Eating exercise calories

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Replies

  • EEF8
    EEF8 Posts: 123 Member


    I keep my net intake at about 1700, which for me means a total intake of about 3000 on a typical day. I've been losing steadily at the expected rate, approximately 0.5kg (1 lb) per week.


    I'm curious how you got your calorie number. MFP placed me at 1200 calories but I'm told that may not be enough and that is why my weight is not going down even as my body changes shape.
  • SezxyStef
    SezxyStef Posts: 15,267 Member
    I'll eat them or half of them if I know I worked hard that day. If I just walked or something, then I won't eat those back.

    Shut the front gate!

    So when I burn 1000 calories from walking, then I shouldn't bother counting those? Because piddly walking doesn't count as exercise....

    OP I try not to eat my exercise calories back, but sometimes I just have to lol It is then I hope and pray that my fitbit and mfp is giving me accurate numbers. As long as I'm in the green at the end of the day all is good.

    Agreed when I was doing NEAT I ate them all back...heck sometimes I would walk to eat something I wanted like ice cream in the summer.
  • 198cmahmwsi
    198cmahmwsi Posts: 7 Member
    EEF8 wrote: »
    I'm curious how you got your calorie number. MFP placed me at 1200 calories but I'm told that may not be enough and that is why my weight is not going down even as my body changes shape.

    I'm a competitive cyclist and have a power meter on my bike which accurately gives me my energy expenditure for all the riding I do. Methods based on speed/heart rate etc are all likely to overestimate.

  • ASKyle
    ASKyle Posts: 1,475 Member
    edited May 2015
    ASKyle wrote: »
    I don't. One, I feel the calorie burns are exaggerated. Two, I know I'll probably go to an event this weekend and eat/drink with abandon. Doing it this way makes my calories balance out over the week.

    ^^not this ^^

    This is one of the things that leads to weight gain. People exercise and then tell themselves that means they deserve to eat more later. Even if you want want a day when you eat more than on other days, you should never "eat/drink with abandon."

    Tell me how it leads to weight gain as I have never been overweight in my life. Notice in my statement I said "I dont, I feel, I know I'll" don't knock what doesn't work for you. I was simply stating what works for me.

    Additionally, I said I DONT eat my exercise calories... but yet your'e saying "people exercise then tell themselves they deserve to eat more later"... aka eating your exercise calories.

    ETA: If you plan on going to a social event in your life I hope you enjoy yourself and indulge once in a while.
  • TimothyFish
    TimothyFish Posts: 4,925 Member
    ASKyle wrote: »
    ASKyle wrote: »
    I don't. One, I feel the calorie burns are exaggerated. Two, I know I'll probably go to an event this weekend and eat/drink with abandon. Doing it this way makes my calories balance out over the week.

    ^^not this ^^

    This is one of the things that leads to weight gain. People exercise and then tell themselves that means they deserve to eat more later. Even if you want want a day when you eat more than on other days, you should never "eat/drink with abandon."

    Tell me how it leads to weight gain as I have never been overweight in my life. Notice in my statement I said "I dont, I feel, I know I'll" don't knock what doesn't work for you. I was simply stating what works for me.

    Additionally, I said I DONT eat my exercise calories... but yet your'e saying "people exercise then tell themselves they deserve to eat more later"... aka eating your exercise calories.

    ETA: If you plan on going to a social event in your life I hope you enjoy yourself and indulge once in a while.

    What you implied is that you exercised, therefore, you can now go eat and drink with abandon. Perhaps you are one of these people whose "eating with abandon" isn't excessive. But most people who eat with abandon eat too much and people who use the fact that they exercised as a reason why they can eat more tend to eat even more than those who don't.
  • ASKyle
    ASKyle Posts: 1,475 Member
    ASKyle wrote: »
    ASKyle wrote: »
    I don't. One, I feel the calorie burns are exaggerated. Two, I know I'll probably go to an event this weekend and eat/drink with abandon. Doing it this way makes my calories balance out over the week.

    ^^not this ^^

    This is one of the things that leads to weight gain. People exercise and then tell themselves that means they deserve to eat more later. Even if you want want a day when you eat more than on other days, you should never "eat/drink with abandon."

    Tell me how it leads to weight gain as I have never been overweight in my life. Notice in my statement I said "I dont, I feel, I know I'll" don't knock what doesn't work for you. I was simply stating what works for me.

    Additionally, I said I DONT eat my exercise calories... but yet your'e saying "people exercise then tell themselves they deserve to eat more later"... aka eating your exercise calories.

    ETA: If you plan on going to a social event in your life I hope you enjoy yourself and indulge once in a while.

    What you implied is that you exercised, therefore, you can now go eat and drink with abandon. Perhaps you are one of these people whose "eating with abandon" isn't excessive. But most people who eat with abandon eat too much and people who use the fact that they exercised as a reason why they can eat more tend to eat even more than those who don't.

    You've misinterpreted.
  • Jasmunr
    Jasmunr Posts: 147 Member
    I eat some, not all.
  • forgtmenot
    forgtmenot Posts: 860 Member
    I eat my exercise calories back most of the time. Sometimes I only eat some of them, sometimes all. It really just depends on if I'm hungry and how accurate I feel my logging was for the day. For example, I had sushi last night at a restaurant which I obviously couldn't weigh so I don't know how accurate my calories were, so I didn't eat back my exercise calories that night. I also wasn't hungry.

    I'm sure this has been said already, but mfp sets you at a deficit without exercising at all. So if your calorie allotment is 1200, that is probably around 500 or so cals less than your body burns a day doing normal non exercise activity. If you exercise you're just making that deficit larger. With a 1200 calorie limit, you really need to be eating back your exercise calories since 1200 is the minimum for women to function. If you keep eating too little you could start having side effects from it like severe muscle loss, hair loss, etc.
  • forgtmenot
    forgtmenot Posts: 860 Member
    edited May 2015
    If the only reason you are working out is to burn calories, then yes, you are erasing your workout. You might as well not even do it. But most of the health benefits come from exercise rather than from being thin. Instead of looking at it like eating your exercise calories is erasing your workout, look at it as, the extra fat you are carrying around is detrimental to your workout.

    This doesn't even make sense in terms of how mfp is set up. Now, if your daily allowance is set at maintenance and the exercise is the only way you get a deficit, that's different. But considering mfp is set up to where you are at a deficit anyway, it doesn't. If someone is set at 1200 cals, they really don't need a larger deficit. If the goal is weight loss then an individual should be working out to either 1) give them more calories or 2) preserve muscle mass (or both). If they want to build muscle they should eat at maintanence.
  • scubasuenc
    scubasuenc Posts: 626 Member
    I generally don't eat my exercise calories back. If I'm really hungry I will eat some of them.

    My doctor recommended MFP and when I asked her about eating exercise calories back, she told me not to. That said, I do monitor my total calorie expenditure (TDEE) and what I'm eating to make sure my deficit isn't too low.

    I figure not eating them also helps to offset the overestimation of burns and the underestimation of food if I go out. For example, my family wants to go to a Chinese buffet tonight. I will do my best to log what I eat, but it will all be estimates of portions and estimates of how many calories are in something. I'm bound to be wrong and likely will underestimate. My exercise calories will help offset that.
  • cwolfman13
    cwolfman13 Posts: 41,865 Member
    EEF8 wrote: »
    do you eat the extra calories you earn by exercising? I'm doing 1200 a day but after a workout the program then says I have 700 calories left rather than the 400 I left for dinner. Aren't you just erasing your workout?

    considering the MFP gives you a calorie goal to lose weight WITHOUT exercise, no...you're not erasing your workout. With the MFP method, you're supposed to eat back exercise calories...that is how that activity is accounted for...it is meant to teach you how to fuel your fitness. Part of actually being healthy and fit is understanding how to fuel that activity. Fit and healthy people eat...they don't crash diet and exercise incessantly.

    That said, I can pretty much guarantee you that your burn is inflated. Eat back a fraction of that...you have to make an allowance for estimation error.
  • PeachyCarol
    PeachyCarol Posts: 8,029 Member
    Liftng4Lis wrote: »
    MFP already has your deficit built in. Most eat back a portion, to accommodate miscalculations in logging and overestimations in burns.

    ^That pretty much sums up my thinking on the subject.

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