Should you actually eat back your calories from exercise?

The 1200 calorie allotment has a built in deficit, if you workout you are allowed to eat your calories back to insure your body functions properly....

I agree that eating your exercise calories back defeats the purpose, but I will sometimes eat a small portion of them back. That's just a personal choice though. I've seen people vehemently argue both ways.

If you don't want to eat your exercise calories back then eat at maintenance and create your deficit with exercise. Going to low on calories will affect your results in the long run... slow and steady is better in my opinion.

Camish911 wrote: »

I agree that eating your exercise calories back defeats the purpose, but I will sometimes eat a small portion of them back. That's just a personal choice though. I've seen people vehemently argue both ways.

What purpose? That burning off more than you need to for healthy weight loss will result in being more healthy? You don't get extra credit for weight loss if the nutrient need for the body gets compromised.

A.C.E. Certified Personal and Group Fitness Trainer
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I thought that too about exercise calories. Why you burn calories to only eat some of them back? Or it seemed counter productive at first..

But eventually over the next month after I started I realized how all this worked and what NETTING calories meant. I was in the measly 1200 calorie club (to loose about 6 ounces a week) and had to eat back my exercise or I would not have survived.

Mfp is designed for you to eat the exercise calories back. Your 1200 daily calorie allowance includes your deficit already. If you don't eat back your exercise calories then you will have an even larger deficit. That may sound like a good idea, but faster weight loss is not healthier weight loss. At 1200 you are already at the minimum to meet your nutritional needs. You should at least eat back half possibly more of the exercise calories. Your goal is to net 1200 calories. Having too large of a deficit could mean you will not be getting the nutrients you need, you will lose more muscle mass and it could lead to bingeing and make it harder to stick to your eating plan. I lost my weight eating back about 75% of my exercise calories.

k_nelson_24 wrote: »

I feel like it's a personal preference, honestly! For me, eating back my exercise calories is a no-go. However, I do know people that have great success with eating back those earned calories or at least half of them! I would suggest trying both and seeing what works for you!

It's a personal preference whether you use a TDEE calculator or use the MFP goal which is based on NEAT. But if you are using mfp correctly it isn't really a preference, you are supposed to eat back a portion of your exercise calories.

Making_changes7 wrote: »

Another question - I think based on what everyone has said I will eat back my calories but how do I know that they're accurate?

What if it says I burned 400 but actually only burned 100 and then I am going in excess of 300? How do I monitor that? How accurate is MFP's exercise calorie tracking?

You don't know if they are accurate. You can take the data output from a cardio machine, heart monitor or even MFP calculation and take a portion of that. Perhaps start with 40% and up it or lower as needed. After several weeks judge how you feel, if you are lacking in some energy you may need to up, if you are feeling great and weight loss is steady, no need to make a change. Make sense?

RoxieDawn wrote: »

Making_changes7 wrote: »

Another question - I think based on what everyone has said I will eat back my calories but how do I know that they're accurate?

What if it says I burned 400 but actually only burned 100 and then I am going in excess of 300? How do I monitor that? How accurate is MFP's exercise calorie tracking?

You don't know if they are accurate. You can take the data output from a cardio machine, heart monitor or even MFP calculation and take a portion of that. Perhaps start with 40% and up it or lower as needed. After several weeks judge how you feel, if you are lacking in some energy you may need to up, if you are feeling great and weight loss is steady, no need to make a change. Make sense?

This^

Start by eating back a reasonable percentage. Then adjust to fit YOUR results.

Some types of exercise are easier to estimate than others. Some people are at the bottom range (or the top range) of their stated activity level. Some people measure food using a scale while others eye-ball. It's all estimates, but you can try to get a better handle on things.

Also, it's important how accurate you are in logging your food. If you don't weigh your food and log every little thing that goes in your mouth, you may already be using up any cushion any exercise calories would give you.

By all means eat back your exercise calories! Like others have already said, MFP gives you a Calorie goal that already has a built-in deficit, so burning extra Calories by exercising and not eating those Calories back would put you at too great a deficit, which has a bunch of potentially detrimental side-effects relating to diet compliance and muscle sparing and metabolic adaptation and general energy levels and whatnot.

Two caveats, though:

1. Most people overestimate the amount of effort they're putting into their exercise. Also, the MFP database grossly overestimates the Calorie burn from doing some exercises and activities. So be conservative and don't trust that 800 Calorie burn from walking for an hour, or whatever. I've seen a lot of people recommend eating back half of the exercise Calories MFP gives you, which seems like reasonable starting point.
2. Make sure that the exercise Calories you're logging aren't already being accounted for in your MFP Calorie allowance. So if you set your daily activity level as "lightly active" because you take a daily 30 minute walk around the block, for example, MFP already takes that into account in your Calorie goal. Don't log that daily walk again!

cwolfman13 wrote: »

Fueling your fitness is kind of important...failure to do so will ultimately result in your body not receiving enough nutrients or energy (calories) for repair and recovery and you end up with all kinds of nagging injuries and whatnot...to boot, your fitness gains will be pretty much non-existent.

Your calorie target is provided to you as if you were not going to do any exercise whatsoever...it includes your deficit...when you exercise, your maintenance level of calories would increase, thus the amount you can eat and maintain the same deficit would also increase.

And, one must be cautious when determining their activity level which seems pretty vague and would lead one to believe their base calories for the day are actually higher than what is realistic. Because this is not a one size fits all app, it takes a little effort to figure out what works best for each of us. What has worked for me was setting my activity level at sedentary (it was winter and I was being a slug) so to lose 1 pound a week I was given 1200 calories. I ate back some of my exercise calories based on the assumption that the burn was not really as high as MFP gave me. I'm currently below my goal weight and now just playing with the numbers to figure out what maintenance really is.

FitnessGeek86 wrote: »

I disagree. If you are trying to lose weight, DO NOT eat back the calories you have burned off. (This comment is supported by my medical doctor as well.)

Your doctor's advice to you is meant for you. It's not meant for people she has never met or examined, whose medical history she has no knowledge of.

Plus, it seems pretty likely your doctor doesn't have a clue how MFP is designed.

I am not into suffering and self-flagellation AT ALL so I have eaten back nearly every single calorie I have earned from exercise, even the ones from machines at the gym and from MFP. I have lost 25 lbs over the past year and just went out yesterday and bought some cute bikinis because I now have my bikini-friendly body back. That being said, I still have 6 vanity lbs that I would like to lose, and haven't been losing over the past couple of months, so I will have to ratchet things up a notch to pare off the last few lbs. It's going to be different for different people, and everyone's mileage will vary, but if I don't eat right/enough, I definitely notice I am weaker and more tired in the gym.