Should I eat back my exercise calories when maintaining?
jen73fit4life
Posts: 24 Member
Hello-- I've hit my goal weight and I would like to maintain now. Should I eat back the calories I burn? For example-- MFP has me at 1420 to maintain (before exercise). So let's say I burn 300 working out. Should I be eating 1720?
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Replies
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Eat back your exercise calories the same way you did while you were losing. After a few weeks, reevaluate your progress and adjust accordingly.
It'll take some trial & error to find the calories at which your weight will stabilize.0 -
If you don't you will still be in a calorie deficit and losing weight.0
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Some people eat them back daily, others bank them for a nice meal or two on the weekend and make sure they hit their weekly intake totals then.0
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It will take some trial and error to determine what works best for you. Good luck!0
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You will have to experiment as others have said. Start by eating back half of your exercise calories and then adjust up or down. Good luck!0
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If you don't you will still be in a calorie deficit and losing weight.
Exactly. If your total calorie intake is less than your total calorie output, you won't be in maintenance. Burn calories are a lot harder to calculate accurately than food calories, so follow the trial and error approach being advised in the other posts.
Congrats on hitting your weight goal!
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This might be a good time to calculate your TDEE and eat that instead of going with daily NEAT. If you are in maintenance, take 30 days of calories and divide it by 30. If you lost weight during that 30 day period, add 3500 for each pound lost. That will give you your TDEE. Adjust if necessary.
*just make sure you logged as accurately as is humanly possible for the 30 days you use. Might be a good thing to do going forward rather than looking backward.0 -
Oh, no -- I had a reason for this approach. "Calories burned" is just an estimate. Eating back half is a conservative approach to avoid gaining while she figures out how much she can actually eat. If she's still losing when she eats half of her exercise calories, she can eat more. If she gains while eating back half her exercise calories, she would want to eat back less of the exercise calories.
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This might be a good time to calculate your TDEE and eat that instead of going with daily NEAT. If you are in maintenance, take 30 days of calories and divide it by 30. If you lost weight during that 30 day period, add 3500 for each pound lost. That will give you your TDEE. Adjust if necessary.
*just make sure you logged as accurately as is humanly possible for the 30 days you use. Might be a good thing to do going forward rather than looking backward.
I've calculated my TDEE and it states 1575. So technically if I burn 300 from exercise, I should eat around 1875 give or take a few?0 -
jenpretlow wrote: »This might be a good time to calculate your TDEE and eat that instead of going with daily NEAT. If you are in maintenance, take 30 days of calories and divide it by 30. If you lost weight during that 30 day period, add 3500 for each pound lost. That will give you your TDEE. Adjust if necessary.
*just make sure you logged as accurately as is humanly possible for the 30 days you use. Might be a good thing to do going forward rather than looking backward.
I've calculated my TDEE and it states 1575. So technically if I burn 300 from exercise, I should eat around 1875 give or take a few?
Your TDEE includes your exercise burns, so if 1575 is actually your TDEE, you would eat to that calorie goal every day.
Anyone know a good thread that explains BMR, NEAT, TDEE?0 -
tincanonastring wrote: »jenpretlow wrote: »This might be a good time to calculate your TDEE and eat that instead of going with daily NEAT. If you are in maintenance, take 30 days of calories and divide it by 30. If you lost weight during that 30 day period, add 3500 for each pound lost. That will give you your TDEE. Adjust if necessary.
*just make sure you logged as accurately as is humanly possible for the 30 days you use. Might be a good thing to do going forward rather than looking backward.
I've calculated my TDEE and it states 1575. So technically if I burn 300 from exercise, I should eat around 1875 give or take a few?
Your TDEE includes your exercise burns, so if 1575 is actually your TDEE, you would eat to that calorie goal every day.
Anyone know a good thread that explains BMR, NEAT, TDEE?
So only eat 1575 regardless of exercise?0 -
jenpretlow wrote: »This might be a good time to calculate your TDEE and eat that instead of going with daily NEAT. If you are in maintenance, take 30 days of calories and divide it by 30. If you lost weight during that 30 day period, add 3500 for each pound lost. That will give you your TDEE. Adjust if necessary.
*just make sure you logged as accurately as is humanly possible for the 30 days you use. Might be a good thing to do going forward rather than looking backward.
I've calculated my TDEE and it states 1575. So technically if I burn 300 from exercise, I should eat around 1875 give or take a few?
No. TDEE (total daily energy expenditure) is your average calorie burn from all daily activity, including exercise. NEAT (Non Exercise Activity Thermogenesis), which is MFP's default, calculates your calories burned for daily activities but expects you to add in exercise calories. NEAT works really well for weight loss and for people who are not regular exercisers. TDEE can be easier for maintenance and for those who have a regular exercise routine.
If MFP gave you 1575, that is your NEAT. If you burn an average of 300 calories daily from exercise, 1875 would be your TDEE
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jenpretlow wrote: »This might be a good time to calculate your TDEE and eat that instead of going with daily NEAT. If you are in maintenance, take 30 days of calories and divide it by 30. If you lost weight during that 30 day period, add 3500 for each pound lost. That will give you your TDEE. Adjust if necessary.
*just make sure you logged as accurately as is humanly possible for the 30 days you use. Might be a good thing to do going forward rather than looking backward.
I've calculated my TDEE and it states 1575. So technically if I burn 300 from exercise, I should eat around 1875 give or take a few?
No. TDEE (total daily energy expenditure) is your average calorie burn from all daily activity, including exercise. NEAT (Non Exercise Activity Thermogenesis), which is MFP's default, calculates your calories burned for daily activities but expects you to add in exercise calories. NEAT works really well for weight loss and for people who are not regular exercisers. TDEE can be easier for maintenance and for those who have a regular exercise routine.
Oh okay that makes sense because when I calculated TDEE, it asked me how much I exercise
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jenpretlow wrote: »jenpretlow wrote: »This might be a good time to calculate your TDEE and eat that instead of going with daily NEAT. If you are in maintenance, take 30 days of calories and divide it by 30. If you lost weight during that 30 day period, add 3500 for each pound lost. That will give you your TDEE. Adjust if necessary.
*just make sure you logged as accurately as is humanly possible for the 30 days you use. Might be a good thing to do going forward rather than looking backward.
I've calculated my TDEE and it states 1575. So technically if I burn 300 from exercise, I should eat around 1875 give or take a few?
No. TDEE (total daily energy expenditure) is your average calorie burn from all daily activity, including exercise. NEAT (Non Exercise Activity Thermogenesis), which is MFP's default, calculates your calories burned for daily activities but expects you to add in exercise calories. NEAT works really well for weight loss and for people who are not regular exercisers. TDEE can be easier for maintenance and for those who have a regular exercise routine.
Oh okay that makes sense because when I calculated TDEE, it asked me how much I exercise
I don't trust online calculators much. Calculating your TDEE using your actual real life numbers is more accurate, as long as you are extremely accurate in your logging for the period of time you use in the calculations.
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jenpretlow wrote: »This might be a good time to calculate your TDEE and eat that instead of going with daily NEAT. If you are in maintenance, take 30 days of calories and divide it by 30. If you lost weight during that 30 day period, add 3500 for each pound lost. That will give you your TDEE. Adjust if necessary.
*just make sure you logged as accurately as is humanly possible for the 30 days you use. Might be a good thing to do going forward rather than looking backward.
I've calculated my TDEE and it states 1575. So technically if I burn 300 from exercise, I should eat around 1875 give or take a few?
What did you do to lose the weight? Did you include exercise or not? What was your average calorie intake? What was your weight loss?
How you did that will help to figure out how to approach maintenance.0 -
3dogsrunning wrote: »jenpretlow wrote: »This might be a good time to calculate your TDEE and eat that instead of going with daily NEAT. If you are in maintenance, take 30 days of calories and divide it by 30. If you lost weight during that 30 day period, add 3500 for each pound lost. That will give you your TDEE. Adjust if necessary.
*just make sure you logged as accurately as is humanly possible for the 30 days you use. Might be a good thing to do going forward rather than looking backward.
I've calculated my TDEE and it states 1575. So technically if I burn 300 from exercise, I should eat around 1875 give or take a few?
What did you do to lose the weight? Did you include exercise or not? What was your average calorie intake? What was your weight loss?
How you did that will help to figure out how to approach maintenance.
To lose weight I ate 1100-1200 a day and didn't eat back exercise. That's why I'm so confused on what to do now. I lost 22 pounds in 3 months but the first month I lost 10, then about 5 pounds the second month and 5 the third.
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jenpretlow wrote: »3dogsrunning wrote: »jenpretlow wrote: »This might be a good time to calculate your TDEE and eat that instead of going with daily NEAT. If you are in maintenance, take 30 days of calories and divide it by 30. If you lost weight during that 30 day period, add 3500 for each pound lost. That will give you your TDEE. Adjust if necessary.
*just make sure you logged as accurately as is humanly possible for the 30 days you use. Might be a good thing to do going forward rather than looking backward.
I've calculated my TDEE and it states 1575. So technically if I burn 300 from exercise, I should eat around 1875 give or take a few?
What did you do to lose the weight? Did you include exercise or not? What was your average calorie intake? What was your weight loss?
How you did that will help to figure out how to approach maintenance.
To lose weight I ate 1100-1200 a day and didn't eat back exercise. That's why I'm so confused on what to do now. I lost 22 pounds in 3 months but the first month I lost 10, then about 5 pounds the second month and 5 the third.
So roughly speaking (from your last month's weight loss) your maintenance could be around 1700 - 1800 (TDEE).0 -
It will take some trial and error to determine what works best for you. Good luck!0
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3dogsrunning wrote: »What did you do to lose the weight? Did you include exercise or not?
What was your average calorie intake? What was your weight loss?
How you did that will help to figure out how to approach maintenance.
@jenpretlow A great summary in 4 simple questions from @3dogsrunning.
I always refer people back to the http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/833026/important-posts-to-read/p1
There are a few stickied posts that might answer your question, especially the ones in the "Setting Your Calorie and Macro Targets"
I agree with the concept that this will take some trial and error as stated by @editorgrrl, @Sabine_Stroehm, @xtrain321 and @earlnabby . Its a Science Experiment and you adjust your inputs as the outputs change until you achieve the desired goal/balance.
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Rule of thumb is always to eat back 50 - 75% of exercise calories...0
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RunRutheeRun wrote: »Rule of thumb is always to eat back 50 - 75% of exercise calories...
It's not actually.
There is a world of difference between standard activities (walking and running for example) which are remarkably easy to come up with reliable estimates for and activities which either people have to estimate their perceived effort or otherwise difficult to estimate activities (strength training, interval cardio as two examples).
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ok I should have said 'my' rule of thumb...RunRutheeRun wrote: »Rule of thumb is always to eat back 50 - 75% of exercise calories...
It's not actually.
There is a world of difference between standard activities (walking and running for example) which are remarkably easy to come up with reliable estimates for and activities which either people have to estimate their perceived effort or otherwise difficult to estimate activities (strength training, interval cardio as two examples).
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RunRutheeRun wrote: »
ok I should have said 'my' rule of thumb...RunRutheeRun wrote: »Rule of thumb is always to eat back 50 - 75% of exercise calories...
It's not actually.
There is a world of difference between standard activities (walking and running for example) which are remarkably easy to come up with reliable estimates for and activities which either people have to estimate their perceived effort or otherwise difficult to estimate activities (strength training, interval cardio as two examples).
My personal rule of thumb is to eat every last "exercise calorie" as they taste the best!
Deliberately under estimating has some merit when people are trying to lose weight but when maintaining then I believe it's best to start from a well researched estimate and make adjustments from there based on actual results.0 -
@sijomial, totally agree when it comes to eating as much as possible and yet maintain/lose. 0
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If you're hungry. If you're not hungry then you don't need to.0
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Im still kinda stuck with the notion that whilst losing I never ate back excercise calories. Now that I'm maintaining and excercising more I still get scared to eat more as logic would assume that I'd gain, as I am still maintaing my weight whilst excercising more. Anyone have any idea why this may be? I still log as accurately as possible.
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@kanerz14Im still kinda stuck with the notion that whilst losing I never ate back excercise calories. Now that I'm maintaining and excercising more I still get scared to eat more as logic would assume that I'd gain, as I am still maintaing my weight whilst excercising more. Anyone have any idea why this may be? I still log as accurately as possible.
What does "exercising more" mean? One extra 350 cal workout a week would take ten weeks to lose a pound.
Your food diary contains suspiciously round numbers! Either you deliberately measure out 10/15/25g portions or you are estimating a lot. (Nothing wrong with that by the way.)
Also nothing wrong with doing the TDEE method which effectively you are.
"Scared to eat more" isn't a healthy attitude IMO. You may find you can bump your calories up without weight gain but without the confidence to try you will never know. Look into "reverse dieting" if you want to know more. Layne Norton is a good source of info.0 -
I'm a bit stuck on the fact that your maintenance calories are only 1420. You must be teeny tiny 0
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tincanonastring wrote: »jenpretlow wrote: »This might be a good time to calculate your TDEE and eat that instead of going with daily NEAT. If you are in maintenance, take 30 days of calories and divide it by 30. If you lost weight during that 30 day period, add 3500 for each pound lost. That will give you your TDEE. Adjust if necessary.
*just make sure you logged as accurately as is humanly possible for the 30 days you use. Might be a good thing to do going forward rather than looking backward.
I've calculated my TDEE and it states 1575. So technically if I burn 300 from exercise, I should eat around 1875 give or take a few?
Your TDEE includes your exercise burns, so if 1575 is actually your TDEE, you would eat to that calorie goal every day.
Anyone know a good thread that explains BMR, NEAT, TDEE?
I think this one is pretty good. You do need to understand what the OP is stating though--meaning a basic understanding of what TDEE is.
http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/1077746/starvation-mode-adaptive-thermogenesis-and-weight-loss/p1
A common misconception is 'the mean people' of MFP (a thread about a guy losing 16 pounds in a month and 'burning 1,000 calories comes to mind) want those who do not understand you want to maintain as much LBM as possible during weight loss and people over estimate their burns when using f-i-t-b-i-t-s with machines like ellipticals. So, it is Friday, and a mean people thread is bound to pop up. Enjoy the link it is a sticky. Woo Hoo!
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