Should you actually eat back your calories from exercise?
Replies
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Yep, you have to fuel that machine. Always eat those exercise calories back.1
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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.)
This is generally not the best option based on this post: http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/818082/exercise-calories-again-wtf/p11 -
charis2979 wrote: »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.)
This is generally not the best option based on this post: http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/818082/exercise-calories-again-wtf/p1
I would have been below 1200 if I did not eat my exercise calories back.0 -
Great conversation.
I've been doing Weight Watchers for 18 months. I did REALLY well last year. 80 lbs lost, hit a healthy weight based on BMI scale for the first time in my adult life in October, and made "lifetime"....BEFORE they changed the program.
They basically took clean eating to the extreme, made lean protein cheap and anything with fat or sugar in it REALLY expensive on their plan. Additionally they pushed you to exercise...the more you did, the higher your goal was. Mine started at "27 fit points" and ended at 120 fit points. That was equivalent to 10,000 steps daily + 40 minutes of high intensity cardio every stinking day, and you were not to eat any of that back.
There were days I ran out of "points" at 1,000 calories (I started tracking calories along with points a few weeks ago). My weight loss stalled (with 5-7 lbs left to lose)....for 7 months! I've spent that amount of time gaining and losing the same 4 pounds and struggled to do it! I stayed on plan, planned, prepped, tracked and exercised at the level they dictated. You name it. And I gained and lost those 4 pounds over and over again. I joined a gym and took zumba and spinning classes 4 x a week for a month....and nothing!
I started MFP 9 days ago. It set me with 1420 calories daily to lose 1/2 lb a week. I've exercised, I've eaten back SOME of my exercise calories, I've eaten more daily in the last 9 days than I have daily for the last 7 months....and as of this morning I'm down 2.4 lbs.
Time will tell of course, but I'm now a firm believer in fueling your body to lose weight and keep it off.
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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 is right, but so are people who say you should eat back the calories. The reason your doctor says not to eat back is because exercise is assumed into your calorie allowance already. MFP does things differently. It does not assume any exercise into your allowance and it's added later either manually by you or automatically by a fitness tracker.
With that said, it's best not to eat all of your extra calories because certain exercises in the database are grossly over-estimated, giving you more calories than they should. It's customary to eat 50-75% of these extra calories.
The best course of action would be: eat 50% back, if you are losing too fast keep increasing what you eat back gradually until you are consistently losing your weekly goal give or take.0 -
If your weight keeps going up, then you're likely not burning as much as you think. It's easier to track food calories than exercise calories for many.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?
I used to get this from yoga people all the time who believed (via their instructor) that they were burning 700+ calories per session when the real number was more like less than half that. Even just eating half their calories back resulted in no weight loss.
A.C.E. Certified Personal and Group Fitness Trainer
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Been in fitness for 30 years and have studied kinesiology and nutrition
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If someone is very overweight/obese, eating under their BMR isn't bad.beatyfamily1 wrote: »I think as long as you are not going below your BMR then you should be fine if you eat them back or not. Remember that about 10% of your total calories are burned off just by digestion.
A.C.E. Certified Personal and Group Fitness Trainer
IDEA Fitness member
Kickboxing Certified Instructor
Been in fitness for 30 years and have studied kinesiology and nutrition
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You absolutely want to take your exercise calories into account for you total diet. Your total burn is important and you want to stay within 20% or so on your deficit.1
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If you're trying to lose weight then most probably not, although some like to eat back some of them- guess that's personal preference and depends on what your goal is too. I however don't
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sehartariq101 wrote: »If you're trying to lose weight then most probably not, although some like to eat back some of them- guess that's personal preference and depends on what your goal is too. I however don't
That's how MFP is set up though, for you to eat them back.
When I followed MFP's goals, I did. Now that I do TDEE I don't, but that is because exercise calories are already factored in.3 -
First of all, this 1,200 calories people are talking about.... not everyone is the same (different heights, weights, genders, exercise levels, body fat, goals, etc.) Not everyone should be eating 1,200 calories. I suggest using a macro calculator and figuring out your macros and caloric needs that way and adjusting it in MFP.
As for inputing your exercises and eating back your calories, it depends on what your goals are. If you are trying to lose weight, you should have a calorie deficit so no, you would not want to eat them back.
I also wouldn't rely on the amount of calories MFP gives you for exercises as not everyone is going to burn the same amount of calories doing whatever exercise. Our bodies are different and depending on your body (body fat, heart rate, intensity, etc.) will change how many calories you burn. I use my apple watch which always gives me a VERY different answer which I find more accurate than cardio equipment or MFP.
Just trying to provide some helpful insight to help you all reach your goals!!!
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MFP already accounts for weight loss in their formula though. Exercising reduces your NET calories and if it's too high, it can really reduce your metabolic rate.sehartariq101 wrote: »If you're trying to lose weight then most probably not, although some like to eat back some of them- guess that's personal preference and depends on what your goal is too. I however don't
A.C.E. Certified Personal and Group Fitness Trainer
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Been in fitness for 30 years and have studied kinesiology and nutrition
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It also depends on what the deficit is. If one is told to eat 1500 calorie to lose weight WITHOUT exercise, then adding exercise with say a burn of 500 calories would reduce the NET calories to 1000. Not ideal way to lose weight for most people.terrinicolefit wrote: »First of all, this 1,200 calories people are talking about.... not everyone is the same (different heights, weights, genders, exercise levels, body fat, goals, etc.) Not everyone should be eating 1,200 calories. I suggest using a macro calculator and figuring out your macros and caloric needs that way and adjusting it in MFP.
As for inputing your exercises and eating back your calories, it depends on what your goals are. If you are trying to lose weight, you should have a calorie deficit so no, you would not want to eat them back.
While true, many exercising calculators are within 50 calories +/- of each other, which isn't that big a deal. It's still more about CICO and where most people blow it is their intake.I also wouldn't rely on the amount of calories MFP gives you for exercises as not everyone is going to burn the same amount of calories doing whatever exercise. Our bodies are different and depending on your body (body fat, heart rate, intensity, etc.) will change how many calories you burn. I use my apple watch which always gives me a VERY different answer which I find more accurate than cardio equipment or MFP.
Just trying to provide some helpful insight to help you all reach your goals!!!
A.C.E. Certified Personal and Group Fitness Trainer
IDEA Fitness member
Kickboxing Certified Instructor
Been in fitness for 30 years and have studied kinesiology and nutrition
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terrinicolefit wrote: »First of all, this 1,200 calories people are talking about.... not everyone is the same (different heights, weights, genders, exercise levels, body fat, goals, etc.) Not everyone should be eating 1,200 calories. I suggest using a macro calculator and figuring out your macros and caloric needs that way and adjusting it in MFP.
As for inputing your exercises and eating back your calories, it depends on what your goals are. If you are trying to lose weight, you should have a calorie deficit so no, you would not want to eat them back.
I also wouldn't rely on the amount of calories MFP gives you for exercises as not everyone is going to burn the same amount of calories doing whatever exercise. Our bodies are different and depending on your body (body fat, heart rate, intensity, etc.) will change how many calories you burn. I use my apple watch which always gives me a VERY different answer which I find more accurate than cardio equipment or MFP.
Just trying to provide some helpful insight to help you all reach your goals!!!
if you are doing MFPs NEAT method you do eat back calories, at least some of them,IF you do the TDEE or another method then no you wouldnt. MFP gives you your calorie deficit in the calorie goal when you set your activity level. exercising more gives a bigger deficit which is not always a good thing. you have to have enough nutrition and you have to fuel your body and your workouts.3 -
terrinicolefit wrote: »As for inputing your exercises and eating back your calories, it depends on what your goals are. If you are trying to lose weight, you should have a calorie deficit so no, you would not want to eat them back.
You have a (not just "a" but "the correct") calorie deficit before you exercise. After you go out and run 5k, you have too big a calorie deficit. It harms your ability to recover from that exertion. You used up a lot of energy, you sweat out some minerals, and you need to repair the damage to your muscles, which is protein intensive. You should eat2 -
My sense is that MFP is too generous on it's calorie burns. To the rare extent that I exercise, I found that eating back about half of the estimated calorie burn comes out about right.1
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I've given this some thought before (because I was under the same impression as you), and here's what I found out.
A lot of people have already said that MFP gives you an amount of daily calories so that you still lose a certain weight per week. So, with this in mind, we'll take your example. There are three possible scenarios:- You eat your daily calories and don't exercise.
- You eat only your daily calories and exercise. You'll have exercised (with all the benefits this carries), so you will have added a number of calories to your deficit, losing weight faster. This comes at an expense. You will probably feel either hungrier, sleepy or both, since your body is working at a higher deficit. This can lead to a rapid abandonment of this lifestyle change for a lot of people, although there are some who may manage to keep doing this on a regular basis. I'm not any of those people, unfortunately.
- You eat your daily calories, exercise and eat your exercise calories back. I think this is the better option for me for a few reasons. First, you have all the benefits of exercising. If you run, you're out, you're under the sun, you use your muscles, you are definitely gaining some resistance, and you feel great afterwards (if you're doing it right). If you have earned 400 extra calories, you can always eat something that would take up too many calories on a normal day. For me, it has to be chocolate. I don't usually eat that many chocolate, but when I can I usually eat around 25-50 grams (which is around 150-300 kcal). This way you also quench your cravings (which are a huge problem for some people) while still eating at a deficit, making your weight loss much more sustainable.
I don't know about other people, but the third approach is the one that works better for me. I find it extremely difficult to be on a diet and not being able to eat some of my favourite foods just because they're too caloric (even more difficult if I exercise that day).
Edited: corrected a few mistakes. I'm not a native speaker, so don't hesitate to tell me if I did something wrong.5 -
I don't eat back my calories for 2 reasons:
1) If you're consistent in your workouts and your eating, there's no need to eat back your calories -- you'll already know by your weight loss/gain whether you should be eating more or less food. Having manipulated my weight for several years, I already know how much to eat on any given day/week to reach my goals.
2) Everything we do here is an approximation. Even if you weigh all your foods, you're working with approximate numbers of calories. Nothing is exact, and even if it were, your body's efficiency level will vary slightly depending on various conditions. Eating back your calories just adds one more layer of inexactness.
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xmichaelyx wrote: »I don't eat back my calories for 2 reasons:
1) If you're consistent in your workouts and your eating, there's no need to eat back your calories -- you'll already know by your weight loss/gain whether you should be eating more or less food. Having manipulated my weight for several years, I already know how much to eat on any given day/week to reach my goals.
2) Everything we do here is an approximation. Even if you weigh all your foods, you're working with approximate numbers of calories. Nothing is exact, and even if it were, your body's efficiency level will vary slightly depending on various conditions. Eating back your calories just adds one more layer of inexactness.
So you aren't following MFP's suggestion. That's fine. But you are accounting for exercise whether you intentionally do or not.
MFP's calculation does not. You are giving advice for one method that is different than the one you are using.0 -
Very interesting article on this subjectct, on this website that I found a while ago:
http://www.aworkoutroutine.com/eating-back-calories-burned/
Whatever I try though my body hates me and i continually seem to gain and lose the same pound (157 to 158 and back again).
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Eating the calories motivates me to exercise more. Without my exercise calories, I find I am hungry. If I'm not hungry, i don't eat them.0
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While true, many exercising calculators are within 50 calories +/- of each other, which isn't that big a deal. It's still more about CICO and where most people blow it is their intake.terrinicolefit wrote: »
A.C.E. Certified Personal and Group Fitness Trainer
IDEA Fitness member
Kickboxing Certified Instructor
Been in fitness for 30 years and have studied kinesiology and nutrition
For some people that may be the case, but when I input my exercise my MVP it said I burned almost 400 calories when in reality I burned closer to 100 and sometimes it's flipflopped.... I don't know... just feel better trusting my watch because it takes my heart rate, body fat percentage, age, height, weight, gender, etc. into account when MVP doesn't.
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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.
It doesn't defeat the purpose at all.
First, exercise builds and maintains your physical fitness. You'll look and feel better at each given weight if you exercise versus if you did not.
Second, it's as bad - actually probably worse - to lose weight too quickly than to lose too slowly. The more rapid your weight loss, the more you'll experience the negative effects of dieting, such as hunger, fatigue, muscle loss, or nutritional deficits. Weight loss is a controlled calorie restriction, the goal isn't to cut as much as possible without dying.
Last, by exercising you can increase the total amount you eat each day, which helps increase compliance and makes it a lot easier to stay on track.1
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