Do you "eat" your workout calories burned?

GamecockFan14
GamecockFan14 Posts: 154 Member
edited September 29 in Food and Nutrition
Do you eat your post or pre workout calories? For example, if you budget 1200 calories a day, do you count the 1200 calories even with exercise, or do you estimate how many cals you burned working out and add them to your 1200 to make up the defecit?
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Replies

  • Pandorian
    Pandorian Posts: 2,055 Member
    Being here on MFP I follow the program as designed which is to eat the exercise calories when I earn them (been a while).
  • bargmannr
    bargmannr Posts: 15
    I eat back some of them but not all of them
  • sarahazelnut99
    sarahazelnut99 Posts: 307 Member
    i have no clue! do whatever makes you lose weight faster lol
  • BabyDuchess
    BabyDuchess Posts: 353 Member
    :flowerforyou:
  • Kitiara47
    Kitiara47 Posts: 235 Member
    I only eat them back if I am hungry. You don't want to force feed yourself and get sick or anything!
  • sportsjunkee70
    sportsjunkee70 Posts: 173 Member
    No I do not eat them back. Ultimately weight loss = burn more calories than you eat.... .if you are eating back your calories than you're not really losing weight... maybe 1lb. Eating back your exercise calories is more for maintaining your current weight.
  • therealangd
    therealangd Posts: 1,861 Member
    STOLEN!

    Screenshot2011-06-10at33445PM-1.png
  • ChantalGG
    ChantalGG Posts: 2,404 Member
    I set my limit to 1200 calories so i will eat them back without feeling bad because 1200 it lower then what i need to maintain my weight. Plus i do muscle building exercises and i want to feed the muscle, i dont want them to shrink.

    Oh I only burn 200 or so a day and on some days i will burn 600 i dont eat all of it back if i cant.
  • GamecockFan14
    GamecockFan14 Posts: 154 Member
    LOL @ the bunny.
  • aclark6818
    aclark6818 Posts: 209 Member
    I make sure to eat at least 1200 NET calories a day. So sometimes I eat back some of my earned calories,I just try to stay between 1200-1500 per day. Hope this helps
    :flowerforyou:
  • georgiag111
    georgiag111 Posts: 424
    I only eat them back if I am hungry. You don't want to force feed yourself and get sick or anything!

    this sometimes i do seems like more so on weekends
  • dad106
    dad106 Posts: 4,868 Member
    No I do not eat them back. Ultimately weight loss = burn more calories than you eat.... .if you are eating back your calories than you're not really losing weight... maybe 1lb. Eating back your exercise calories is more for maintaining your current weight.

    This!

    When I dropped my goal to half a week loss and ate back my exercise calories, all I did was maintain.
    Now that I'm back to pound a week loss and not eating my exercise calories, it's working out just fine.
  • debrajane81
    debrajane81 Posts: 6
    I eat 1400 calories a day. I try very hard NOT to eat the calories burned by exercise even though when posted on myfitnesspal it will say that i have earned them back. Sticking to your allotted calories and ignoring the exercise calories will lead to quicker success.
  • erickirb
    erickirb Posts: 12,294 Member
    No I do not eat them back. Ultimately weight loss = burn more calories than you eat.... .if you are eating back your calories than you're not really losing weight... maybe 1lb. Eating back your exercise calories is more for maintaining your current weight.

    Actually eating them back ensures you lose your goal amount of weight, whatever you set it at. Not eating may lead to too large of a caloric deficit which can cause a lot of problems. If you have a lot to lose 75+ lbs, you may be able to get away with not eating them but the closer you are to your goal the more important it is to eat them.
  • misscristie
    misscristie Posts: 643 Member
    Personally, I only eat if I'm hungry. Period. Eating when I wasn't hungry is how I got to be carrying 180 extra pounds around.

    HOWEVER, with that said, everybody is different and every body is different. You have to find what works for YOU. Experiment a little. Eat all of them back for a week. Eat some of the back the next. Eat none of them back the next. Choose one. What works now may change in 6 or 8 months and you'll have to re-evaluate.
  • GamecockFan14
    GamecockFan14 Posts: 154 Member
    yeah. I def have 75+ lbs to lose, so that works for me!
  • erickirb
    erickirb Posts: 12,294 Member
    I eat 1400 calories a day. I try very hard NOT to eat the calories burned by exercise even though when posted on myfitnesspal it will say that i have earned them back. Sticking to your allotted calories and ignoring the exercise calories will lead to quicker success.

    Not necessarily, a lot of people hit plateaus by doing this, you need to fuel your workouts, not to mention you will lose much more muscle while losing fat, it you do not eat back the calories you burn.
  • Hernandezedw
    Hernandezedw Posts: 284
    No I do not eat them back. Ultimately weight loss = burn more calories than you eat.... .if you are eating back your calories than you're not really losing weight... maybe 1lb. Eating back your exercise calories is more for maintaining your current weight.

    This would be wrong.

    You tell MFP how much weight you want to lose per week. (I'm at half a lb.) It does some factoring and tells you how many calories to consume based on what you say your level of activity is. If you work out more than your initial activity setting, then you should eat those calories back.
  • donmikulecky
    donmikulecky Posts: 15 Member
    I ignore the workout calories and try to stick to the same daily limit. I do not believe the calories burned figures to be accurate. Secondly the big reason for exercise is to maintain a higher BMR. The calories burned are small relative to that effect.
  • NikkisNewStart
    NikkisNewStart Posts: 1,075 Member
    shouldieatmyexercisecalories.com

    Always have and always will eat my exercise calories... who says that doesn't work? Those who don't know what they are talking about... that's who.
  • louiseei
    louiseei Posts: 254 Member
    No I do not eat them back. Ultimately weight loss = burn more calories than you eat.... .if you are eating back your calories than you're not really losing weight... maybe 1lb. Eating back your exercise calories is more for maintaining your current weight.

    Actually eating them back ensures you lose your goal amount of weight, whatever you set it at. Not eating may lead to too large of a caloric deficit which can cause a lot of problems. If you have a lot to lose 75+ lbs, you may be able to get away with not eating them but the closer you are to your goal the more important it is to eat them.

    This - you need to fuel your body to have the energy to work out and build muscle.
    Good luck
  • iwillsoonbeslim
    iwillsoonbeslim Posts: 283
    Yup, so far I'm eating back every single exercise cal (which can be 3000+ in my case) and I am losing weight consistently.
  • CaptainAmerica1970
    CaptainAmerica1970 Posts: 435
    at this time, yes, but not all of them. nor all at one time. I spread them out.
  • pratkovic
    pratkovic Posts: 55
    I agree. I weight train and 1520 calories is not enough to maintain muscle mass. Further there is no way I can get anough protein in daily on 1520.

    It depends on what you are trying to do. If you are 100% slimming down then dont eat the extra all of the time. But if you are building muscle...your body needs the muscle repair.
  • Alcyone
    Alcyone Posts: 4
    No, I do not eat them back. My BMR (basic matabolic rate) is 1233, which means I need 1233 calories/day to stay at my current weight. I need to lose 25 lbs. In order to lose 1lb/week I need to drop 500 calories/per day since I need to burn 3500 calories/week in order to lose 1 lb/wk. (500/day x 7 days =3500 calories). I have set my calories to 1000//day and try to burn an additional 3-400/dayin exercise and I am finally starting to drop about a lb/week.. when I was eating my excercise calories i was maintaining only.
  • superjae5
    superjae5 Posts: 64 Member
    Just make sure you're not going below 1200. If you put your body into starvation mode, yes, you may lose weight quickly for awhile, but eventually the body hits a limit where it won't let go of any more fat. Plus you'll slow your metabolism way down, which makes it harder to lose. If you're honestly not hungry (which I can't understand, I'm 200x more hungry after I work out) then try to make sure many of those 1200 calories are protein heavy so your muscles can build.

    I have a friend doing Weight Watchers (this is related) and she says she can use her extra points (calories she doesn't use) on a different day as long as it's within a week. What that means is, if you're going to, say, a birthday party and know you'll eat high calorie stuff, you can use some of those calories from earlier in the week to balance it out.

    But I'd still advise you to eat at least some of your calories back. I'm always amazed with people who can be full on 1200 calories though--ESPECIALLY with exercise. I just can't do it. ;)
  • pjrisher
    pjrisher Posts: 152
    Everybody is going to argue about this forever but it's really up to each persons body. For me, I am successful not eating (all of) them back. I use them as a buffer usually, but I don't usually try to eat them back. With that said, I am pretty small (5'2), and nobodies bodies are the same. Listen to your body; when you're hungry, eat. Good luck!
  • Larius
    Larius Posts: 507 Member
    Emphatic yes!
  • Hernandezedw
    Hernandezedw Posts: 284
    This isn't a race, people. You want quick loss, you may get it, but you'll likely fail in the end. Either by quitting or gaining it all back from burn out (for lack of a better term).
  • MinnieInMaine
    MinnieInMaine Posts: 6,400 Member
    Do you eat your post or pre workout calories? For example, if you budget 1200 calories a day, do you count the 1200 calories even with exercise, or do you estimate how many cals you burned working out and add them to your 1200 to make up the defecit?

    I eat my workout calories and have since I started this whole thing a year and a half ago... The important number is that Net Calorie number that shows up on your Home page - you should never go below 1200 net, or you risk "starvation mode".
    FYI though, if you use the calories that MFP gives you for exercise, maybe just eat half or 2/3rds as the number tends to be a bit high. If you invest in a heart rate monitor with a chest strap (like those by Garmin & Polar), you will get a much more accurate calorie count.
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