Eating you calories burned: do or do not?

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  • triciab79
    triciab79 Posts: 1,713 Member
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    I didn't eat back my calories. I hit minor plateaus from time to time but nothing more than a week or so without a drop. If you are trying to build muscle though you may need to. I really just wanted to drop weight. If you are honest about how hard you are working out it doesn't hurt to eat them back but if you think you will be tempted to say you burned 1200 calories washing your car just so you can go out and have pizza then it is probably not the right thing for you.
  • dr3wman
    dr3wman Posts: 205
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    I dont think you should eat "them", because that implies that someone can measure both the short and long term calories burned from exercise. Although some estimates can be good enough to see results, just go by feel. I see way too many people trying to turn fitness into one big math equation. Yes, counting calories is a good way to ensure consistancy in your goals..but when it comes to eating exercise calories you really need to just see how you feel after the workout. If your really hungry, have something to eat..if not, no big deal. Sometimes hormones are more useful then websites!
  • Lesa_Sass
    Lesa_Sass Posts: 2,213 Member
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    It has been MY EXPERIENCE that eating them back worked best for me. I found that I seemed to start burning the fat from areas that I wanted it away from when I started eating back my calories, but I also was only eating 1200 per day as well, so I was pretty much starving myself. After I upped my calories with some low glycemic foods like quinoa and sweet potatoes, and eating back my exercise calories, I not only achieved my goal, I continued to lose 6 more lbs before I found the right amount of calories per day that I should eat for maintenance.
  • candy_mcswole
    candy_mcswole Posts: 33 Member
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    bumpity bump bump
  • stang_girl88
    stang_girl88 Posts: 234 Member
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    I dont usually eat them back because I gain weight if I go over a certain calorie range. I do however have one meal a week where I am aware of what I am eating, but it is a 'cheat meal'. It is finally working for me after almost 2 years of trying to lose weight. The eat more thing does not work for me. If it works for you then do it. Doesnt matter what anybody else says, everyone is different. :drinker:
  • SyStEmPhReAk
    SyStEmPhReAk Posts: 330 Member
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    you will find answers on both sides of the fence on this one... my advice is to monitor your calories and keep track of where you see the most weight loss (i.e. eat back -vs- not eat back). Personally, i've never eaten back the calories, but that doesn't mean it works for everyone. Eat clean, stay within your macros, exercise then repeat. Change your lifestyle and your body will follow...
  • DietandVlogsense
    DietandVlogsense Posts: 48 Member
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    You can eat the calories back. MFP already has your deficit worked in.

    However, the calories determined is usually somewhat high. So, most of us will eat back a percentage of the calories, like half of 3/4 of them.

    So, if you run and MFP says your ran burned 100 calories, eat back 50. That way you are fueling the body for the activities as well as accounting for the inaccuracy of determining exactly how many you've burned.
    This feels like good advise to me. I have found that over the last 2-3 weeks I have tended to run net calories for the week of below 1000; this actually appears to have slowed my weightloss.

    If you look at my diary, you will see that I can still eat 2000+ calories a day, on some days, but due to the high number of calories I am burning through swimming, I am netting low and I have come to the conclusion that this is actually damaging my weightloss.
  • tameejean
    tameejean Posts: 197 Member
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    Bump.
  • Robin_Bin
    Robin_Bin Posts: 1,046 Member
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    Like you said, they give you some more flexibility it what you can eat. Enjoy it! Don't worry about eating them all back, but I'd recommend eating at least half of them. Someone else suggested about 3/4, and that sounds like a good target to me. See how it works for you. Some people over estimate (or MFP does for them) the calories they burn or the calories they eat. So play around with it a bit and see what works. Also, keep in mind what you set as your activity level. If you were already considering your exercise when you set that level, don't "double count" by including them as both part of your activity level and your exercise.
    Good luck!
  • luzfit19
    luzfit19 Posts: 1 Member
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    unusualvalues wrote: »
    I'm sure this topic has been discussed, but I couldn't find a feed on it.

    I just spoke with a nutritionist (luckily a free one since my job pays for it), and she swears by MFP, but doesn't believe in the net calories you gain from doing cardiovascular exercise.

    A different nutritionist told me, in the past ,to fuel the calories I burn, just like MFP shows on your food diary.

    My wife and I are estatic when we get extra calories to eat during the day and it motivates us to work out more.

    I am on both sides, how does everyone else do with this or believe what is right?

    Thanks,
    ~Steele

    I ate them and I didnt lose a pound :(
  • ajnb88
    ajnb88 Posts: 339 Member
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    I used to try, but while I could accurately track intake, I found getting an accurate tdee was nigh on impossible, so I stopped. The way I would do it is I'd look at what my hrm or machine said, (say, 600 burned) and take 100 or so off it, as a conservative estimate.

    The problem I'd find is that on days when I was hungry, I'd use it as an excuse to binge. Like, oh I burned 500 so this massive pizza is basically a bagel nom nom nom. Since I stopped counting, I find that I can understand my body a little more, so eat to keep myself going rather than to hit figures.
  • Marianna93637
    Marianna93637 Posts: 230 Member
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    I was also wondering about this when the scale didn't move for 3 weeks and I thought I was at a plateau. Everyone said different things, like you said in your first post. Nothing made sense 100 %.
    Then I figured this (this might not be the best explanation, but this is the most logical to me)
    MFP already has you eating at low calories (deficit). For me it's 1300. Let's say I eat that, and then burn 300 calories with cardio. Should I eat it back? If I feel hungry, sure, If not, don't. The 100-300 calories could work to offset any logging inaccuracies, so if I underestimated food and overestimated workouts, I'm still ok.
    In my opinion, anything over 300 should be at least partially eaten back. If I take a Zumba class, I burn about 700 calories. Am I overestimating? Maybe, but I know for sure it's at least 500. If I don't eat any of it back, I'm not fueling my body effectively, and end up with 600-800 calories net=not enough.

    So overall listen to your body, if you're hungry, eat it back, if not, don't force it.
    For example today so far I ate 1124 calories, and cardio took off 145. At 1400 goal, I'm supposed to have 421 left. I don't feel hungry, but I will probably eat 200 calories before I go to sleep, because I'll be up for a while. Which means I'm still on track with everything, even if i was inaccurate with logging.
  • LAWoman72
    LAWoman72 Posts: 2,846 Member
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    I eat back about half, usually. I definitely feel MFP overestimates.

    You can try eating them all back and see what happens over the next two to three weeks. If you feel you're not losing after that time, you can start reducing the amount of calories you "eat back" until you find the right amount for you.
  • TasnimEz
    TasnimEz Posts: 280 Member
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    I think it depends.. When I followed the calorie limit set by Mfp (tends to be a bit low for many) I ate my exercise calories back. This time around I calculated my calorie goals myself and eat 1700-1800 a day, I usually only do bodyweight exercises/pilates so I don't eat back the calories unless I'm really hungry..
  • obscuremusicreference
    obscuremusicreference Posts: 1,320 Member
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    Necro thread

    yh7to8mz9lzb.gif
  • Debbie_Ferr
    Debbie_Ferr Posts: 582 Member
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    LAWoman72 wrote: »
    I eat back about half, usually. I definitely feel MFP overestimates.

    You can try eating them all back and see what happens over the next two to three weeks. If you feel you're not losing after that time, you can start reducing the amount of calories you "eat back" until you find the right amount for you.

    I suggest eating only SOME of them back.
    Ask yourself, if you didn't exercise for an hour, what would you be doing instead?
    In my case, I'd be sitting, which I burn 40 calories per hour.

    178 calories If I walk 3miles / hour
    - 40 calories if I sit & watch TV
    = 138 calorie Difference

    so the max I should eat back is 138, not 178.
    otherwise, I'd be better off just sitting and not consuming any additional calories ie
    0 calories consumed - burn 40 sititng = NEGATIVE 40


    http://www.fitday.com/webfit/burned/calories_burned_Sitting_writing_desk_work.html\



  • Hily93
    Hily93 Posts: 65 Member
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    DanaDark wrote: »
    You can eat the calories back. MFP already has your deficit worked in.

    However, the calories determined is usually somewhat high. So, most of us will eat back a percentage of the calories, like half of 3/4 of them.

    So, if you run and MFP says your ran burned 100 calories, eat back 50. That way you are fueling the body for the activities as well as accounting for the inaccuracy of determining exactly how many you've burned.

    I do this or I don't count those in, it depends. I go after how I feel, can I do without eating them, I count them out, but at most I eat half of the calories or 3/4.
  • davert123
    davert123 Posts: 1,568 Member
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    It depends on what you want from MFP and your body. Dropping weight causes you to get rid of muscle mass if you go too fast. If your feel good factor is a number on a scale then fill your boots, don't eat your calories back and the number will drop - you can even kid yourself that its all fat that is cumming off if you want to :-) If you want to get healthy, have a toned look to your body and get fit the optimum way of doing this is to keep a relatively small deficit. This means eating back your calories and MFP to do what it is designed to do :-)
  • TimothyFish
    TimothyFish Posts: 4,925 Member
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    I exercise to give me more calories, but I don't eat all of them, for two reasons. One, MFP includes both the exercise calories and BMR. Two, I'm not sure mapmyride is giving me the right calorie count, or MFP for that matter. Yesterday, I road 32 miles and it said I burned over 2000 calories. Supposedly, I could have eaten 3600 calories yesterday. I ate 2500 instead.
  • baxterroxy
    baxterroxy Posts: 43 Member
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    I set my profile to sedentary (even though I am lightly active) then I eat all my exercise calories back using a heart rate monitor. I had it set to lightly active and eating all calories back and weight loss stalled.

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