Should I eat back my exercise calories?

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hakeber9711_
hakeber9711_ Posts: 4 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
Hello everyone ☺️ I'm 19 years old, 5'1 and I weigh 11stone 9pounds and my calorie goal set by MFP is 1,200. I very rarely hit the 10,000 step goal set by MFP unless it's the weekend and I'm out and about. I have been on and off MFP for about a year but I'm fully motivated to get back on it and stick to it to get down to my goal weight of 9stone 7pounds. I have always had one question on my mind though and that's if I should be counting my steps / eating back my calories gained by doing steps. I work from 8 o'clock in the morning until roughly 12.30 in the afternoon. I work at a B&B (8 o'clock - 10 o'clock in the kitchen, doing some light steps from one side of the kitchen to the other etc but mostly just washing dishes and then 10 o'clock - 12.30 cleaning rooms (stripping and remaking beds, walking up and down stairs, cleaning bathrooms, hoovering etc)) but as soon as I'm home I usually just laze around. I always have my step counter turned on on MFP and I usually earn an extra few hundred calories from my steps but I'm always unsure if I should eat them back or not! Sometimes I do but I always worry that I am defeating the purpose of working them off in the first place. If I ever do exercise I enter that as a workout on MFC and I always wonder if I should be eating them calories back too. So basically, should I keep my step counter turned on and eat back my calories from the steps I do or should I turn my step counter off and just carry on eating 1,200 everyday? And also, should I enter my workout and eat them calories back or just enter my workout and leave the earned calories uneaten? Thank you in advance to anyone who answers this. I appreciate it a lot! ☺️

Replies

  • sijomial
    sijomial Posts: 19,811 Member
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    Have a read of this link.

    http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/818082/exercise-calories-again-wtf/p1

    Decision should be in context of your actual results over weeks/months - are you meeting (not exceeding) the weight loss goal you selected?
  • TeaBea
    TeaBea Posts: 14,517 Member
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    MFP as designed gave you a calorie deficit BEFORE exercise. So you should be eating back a portion of exercise calories. Try eating back 50-75% of them. Calorie burns are estimates.

    1200 is the DEFAULT minimum for meeting nutritional needs. So even though you are fairly petite, you are also young, so it's likely you can eat more & still lose.

    Is your step counter synced to MFP?.....the way the FitBit is designed, it compares your stated MFP activity level to your actual activity and gives you calories based on the DIFFERENCE. If this is what your device is doing, then yes, eat back a percentage. Then tweak this number as time goes on. Losing faster than expected....eat more. Losing slower than expected....eat less.

    Large calorie deficits make it harder for your body to support existing lean muscle mass. Healthy weight loss lowers your body fat %, not just the number on the scale.
  • Francl27
    Francl27 Posts: 26,371 Member
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    It really depends on how accurate you are with your logging.
  • fit4itall
    fit4itall Posts: 101 Member
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    I usually eat back over half of my calories, and am still losing at an average rate a little bit above the goal rate specified in my settings. I don't weigh everything, but consider my estimates pretty accurate (I do tend to try and slightly overestimate calories consumed and underestimate calories burned if in doubt). I'd go ahead and maybe try eating around 30-50% back and see how that works for a few weeks.
  • hakeber9711_
    hakeber9711_ Posts: 4 Member
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    Sijomial - I'll have a look at that link now, thank you! I am meeting the goal I selected most weigh in days but some weeks I am about a pound off my goal. I am going to try turning my steps off for this week and see how I feel but if I am feeling hungry throughout this week I'll definitely turn them back as just eat some of them (if not all) back like I have been doing since I started MFP.

    TeaBea - Thanks so much for all that info, it's very helpful! I don't actually have a Fitbit. I just use the step counter that comes with my phone (Iphone6S) I don't know how reliable it is, hence why I'm asking the question here as I'm worried I shouldn't be relying on it too much.

    Francl27 - I'm very strict on how accurate I am with logging my food. I measure / weigh absolutely everything I eat & drink and make sure to get it to the exact amount that shows on the scales.

    Thanks for all your replies! ☺️
  • markswife1992
    markswife1992 Posts: 262 Member
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    i do
  • hakeber9711_
    hakeber9711_ Posts: 4 Member
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    Fit4itall - Oh excellent! I'm glad to hear someone is eating back a portion of them and still seeing good results. I think I might start eating the suggested 30-50% and see how that goes. When I was eating them all back it was getting to a point where I was full but still eating just to get to my calorie goal so I think eating 50% of them back will work perfectly for me. Thank you very much!

    Markswife1992 - My mum and my partner do too and we all see the results we want to but as it was playing on my mind I thought I may as well ask just incase. I hope that's working out for you☺️
  • middlehaitch
    middlehaitch Posts: 8,484 Member
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    You probably should be eating more than you are given your job. (I did the same job when I was your age and to can be quite the work out.)
    If you have MFP set to sedentary change it to light activity. That should give you the calories you need for the job you do.

    Alter your step counter to reflect your activity level also.

    Any exercise you do, eat back 50-75% and monitor your loss. Adjust this, or your extra step calories so that you are losing at your goal over time. Ie: you should be set at 1-1.5 lbs a week (1.5 max) so look at what you have lost over a month or 6 weeks as loss can fluctuate day to day, week to week depending on sodium intake, TOM, etc.

    Cheers, h.
  • markswife1992
    markswife1992 Posts: 262 Member
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    hakeber9711_ wrote: »

    Markswife1992 - My mum and my partner do too and we all see the results we want to but as it was playing on my mind I thought I may as well ask just incase. I hope that's working out for you☺️

    well, i just started yesterday as my Day 1 of weight loss so i'm not sure if it will work or not, but i decided to give it a go. i wear a Nike Fuel Band, so the calories i work during the day that show on my fuel band, i add into my exercise for the day, and then eat that amount back. it won't be more than 200/300 cal/day because i don't work-out too much just yet.

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