eating back your exercised calories?

HowlinAl wrote: »

oh_happy_day wrote: »

I log my exercise because I like to ensure I'm eating enough (calories and macros) on days where I exercise a lot. I'm petite so my calorie goal is low, without eating back calories I could be netting as low as 500 calories on some days. Appetite is not always an accurate way to guess whether I should/shouldn't eat more. I also have fitness goals and enjoy regular (vigorous!) exercise, so I'd rather not under-eat and lose more lean muscle mass than is absolutely necessary. I don't use the MFP estimates, I have a Polar HRM which is still dubious at times but more accurate the database.

Watching the scale is the way to ensure you are eating too much/not enough, not using some bizarre and pointless metric that I think everyone here agrees is ridiculously inaccurate.

I see people every day logging in their diaries that they are burning hundreds and hundreds, sometime thousands of calories a day from exercise that is only giving them maybe 1/4 of that in reality...and then eating them back. if you are trying to lose weight and you are eating back these bogus numbers provided by MFP you are setting yourself up for failure.

if you want to track exercise use a separate app or program that won't interfere with your food diary.

Well, I'm not failing. I'm losing steadily and have been the entire time I've been on MFP. I already said that I don't use the MFP database to calculate my calorie burn. So, why are you so insistent that your way is the only and right way? It's clearly not as there are plenty of people in here who track their exercise calories and eat some of them back and are losing/maintaining successfully.

I eat back only 50% of my calories burned because MFP really overestimates. I think it's important to log exercise to give you an idea of where you are-you have to eat a little back because if you under eat then it screws with your weightloss. Plus, it's a great motivation to see what exercise you've accomplished! So far I've been successful with it and losing slow and steady.

oh_happy_day wrote: »

HowlinAl wrote: »

oh_happy_day wrote: »

I log my exercise because I like to ensure I'm eating enough (calories and macros) on days where I exercise a lot. I'm petite so my calorie goal is low, without eating back calories I could be netting as low as 500 calories on some days. Appetite is not always an accurate way to guess whether I should/shouldn't eat more. I also have fitness goals and enjoy regular (vigorous!) exercise, so I'd rather not under-eat and lose more lean muscle mass than is absolutely necessary. I don't use the MFP estimates, I have a Polar HRM which is still dubious at times but more accurate the database.

Watching the scale is the way to ensure you are eating too much/not enough, not using some bizarre and pointless metric that I think everyone here agrees is ridiculously inaccurate.

I see people every day logging in their diaries that they are burning hundreds and hundreds, sometime thousands of calories a day from exercise that is only giving them maybe 1/4 of that in reality...and then eating them back. if you are trying to lose weight and you are eating back these bogus numbers provided by MFP you are setting yourself up for failure.

if you want to track exercise use a separate app or program that won't interfere with your food diary.

Well, I'm not failing. I'm losing steadily and have been the entire time I've been on MFP. I already said that I don't use the MFP database to calculate my calorie burn. So, why are you so insistent that your way is the only and right way? It's clearly not as there are plenty of people in here who track their exercise calories and eat some of them back and are losing/maintaining successfully.

Maybe you should research the meaning of "forum." The OP asked a question, my responses are among many. No one is forcing you to agree with me, so what's your problem? Why don't you take your own advice?

I highly recommend getting a fitbit charge hr. It will give you a more accurate sense of how much energy you're expending each day and you can then determine how many calories to cut from there. At your height and weight, you should definitely be eating more than 1,200 calories. If you are sedentary, that can be hard to do and still maintain an aggressive deficit. But if you are more active in general (and it doesn't have to be dedicated exercise - just more movement, walking trips to store, taking stairs, etc), then you can eat closer to 1,600 and still maintain an aggressive deficit. But I would try to adjust to the idea of a target weight loss range (like 1-2lbs per week). You'll still see consistent loss and on active days you can hit a more aggressive deficit but on less active days not starve. You want something sustainable and focused on fat loss not just scale loss.

HowlinAl wrote: »

oh_happy_day wrote: »

HowlinAl wrote: »

oh_happy_day wrote: »

I log my exercise because I like to ensure I'm eating enough (calories and macros) on days where I exercise a lot. I'm petite so my calorie goal is low, without eating back calories I could be netting as low as 500 calories on some days. Appetite is not always an accurate way to guess whether I should/shouldn't eat more. I also have fitness goals and enjoy regular (vigorous!) exercise, so I'd rather not under-eat and lose more lean muscle mass than is absolutely necessary. I don't use the MFP estimates, I have a Polar HRM which is still dubious at times but more accurate the database.

Watching the scale is the way to ensure you are eating too much/not enough, not using some bizarre and pointless metric that I think everyone here agrees is ridiculously inaccurate.

I see people every day logging in their diaries that they are burning hundreds and hundreds, sometime thousands of calories a day from exercise that is only giving them maybe 1/4 of that in reality...and then eating them back. if you are trying to lose weight and you are eating back these bogus numbers provided by MFP you are setting yourself up for failure.

if you want to track exercise use a separate app or program that won't interfere with your food diary.

Well, I'm not failing. I'm losing steadily and have been the entire time I've been on MFP. I already said that I don't use the MFP database to calculate my calorie burn. So, why are you so insistent that your way is the only and right way? It's clearly not as there are plenty of people in here who track their exercise calories and eat some of them back and are losing/maintaining successfully.

Maybe you should research the meaning of "forum." The OP asked a question, my responses are among many. No one is forcing you to agree with me, so what's your problem? Why don't you take your own advice?

My issue was with you using words like bizarre and pointless to describe a strategy that many people here use and one which MFP assumes is used when it provides your calorie goal. I explained why I use it (because that's how forums work!) and you persisted in telling me that it was setting me/everyone up for failure. I honestly don't care what you do. I was responding with a differing view point for the benefit of the OP and other newbies who might be reading your delicately phrased statement that logging exercise just "creates the illusion it's okay to eat more". Because, forums.

I when I first started used MFP as designed and ate back all my exercise calories...I lost weight as the rate I wanted.

Once I moved to lifting I went TDEE-15%...based on the data from MFP...I kept losing at my desired rate.

I now use a fitness tracker and eat back most of my exercise calories...losing at my desired rate.

Eating back exercise calories regardless of how you do it is needed...it helps fuel your next work out.

jdleanna wrote: »

MarcyKirkton wrote: »

I never eat back my exercise calories, because I want to lose. I would do so if I wanted to maintain.

I eat back 50-75% of my exercise calories *and* I am losing weight and a nice rate. I have seen your other posts and I know you're committed to eating at quite a low level, but it is really possible to eat more and eat back calories and lose weight. MFP has the deficit built in so eating back calories is sensible. It's not the only way to do it, obviously, but again it's entirely possible to do so and lose weight.

MFP set my calorie goals per day at 1,390....does it mean that the deficit is built in...if so then what is the percentage of the deficit in 1 390 and how do l know my intial calories(thats before the deficit is built in)...help