NOT eating exercise calories

When I started, I was on 1720 calories/day and taking a 25-minute walk was all the exercise I got some days. Almost 6 months later, there's just under 50 lbs less of me, my calories have been cut to 1450 (Well... I'm taking a maintenance break for 2 weeks and doing 1950), and my exercise is now at least 60 minutes walking (often more) or 50 minutes on a fitness glider daily, plus strength training every other day. If I don't eat back some exercise calories at this point, I get hungry!

I eat my exercise calories because my goal isn't "skinny" it's "fit". If I don't fuel work outs properly I risk burn out and muscle loss. I personally would be unhappy if I reached goal weight with no muscle definition.

laahawn711 wrote: »

I'm so lost when people say they eat back the calories that they burn during exercise. My goal is to be in as much of a calorie deficit as possible ( as much that is healthy for me of course) Is this the norm? My goal is to burn even more calories through exercise not bring me back to my daily calorie goal by eating them back. Any else not eating their calories back and why?

The bolded is why many people eat back exercise calories. Netting too low is not healthy for the body or the muscles.

Lashawn71188 wrote: »

I'm so lost when people say they eat back the calories that they burn during exercise. My goal is to be in as much of a calorie deficit as possible ( as much that is healthy for me of course) Is this the norm? My goal is to burn even more calories through exercise not bring me back to my daily calorie goal by eating them back. Any else not eating their calories back and why?

This depends on where you're getting your calorie targets. If they are from MFP, exercise isn't included in your activity level...it's unaccounted for activity...your calorie target with MFP are based on the individual's NEAT (Non Exercise Activity Thermogensis) and to account for exercise you log it after the fact and get additional calories to fuel that activity.

Other calculators assume exercise in the activity level...thus an estimate of the requisite calories are already included in the calorie target...if one were using this method, eating back calories would be double dipping because they are already accounted for.

It's all about understanding the methodology being used. I don't use the MFP methodology, but if I did I would be a wreck if I didn't eat back calories...To lose 1 Lb per week MFP gives me a pre exercise target of around 1900 calories...I regularly go out and ride 30 miles and can burn around 1,000 calories doing that which would leave me a mere 900 calories to fuel my existence and other daily activities and I'd essentially be starving my body of energy and nutrients.

I use the TDEE method which accounts for all of my activity including exercise and lose about 1 Lb per week eating 2500 calories...since exercise is included in that number I obviously wouldn't eat them back. Understanding the method is kind of important.

Even when using one's NEAT (MFP method), whether to eat back exercise calories can be an n =1 issue. Yes, MFP intends that one eat them back, and I routinely urge people to do just that.

But if the amount of exercise is relatively small, and the person is losing weight at a slow rate (say, less than 1% of body weight per week even with exercise, or even less than that when getting close to goal), then not eating back exercise calories is probably not going to cause a problem.

The problem comes in when someone sets a maximum calorie deficit (2 pounds a week), loses at that rate or higher, then starts doing several hundred or thousand calories worth of exercise daily, and doesn't eat back those calories. Net calories get too low, and risk increases - the chance one will have fatigue, loss muscle mass, lose hair, etc.

One's own weight loss rate, plus how one feels, is probably a better guide to whether one's current deficit is reasonable, regardless of whether that deficit comes from eating, exercising, or a combination of the two.