We are pleased to announce that as of March 4, 2025, an updated Rich Text Editor has been introduced in the MyFitnessPal Community. To learn more about the changes, please click here. We look forward to sharing this new feature with you!

Survey NOT a Debate - Exercise Calories

12357

Replies

  • rybo
    rybo Posts: 5,424 Member
    Yes
    Yes

    I'm in maintenence and have jsut bumped up my daily calories because even tho I eat all or nearly all back, I'm still slightly loosing and I'd prefer to hold this weight.
  • Kimmer2011
    Kimmer2011 Posts: 569 Member
    No, I'm not eating my exercise calories and yes, I'm losing weight consistently as long as I don't have serious binges. I anticipate that I might need to start eating them back as I get closer to my goal weight, though. I'll cross that bridge when I come to it.
  • shellrae1973
    shellrae1973 Posts: 66 Member
    1. Sometimes I eat them and sometimes I don't
    2. Yes, I am loosing consistently
  • NuMe46
    NuMe46 Posts: 128
    1. No. When I did eat them the weight did not want to come off

    2. Yes. But I have also kicked up my exercise routines.
  • PJilly
    PJilly Posts: 22,501 Member
    Yes, I've always eaten them. Yes, I lost weight and reached my goal eating them. I'm a few above goal now. Maintenance is a tricky thing to master (at least for me), so I'm going back to a small deficit, but I definitely eat all my exercise calories on top of that.
  • tamarab3
    tamarab3 Posts: 64
    Yes, I eat them. And yes, I have been consistantly losing .5-1 pound a week.
  • anthony438
    anthony438 Posts: 578 Member
    1) Not always

    2) Not always
  • bizco
    bizco Posts: 1,949 Member
    1. yes
    2. yes and i reached my goal weight
    ^ Same for me.

    One note...I wear a HRM while exercising and I compare the number of calories burned shown on my HRM to a formula I found online and I log the lower of the two. I never use MFP's default exercise database.
  • BigBoneSista
    BigBoneSista Posts: 2,389 Member
    No, I don't 98% of the time (if I'm hungrier from strength training I will grab something extra)
    Yes, I am losing.
  • stefraab
    stefraab Posts: 402 Member
    Hiya,

    im sure we are all well aware that eating back your exercise calories can be a sore topic for some and usually ends in a debate.
    All im wanting to know is 1. Do you eat back your calories 2. Are you losing weight consistently. They only have to be yes and no answers, i don't people getting fired up or upset, just want to get some data on it :happy:

    1 - yes, within about 100 cals or so. The odd time I won't but only if I'm really really not hungry.
    2 - yes :-) it tends to come off in flushes though. LIke, 5 lbs really quickly, and then a week or two (or three) of nothing.
  • VeganGal84
    VeganGal84 Posts: 938 Member
    1) Yes - usually leave 50-200 just in case of miscalculation of calories earned. The amount that I leave behind depends on how hungry I am!

    2) n/a This is only my second week, but I lost 1 pound on my first week eating this way.
  • chellekoren
    chellekoren Posts: 273 Member
    No, I haven't been eating all of them. On the big days, I have trouble doing that.
    No, I haven't been losing in the last month.
  • lalalazzz
    lalalazzz Posts: 131 Member
    I stopped even recording "exercise" I found that I was recording every min of every walk and it was ridiculous b/c that is just a part of my everyday! I see people on here logging cleaning, cooking, etc. I am a stay at home mom. I walk, cook, clean and carry around a 15 lb load (baby) ALL DAY LONG!!! Any way I was losing both ways- when I was eating calories burned and when I stopped recording.
  • sewerchick93
    sewerchick93 Posts: 1,438 Member
    Kind of, maintain a calorie buffer balance of 100-150. I don't use a HRM to get my calories burned, I use the lesser of either what the equipment says I burned or MFP calories burned.

    When I maintain this buffer balance, yes, i am losing 1-2 pounds/week. When I was eating back all my calories, I was maintaining my weight
  • sjackson902
    sjackson902 Posts: 154 Member
    1. Some of them - wasn't before
    2. I do now - wasn't before :)
  • tolygal
    tolygal Posts: 602 Member
    1. Do you eat back your calories 2. Are you losing weight consistently.

    1. No - but I should mention that I set my own goals to 1400 calories a day (not MFP default of 1200).

    2. Yes - when I'm consistent and I don't eat a bunch of crap like a big dummy :-)
  • bcattoes
    bcattoes Posts: 17,299 Member
    1. Yes, most of the time.
    2. Yes, it's slower now that I'm down to the last 10 but I am still losing.

    I should probably mention that I lost of the 22 lbs before ever hearing of "eating back your exercise calories" or joining this site. It just turns out that I had been eating most of them back because I was that hungry.
  • jamie78
    jamie78 Posts: 514 Member
    BUMP
  • cheeksv
    cheeksv Posts: 521 Member
    no I do not bu it is nice to have that wiggle room when you need an extra bite :)
    Just started but I dieted before and never even heard of eating back calories and lost weight. hope it helps
  • totustuusmaria
    totustuusmaria Posts: 182 Member
    Sometimes I do. Sometimes I don't. I won't unless I am hungry (which happens). I usually never eat every single one of them back though. I am losing weight consistently... about 2 lbs a week.

    I've done both ways and I've lost weight both ways. Now I just don't worry about it. If I'm hungry I will if I'm not I won't. I don't stress about it.
  • godroxmysox
    godroxmysox Posts: 1,491 Member
    i only eat them back if i am hungry
    i have been consistantly losing
  • yanicka
    yanicka Posts: 1,004 Member
    Yes I do

    Yes I am. I am so close to goal that things move very slowly but since I bump my calories to 1350 instead of 1200 plus most of my exercice calories, the weight is going down again. And I am only 5' tall.
  • MsKeelah919
    MsKeelah919 Posts: 332 Member
    No.
    Yes.
  • Elle408
    Elle408 Posts: 500 Member
    1. Yes.... not usually all of them unless I feel like I need them.
    2. Yes. Reached goal and maintaining steady... still eating them back! (avg. about 1600 - 2100 cals a day)
  • laneybird
    laneybird Posts: 532 Member
    1. No (sometimes I do use some, but maybe a couple times a week)
    2. Yes (I've consistantly lost in the past 8 weeks since starting (27.6lbs and counting...))
  • ritzvin
    ritzvin Posts: 2,862 Member
    1. No-ish. When I get back from an evening hike, it's usually 9/10:00, so I generally don't eat more (or at least not much more) than if I was at home (especially since there's the temptation to boredom snack if I was home). Depends how hungry I am. I also don't like to eat a lot before going to bed. My setting for net calories assumes 400 cal. of exercise (set it to 900 instead of 1300) anyway, so I normally don't have a lot of extra calories to work with on the weekdays. On weekends I'm exposed to more junk food (at places away from home during meals), so I probably do eat a lot of them back (though I don't make a point to - I'd rather take the bonus calorie deficit if not hungry or tempted).
    2. I've lost a few pounds (was previously at 156 and very slowly climbing). Down to 152.
  • CARNAT22
    CARNAT22 Posts: 764 Member
    Yes I eat back and yes I lose weight pretty much consistently.
  • taso42_DELETED
    taso42_DELETED Posts: 3,394 Member
    Does anybody want to do an analysis and see if there's any correlation between how people answered and where their ticker is?
  • anthony438
    anthony438 Posts: 578 Member
    Does anybody want to do an analysis and see if there's any correlation between how people answered and where their ticker is?

    That sounds like work.

    I avoid work.
  • nikkit321
    nikkit321 Posts: 1,485 Member
    I was eating my exercise calories and lost nothing for over a month.

    This week I decided to try a slight zigzag to see what happens: eat straight calories M-F, and on the weekends eat exercise calories.
This discussion has been closed.