Should I eat back my exercise calories when maintaining?

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).

RunRutheeRun wrote: »

sijomial wrote: »

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).

ok I should have said 'my' rule of thumb...

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.

If you're hungry. If you're not hungry then you don't need to.

kanerz14 wrote: »

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.

@kanerz14
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.

tincanonastring wrote: »

jenpretlow wrote: »

earlnabby 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!

sijomial wrote: »

kanerz14 wrote: »

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.

@kanerz14
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

Thanks for the repy. I do weigh my portion sizes and looking back on my diary there is no particular rounding. I do little estimating.

With regards the increase in exercising more. I have had between 600-900 odd more calories to eat back owing to me taking up running and increasing mileage. I still do strength training on off run days.

I have eaten back sone excercise cals but not yet doing this routinely. As i said its a bit scary as dont wanna fall into old habits or see/feel a significant increase in the scale.

OP: are you exercising the same amount now as you did during your diet, and do you plan to continue the same ?
Are you going to continue logging your food ?

Regarding the arithmetic part of your question, here is a mini tutorial that should let you figure this stuff out on your own:

Calories in > Calories out = weight gain
Calories in < Calories out = weight loss
Calories in = Calories out = stable weight
The locals like to call this CICO

Calories in = food
Calories out = exercise, BMR, and activities of daily living (ADL.)
For most of us outside of exercise we are pretty sedentary. If that is you too, ignore ADL
BMR is the daily calories a body burns just to be alive. Calculators can be found on the web if you are skeptical of the number you currently use.

Substituting terms, we get for stable weight
BMR + exercise = food

Figuring out exercise can be tricky with many a device over estimating. This is why folks suggested you plug in 50% of your device reported exercise. Most of us would rather find we have to eat a little more to enter maintenance rather than find we gained weight.

I am 5'2" and my maintenance calories are 1450-1500.

juliet3455 wrote: »

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.

@juliet3455 - thanks but I was asking how she did it to help her figure out how she should approach maintainance.

Wow that is pretty low on cals I'm
5'1 and my TDEE is 2002 to be exact! My BMR is like 1720