Eating back exercise calories

If your caloric intake (goal) is at 1200, and you burn 900, your body is trying to run on 300 calories a day. You've burnt off 900 calories. Would you ever ONLY eat 300 calories a day? That's essentially what you're doing by not eating them back.

If your goal is 1200, that is bare minimum. ANYTHING you burn, you need to eat back, most definitely. You will NOT gain weight. MFP already has you at a deficit. By not eating back your calories, your making your deficit entirely too large & your body is hoarding what you do eat to protect itself.

Please eat.

I don't really have a lot of suggestions but I don't eat back my exercise calories and have lost 20 lbs in the last few months but I also don't probably make it to 1200 calories a day some days either (I'm under that) are you watching your fat and carbs? I keep my fat to under 30% a day and keep my carbs under 40% a day though I am stuck right now at the same weight for a couple of weeks now.

That's a great explanation on the calorie allocation for a new MFPer!

you are opening a can of worms on this site! LOL...

this is MY belief.

you have "normal daily activities" calories burned. I believe when you are exercising, you are taking time away from your normal daily activities, in order to fit in fitness. NOT A BAD THING ( a great thing actually). HOWEVER.. I think it affects the net calories and that MFP does not account for that. I will usually eat back 1/2 of my exercise calories if I'm hungry or feel that I need it. Truth is I usually net 950-1000 calories/day, and that works for me. My body is not starved, I lose about 1lb/week and I feel great and I'm in pretty good shape at this point.

Everyone is different. You really just have to play around and see what works for you. But since you are in a plateau, I would suggest increasing your caloric intake (aka eat ALL of you calories back, even if it totals 2000 calories a day) for a few days.. (I think 4 days with minimal exercise did the trick for me), and then jump back on your normal activity track. and don't forget to drink LOTS and LOTS of water.

Eating back all or most of your exercise calories really does work. Try doing it for a week, at least 75% of them daily. See what happens in a week, I bet you will be surprised--happily, of course. :flowerforyou:

if you are really uncomfortable with eating them all, try just 1/2. i had a nutrition expert tell me that eating just 1/2 back is ok, but you need to eat more than 1200 if you are burning 900 on top of your regular daily activities. Also, I don't know how much weight you have to lose but if you have 20 pounds or less, your goal should only be 1/2 to 1 pound a week. Probably closer to the 1/2 pound. The less you have to lose, the smaller your weekly goal.

So, I guess I'm a complete idiot, but I don't get the math behind "eating back your exercise calories." I have been stuck on a plateau for over a month now with my weight loss. I have switched up my exercise plan (just started running three times a week and am doing the Supreme 90 Day DVDs) and have also been meeting my calorie goal of 1200 a day. However, on days that I exercise up to 900 calories, it makes me extremely nervous to eat back that many calories. Since I am stuck on plateau, I am desperate. Can someone please tell me exactly how many exercise calories I can eat back or all??? Any similar stories would be appreciated as well.

If you re on a 1200 cal day and burn 400 from the gym it is like eating 800 and not going as 800-0=1200-400. And the min is 1200 Net (1200 plus exercise) so if you burn 400 you need 1600 to net 1200 (1600-400).

the way MFP works is by giving you a caloric deficit to meet your weekly weight loss goal. If you chose 1 lb/week that would be a 500 cal/day deficit, if you burn 400, your deficit is now 900, as you burned 400 more calories than MFP used to calculate your deficit. So to keep your deficit at 500/day you must eat back the 400 and you deficit goes back to 500 (900-400)

Besides what everyone else says, which is true, muscles continue to burn extra long past when you stop working out, so you will still have a calorie deficit.

Yes, I eat back all my exercise calories, but I am very selective with what I log. I only log explicit exercise (going for a run) and don't count cleaning, mowing the lawn, biking to/from work, etc. That way, my burn is at most only 500 cals. I'm also on the 1200 cal plan, and it's worked for me so far!

If you're nervous about eating them back, just try eating back about half and see how that goes.

Ditto, Destiny Joy!