Is eating back exercise calories bad?

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lgriffith5
lgriffith5 Posts: 10 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
I always focused on the net because I exercise or mountain bike every day and burn a lot of calories. However I have been seeing a lot of people comment on other unrelated threads that they don't eat back their calories. Thoughts? If we're not supposed to eat them back then why have a net?

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  • Clobern80
    Clobern80 Posts: 714 Member
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    You say you "always focused on the net..." so how has it been working for you? There is no reason to change if it is working just because someone says something contradictory. MFP is designed for you to eat your calories back, that is why net is there. However, MFP and pretty much EVERYTHING else overestimates calories burned (I see people posting that they burned 1,429 calories doing 60 minutes of P90X). So many people suggest eating half of your exercise calories back.

    Ideally, you should find what works best for you and keeps you happy. If eating 100% of your exercise calories allows for you to lose weight, then do it. If you it doesn't, drop it down to 75% of calories and see what happens. Continue to adjust until you find that happy intersection of "I'm losing weight" avenue and "I am satisfied and happy" boulevard.
  • juggernaut1974
    juggernaut1974 Posts: 6,212 Member
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    Depends on how you set your initial calorie goal.

    If you let MFP set a goal for you - then you should eat back exercise calories, because MFP's algorithm assumes you don't exercise beyond whatever you set as your daily activity level.

    Other online calculators may or may not include exercise in their calculations.
  • Eddie__Jones
    Eddie__Jones Posts: 197 Member
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    juggernaut1974 wrote: »
    Depends on how you set your initial calorie goal.

    If you let MFP set a goal for you - then you should eat back exercise calories, because MFP's algorithm assumes you don't exercise beyond whatever you set as your daily activity level.

    Other online calculators may or may not include exercise in their calculations.

  • cwolfman13
    cwolfman13 Posts: 41,867 Member
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    lgriffith5 wrote: »
    I always focused on the net because I exercise or mountain bike every day and burn a lot of calories. However I have been seeing a lot of people comment on other unrelated threads that they don't eat back their calories. Thoughts? If we're not supposed to eat them back then why have a net?

    It depends...a lot of people who don't eat back exercise calories are using the TDEE method for which their exercise is included in their activity level and thus an estimate of the calories they would need to fuel that activity are included in their calorie targets.

    If one is using MFP as designed, exercise is NOT included in your activity level and common sense would dictate that you should account for that activity somewhere. Keep in mind that this also requires a fair bit of accuracy in logging your calories in as well as estimating calories out...people in general tend to be not very accurate where these things are concerned.

    Other people don't eat back exercise calories because they just don't understand how all of this works, nor do they understand that feeding your training is highly important to your fitness...their sole focus tends to be just losing weight as quickly as possible with little thought given to actually being healthy and fit.
  • lgriffith5
    lgriffith5 Posts: 10 Member
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    clobern80 wrote: »
    You say you "always focused on the net..." so how has it been working for you?

    I've been a MFP member for a few years but suck at using it consistently for more than a week or two at a time. That was never much of a problem because I was at a healthy weight until last year, when life changes resulted in a 20 lb weight gain. I am now taking my weight loss seriously and want to make sure I am using the app correctly so I will have the best chance for success (and hopefully not fall off the bandwagon again!)

    Thank you for your response. It was very helpful. I try to use a heart rate monitor when I mountain bike or trail run so hopefully that will give me a better estimate on calories burned. I just know from experience that trying to do a 2 hour mountain bike ride on 1200 calories per day doesn't end well, so I need to eat back most of my calories!
  • dsbock
    dsbock Posts: 1 Member
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    From a fellow cyclist -

    I will always eat back my calories, but try to stay so that I have a few hundred left on the table if possible while using a planned weight loss of 1.5 lb or 2 lb per week. I recently switched to 1.5 lb/wk because I wasn't eating enough at 2lb a week planned loss. This seems to work for me, as I've lost 30 lbs using this system with about 10 more to go. It's just not possible to be a serious cyclist and not eat the cycling calories back because often I'd be negative for the day and if I didn't eat back the cycling calories I'd pass out. I've had times where I'm running 2000+ calories deficient to plan for the day after a hard day of cycling and I feel dizzy and weak.

    I typically will use the estimate from my Garmin or Strava depending on which one I feel is more accurate. Garmin calories are nearly entirely based on heart rate while the Strava calories are based on H/W and terrain and heart rate is less of role in the algorithm (many Strava users don't have HR monitors). I find that the Garmin and Strava estimates can often differ by 20% or more. Normally I've been using the higher estimate and then trying to keep a few hundred calories on the table at the end of the day and that seems to work.

  • callsitlikeiseeit
    callsitlikeiseeit Posts: 8,627 Member
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    i use tdee so dont eat them back. a lot of people do that.

    men should (in general) make sure they NET 1500 and women 1200. and those are both on the pretty low side.
  • cookiemachin
    cookiemachin Posts: 7 Member
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    I simply treat them as 'bonus calories' I wont eat them all back but If I feel I need that extra to keep me going then I will 'dip' into the bonus ones normally in the form of protein I just keep an eye on the fat and sugar levels.
    For example today my goal was 1850cal, my 17,650 steps gave me an extra 1238cals but Ive only eaten 1727, I'll perhaps have around 2000cal by the end of the day. Looking back Ive prob always got around 500-700cal left over
  • 1brandn
    1brandn Posts: 9 Member
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    whatever works for you. Personally i dont eat any back.
  • Jruzer
    Jruzer Posts: 3,501 Member
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    When I don't eat mine I am sluggish and my workouts are awful. (Caveat: I do a fair amount of exercise - 600-1000 kcal/day.) I lose just fine, when I want to, when I eat them back. That is the way the tool is designed.
  • TeaBea
    TeaBea Posts: 14,517 Member
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    callsitlikeiseeit wrote: »
    i use tdee so dont eat them back. a lot of people do that.

    men should (in general) make sure they NET 1500 and women 1200. and those are both on the pretty low side.

    OP - TDEE users technically eat their exercise calories back too......here's why

    TDEE (total daily energy expenditure is maintenance) so this generally includes exercise up front. TDEE users just don't log exercise as a separate piece (or use 0 for the calorie burn).

    MFP gives you a calorie goal before exercise. That's good for those who are sporadic at exercise, or who need extra encouragement.
  • peaceout_aly
    peaceout_aly Posts: 2,018 Member
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    lgriffith5 wrote: »
    I always focused on the net because I exercise or mountain bike every day and burn a lot of calories. However I have been seeing a lot of people comment on other unrelated threads that they don't eat back their calories. Thoughts? If we're not supposed to eat them back then why have a net?

    I eat them back, but only because I have my goal set to "lose .5 lb. per week" and in reality want to generally maintain. I know the suggestion is typically eat back half because MFP is "generous" in what we burn.

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