Do you eat the calories you are burning from exercise?

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  • 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: 9,134 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: 19,811 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.
  • ncboiler89
    ncboiler89 Posts: 2,408 Member
    hko718 wrote: »
    Why would you eat back calories when you're trying to be in a deficit.

    Because eating back the calories does not take out out of a deficit and probably won't even change your ability to hit your target deficit for the day.
  • Gisel2015
    Gisel2015 Posts: 4,135 Member
    No, I don't. I set my own maintenance calories and I try to eat to get to that number (not always possible). I use exercise calories as a buffer to compensate for additional food when I eat out or if I am hungry. I am small and older so I don't burn that many calories exercising and I don't need that many calories to survive either.

    I exercise because I like it and because it is good for me, not to give me a reason to eat more.
  • hko718
    hko718 Posts: 85 Member
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7pqF3llZU3o
  • TeaBea
    TeaBea Posts: 14,517 Member
    biggsterjackster wrote: »
    No, cause I want to lose weight fast.

    There's one big trade-off with fast weight loss.........

    Do you want fat loss....or just a number on the scale? Moderate paced weight loss supports existing lean muscle mass. This is WHY MFP gives you back exercise calories. Google skinny-fat, only the scale looks good.
  • samanthachen
    samanthachen Posts: 360 Member
    If you used a TDEE calculator, and you based your number off of that, then you probably wouldn't eat those exercise calories back because properly calculated TDEE already includes planned workouts. However, if you got your number from MFP, then you eat them back. Give yourself a safety net, and eat them back at 50%-75%. Play around in that range until you are at the loss you are happy with (that is also safe).

  • hko718
    hko718 Posts: 85 Member
    Here's another good video on the topic
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TmEJGR1_sZc
  • usmcmp
    usmcmp Posts: 21,220 Member
    Neither of those videos apply to MFP's method of creating a calorie deficit.
  • hko718
    hko718 Posts: 85 Member
    MFP isn't where I would gather my deficit from in the first place.
  • usmcmp
    usmcmp Posts: 21,220 Member
    That's fine, but you aren't the average user on here with little to no knowledge on nutrition and fitness. MFP's method is simple and easy to use for the average person. Trying to get people to follow a method based off TDEE is attempting to reinvent the wheel here. MFP's method is effective for most people. I personally use TDEE, but I'm not the average user.
  • AnnPT77
    AnnPT77 Posts: 31,953 Member
    Generally, yes. (Main exception: If I'm banking calories for later use, or doing extra workouts to balance an unplanned over day.)

    But I estimate exercise calories carefully & conservatively in the first place - I use heart rate monitor data when appropriate, estimate highly-variable things on the low side, and will check multiple different sites' exercise calculators (that use different inputs, perhaps) when I do something new.

    I've been eating back my exercise calories all the way to my current weight (down 63 pounds), which is actually just a tad below goal weight, so I'm still working on finding the right maintenance calories. I never use the calories from machines without checking/adjusting them in some other way, nor do I ever (ever) use the marketing-oriented calorie estimates found in advertisements for devices or videos. This approach has worked well for me.

    You want to fuel your workouts, stay strong, and stay healthy, right?

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