALORIES....

    when you are closer to healthy range, then your body NEEDS the extra energy ( calories) to help burn fat instead of muscles, so THEN it is advised to eat back your calories
  • meggonkgonk
    meggonkgonk Posts: 2,066 Member
    I've been on a plan for 5 weeks now, and joined this site yesterday. That was the first time I saw that you can
    add to your daily food caloric intake according to how many calories you burn off.
    I've never done that before, and I did it yesterday, and I feel full and bloated this morning..
    Do you eat your exercise calories?
    I'm curious to know...

    The reason you don't typically see increased caloric intake with exercise on other programs is because most programs use exercise to create your deficit. So they have you aiming to eat more, say roughly 1500 calories or more a day, and then workout a few days of the week to create your deficit of 3500 (1lb). MFP has a lower amount daily (usually 12-1400) BUT the caveat being you already have the deficit built in, you should eat your calories back.

    MFP is designed so that you should eat your calories back. Your goal is in NET calories, meaning that the equation on your homepage:

    GOAL FOOD - EXERCISE = NET You are meant to make the NET number match your goal number.


    If you don't once in a while that's fine. But don't just not eat because you aren't hungry. I know this sounds counter intuitive, but if you consistently underfeed your body, it starts to become satisfied with less food- which sounds good, but it really means a cycle of slower metabolism and can cause a lot of problems down the road. Right now, it is important to train your body when to be hungry as well as when NOT to be hungry. Your body isn't dependable yet, or you wouldn't be here, you have to train it first.

    Just remember- your body needs ENOUGH calories as well as abstaining from too many.

    Best of luck and check out some of the sticky threads (General Diet>NEWBIES PLEASE READ) for more information.
  • cbpirie
    cbpirie Posts: 15
    you can always check your heart rate the old fashioned way. Soon you will learn what it feels like at the target heart rate.
  • meggonkgonk
    meggonkgonk Posts: 2,066 Member

    that said, when you are morbidly obese, you will NOT go into starvation mode.... DO NOT EAT BACK YOUR CALORIES....

    This isn't actually true. When you are morbidly obese it is HARDER to go into starvation mode, so you can run a larger deficit without actively slowing your metabolism. But if you are extreme enough, you can go into starvation mode at any weight. It's just much more common with people who are closer to /at a healthy weight range because they have less deficit flexibility.

    If you are morbidly obese, I would talk to your doctor, making sure he/she understands the goals and mechanics of MFP as a tool and discuss what is a safe but productive deficit and manually adjust your settings accordingly.
  • meggonkgonk
    meggonkgonk Posts: 2,066 Member
    I've never done that before, and I did it yesterday, and I feel full and bloated this morning..

    Also- did you try to eat them all back after you burned them? This will leave you feeling bloaty and over stuffed.

    Best thing to do is to spread your calorie increase over meals and snacks- add an extra ounce of meat, or a handful of nuts. Eat an extra snack. If you work out at night, you should still generally know roughly how much you are going to burn (doesn't have to be exact) and can add most of it to your meals throughout the day- that way you are properly fueled going into the workout and don't stuff yourself silly trying to get to your basic number of calories.
  • michelle4271
    michelle4271 Posts: 194 Member
    most on here will agree you should eat all or at least a good portion of your exercise calories; my only problem is the calories burned on exercises listed on here are usually high and the pedometer I have is not accurate (found that out this morning) so now I have no clue how to log my exercises. I am beginning to feel like logging exercise on here based on MFP's numbers or going with my pedometer are both giving me false readings and maybe I have been eating back more calories than needed and that is why I am stuck where I am. I just don't know anymore and I know there will be a whole lot commenting after me. Before anybody can suggest a HRM with chest strap - that is just not in this family's budget anytime soon so I am limited as to what I can work with.

    they are not in my family budget either, I watch my actual "food" calories and try to hit that, or around 100 of my exercise calories eaten at a maximum, that has been working well and seems to accomodate for any mislogging/ miscalculating. I log my calorie burn from the eliptical that I use, and it is usually significantly higher than MFP estimates, I do however work extremely hard on the darn thing haha, so must be close, I've lost approx 12 - 13 lbs doing it this way, and I never log my strength training,,,hopefully you're able to get some of that in a few days a week. hope these suggestions help ya.
  • Wraiythe
    Wraiythe Posts: 780 Member
    Before anybody can suggest a HRM with chest strap - that is just not in this family's budget anytime soon so I am limited as to what I can work with.
    [/quote]

    One of those HRM's is nowhere near my budget either. I did, however save up until I could get the cheap Sportline S7's at Wal Mart. They are like $27. And it was a real eye opener. Because MFP is off on the calories burned. Some things I burn more and then others I don't burn anywhere near what MFP says I should.
  • DoReMiFaSoLaTiDo
    DoReMiFaSoLaTiDo Posts: 296
    I will counter that HRMs are a WASTE of $$$ considering that folks are now DE-bunking the fat burn zone vs cardio zone....

    you basically want to go as hard & fast as you can in spurts ( HIIT)
  • Windi38
    Windi38 Posts: 164 Member
    I'd say if you can't get an hrm with a chest strap right now, then don't eat back all your calories because the pre-sets on this site are very optimistic. I've only been on here a week, and I noticed that I'm burning a full 1/3 less calories than the presets here say I did. For instance, I hiked with the dogs a couple of days ago, and burned 360 calories according to my hrm. The preset for 'hiking' for 80 minutes was over 600 calories! I know I didn't burn that many! It takes 80 minutes of fast bike riding for me to burn over 600 calories!

    Depending on what you set your activity level to in the beginning---if you put sedentary as your lifestyle, it's giving you the lowest amount of calories per day with NO exercise in order to lose weight, based on your height, weight and age. That way, if you have a day or two and don't exercise, you should try and keep your calories down, but if you work out, then you should try and eat at least some of the calories back in order to not get run down and feel tired.

    I haven't changed my eating habits at all, but started working out every day for at least an hour. I'm finding out now that I am logging my calories, that I am eating 1600-1900 calories a day. This is with no change in diet. With working out like I do now, I end up with a 300 or so calorie deficit , and I've lost 6 pounds in 3.5 weeks! MFP says that in order to lose weight without working out, I should be eating 1200 calories a day. But I have been regularly burning over 500 calories a day between my bike rides and walking the dogs and occasionally going to the gym. I can see now, why I was having so much trouble losing weight before, because I only worked out a few times a week, but still ate the 1600-1900 calories a day. But I don't do well eating less, so my only other option is to burn more calories. :)
  • Pande
    Pande Posts: 33
    You will lose extra weight if you DON'T eat them, but it doesn't hurt to eat a few of them.

    I usually avoid eating them but sometimes I do some of them.
  • zakkthebear
    zakkthebear Posts: 52 Member
    No.
  • meggonkgonk
    meggonkgonk Posts: 2,066 Member
    You will lose extra weight if you DON'T eat them, but it doesn't hurt to eat a few of them.

    I usually avoid eating them but sometimes I do some of them.

    Eventually, if you don't eat them, your metabolism will slow down. This will make all of the estimates you have on MFP be incorrect for you and it will mean you need to keep eating less and less to continue losing.

    Once in a while it's ok to go under, but to not eat your exercise calories, in the long term it will make your journey more difficult.
  • DoReMiFaSoLaTiDo
    DoReMiFaSoLaTiDo Posts: 296

    that said, when you are morbidly obese, you will NOT go into starvation mode.... DO NOT EAT BACK YOUR CALORIES....

    When you are morbidly obese it is HARDER to go into starvation mode, so you can run a larger deficit without actively slowing your metabolism. But if you are extreme enough, you can go into starvation mode at any weight. It's just much more common with people who are closer to /at a healthy weight range because they have less deficit flexibility.


    this is basically what I said and you have proved my point that morbidly obese folks should NOT eat their calories back
  • meggonkgonk
    meggonkgonk Posts: 2,066 Member

    that said, when you are morbidly obese, you will NOT go into starvation mode.... DO NOT EAT BACK YOUR CALORIES....

    When you are morbidly obese it is HARDER to go into starvation mode, so you can run a larger deficit without actively slowing your metabolism. But if you are extreme enough, you can go into starvation mode at any weight. It's just much more common with people who are closer to /at a healthy weight range because they have less deficit flexibility.


    this is basically what I said and you have proved my point that morbidly obese folks should NOT eat their calories back

    No. You said you will NOT go int starvation mode. I said, that you can but it is more difficult and you should consult your doctor because the guidelines as are typically laid out are not applicable.
  • JenniCH
    JenniCH Posts: 74
    I was actually instructed by my Dr./Nutritionist to NOT eat back any of my exercise calories because it's almost impossible for us to get a completely accurate count of what we actually burned and he said it leads to a lot of over-eating and then people wonder why they aren't losing weight.
    I've never eaten back my exercise calories and my body has NOT gone into starvation mode & I haven't had any issues losing weight at a regular pace.
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