Exercise Calories?

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JellyPrz619
JellyPrz619 Posts: 172
in Health and Weight Loss
So I've read you should eat back your exercise cals, some say eat half your exercise cals, I've read do not eat back your cals.. what is your opinion and WHy? Any feedback is appreciated I'm a little clueless on this -_-

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  • Naomi91
    Naomi91 Posts: 892 Member
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    search exercise calories, you will find many great full reponses
  • mrphil86
    mrphil86 Posts: 2,382 Member
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    I eat them back.

    In short, I eat em to aid my recovery/rebuild and so I don't feel like a slop for the rest of the day.
  • CrankyButt
    CrankyButt Posts: 14
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    When I didn't eat them back, the scale didn't budge an inch. Now that I eat them, I'm losing consistently. Like Naomi said, you'll find tons of opinions on here, but I think it's best to test things out for yourself.
  • funkyspunky871
    funkyspunky871 Posts: 1,675 Member
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    Trying to start eating them back, but it makes me feel guilty sometimes (probably since I've lost 126 pounds NOT eating them back.) I really advocate eating them back though. Now, just to stop being a hypocrite and do it myself. I know all the science behind it; it makes perfect sense to me. Even though I'm not quite comfortable eating them back yet, I still recommend it to everybody on MFP (especially to those just starting). Go to www.shouldieatmyexercisecalories.com. No, it's not a joke. :) There's a few links to MFP posts discussing the importance of refueling your body after a workout.
  • TaushasJourney
    TaushasJourney Posts: 143
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    I just asked this same question! I got some really good responses, including an article, and a fitness blog here on MFP by a professional trainer:
    http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/218286-eating-back-calories-lost-during-exercise

    I've decided that if I know I will be burning enough calories to take me under a 1200 cal intake, I'll eat more during the day. Otherwise, I don't think I will make an intentional effort to eat back those calories. A "I really want some ice cream now and I've earned it" effort, sure. ;) I will try this out for a while and see how my body does.
  • elliecolorado
    elliecolorado Posts: 1,040
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    I usually eat back some of them. I always leave some in case I forgot to enter something and because I don't have an HRM so the calories burned are only estimates and I like to leave some room for any miscalculations. Also I don't like to force myself to eat if I am not hungry. Obviously you need to fuel your body for harder work outs, but I don't think that that means you have to eat back all of your exercise calories if you aren't hungry. I eat every hour or two from the time I get up until an hour or so before I go to bed, so I'm definitely not starving. I have done some experimenting I tried eating them all back and I tried not eating them back, eating back some of them is what is working best for me.

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