Eating calories back after exercise

CeeCeili
CeeCeili Posts: 6 Member
edited November 2024 in Fitness and Exercise
Hello,

How many calories of those I burn should I be eating back? Some days I'll burn 600, others just 100. I'm not sure how many I should eat back?sometimes MFP won't let me finish my diary because I haven't eaten enough. So I usually stock up on bread but I don't feel like this is helping at all!!

Any help will be great

Replies

  • sijomial
    sijomial Posts: 19,808 Member
    Name the exercise, some are easy to estimate - some are not.

    What have your weight loss results been?
  • TeaBea
    TeaBea Posts: 14,517 Member
    50-75%.

    So 300-450 OR 50-75

    You can over ride the calorie burn too. Calorie burns are estimations. Often they are too generous.

    Not finishing your diary is because you are eating (far too) few calories. Eat more & you will increase the % of fat lost. Faster weight loss makes it hard for your body to support existing lean muscle mass. Healthy weight loss helps you lower your body fat %.

    You don't have to "time" your eating after exercise. If you plan on doing a 300 calorie workout, then spread the calories out over the whole day.
  • queenliz99
    queenliz99 Posts: 15,317 Member
    Some or most of them. How are you calculating your calorie burns?
  • CeeCeili
    CeeCeili Posts: 6 Member
    sijomial wrote: »
    Name the exercise, some are easy to estimate - some are not.

    What have your weight loss results been?

    I vary what I do, some days I'm lazy and will just take a 30min walk with my daughter. Other days I'll put an exercise dvd, go swimming and for a walk.i have a very active job but I don't list the calories burned at work because I can never work out how many I may have burned
  • CeeCeili
    CeeCeili Posts: 6 Member
    queenliz99 wrote: »
    Some or most of them. How are you calculating your calorie burns?

    I'm calculating based purely on what MFP tells me I've burned, I usually take off 50 ish calories because it does seen very generous with calories burned
  • queenliz99
    queenliz99 Posts: 15,317 Member
    MFP calories burns are overstated. Eat 50 to 75% back and track your weight and adjust accordingly.
  • TeaBea
    TeaBea Posts: 14,517 Member
    CeeCeili wrote: »
    sijomial wrote: »
    Name the exercise, some are easy to estimate - some are not.

    What have your weight loss results been?

    I vary what I do, some days I'm lazy and will just take a 30min walk with my daughter. Other days I'll put an exercise dvd, go swimming and for a walk.i have a very active job but I don't list the calories burned at work because I can never work out how many I may have burned

    You wouldn't list the calories at work. That should be included in your activity level. To add them would be double counting. I do a variety too. I would start with a percentage....across the board. Then as weight loss progressed, tweak that percentage up or down.
  • CeeCeili
    CeeCeili Posts: 6 Member
    TeaBea wrote: »
    50-75%.

    So 300-450 OR 50-75

    You can over ride the calorie burn too. Calorie burns are estimations. Often they are too generous.

    Not finishing your diary is because you are eating (far too) few calories. Eat more & you will increase the % of fat lost. Faster weight loss makes it hard for your body to support existing lean muscle mass. Healthy weight loss helps you lower your body fat %.

    You don't have to "time" your eating after exercise. If you plan on doing a 300 calorie workout, then spread the calories out over the whole day.

    This is my problem, I never know if I'm going to "be bothered" to exercise in the evening, so I try and keep my calorie intake to a minimum... But I still eat throughout the day, just salads, oats and light snacks.
    My weight loss has fluctuated MASSIVELY my motivation will go and come back..... *my excuse* I'm juggling college, work and raising a baby so sometimes I can't exercise because I'm spending 5 hours doing an assignment. Other times the baby doesn't sleep. I'm trying, but failing
  • CeeCeili
    CeeCeili Posts: 6 Member
    sijomial wrote: »
    Name the exercise, some are easy to estimate - some are not.

    What have your weight loss results been?

    Results haven't been all that great. But that's because I'll binge and then get back on track.
    I mainly do HIIT dvds or step aerobics.also swimming, but I use a float that my daughter sits on and push her around so I'm only using my legs
  • TeaBea
    TeaBea Posts: 14,517 Member
    CeeCeili wrote: »
    TeaBea wrote: »
    50-75%.

    So 300-450 OR 50-75

    You can over ride the calorie burn too. Calorie burns are estimations. Often they are too generous.

    Not finishing your diary is because you are eating (far too) few calories. Eat more & you will increase the % of fat lost. Faster weight loss makes it hard for your body to support existing lean muscle mass. Healthy weight loss helps you lower your body fat %.

    You don't have to "time" your eating after exercise. If you plan on doing a 300 calorie workout, then spread the calories out over the whole day.

    This is my problem, I never know if I'm going to "be bothered" to exercise in the evening, so I try and keep my calorie intake to a minimum... But I still eat throughout the day, just salads, oats and light snacks.
    My weight loss has fluctuated MASSIVELY my motivation will go and come back..... *my excuse* I'm juggling college, work and raising a baby so sometimes I can't exercise because I'm spending 5 hours doing an assignment. Other times the baby doesn't sleep. I'm trying, but failing

    Okay - you can also "bank" exercise calories for the next day. You may not be able to finish your daily diary though.

    Another option is to estimate your weekly exercise range. Then use a TDEE calculator that includes exercise up front. That sort of "averages" your exercise calories out for the week. You don't have the up/down of light exercise one day and heavy exercise the next. If you log exercise using this method, over ride the calorie count to 1.

    http://scoobysworkshop.com/calorie-calculator/
  • sijomial
    sijomial Posts: 19,808 Member
    Address being overly restrictive and maybe the binging will go?
    Would worry first about that and stop trying to "keep calories intake to a minimum" - that's a really poor idea and far more harmful than potentially over estimating exercise calories.
  • middlehaitch
    middlehaitch Posts: 8,488 Member
    When I was losing and exercising at night I entered my calories in the next day. It all evened out in the long term and meant I wasn't trying to eat when I didn't feel like it. I also knew how many calories I had for the next day. Sometimes I would bank a percentage for dinner out or a party later in the week. So long as I hit my weekly goal, and didn't drop below 1200 any one day, I was fine.

    It worked for me.

    Cheers, h.
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