Do you eat back what you lose from exercise

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tuni8220
tuni8220 Posts: 11 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
My MFP is 1720, i play an hour of basketball and it tell me that I earn about 685 calorie plus. Do I eat that or just disregard it and maintain and stay track of the 1720.?
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Replies

  • janejellyroll
    janejellyroll Posts: 25,763 Member
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    If your calorie goal comes from MFP, it's designed for you to eat back what you burn from exercise. However, some people find that the calorie burns provided by MFP are over-estimates, so they only eat back a portion of these. I don't know enough about basketball to know if 685 for an hour is realistic or not.
  • RobD520
    RobD520 Posts: 420 Member
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    I would eat back 50 to 75% to start. If you are playing a straight hour that estimate may be close.
  • cee134
    cee134 Posts: 33,711 Member
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    The exercise calories for what is burned are often wrong. I personally don't go over 80% but it depends on what you do and for how long.
  • CasperNaegle
    CasperNaegle Posts: 936 Member
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    Just think about totally calorie burn you have in a day.. If you are trying to lose weight keep yourself in a deficit. I agree that calorie burn from exercise is typically highly over stated. Be conservative and watch what your weight does over time.
  • MissusMoon
    MissusMoon Posts: 1,900 Member
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    I would never advise eating all of them. If you aren't hungry and have plenty of energy, you don't have to eat them. Personally I don't touch them unless I'm really hungry, but I eat out a lot--which means estimating calories--and they serve as a good buffer for me.
  • tuni8220
    tuni8220 Posts: 11 Member
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    yeah thanks for all the info, I usually tend to not eat the extra calorie they give me from exercise.
  • ElJefeChief
    ElJefeChief Posts: 650 Member
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    tuni8220 wrote: »
    yeah thanks for all the info, I usually tend to not eat the extra calorie they give me from exercise.

    I wouldn't advise just ignoring the "earned" calories. Your body needs fuel for it's workouts.

    I agree with the idea that you shouldn't probably eat back all of them (because either there is an overestimate on the burn side or an underestimate on the intake side), but if you eat back none of them you might hurt your performance and ultimately your weight loss goals.
  • PinkSuede
    PinkSuede Posts: 49 Member
    edited August 2016
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    I personally dont usually.. I do not even log exercise. That being said I'm not at this point doing any intense exercise. Mine usually consists of walking, weights, and beginners yoga. On days I exercise though if I feel hungry I do allow myself to eat about half of what MFP or my treadmill estimates I burned. I choose to err on the side of caution. I don't allow myself to go hungry though. I listen to my body. If you're burning 600-700 calories regularly through exercise I would probably make it a habit to eat about 50% of those calories back because that's a pretty big deficit to ignore. It could catch up with you.
  • janejellyroll
    janejellyroll Posts: 25,763 Member
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    tuni8220 wrote: »
    yeah thanks for all the info, I usually tend to not eat the extra calorie they give me from exercise.

    If you are engaging in regular physical activity, you probably want to eat at least some of them back. Fueling your activity is important for long-term health and energy.
  • OliverFiles
    OliverFiles Posts: 22 Member
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    I usually don't eat the calories back. Only if I exercised at the end of the day and I'm a little hungry afterwards, I'll have something small that's no more than 50% of the exercise calories.
  • dbhuff369
    dbhuff369 Posts: 17 Member
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    Rewarding yourself for exercise has been shown generally to be a losing strategy. You tend to overestimate calories burned and underestimate calories rewarded. You are better off setting a weekly level of expected activity, and using that to calculate calories (though even there I find MFP a bit high, I use this: https://legionathletics.com/flexible-dieting/)
  • sgt1372
    sgt1372 Posts: 3,987 Member
    edited August 2016
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    tuni8220 wrote: »
    My MFP is 1720, i play an hour of basketball and it tell me that I earn about 685 calorie plus. Do I eat that or just disregard it and maintain and stay track of the 1720.?

    I'd disregard it. MFP's estimates for exercise can be WAY off. If you eat back all those cals back, you'll just get fat.

    It's unlikely that an hr of basketball would burn 685+ cals unless you're playing full court game w/10 people for a full 4 quarters, where everyone is constantly moving.

    Compare this with a full hour of spin biking at 22 mph or erg rowing 10k meters (which are fairly moderate rates of effort) constantly for an hour which will burn about 600-650 cals/hour and you should see my point.

    You are burning some cals playing basketball. Just probably not as much as MFP says. Your guess is as good as mine as to how much it really is. Mainly depends on the intensity and duration of intensity of the activity. If it's just a shoot around 1/2 court game, I wouldn't give it more than 150 cals but if it's a true full court game, then 650 would probably be about right.
  • cerise_noir
    cerise_noir Posts: 5,468 Member
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    I use my Fitbit for burned calories and I still eat only half back. When I was using mfp for exercise calories, I used to eat back 1/4-1/3.
  • rankinsect
    rankinsect Posts: 2,238 Member
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    NorthCascades wrote: »
    dbhuff369 wrote: »
    Rewarding yourself for exercise has been shown generally to be a losing strategy. You tend to overestimate calories burned and underestimate calories rewarded. You are better off setting a weekly level of expected activity, and using that to calculate calories (though even there I find MFP a bit high, I use this: https://legionathletics.com/flexible-dieting/)

    You think my estimate of how many calories I'm going to burn next Sunday is more accurate than my estimate of what I just did? That makes no sense.

    Well, I use the TDEE method (don't add in exercise except for long things like hikes or scheduled workouts), but I use that for a totally different reason - because I pre-plan and pre-log my days and it gives me a way to set a goal for a day that hasn't happened yet. I don't necessarily know how much unplanned exercise I'll do on any given day, but I can get a reasonable approximation of the exercise I do on an average week.

    I would definitely recommend eating some of those back, although 680 calories/hr seems pretty high, that's quite a very intense workout, that would require a pretty high level of physical fitness to sustain for an entire hour. Olympic level athletes tend to come in ~1000 calories/hr or so, for a frame of reference.
  • Chilli7777
    Chilli7777 Posts: 112 Member
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    I would listen to what your body is telling you. If you aren't hungry then dont eat them back. If you are hungry then enjoy a healthy post workout snack like a protein shake mixed with a banana. You don't need to consume all of the exercise calories back if your body isn't telling you it needs it.
  • dragon_girl26
    dragon_girl26 Posts: 2,187 Member
    edited August 2016
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    I usually eat back most or all of my exercise calories from my Polar watch. I'm.still losing, so I'd say it's fairly accurate. If you're using MFP calculations, best to eat back 50% at first. If you're losing faster than your expected weight loss rate, then eat 75% or more. It's mostly trial and error, but yes, MFP intends for you to eat them back.
  • tuni8220
    tuni8220 Posts: 11 Member
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    sgt1372..yes play full court 4-4/ 5-5 and a full hour in the morning and it gets very competitive. We run all the time since everyone there rather be playing ball than lifting weights. But I agree the MFP may over estimate the calories burned and i surely try not to eat what I am rewarded with. Same goes to say if my body is telling me I am hungry I eat something sensible and not go over board...thanks y'all!
  • CasperNaegle
    CasperNaegle Posts: 936 Member
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    The other thing to keep in mind is calorie intake and burn doesn't have to just be a daily thing. You can balance yourself over a weeks time be just fine. I keep my calories flat and have them set based on my typical 4-6 hours a week of workout. It fluctuates but if I stay on my 1700-1800 calories I know I will lose over time.
  • mysticwryter
    mysticwryter Posts: 111 Member
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    I don't really do that.....I use it as a guideline to see what my caloric intake is. While MFP isn't 100% given, I maybe burning more/less depending on amount/intensity/duration. Tread lightly with what it says cause you maybe eating more/less than what is being calculated.

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