Should I eat my exercise calories?

faraday75
faraday75 Posts: 3 Member
edited December 4 in Health and Weight Loss
Hi All, I'm new here. Trying to lose 20kg. Just a question - today I did a 30 min jog and also got my 10000 steps up on my fitbit. According to my diary that gave me an extra 800+ calories to use. That seems alot! Should I just try and stick to my original calories (1200) or perhaps just use only the workout cals, not the incidental step ones?
Cheers!

Replies

  • mgookin
    mgookin Posts: 92 Member
    Most people only eat 50% of the calories back.

    I personally don't record my workout calores right now, and I only stick to my allowed 2100 calories for the day because I have over 150 pounds to lose right now.
  • Mumu190672
    Mumu190672 Posts: 76 Member
    You need to experiment with this.
    Sometimes exercise calories are overestimated.
    Eat 50% of your exercise calories.
    After a few weeks increase or decrease according to your weight loss.
  • Ready2Rock206
    Ready2Rock206 Posts: 9,487 Member
    If you have your calorie goal set to the absolute minimum, which you do, I always recommend to eat at least a portion of your exercise calories.
  • Orphia
    Orphia Posts: 7,097 Member
    I should add that your MFP calorie goal is already set to have you lose weight.

    You need to eat back the energy you burn exercising or you will be starving yourself and risk health problems and/or give up your weight loss program long before you've lost all the weight.
  • GrumpyHeadmistress
    GrumpyHeadmistress Posts: 666 Member
    I started eating back 100% of my calories (so I net 1200) and gained 0.4lb. Won't be doing that again!
  • Orphia
    Orphia Posts: 7,097 Member
    GrumpyHeadmistress wrote: »
    I started eating back 100% of my calories (so I net 1200) and gained 0.4lb. Won't be doing that again!

    @GrumpyHeadmistress Over what period of time? Did you use a weight tracking app like Happy Scale or Trendweight to average out your mean weight from daily fluctuations?

    1200 is the bare minimum you should be eating. You should eat 1200 + most of your exercise calories if you're short, and more if you're not.
  • blueboy2526
    blueboy2526 Posts: 19 Member
    I would listen to your body - if, after a strenuous workout, you are feeling lightheaded/weak then I would eat a proportion of the exercise calories back (ideally in the form of a protein shake/bar). I would not eat all of the exercise calories back, and certainly do not count fitbit steps as exercise (unless they are significantly over your daily target) I use a fitbit charge HR and only count steps if I do at least double my 10K target. If I do a weights session I "allocate" approx 300 calories to this and will have a shake post workout to replace lost nutrients. I stick to my daily target where possible.
  • trigden1991
    trigden1991 Posts: 4,658 Member
    Some people eat 50% back, others eat 100% but personally I don't eat any as I have a good idea of my TDEE. I'd shoot for 40-50% as the calorie burns are notoriously overestimated.
  • GrumpyHeadmistress
    GrumpyHeadmistress Posts: 666 Member
    Orphia wrote: »
    GrumpyHeadmistress wrote: »
    I started eating back 100% of my calories (so I net 1200) and gained 0.4lb. Won't be doing that again!

    @GrumpyHeadmistress Over what period of time? Did you use a weight tracking app like Happy Scale or Trendweight to average out your mean weight from daily fluctuations?

    1200 is the bare minimum you should be eating. You should eat 1200 + most of your exercise calories if you're short, and more if you're not.

    Admittedly only over a week. Previous weeks I haven't eaten my calories back (netting about 700-800) and lost. I swim four times a week and gym once a week.
  • CSARdiver
    CSARdiver Posts: 6,252 Member
    Experiment with this as there are far too many variables in play for anyone to give an accurate answer. Try eating back a small percentage in protein first to aid in muscle development/maintenance. Keep in mind that calorie estimates have an inherent 20% error. Calorie burn calculations are all over the place and many nutritional experts disregard these for weight loss.

    If you are losing weight at a good pace, you're doing it right. If you hit a "plateau", look to your logging accuracy and inflate your intake by 10-20% and underestimate your output by the same factor until you break the plateau.
  • NorthCascades
    NorthCascades Posts: 10,968 Member
    GrumpyHeadmistress wrote: »
    I started eating back 100% of my calories (so I net 1200) and gained 0.4lb. Won't be doing that again!

    I started eating 100 % of my exercise calories back and lost 85 lbs.
  • kshama2001
    kshama2001 Posts: 28,052 Member
    faraday75 wrote: »
    Thank you so much for all your help! I will experiment but in the meantime I will eat a portion of the exercise calories as I'm finding myself a little hungry. Thanks again everyone!

    You might also be hungrier than usual tomorrow - feel free to take credit for some of that exercise then.

    I can safely eat back 100% of my calories from my FitBit One, but need to be more conservative with the calories I get from the MFP database.
  • GrumpyHeadmistress
    GrumpyHeadmistress Posts: 666 Member
    NorthCascades wrote: »
    GrumpyHeadmistress wrote: »
    I started eating back 100% of my calories (so I net 1200) and gained 0.4lb. Won't be doing that again!

    I started eating 100 % of my exercise calories back and lost 85 lbs.

    Nice one! Guess everyone is different. Hope it works for OP.
  • Aaron_K123
    Aaron_K123 Posts: 7,122 Member
    GrumpyHeadmistress wrote: »
    Orphia wrote: »
    GrumpyHeadmistress wrote: »
    I started eating back 100% of my calories (so I net 1200) and gained 0.4lb. Won't be doing that again!

    @GrumpyHeadmistress Over what period of time? Did you use a weight tracking app like Happy Scale or Trendweight to average out your mean weight from daily fluctuations?

    1200 is the bare minimum you should be eating. You should eat 1200 + most of your exercise calories if you're short, and more if you're not.

    Admittedly only over a week. Previous weeks I haven't eaten my calories back (netting about 700-800) and lost. I swim four times a week and gym once a week.

    Yeah, one week isn't going to really tell you whether or not you would lose weight with that calorie allotment or not. Obviously if you eat more you will lose weight more slowly, but if its of benefit to your overall health thats okay...goal should be health after all.
  • Orphia
    Orphia Posts: 7,097 Member
    GrumpyHeadmistress wrote: »
    Orphia wrote: »
    GrumpyHeadmistress wrote: »
    I started eating back 100% of my calories (so I net 1200) and gained 0.4lb. Won't be doing that again!

    @GrumpyHeadmistress Over what period of time? Did you use a weight tracking app like Happy Scale or Trendweight to average out your mean weight from daily fluctuations?

    1200 is the bare minimum you should be eating. You should eat 1200 + most of your exercise calories if you're short, and more if you're not.

    Admittedly only over a week. Previous weeks I haven't eaten my calories back (netting about 700-800) and lost. I swim four times a week and gym once a week.

    @GrumpyHeadmistress You. Are. Not. Eating. Enough.

    Very worrying.

  • PaulNokel
    PaulNokel Posts: 2 Member
    I am eating back 100% of my exercise calories. I log my daily activity using the iOS Steps and log my running activity by using runtastic (MFP automatically reduces the steps kcal gained by iOS when logging a runtastic activity, love that feature). Works for me :)
  • amusedmonkey
    amusedmonkey Posts: 10,330 Member
    I eat 100% of my calories back and I have been losing at the desired rate. Here is what you should: try to eat 50% back, and if you find yourself losing less than expected, eat 25% back, if you find yourself losing faster than expected, eat 75% back, repeat until you arrive at a loss that is consistent with the calorie expectations by trial and error.
  • juliebradford49
    juliebradford49 Posts: 1 Member
    I couldn't understand why I was putting on weight and eating what MFP recommended I ate. I have my Fitbit linked to MFP and it drastically over estimates the calories you can eat. I now wear a polar HRM and it registers my heart rate throughout the day and gives me just under half the calories to eat that Fitbit does. I eat 50% of the exercise calories back and lose weight albeit slow.
    Everyone has different BMR it's just finding what's right for you and being totally honest with logging what you eat.
    I know some people who can eat all the calories Fitbit/MFP say and still lose weight so as someone else has said it is trial and error.
    I have lost 84lbs so far with 28 to go and at present finding it rather difficult to shift.
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