Who eats back exercise calories and who doesn't?

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  • ashleycde
    ashleycde Posts: 622 Member
    It helps if you reward yourself for calories burned, as opposed to binging just to eat the calories. I'll work my *kitten* off for a healthy serving of linguine bolognese, some French bread and a little wine.
  • avskk
    avskk Posts: 1,787 Member
    edited January 2015
    I don't eat back my exercise calories unless I've worked out an insane amount (so... never, pretty much). I mostly walk, so if I do a 5- or 10-mile walk on top of a normal day, then sure, I'll eat back about half. Most days I walk a total of 1-4 miles, though, and it's just not worth messing with my margins.

    I am trying to get better about logging my exercise, just so I have a more accurate picture of how it affects my loss. Most of my walking is by necessity since I don't have a car, and I tend to forget that it's exercise as well as transportation.
  • SwankyTomato
    SwankyTomato Posts: 442 Member
    edited January 2015
    sijomial wrote: »
    If your exercise is sporadic why would you choose the TDEE method? Calculating TDEE will involve estimating the frequency/duration of your exercise so if it's sporadic your estmate is going to be flawed.

    I have no idea how to do this right, still trying to figure this out.

    I did go back into MFP controls and changed my stuff so I "built in" my weekly exercise to two days & changed from sedentary to light. It upped my calories for the day and I am going to see if I lose doing it that way.

    I plan to exercise at least twice a week at the moment and then build on that. I have to take it slow.






  • ck3sisson
    ck3sisson Posts: 4 Member
    I eat back the calories that I know I burned, so I'm somewhere in the middle. What I mean by calories I know I burned is those that are reported such cardio. Those that I know I burned from lift, but don't have an exact number, I don't worry about. I typically do this during cutting. If bulking, I may throw my own number of 100 calories for lifting.

    You should create your own calorie deficite by subtracting 300-500 calories from your calculated maintenance calories. This ensures that you stay at a deficite that is in a fat burning range. The calories you burn on top of your deficite should be made up with good clean nutrition. I like to say "it's out with the old (fat burned for workout energy) and in with the new (good clean nutrition)", from make up calories. By doing this you prevent yourself from going into a catabolic state of using muscle issue as energy during workout.
  • MKEgal
    MKEgal Posts: 3,250 Member
    Both my dietician and doctor (endocrinologist, head of the weight loss clinic at the hospital) say not to eat back exercise calories.
    Looking at my diary, probably 2/3 of the time I don't.
    I'd like to improve on that, maybe to 80%.
    And they'd never heard of the concept of net calories. Just eat at or slightly below your calorie goal.

    The main reason not to eat exercise calories is because most people underestimate what they eat,
    and most machines (including MFP) overestimate what you burn.
    If you don't eat the exercise calories, those errors pretty much cancel out for most people.
    Think of exercise as a bonus to weight loss. (And of course, it has benefits to health beyond losing weight.)

    "Most weight loss occurs because of decreased caloric intake.
    However, evidence shows the only way to maintain weight loss is to be engaged in regular physical activity."
    http://www.cdc.gov/healthyweight/physical_activity/index.html

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  • mommyof2boys562
    mommyof2boys562 Posts: 7
    Your actually suppose to eat the exercise calories. In case of over estimating my exercise calories I will eat back between 50-75% of the calories. Some days I may not be overly hungry and other days I can't eat enough so week to week it all balances out. Losing 2 lbs a week and while eating my calories....not to bad I think.
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