Do you eat back the calories you exercise off?

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2

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  • NoelFigart1
    NoelFigart1 Posts: 1,276 Member
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    I don't. What I DO, however, is track my weight loss over time against my caloric average. My target is to lose about a pound a week. If I am losing less than that over a ten day average, I will lower my intake. If I am losing a lot more than that (say 2 lbs a week) I increase my intake. I'm training for some swims, so I do want to fuel my exercise ability while taking off weight.

    Does this mean that functionally, my caloric intake increases with my exercise capacity? It does a bit! I was eating at 1500 calories a day and I've bumped it up to 1700 and am losing about at the rate I want to. While I do need to take off quite a bit of weight, I'm wanting to lose it relatively slowly both to avoid loose skin issues and to avoid issues that you can run into from long-term caloric deprivation. And because I want the strength to do the swims I want.

    So, this novel of a reply is because I think that the only real way to know what you should be eating is to track it against how you are losing averaged over a longer period of time and tracked against average intake. Counting 3500 calories as a pound of fat is a decent approximation, but fat loss is slower than other sorts of variation, which is why to get a better approximation than simple weight loss is to track it against a moving average over a period of no less than ten days.
  • daffodilsoup
    daffodilsoup Posts: 1,972 Member
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    Yes. I exercise because I like to eat a lot.
  • berz82
    berz82 Posts: 100 Member
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    if youre working out that day i would eat 1200 and some more to cover. tbh 1200 sounds kinda low anyway.
  • Liftng4Lis
    Liftng4Lis Posts: 15,150 Member
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    If what you're doing is working, leave it. I personally do TDEE -. I log my exercise, but only for the benefit of seeing my work.
  • zyxst
    zyxst Posts: 9,134 Member
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    No. I use TDEE and have exercise accounted for in my activity level.
  • ktekc
    ktekc Posts: 879 Member
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    If you are active i think 1200 is a bit low. What is your activity level set at? I am 4'11" and 206 lbs and if I set it to active it gives me 1440( ish?) calories. Only sedentary gives me the 1200.
  • LCFlo
    LCFlo Posts: 13 Member
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    It's set at active. I put it to lose 2 lbs a week. That way if I go over, I know I still may be able to lose a pound or so.
  • besaro
    besaro Posts: 1,858 Member
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    every. single. one. its the only reason i run.
  • njitaliana
    njitaliana Posts: 814 Member
    edited November 2014
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    leeanncflood wrote: »
    I'm on a 1200 calorie diet (5'0 female here) but I find I'm typically eating around 1600-1800 calories. I exercise them all off through my job, pilates, and running, but I've read people saying that myfitnesspal overestimates the amount you burn. Should I be trying to keep below 1200 even though I'm fairly active?

    Is eating between 1600-1800 causing you to lose weight? If so, I'd keep doing it. Don't go below 1200, as it's not considered to be healthy.

    I eat back some of my exercise calories if I have a day where I really want something that will cause me to go over my regular 1600.

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  • PokeyBug
    PokeyBug Posts: 482 Member
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    Generally, I don't eat back what I burn. I have very similar stats to you, and I do the 1,200 calories a day thing, too. I'm currently losing at a rate of about 1 lb per week, but if I only depended on cutting calories for loss, it would be a much smaller rate of loss. When you're as short as we are (I'm 5'2"), every little bit helps, lol.

    I hate it when people judge what's healthy for me based on what's healthy for them. My TDEE is around 1500 calories, so if I DIDN'T eat around 1200 calories per day, I'd never lose, lol.
  • FatFreeFrolicking
    FatFreeFrolicking Posts: 4,252 Member
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    Depends whether I'm hungry or not.
  • SmartAlec03211988
    SmartAlec03211988 Posts: 1,896 Member
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    Yup, all of them.

    I earned them, I'm not going to let them sit there.
  • mitch16
    mitch16 Posts: 2,113 Member
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    I try not to eat more than half of them back. Although I log everything I eat, I am not obsessive about weighing everything (the horror!) and I figure my exercise calories are my 'cushion'. Seems to work for me!
  • shadow2soul
    shadow2soul Posts: 7,692 Member
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    Yep.

    If I don't eat back at least some, after about a week I find that I no longer have the energy to get through my workouts. I don't use MFP estimates however. I use a hrm for all non-step based workouts and log around 80% of the reported calorie burn. I have no idea what formula my HRM uses for calorie burns. However, I do know that based on duration/avg HR calculators online, my HRM gives me a lower calorie burn (by about 10%). I use a fitbit for tracking my daily activity and any walk/run workouts. I then eat 50-100% of my logged exercise/adjustment calories. This system has worked out pretty well for me.

  • harmar21
    harmar21 Posts: 215 Member
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    I don't. However if I do go over calorie budget by 100-200 I also don't feel guilty if it was an exercise day.
  • Lounmoun
    Lounmoun Posts: 8,426 Member
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    I don't feel like I have to eat more just because I exercised. If I am hungry and I stay at or under the amount of calories I gained through exercise then I think it is okay to use them. I think I do usually eat a bit more if I exercise.
  • TheAbsintheFaerie
    TheAbsintheFaerie Posts: 1
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    I just started on MFP, first week, and have lost 1kg. I've not been eating back the calories I exercise off, as I assume I wouldn't be losing as much if I did?
  • runnerchick69
    runnerchick69 Posts: 317 Member
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    Probably about half most days although some days are less and some are more. It really depends on where you are as far as your weight loss. I've been maintaining for several years so this works for me but for someone actively losing weight it may not work so well.
  • shavon007
    shavon007 Posts: 143 Member
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    No I dont
  • indianwin2001
    indianwin2001 Posts: 296 Member
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    runnerchick69 wrote: »
    Probably about half most days although some days are less and some are more. It really depends on where you are as far as your weight loss. I've been maintaining for several years so this works for me but for someone actively losing weight it may not work so well.

    Same for me

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