Do you eat the calories you are burning from exercise?

Well, do you? :)
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Replies

  • EvgeniZyntx
    EvgeniZyntx Posts: 24,208 Member
    Some, yes. I try to keep weight loss at about 1-2 lbs a week max. So If I'm losing more, I up my calories. I'm burning close to 4-5K cals a week in wilful exercise.

    Fuel your efforts.
  • smcrimmon84
    smcrimmon84 Posts: 135 Member
    Not always and not all of them.
  • SarcasmIsMyLoveLanguage
    SarcasmIsMyLoveLanguage Posts: 2,668 Member
    Depends. While I was losing weight, I aimed to "eat back" about 50% of my calories burned which seems to be fairly common around here. The rationale is that you are fueling your body for activity, while also accounting for a margin of error in calculating calorie burn.

    Now that I'm maintaining, I generally eat back 75% or more of my calories.
  • TeaBea
    TeaBea Posts: 14,517 Member
    The short answer is yes. If you are using MFP as designed, you are expected to eat calories back. That should ideally bring you back to the deficit you signed on for.

    However, calorie burns are estimates. Activity level is a range (not 1 number). Food logging, some people are not terribly accurate.

    Find out what works best for you. I try to eat 100% of eat my calories back (by my estimate). Because the closer you get to goal, the more likely you are to lose lean muscle mass. I want fat loss, not weight loss.
  • lemurcat12
    lemurcat12 Posts: 30,886 Member
    Yes, but I don't add them back and eat them that day. I estimate my total maintenance calories based on my activity level. I think it's undermining your fitness goals not to take activity into account. My maintenance if sedentary is about 1650 calories, but I'm not sedentary, so eating as if I were would be a bad and unhealthy idea.
  • kimny72
    kimny72 Posts: 16,011 Member
    TeaBea wrote: »
    The short answer is yes. If you are using MFP as designed, you are expected to eat calories back. That should ideally bring you back to the deficit you signed on for.

    However, calorie burns are estimates. Activity level is a range (not 1 number). Food logging, some people are not terribly accurate.

    Find out what works best for you. I try to eat 100% of eat my calories back (by my estimate). Because the closer you get to goal, the more likely you are to lose lean muscle mass. I want fat loss, not weight loss.

    +1!
  • VintageFeline
    VintageFeline Posts: 6,771 Member
    Yes, yes I do. It's the biggest perk of exercising.
  • Ready2Rock206
    Ready2Rock206 Posts: 9,487 Member
    No, but I increased my calorie goal to account for that fact. (so in a way - yes I do, but I don't log them and then eat them.)
  • tryin2die2self
    tryin2die2self Posts: 207 Member
    edited March 2016
    I am currently trying to lose body fat and weight, so I eat back about 50% of my calories Monday thru Saturday. On Sunday I try to do a double workout which I turn into a refeed. I will usually end of eating back all of my calories on that day. Once I reach my initial body fat goal, 18%, I will switch up. My plan is to eat back all of my calories from working out, pushing to hit 13% body fat.
  • shadow2soul
    shadow2soul Posts: 7,692 Member
    Yes I do. Granted I have an activity tracker that adjusts my calories up or down as needed in the form of an exercise adjustment. I tried not eating them once and it resulted in constant fatigue, my mood was crap (really irritable), and my workouts suffered. Week 1 went okay but week 2-3 is when I really started to feel it. At the time MFP had my goal at 1370 calories before exercise/activity adjustments and I was working out about 8 + hrs a week.
  • middlehaitch
    middlehaitch Posts: 8,486 Member
    Yes. For all the good reasons above.

    Why would I want to be thin, unhealthy, weak as a kitten, sick all the time, with a low bone density and fuzzy head when taking a bit longer to lose the weight by eating back those needed calories would help alleviate all those problems?

    Cheers, h.
  • Meganthedogmom
    Meganthedogmom Posts: 1,639 Member
    I eat a portion of them back. This is a big part of the reason I do cardio - I like to eat :)

    How I used to do it is take whatever MFP gives me for a calorie burn, and change it to 75% of that. This worked for me for some time.

    However, since I've started running/training more frequently, I've seen a decrease in weight loss. I recently changed my logging to 50% of the MFP calorie burn to see if that helps.
  • shadowfax_c11
    shadowfax_c11 Posts: 1,942 Member
    Most of the time yes. I go by what my Fitbit gives me and almost never log exercise manually though. If I logged all of my martial arts workouts my calorie adjustments would be far too high and I would probably eat back 1/3-1/2 of that. I just don't log them.

  • riki44
    riki44 Posts: 3 Member
    I joined my fitness pal, I always workout at least 6 times a week, run/ elliptical 45 minutes and circuit hard core for 45 min every other daily. But my question is what activity level am I ? I have 2 choices, ' active' or 'highly active'. Then my friend said NOT to input my estimated calorie burn. I could easily burn 450 in one workout session then I walk a ton for my sales position. I'm unsure what my settings should be, I'm 145 and I want to be 134 before my wedding may 20
  • ncboiler89
    ncboiler89 Posts: 2,408 Member
    Well, do you? :)

    If I'm hungry
  • zyxst
    zyxst Posts: 9,148 Member
    I do because the mere thought of maintaining my weight on 1200 calories for the next 30-40 years is pathetic.
  • ncboiler89
    ncboiler89 Posts: 2,408 Member
    zyxst wrote: »
    I do because the mere thought of maintaining my weight on 1200 calories for the next 30-40 years is pathetic.

    1200 calories is maintenance for you?
  • riki44
    riki44 Posts: 3 Member
    Thank you for your input? Any other advice on " activity" level you selected and inputting calorie burn or one over the other?
  • riki44
    riki44 Posts: 3 Member
    Well if I input
    " active" only
    Loose 2 pounds / week
    Add- 400 activity calorie burn
    Then my consumption is 1600 calories per day IF I input exercise
  • Alarae21
    Alarae21 Posts: 171 Member
    It depends. If I'm hungry, I'll eat them. If I'm not, I don't.

    I probably eat about 1200-1300 calories a day tracked, so my exercise calories really act for a buffer for inconsistencies in logging (ie underestimating what has been eaten).
  • decamillionaire
    decamillionaire Posts: 3 Member
    I have not been eating my calories back. That is a great question. I'm on a 1,500 caloric diet which consist of 47% comimg from carbs, 22% from protein and 30% from fat. I've lost nearly 5 lbs which put me on target to lose 25 lbs before my trip to Greece this summer. The nutritionist stated I only needed to eat one carb to refuel after discussing the type of exercises I would be participating in. I was extremely sleepy around 2 pm today. I wonder does that have anything to do with me not eating those calories that I burned during exercise.
  • zyxst
    zyxst Posts: 9,148 Member
    ncboiler89 wrote: »
    zyxst wrote: »
    I do because the mere thought of maintaining my weight on 1200 calories for the next 30-40 years is pathetic.

    1200 calories is maintenance for you?

    If I don't eat exercise calories, yes. If I stopped walking and went back to sitting at the computer for 16 hours, sleeping the remainder 8, and moving as little as possible. My current maintenance using Fitbit TDEE is 1950-2100, depending on if I did a workout or not.
  • salleymo
    salleymo Posts: 50 Member
    Yes. Sometimes I'll eat 50% sometimes I'll eat 100%, but it just really depends on how I feel.
  • HillSlug98239
    HillSlug98239 Posts: 28 Member
    It depends. After hard workouts, absolutely. I'm a triathlete, I just completed my first half-marathon, and I hope to do a lot of cycling this summer. I train for endurance, and my body needs that fuel to rebuild and repair. For shorter, less intense workouts, I don't.

    Because my Garmin 910 measures my heart rate, it seems to do a really good job of estimating calories burned. If anything, it's a little stingy. That helps keep me from eating too much post-workout.
  • sijomial
    sijomial Posts: 19,809 Member
    Yes - I would waste away if I didn't.
    Beside I like both exercise and food.
  • ElizabethOakes2
    ElizabethOakes2 Posts: 1,038 Member
    I eat back half. I tried not to at first, but that was a silly mistake. I was tired and hungry. Work hard, eat a little more- it's glorious! :)
  • RebelPatriot77
    RebelPatriot77 Posts: 29 Member
    I totally eat my excersize calories. I call it "buying calories"
  • biggsterjackster
    biggsterjackster Posts: 419 Member
    No, cause I want to lose weight fast.
  • hko718
    hko718 Posts: 85 Member
    If you're attempting to lose weight then NO. Why would you eat back calories when you're trying to be in a deficit. Use cardio as a tool. If you're eating 1500 calories and losing weight without cardio then you don't really need to be on the cardio grind.
  • Afura
    Afura Posts: 2,054 Member
    hko718 wrote: »
    If you're attempting to lose weight then NO. Why would you eat back calories when you're trying to be in a deficit.

    Because as long as you set up your calculations correctly MFP already sets you at a deficit guaranteed to help you lose weight in a sustainable and healthy manner of up to 2lb/week which is what most Drs recommend for people with a lot to lose.

    I eat back some of my calories, usually about 50%, because the tools are not always accurate, but sometimes more if I'm feeling hungry.