Eating back calories

Msaip
Msaip Posts: 482 Member
in Food and Nutrition
I know its been said a million times "eat back your exercise calories". Here is why I am confused. I go to see a trainer where I used to work and told her that my daily calories were 1500 and that I would eat back what I burned. She asked me why would I do that It basically ends up being to the point of I might as well have done nothing at all and just ate the 1500...So I set myself at a generous 1.5 pounds a week and MFP put me at 1420....If I ride my bike and it gives me 500 calories to work with should I be eating all of those back? or a portion...I know I have been a member for years I just dont completely understand....

Replies

  • shaumom
    shaumom Posts: 1,003 Member
    Your trainer is, IMO, wrong in a couple of ways.

    1. It's not 'eating back' calories. At the end of the day, the goal is to have consumed less calories than you used up. However you want to do that. Eat less, exercise more, a little of both, whatever.

    If you meet the MFP calorie goal by the end of the day, you have consumed less calories than you used up. Goal met. You made a goal, and you achieved it, and as research has shown that the best dieting plans seem to be the one you can STICK to, seems like you've got a good thing going.

    2. Her opinion that you might as well not even exercised assigns a very narrow meaning to exercise: as a way to shed calories and nothing more. It ignores every other benefit of exercise, like getting stronger, increasing you metabolism, etc...

    Honestly, I'd ignore her on this.


  • earlnabby
    earlnabby Posts: 8,171 Member
    edited October 2014
    Whether you eat back your calories or not depends on how you achieved your calorie goal. If your calorie goal has exercise built in, do not eat back. If you did not build in the daily activity, you should eat back at least half if you are using online burn calculators or almost all if you are calculating via a HRM.

    For example, you have a desk job but briskly walk every lunch period. You could set your calorie goal to sedentary because of the desk job and eat back what you earn from walking, or you can set to lightly active and not eat back anything. For me, the difference between sedentary and lightly active is about 200 calories according to MFP. I earn about 225 calories according to my fitbit when I do 30 minutes of cardio walking.

    If you do some fitness building exercise almost every day, build those calories in. If you do some a couple of days a week, don't and eat them back. That way you are not overeating on the days you do not work out.

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  • WhatMeRunning
    WhatMeRunning Posts: 3,538 Member
    Just ask your trainer if taking fewer calories in than you burned calories going out (between BMR and exercise) is a good idea. I think it's easy for people to get confused when you say you eat back the calories you burn because they take that to mean you are no longer in a calorie deficit...when you really are. You just "fed your exercise" is all. Most trainers are good with pre and post workout snacks to feed your exercise. Same deal.
  • lisamcintosh1401
    lisamcintosh1401 Posts: 12
    I need some help with this too! It's probably so obvious and simple but I just am still confused....my daily fitness thing is set to sedentary, as I have a desk job. I also try and do at least 45 mins of exercise at least 5 times a week, so I put this into my exercise bit and it gives me (for example) 630 calories extra today.....so should I eat this 630 cals or just leave it? my thing still says I have 700 odd cals to eat today, including my exercise ones...this is simple I know but it's still confusing me!
  • earlnabby
    earlnabby Posts: 8,171 Member
    lisamcintosh1401 wrote: »
    I need some help with this too! It's probably so obvious and simple but I just am still confused....my daily fitness thing is set to sedentary, as I have a desk job. I also try and do at least 45 mins of exercise at least 5 times a week, so I put this into my exercise bit and it gives me (for example) 630 calories extra today.....so should I eat this 630 cals or just leave it? my thing still says I have 700 odd cals to eat today, including my exercise ones...this is simple I know but it's still confusing me!

    Either eat back half to 2/3 or reset your MFP setting to lightly active instead of sedentary because you are working out 5 days a week.

  • Lorleee
    Lorleee Posts: 369 Member
    Do what works for you. I find the eating back thing leaves too much room for overestimation and error in terms of calories burnt by exercising, and as evidenced by the slew of posts on the matter, it seems like a good way of overly complicating a process that really shouldn't be confusing. I use this site to track daily calories I consume and make sure I'm not eating above the amount I should be. But that is what works for me.
  • WhatMeRunning
    WhatMeRunning Posts: 3,538 Member
    I set mine to sedentary because without exercise I am basically a desk-job guy, who only does normal at-home activities. So I would log any and all exercise and eat those calories back. If I set it at lightly active, then I would not need to log some of the exercise because lightly active logged that for me already each and every day.
  • shadowofender
    shadowofender Posts: 786 Member
    I override the calorie estimates to half what they say and try to eat them back. I eat them back because I have my settings as "Sedentary" due to my desk job and in my head it makes more sense to me to track all my workouts rather than using TDEE and having to rely on burning enough calories through the week to eat the higher amount daily.

    The reason for eating back only a portion is margin of error. MFP tends to over estimate by a lot, so I do half to come up with a more realistic number.
  • earlnabby
    earlnabby Posts: 8,171 Member
    shadowofender wrote: »

    The reason for eating back only a portion is margin of error. MFP tends to over estimate by a lot, so I do half to come up with a more realistic number.

    Anything I enter into MFP, I assume is overestimated and I eat back about half. I eat back close to all of my Fitbit calories because their estimates are a little more accurate because they can measure intensity as well as weight and duration.

  • lisamcintosh1401
    lisamcintosh1401 Posts: 12
    Yeah I think I'll keep it as sedentary and log my exercise, but if I do go over my calories I have the exercise ones there as "backup" so to speak.....I'll see how I get on doing that anyway and change things if it doesnt work. thanks guys

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