Eating back exercise calories

Shazr2
Shazr2 Posts: 33 Member
edited November 21 in Health and Weight Loss
Curious to know who eats back the calories that you've burned with exercise? I personally don't but just wondered who does

Replies

  • Osiris275
    Osiris275 Posts: 228 Member
    I usually end up eating maybe 1/4 of them, I'm just not hungry so don't feel I need to eat more than that.
  • DemoraFairy
    DemoraFairy Posts: 1,806 Member
    I use a Fitbit to calculate my exercise calories (since the only exercise I do is walking), and eat them all back, because I can barely stay in my calories as it is.
  • leahcollett1
    leahcollett1 Posts: 807 Member
    i use the TDEE method so i dont eat back any
  • LindseySprake
    LindseySprake Posts: 333 Member
    edited July 2015
    I don't usually but if I'm hungry I will.
    Or if I know I'm going out for a big meal/drinks/celebration I'll make sure I workout in the morning to compensate for the extra intake later in the day.
  • Soopatt
    Soopatt Posts: 563 Member
    Hardly ever track them, hardly ever eat them back. On the occasional very hungry day I will eat back some of them and log them so that my diary balances. I hate the seeing the red.
  • marwyvi
    marwyvi Posts: 9 Member
    Coming from my experience, it's better not to.
  • dawniemate
    dawniemate Posts: 395 Member
    I usually add about 100 to my intake depends how hungry I feel :smiley:
  • lemurcat12
    lemurcat12 Posts: 30,886 Member
    I used to.

    Now I use the TDEE method and include them in my goal, which is simply a different form of eating them back that doesn't require logging.

    IF you log accurately and are keeping an aggressive deficit and work out vigorously on top of that without eating more, that's a bad idea. The plans that don't involve eating back are different, as they should be based on an estimate of your overall activity already (or a less aggressive deficit).
  • oh_happy_day
    oh_happy_day Posts: 1,137 Member
    It depends how hungry I am, I try to eat intuitively. I usually eat back about 1/4 of them, but it varies - sometimes none, sometimes all. I often hoard them for use on the weekends.
  • isthatpoisontoo
    isthatpoisontoo Posts: 21 Member
    I eat some of mine back. For me it's a good motivator to do some exercise, even if it's just a stroll, and I already have quite a big deficit. If it's several hundred, though, I only eat back half, otherwise it doesn't feel worth it.
  • lisalsd1
    lisalsd1 Posts: 1,519 Member
    It depends on your goals. I'm not trying to lose fat. I usually eat over all of calories almost everyday (not by a huge amount). I'm focused on strength; and I like to workout. I only track calories, b/c I log my food to track my protein intake.
  • meddaugh48
    meddaugh48 Posts: 41 Member
    ljones22903 wrote: »
    i use the TDEE method so i don't eat back any

    Same here.
  • PinkDeerBoy
    PinkDeerBoy Posts: 89 Member
    Sometimes I eat back some of them if I am hungry and need it, but I usually don't. I more so track my exercise here to keep on track of how often/how long I am working out.
  • CompM
    CompM Posts: 47 Member
    At least 50% of my exercise calories are eaten back. Since I cycle almost every day for gradually lengthening miles I don't want to empty the tank >30 miles from home.
  • acheben
    acheben Posts: 476 Member
    I would eat back 50%-75% of my exercise calories while I was losing weight. Most of my exercise calories were from my half marathon training, so I needed to eat those back or my training would suffer. Now that I'm in maintenance and have a fitbit, I tend to eat back almost all of my exercise calories and it has been working for me.
  • galgenstrick
    galgenstrick Posts: 2,086 Member
    I use the TDEE method instead. Too much work to figure out how many calories I burned and actuall guess correctly.

    My adice to everyone is to eat depending on their results and not rely on the calculation after the first month...
  • ffbrown25
    ffbrown25 Posts: 110 Member
    I try to eat back whatever will keep my net calories above 1200. On days that I run more than four miles, it's difficult, but I'm training for a half marathon, so I need that fuel.
  • Jruzer
    Jruzer Posts: 3,501 Member
    100% of them. If I don't my workouts suffer.
  • elkhunter7x6
    elkhunter7x6 Posts: 88 Member
    Always! I am exercising to get in shape and to be able to eat a decent amount while dieting. I am trying to lose a specific amount of weight each week. If I quit eating back my exercise calories then I would lose too much weight.
  • joolieb1
    joolieb1 Posts: 140 Member
    I have 1500 daily calories which is enough for me to feel full. I exercise everyday but don't eat those calories back, I have been using MFP for 5 weeks and have lost 10 lbs so I am happy I am being healthy but will watch my losses to make sure I shouldn't eat some back
  • Kalikel
    Kalikel Posts: 9,603 Member
    edited July 2015
    When I'm hungrier, I eat more. In general, I don't eat the exercise calories because I can't lose if I do. If I could eat them, I would eat them.

    But I don't sit around going hungry. On hungrier days, I eat more and if it means exceeding my limit, so be it. There are days where I'm under and it mostly balances out.

  • Keith3481
    Keith3481 Posts: 91 Member
    I eat back my exercise calories because MFP and my actual weight loss seem to agree on what my daily calorie deficit is. I do trend analysis on my weight loss and keep track of my calorie deficit using a spreadsheet. Over the course of 40 day stretches, they match up within about +/- 50 calories/day or so, so I figure my logging abilities and exercise burn are fairly accurate.

    I stationary bike using a bicycle hooked up to a trainer, which has more resistance than a typical stationary bike. I use the MFP burn rate for a stationary bike and it seems to be fairly accurate. My heart rate tends to run about 140 bpm, sometimes as high as 160 bpm so I'm putting out the effort. Other forms of exercise may not have as accurate numbers in MFP, from what I've heard anyway. A lot of users here advocate eating back only 1/2 or even 1/4 of the MFP burn rates. I don't really have any experience with the other calorie burns in MFP, just stationary biking on a trainer.
  • AuroraGeorge8393
    AuroraGeorge8393 Posts: 100 Member
    lemurcat12 wrote: »
    I used to.

    Now I use the TDEE method and include them in my goal, which is simply a different form of eating them back that doesn't require logging.

    IF you log accurately and are keeping an aggressive deficit and work out vigorously on top of that without eating more, that's a bad idea. The plans that don't involve eating back are different, as they should be based on an estimate of your overall activity already (or a less aggressive deficit).

    This is what I do. I estimated how much exercise I get each week and then set my activity lever to lightly active. I actually qualify for moderately active, but I worry that the fitbit may be overestimating the number of calories burned. Since the exercise calories are already included in my daily limit, I never eat anything back unless I average over 15,000 steps. Even then I only eat back some of the calories (less than half) if I'm really hungry. This may change, though, as I continue to lose weight and my TDEE decreases.

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  • atypicalsmith
    atypicalsmith Posts: 2,742 Member
    I don't eat back my exercise calories unless I've gone over my 1200 calories in food which is rare. Once in a while, I have to jump on the exerbike to get me out of the red, but that only happens maybe once a month or so.
  • Christine_72
    Christine_72 Posts: 16,049 Member
    I eat most of mine back, I don't eat them all to try and make up for inaccurate logging or items I haven't logged in my diary. I've been a bit slack lately in not adding a chocolate biscuit here or a row of chocolate there :flushed:

    But when I'm on point with my logging then I do usually eat them all back.
  • PAV8888
    PAV8888 Posts: 14,260 Member
    christinev297 wrote: »
    I eat most of mine back, I don't eat them all to try and make up for inaccurate logging or items I haven't logged in my diary. I've been a bit slack lately in not adding a chocolate biscuit here or a row of chocolate there :flushed:
    But when I'm on point with my logging then I do usually eat them all back.

    Shattered myth-conceptions!

    I was holding up your diary as the seminal ouevre of a consummate professional, and now I find out that CHOCOLATE was hidden in the side-lines!
  • BWBTrish
    BWBTrish Posts: 2,817 Member
    For all the people here who say " I dont eat them back i do TDEE"

    You all eat them back TDEE is included exercise calories.
  • Christine_72
    Christine_72 Posts: 16,049 Member
    PAV8888 wrote: »
    christinev297 wrote: »
    I eat most of mine back, I don't eat them all to try and make up for inaccurate logging or items I haven't logged in my diary. I've been a bit slack lately in not adding a chocolate biscuit here or a row of chocolate there :flushed:
    But when I'm on point with my logging then I do usually eat them all back.

    Shattered myth-conceptions!

    I was holding up your diary as the seminal ouevre of a consummate professional, and now I find out that CHOCOLATE was hidden in the side-lines!

    Haha its only been for the last couple of weeks. I've been back on track since Monday, Every single thing has been accounted for in my diary since then. :+1:

    I just got a slight case of diet fatigue and rebelled man :tongue:

  • kshama2001
    kshama2001 Posts: 28,052 Member
    When I exercise a lot, I leave hundreds of calories on the table at the end of the day, so I'm clearly not eating them all back, but I haven't bothered to figure out the percentage. Should my weight loss stall, I'll revisit this. But since my goal is to lose a pound a week, and I am losing a pound per week, I haven't fine tuned this.
  • Kalikel
    Kalikel Posts: 9,603 Member
    christinev297 wrote: »
    PAV8888 wrote: »
    christinev297 wrote: »
    I eat most of mine back, I don't eat them all to try and make up for inaccurate logging or items I haven't logged in my diary. I've been a bit slack lately in not adding a chocolate biscuit here or a row of chocolate there :flushed:
    But when I'm on point with my logging then I do usually eat them all back.

    Shattered myth-conceptions!

    I was holding up your diary as the seminal ouevre of a consummate professional, and now I find out that CHOCOLATE was hidden in the side-lines!

    Haha its only been for the last couple of weeks. I've been back on track since Monday, Every single thing has been accounted for in my diary since then. :+1:

    I just got a slight case of diet fatigue and rebelled man :tongue:
    Happens to the best of us!

    You can only weigh and log every little bite for so long before you need a break.

    So much better to take a little break and then get back to it, all refreshed. :)

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