Do you eat back your calories burned from working out?
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Yea. I set mfp to just give me deficit cals without any activity and I eat back the exercise cals (some days all some days not all but mostly). I have a sedentary job so there's that. If you would work in let's say constructions or anything heavy I would set it accordingly.
For example mfp gives me 1600 cals per day (which makes sense since my maintenance is 2300 if I sit on a chair all day)
Today I did 40 minutes of running (500 cals), 1 hour of lifting followed by 1 hour of stationary bike (897 cals).
So in the end I got 1600+500+897 = 2997 for me to lose about 0,75 kg per week. Garmin sets me at 3500 for maintenance today so that's about right. I ate 2600 today. So a pretty big deficit in the end but it was a pretty hard day. Most days I eat 2200 and my maintenance is at 2800
But I don't use mfp exercise caloric estimates. Those seem plain wrong. I use my hear rate monitor data for that0 -
I believe MFP will get you close to your Calorie needs but you have to experiment what works for you from there.
At one point I was loosing a pound a week at 1800cal a day, I bumped my calories up to 2100 and I started loosing about 1.5 pounds a week while working out the same amount.0 -
So many people are clueless as to how this website works.................
MFP as designed gave you a calorie deficit BEFORE exercise. Even people who can't/won't exercise still lose weight......or they should if they are logging accurately.
When MFP gives you additional "earned" calories, that ideally gets you back to the deficit you signed up for. It's a general recommendation to eat back 50-75% of those calories because calorie burn estimates tend to be generous.
WHY would you want to eat back exercise calories? Large deficits make it harder for your body to support existing lean muscle. If you just want a number on the scale, then lose fast. If you want fat loss, then lose at a moderate pace.
It baffles me how people cannot understand something that is basic logic...if you haven't accounted for exercise activity in your activity level then it would seem logical to account for it somewhere...that somewhere is after the fact with the MFP method.If you're trying to lose weight, there's no point in eating back the calories. Just take the bonus deficit. Or, eat an extra snack if you're really hungry late in the day. If you're trying to gain muscle like a body recomp, then you do want to eat back those calories because your muscles need them.
Yeah...it's actually pretty important to fuel your fitness regardless of weight management objectives.0 -
So many people are clueless as to how this website works.................
MFP as designed gave you a calorie deficit BEFORE exercise. Even people who can't/won't exercise still lose weight......or they should if they are logging accurately.
When MFP gives you additional "earned" calories, that ideally gets you back to the deficit you signed up for. It's a general recommendation to eat back 50-75% of those calories because calorie burn estimates tend to be generous.
WHY would you want to eat back exercise calories? Large deficits make it harder for your body to support existing lean muscle. If you just want a number on the scale, then lose fast. If you want fat loss, then lose at a moderate pace.
Quoting for emphasis...
When I was losing I ate back all the calories that I got from entering exercise into MFP. When I got a FitBit I started eating back the calories earned through the adjustments. I achieved my goal weight and am currently maintaining, still eating back those calories.
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WinoGelato wrote: »So many people are clueless as to how this website works.................
MFP as designed gave you a calorie deficit BEFORE exercise. Even people who can't/won't exercise still lose weight......or they should if they are logging accurately.
When MFP gives you additional "earned" calories, that ideally gets you back to the deficit you signed up for. It's a general recommendation to eat back 50-75% of those calories because calorie burn estimates tend to be generous.
WHY would you want to eat back exercise calories? Large deficits make it harder for your body to support existing lean muscle. If you just want a number on the scale, then lose fast. If you want fat loss, then lose at a moderate pace.
Quoting for emphasis...
When I was losing I ate back all the calories that I got from entering exercise into MFP. When I got a FitBit I started eating back the calories earned through the adjustments. I achieved my goal weight and am currently maintaining, still eating back those calories.
Count me as another who is successful and ate all (most, like 90%) of their exercise calories. In fact, I'm hard pressed to find a single long time successful member who did NOT eat back the majority of their exercise calories (through MFP method or using TDEE minus appropriate deficit eating, where exercise is already accounted).
Proof is in the pudding. Read through the stickies and some the fitness groups headed by knowledgeable veterans (Eat Train Progress and Eat More to Weigh Less are my faves). They all advise fueling the fitness for success and health.0 -
depends on the work out. I get about 250 calories from my 10k steps and i dont feel comfortable eating it from just walking. When i do my real work outs i will.0
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Yes, of course I eat my exercise calories back ... most of them anyway. I need the fuel!0
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If I'm not hungry i save them for the weekends. That's usually when I want to eat more but don't usually workout so it has worked out for me. Also it's a nice padding in case I'm not 100% accurate on logging.0
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I get my calories burned from my Fitbit and eat almost all of them. Otherwise my daily calorie goal would be 1300-something to lose .5lbs/week and that is absolutely not sustainable for me. I've been losing at 1600-2000 depending on daily activity. Yay food!0
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I set my caloric goals higher so I don't have to log my exercise. That way I'm consistently eating just under what I need to maintain but that I won't be thinking too hard when it comes time to sustain my energy levels on such a low calorie goal.0
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Yeah, I have a pretty consistent (and extensive) workout schedule, and don't like trying to estimate workout calories or eating more on long run days. So I average my workout calories over the week and include them in my calorie goal. I can't imagine not taking them into account when deciding on my calorie level -- no one would recommend that.0
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lemurcat12 wrote: »Yeah, I have a pretty consistent (and extensive) workout schedule, and don't like trying to estimate workout calories or eating more on long run days. So I average my workout calories over the week and include them in my calorie goal. I can't imagine not taking them into account when deciding on my calorie level -- no one would recommend that.
Lots of people would recommend that. They'd just be wro...misguided.
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lemurcat12 wrote: »Yeah, I have a pretty consistent (and extensive) workout schedule, and don't like trying to estimate workout calories or eating more on long run days. So I average my workout calories over the week and include them in my calorie goal. I can't imagine not taking them into account when deciding on my calorie level -- no one would recommend that.
Lots of people would recommend that. They'd just be wro...misguided.
Heh!0 -
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I do because I put in calories needed with a deficit already. I do Turbofire and if I don't eat I don't shed. I'm also breastfeeding. So my calories needed with 500 deficit is 1500 I add my calories burned to that and try my hardest to eat back. 2000+ can be hard to consume. But that still leaves me at a 500 deficit. When I was doing Max 30 I gained weight. Realized I was not even consuming 1000 a day. So I slowly upped it and now I see results. If you take your BMR subtract your deficit then eat your calories back you will stillbirth in that deficit. Good luck.0
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Yes, of course.
Because MFP calculates my calorie goal with no exercise.
Then I exercise and I can eat more but still maintain the deficit I've chosen.
Why would you not want to do that?
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Because I calculate my calorie goal for the "active" actively level so eating back my calories would be double counting? That's kind of the point of the discussion at hand.0
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wanderinjack wrote: »Because I calculate my calorie goal for the moderate actively level????
But you are still eating back your exercise calories you have just estimated them ahead of time rather than adding them each day.
You are right though, I should have added:
If you already include your exercise in your activity level or my using another calorie calculator you don't need to add extra exercise cals. Because you have already included exercise calories so you are, in fact, eating back your exercise cals with this method.
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So many people are clueless as to how this website works.................
MFP as designed gave you a calorie deficit BEFORE exercise. Even people who can't/won't exercise still lose weight......or they should if they are logging accurately.
When MFP gives you additional "earned" calories, that ideally gets you back to the deficit you signed up for. It's a general recommendation to eat back 50-75% of those calories because calorie burn estimates tend to be generous.
WHY would you want to eat back exercise calories? Large deficits make it harder for your body to support existing lean muscle. If you just want a number on the scale, then lose fast. If you want fat loss, then lose at a moderate pace.
Lovely response! I tend to eat back around 50% and still lose consistently.0 -
So many people are clueless as to how this website works.................
MFP as designed gave you a calorie deficit BEFORE exercise. Even people who can't/won't exercise still lose weight......or they should if they are logging accurately.
When MFP gives you additional "earned" calories, that ideally gets you back to the deficit you signed up for. It's a general recommendation to eat back 50-75% of those calories because calorie burn estimates tend to be generous.
WHY would you want to eat back exercise calories? Large deficits make it harder for your body to support existing lean muscle. If you just want a number on the scale, then lose fast. If you want fat loss, then lose at a moderate pace.
I don't think so many of us are "clueless" as much as we are beginners on this journey and certainly don't have the time and experience logged that you obviously do. And that is why we are here -- to learn. For me, I learn by asking questions and reading.
Did you mean in your third paragraph "Why would you NOT want to...." ?
So, here is what I typically do and I'm wondering if it is an appropriate plan of action:
Let's say the cardio machine tells me that for one hour of working, I burned 500 calories. When I log the one hour in MFP, it gives me 720 calories. I choose to change the log to 400 because I've read over and over here that the machines AND MFP both exaggerate calories burned.
Let's say I have extra 400 extra calories at the end of the day. Depending on my hunger level, I'll eat back between 100 and 300 of those.
Am I on track or still clueless?
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