Should you eat back your calorie burned?
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BFitNation
Posts: 60 Member
I've always been wanting to know if you should eat your exercise calories or not. I burned on a daily average of 400-500 calories when I workout and sometimes more depending on what I'm doing. I'm trying to lose weight, and it's happening but I'm always always hungry. Today I burned 579 and my iifym says I can eat 1738 daily to lose weight. Well since I'm always hungry I'm already over my calories I already ate 1887 today and when I logged my calories I have 425 left to eat. What should I do? Eat 50% of my calories burned or what?? Please help haha. And does anyone know of a accurate website for how many calories I need? I'm also tracking my Macros always.
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Replies
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If you are working from the goal MFP gave you, yes, you should eat them back. But how are you determining how many calories you've burned? Your daily average sounds a bit high. To counter over-estimation, many people eat back just a portion of the calories.0
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It depends on the method of calorie counting you are using. MFP's method only takes your general activity into account in you activity level...thus exercise activity is unaccounted for which is why you get calories to "eat back". Other methods include exercise in your activity level...thus an estimate of those requisite calories are included in your goal.
So it depends on if you've included exercise in your activity level or not. With the MFP method you also have to be careful with calorie out estimations as well which is why people generally eat a portion of those calories....you have to make some kind of an allowance for estimation error.0 -
Here's what I do as an example (I have MFP to have me loose .5 pounds a week and I'm averaging loosing 1 pound a week for the past 11 weeks)
I have MFP set to lightly active -my sons school is .5 miles away and I walk him every day so that's 1 mile in the morning and 1 mile in the afternoon that I don't account for and I don't account for any other walking I do during the day.
I do account for my workouts but if I go on a run I say I went for a walk because MFP usually over exaggerates the calories you burn. Then I'll only eat back 50% of them.
It's working for me so I hope this helps.0 -
The goal that I got was from this website called iifym and said that suggested calorie is 1737. I have a polar watch, so I know what I'm burning is accurate.janejellyroll wrote: »If you are working from the goal MFP gave you, yes, you should eat them back. But how are you determining how many calories you've burned? Your daily average sounds a bit high. To counter over-estimation, many people eat back just a portion of the calories.
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IIFYM gives you your total calories for the day (TDEE.) So if you calculated it using your exercise (it asks how many times you exercise each week) then you do not eat back those calories.
MFP gives you your total calories for the day without exercise figured in and with your caloric deficit figured in. If you use that number, you do eat your exercise calories.0 -
Oh okay, see my friend put me to lose 1.5lbs before she changed it I had me losing .5lbs a week and I also had my activity level at low since I work retail and I'm not there everyday I work ok average 4 days a week at 4-7 hours so that should be lightly active right?and she put me at active. And I workout 6 days a week for an hour and a half doing weight training and cardioAsher_Ethan wrote: »Here's what I do as an example (I have MFP to have me loose .5 pounds a week and I'm averaging loosing 1 pound a week for the past 11 weeks)
I have MFP set to lightly active -my sons school is .5 miles away and I walk him every day so that's 1 mile in the morning and 1 mile in the afternoon that I don't account for and I don't account for any other walking I do during the day.
I do account for my workouts but if I go on a run I say I went for a walk because MFP usually over exaggerates the calories you burn. Then I'll only eat back 50% of them.
It's working for me so I hope this helps.
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So which one is more accurate/better to follow? Iifym or MFP?IIFYM gives you your total calories for the day (TDEE.) So if you calculated it using your exercise (it asks how many times you exercise each week) then you do not eat back those calories.
MFP gives you your total calories for the day without exercise figured in and with your caloric deficit figured in. If you use that number, you do eat your exercise calories.
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bethanylynn101 wrote: »
The goal that I got was from this website called iifym and said that suggested calorie is 1737. I have a polar watch, so I know what I'm burning is accurate.janejellyroll wrote: »If you are working from the goal MFP gave you, yes, you should eat them back. But how are you determining how many calories you've burned? Your daily average sounds a bit high. To counter over-estimation, many people eat back just a portion of the calories.
Did it factor in exercise?
Edit: Looks like someone else already answered this question. If IIFYM includes exercise in your goal, don't eat them back.0 -
I have mfp set to sedentary. I eat my 2 lb a week calories and aproximatly 1/2 of my exercise calories. Over 11 weeks I have lost 2.08 lbs per week. Eating them back at 50% seems to be working well but everyone is different.0
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So I should follow MFP and not iifym? I'm trying to get the most out of everything.cwolfman13 wrote: »It depends on the method of calorie counting you are using. MFP's method only takes your general activity into account in you activity level...thus exercise activity is unaccounted for which is why you get calories to "eat back". Other methods include exercise in your activity level...thus an estimate of those requisite calories are included in your goal.
So it depends on if you've included exercise in your activity level or not. With the MFP method you also have to be careful with calorie out estimations as well which is why people generally eat a portion of those calories....you have to make some kind of an allowance for estimation error.
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bethanylynn101 wrote: »
So which one is more accurate/better to follow? Iifym or MFP?IIFYM gives you your total calories for the day (TDEE.) So if you calculated it using your exercise (it asks how many times you exercise each week) then you do not eat back those calories.
MFP gives you your total calories for the day without exercise figured in and with your caloric deficit figured in. If you use that number, you do eat your exercise calories.
done correctly and comparing apples to apples in RE to rate of loss goals, they are 6 of 1...the only difference between the two methods is where you account for exercise. They are just two methods of arriving at pretty much the same place.
Keep in mind that all of these calculators are estimates...they are meant to be reasonably good starting points...they aren't gospel. Nobody has a TDEE of exactly XXXX calories...you have to make adjustments per your real world results.0 -
I didn't know that it factored calories burned into the amount your able to eat, I thought it was without calorie burned.janejellyroll wrote: »bethanylynn101 wrote: »
The goal that I got was from this website called iifym and said that suggested calorie is 1737. I have a polar watch, so I know what I'm burning is accurate.janejellyroll wrote: »If you are working from the goal MFP gave you, yes, you should eat them back. But how are you determining how many calories you've burned? Your daily average sounds a bit high. To counter over-estimation, many people eat back just a portion of the calories.
Did it factor in exercise?
Edit: Looks like someone else already answered this question. If IIFYM includes exercise in your goal, don't eat them back.
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bethanylynn101 wrote: »
I didn't know that it factored calories burned into the amount your able to eat, I thought it was without calorie burned.janejellyroll wrote: »bethanylynn101 wrote: »
The goal that I got was from this website called iifym and said that suggested calorie is 1737. I have a polar watch, so I know what I'm burning is accurate.janejellyroll wrote: »If you are working from the goal MFP gave you, yes, you should eat them back. But how are you determining how many calories you've burned? Your daily average sounds a bit high. To counter over-estimation, many people eat back just a portion of the calories.
Did it factor in exercise?
Edit: Looks like someone else already answered this question. If IIFYM includes exercise in your goal, don't eat them back.
When you set up your calorie goal there, did you enter in your exercise?0 -
cwolfman13 wrote: »bethanylynn101 wrote: »
So which one is more accurate/better to follow? Iifym or MFP?IIFYM gives you your total calories for the day (TDEE.) So if you calculated it using your exercise (it asks how many times you exercise each week) then you do not eat back those calories.
MFP gives you your total calories for the day without exercise figured in and with your caloric deficit figured in. If you use that number, you do eat your exercise calories.
done correctly and comparing apples to apples in RE to rate of loss goals, they are 6 of 1...the only difference between the two methods is where you account for exercise. They are just two methods of arriving at pretty much the same place.
Keep in mind that all of these calculators are estimates...they are meant to be reasonably good starting points...they aren't gospel. Nobody has a TDEE of exactly XXXX calories...you have to make adjustments per your real world results.
Gotcha, so pretty much every calculator is pretty much just a guess and isn't accurate? So I pretty much need to just see how my body reacts to how many calories I can eat and still lose weight0 -
Its such a guessing game I've realized. When I was on MFP a couple of years ago, I ate back my calories, and I never had much trouble losing weight. This time around, I'm not just doing cardio as I have in years past, I'm doing strength training as well and haven't seen much of a drop on the scale, but know my body is thinning out a little. I actually raised my calories from 1200 to 1340 and am not eating back my calories. Maybe I should be.....maybe I shouldn't, but I was on 1200 for a few months, and thought I'd up it for a few weeks to try to see if I can get the scale to move that way. So I said all that just to say, play around with it. Go for a few weeks not eating them back and see how you do, and then you can try eating them back for a few weeks and see if there is a difference. Everyone's body is different. And what you call lightly active, might be what I consider active.0
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Yeah they asked how many times do I workout/week and I put 6janejellyroll wrote: »bethanylynn101 wrote: »
I didn't know that it factored calories burned into the amount your able to eat, I thought it was without calorie burned.janejellyroll wrote: »bethanylynn101 wrote: »
The goal that I got was from this website called iifym and said that suggested calorie is 1737. I have a polar watch, so I know what I'm burning is accurate.janejellyroll wrote: »If you are working from the goal MFP gave you, yes, you should eat them back. But how are you determining how many calories you've burned? Your daily average sounds a bit high. To counter over-estimation, many people eat back just a portion of the calories.
Did it factor in exercise?
Edit: Looks like someone else already answered this question. If IIFYM includes exercise in your goal, don't eat them back.
When you set up your calorie goal there, did you enter in your exercise?
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I have mfp set to sedentary. I eat my 2 lb a week calories and aproximatly 1/2 of my exercise calories. Over 11 weeks I have lost 2.08 lbs per week. Eating them back at 50% seems to be working well but everyone is different.
Yeah that's what I'm hearing eat 50% of your calories back0 -
bethanylynn101 wrote: »
Yeah they asked how many times do I workout/week and I put 6janejellyroll wrote: »bethanylynn101 wrote: »
I didn't know that it factored calories burned into the amount your able to eat, I thought it was without calorie burned.janejellyroll wrote: »bethanylynn101 wrote: »
The goal that I got was from this website called iifym and said that suggested calorie is 1737. I have a polar watch, so I know what I'm burning is accurate.janejellyroll wrote: »If you are working from the goal MFP gave you, yes, you should eat them back. But how are you determining how many calories you've burned? Your daily average sounds a bit high. To counter over-estimation, many people eat back just a portion of the calories.
Did it factor in exercise?
Edit: Looks like someone else already answered this question. If IIFYM includes exercise in your goal, don't eat them back.
When you set up your calorie goal there, did you enter in your exercise?
So it sounds like that calorie goal includes your workouts -- you don't want to eat calories back if this is the case because you would be double-counting them.
But if you went with MFP, you would get a lower calorie goal, and you could eat some calories back.
But either way, it would be pretty much the same.0 -
bethanylynn101 wrote: »cwolfman13 wrote: »bethanylynn101 wrote: »
So which one is more accurate/better to follow? Iifym or MFP?IIFYM gives you your total calories for the day (TDEE.) So if you calculated it using your exercise (it asks how many times you exercise each week) then you do not eat back those calories.
MFP gives you your total calories for the day without exercise figured in and with your caloric deficit figured in. If you use that number, you do eat your exercise calories.
done correctly and comparing apples to apples in RE to rate of loss goals, they are 6 of 1...the only difference between the two methods is where you account for exercise. They are just two methods of arriving at pretty much the same place.
Keep in mind that all of these calculators are estimates...they are meant to be reasonably good starting points...they aren't gospel. Nobody has a TDEE of exactly XXXX calories...you have to make adjustments per your real world results.
Gotcha, so pretty much every calculator is pretty much just a guess and isn't accurate? So I pretty much need to just see how my body reacts to how many calories I can eat and still lose weight
I wouldn't go so far as to say it's a guess...they are estimates based on data for the average person of whatever stats at an estimated activity level. But yeah, your real world results are what ultimately matter, not what some calculator says.0 -
Its such a guessing game I've realized. When I was on MFP a couple of years ago, I ate back my calories, and I never had much trouble losing weight. This time around, I'm not just doing cardio as I have in years past, I'm doing strength training as well and haven't seen much of a drop on the scale, but know my body is thinning out a little. I actually raised my calories from 1200 to 1340 and am not eating back my calories. Maybe I should be.....maybe I shouldn't, but I was on 1200 for a few months, and thought I'd up it for a few weeks to try to see if I can get the scale to move that way. So I said all that just to say, play around with it. Go for a few weeks not eating them back and see how you do, and then you can try eating them back for a few weeks and see if there is a difference. Everyone's body is different. And what you call lightly active, might be what I consider active.
That's what I'm getting confused, some ppl say when they ask how active joy are they are saying how active your work life is not how active you are with working out. I hate guessing games lolIts such a guessing game I've realized. When I was on MFP a couple of years ago, I ate back my calories, and I never had much trouble losing weight. This time around, I'm not just doing cardio as I have in years past, I'm doing strength training as well and haven't seen much of a drop on the scale, but know my body is thinning out a little. I actually raised my calories from 1200 to 1340 and am not eating back my calories. Maybe I should be.....maybe I shouldn't, but I was on 1200 for a few months, and thought I'd up it for a few weeks to try to see if I can get the scale to move that way. So I said all that just to say, play around with it. Go for a few weeks not eating them back and see how you do, and then you can try eating them back for a few weeks and see if there is a difference. Everyone's body is different. And what you call lightly active, might be what I consider active.
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