Should you eat your exercise calories?

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  • DoReMiFaSoLaTiDo
    DoReMiFaSoLaTiDo Posts: 296
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    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
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    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
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    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
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    No.
  • meggonkgonk
    meggonkgonk Posts: 2,066 Member
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    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
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    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
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    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
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    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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