Eating your exercise calories

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sydneyregan
sydneyregan Posts: 32 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
The calorie intake MFP has set for me is pretty good! The odd day I'm a bit hungrier after finishing all my calories so I eat some of my exercise calories, that's okay right?

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  • sijomial
    sijomial Posts: 19,811 Member
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    Your calorie goal is plus exercise calories - that's how the tool is designed.
    It's OK to eat them all every day too if you are getting the results over time you expect.

    Have a read as this come up all the time......
    http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/818082/exercise-calories-again-wtf/p1
  • tillerstouch
    tillerstouch Posts: 608 Member
    edited July 2016
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    Yes, and actually you're supposed to eat them back. Just be careful you're only eating what you actually burned. A lot of people will only eat back a certain percentage of the calories say a treadmill says the burned. The specific percentage probably depends and could be some trail error. Maybe start around 60%? Someone else may be able to give more insight on how much to eat back.
  • TeaBea
    TeaBea Posts: 14,517 Member
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    If you got your numbers from MFP - it's design is for you to eat 100% of exercise calories back because exercise was not factored in (until you logged it).

    However, calorie burns are estimates. Most people start by eating back a %, (50-75%) then adjust up or down depending upon actual weight loss results.

    The idea is to fuel your workouts & keep the deficit moderate. A moderate deficit is one of the things that helps you retain existing lean muscle mass.
  • sijomial
    sijomial Posts: 19,811 Member
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    tillerstouch wrote: »
    Yes, and actually you're supposed to eat them back. Just be careful you're only eating what you actually burned. A lot of people will only eat back a certain percentage of the calories say a treadmill says the burned. The specific percentage probably depends and could be some trail error. Maybe start around 60%? Someone else may be able to give me insight on how much to eat back.

    Some exercises are easier to estimate than others so the estimating method will vary and the accuracy will vary.
    Food intake estimating inaccuracies have a far greater impact as the number is so much larger.
  • sydneyregan
    sydneyregan Posts: 32 Member
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    Awesome!! Thankyou guys!! :)

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