Anyone eating back their exercise cals?

dizzybee83
dizzybee83 Posts: 6 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
And still losing?

Should we be eating them back?

Replies

  • jlc102980
    jlc102980 Posts: 137 Member
    I eat back around half of my exercise calories and see a steady 1-2 pound loss per week.
  • MommyL2015
    MommyL2015 Posts: 1,411 Member
    I eat most of them back because more food!
  • AdrianChr92
    AdrianChr92 Posts: 567 Member
    I only eat them if I am hungry at the end of the day.
    Or if my progress stalls. Then I force myself to eat them lol
  • dizzybee83
    dizzybee83 Posts: 6 Member
    Ok, just out of interest why would you eat them if your progress stalls? Sorry to sound so niave I'm new to this.
    Wouldn't you eat less if you stalled?
    Thanks for the replies guys :)
  • Francl27
    Francl27 Posts: 26,371 Member
    The way MFP is set up, you're supposed to, or your deficit can be too large.

    But most people don't log accurately either, and the MFP databases overestimate calories burns, so most people are better off not eating them back...
  • EvgeniZyntx
    EvgeniZyntx Posts: 24,208 Member
    dizzybee83 wrote: »
    Ok, just out of interest why would you eat them if your progress stalls? Sorry to sound so niave I'm new to this.
    Wouldn't you eat less if you stalled?
    Thanks for the replies guys :)

    You already have a deficit built in when you state your goal. And the program is written with the expectation you are logging correctly and eating back cals.

    But it is usually useful to eat back some cals if your burns are active - otherwise too large cuts will result in energy and recovery issues.
  • reddeament
    reddeament Posts: 51 Member
    Yeah I eat them back. I have a net calorie goal of 1200 and lose 2-6 pounds a month (I think that's due to how accurate my logging is)
  • lynn_glenmont
    lynn_glenmont Posts: 10,093 Member
    dizzybee83 wrote: »
    Ok, just out of interest why would you eat them if your progress stalls? Sorry to sound so niave I'm new to this.
    Wouldn't you eat less if you stalled?
    Thanks for the replies guys :)

    Not naive at all. There are lots of anecdotes of people increasing their caloric intake a bit when they've "stalled" and having weight loss recommence. The only rational explanations I know of are coincidence (increasing calories just happens to coincide with body mass loss showing up on the scales, after it was masked for a period by normal fluctuations due to water retention and food in digestive track), dramatically more effective workouts from increased energy, or lowered stress levels from not being overly hungry all the time (stress hormones can cause water retention).
  • BruinsGal_91
    BruinsGal_91 Posts: 1,400 Member
    MommyL2015 wrote: »
    I eat most of them back because more food!

    ^^^
    This!

    I'm 5" 2' so my calorie goal is 1200. If that was all I could eat I would go postal. I get about 400-600 exercise calories daily, and I eat about half of them back. I lost 8lbs in January, so it obviously works.
  • stmokomoko
    stmokomoko Posts: 98 Member
    I don't trust the calorie burn the website gives me (it seems so high), so I prefer not to eat back.
  • BoaRestrictor
    BoaRestrictor Posts: 194 Member
    stmokomoko wrote: »
    I don't trust the calorie burn the website gives me (it seems so high), so I prefer not to eat back.

    Yeah same. At 1500 I don't eat back. FitBit trying to tell me I burn 2500 calories a day. So how am I able to bulk eating 2100 fitbit?? Hmmm something is not adding up.

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