Eat your workout calories?

o4itsme
o4itsme Posts: 16
in Health and Weight Loss
I'm new to this site. According to what I've seen you are supposed to eat the calories you burn at the gym? Has this worked for anyone or do you prefer to stick to your initial calorie count instead? Just looking for personal opinions is all.
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Replies

  • bcattoes
    bcattoes Posts: 17,299 Member
    I see exercise as a way to earn wine with dinner, so technically I don't "eat" them but I nearly always consume them. :drinker:
  • Jconner30
    Jconner30 Posts: 311
    If you feel tired then eat them. Your body needs fuel!
  • kappy_hollowell
    kappy_hollowell Posts: 399
    I think you are suppose to consume the exercise calories. I don't like to, and I wasn't eating them before, but I never really lost anything, so now, I have started consuming my exercise calories. I just started this so will let you know how it goes. When I ate just 1200 calories though, I was famished almost all of the time!
  • NKF92879
    NKF92879 Posts: 601 Member
    I see exercise as a way to earn wine with dinner, so technically I don't "eat" them but I nearly always consume them. :drinker:


    LOVE THIS!!!


    I also use exercise calories to eat/drink things I wouldn't otherwise (dessert, drinks, etc.).
  • sweetheart03622
    sweetheart03622 Posts: 928 Member
    I typically eat every single one of my exercise calories. Since I'm training for a half marathon, sometimes my exercise calories are in excess of 1,200. Like I said, I eat every single one and I'm losing.
  • Pandorian
    Pandorian Posts: 2,055 MFP Moderator
    www.shouldieatmyexercisecalories.com

    I eat them, it's how the program here is designed. They give you a calorie deficit to meet your chosen rate of loss before you ever lift a finger in exercise (why you may get less calories here than you do somewhere else that doesn't get you to eat back exercise calories because they use the exercise to reach your deficit)
    That means Sunday was a 3000 calorie day here and yes, I lost weight on weigh in day.
  • ambitious01
    ambitious01 Posts: 209 Member
    :smile: I do not. I keep mine under 1400 calories though. If your staying around 1200 I'd think it's best to use some of the other to assure you have your vitamins.
  • Qarol
    Qarol Posts: 6,171 Member
    I see exercise as a way to earn wine with dinner, so technically I don't "eat" them but I nearly always consume them. :drinker:
    I'll do anything for an extra glass of wine. :-D
  • Getting_Fit_4_Life
    Getting_Fit_4_Life Posts: 401 Member
    I was struggling with this issue several weeks ago too. I started at 1200 calories daily, but then I would workout and burn about 400 calories daily. I thought I was doing fine by not eating back the calories. Well, I was losing weight initially, but then after about 3 weeks, I stopped losing and I actually gained 5 pounds back. I was frustrated because I felt like I was really eating well and working out like a mad woman. I didn't see the point in eating back my calories. But since I wasn't losing weight as before, I decided to give myself about 2 weeks to see what would happen if I upped my calories. I increased my caloried to 1350 and ate back SOME of my workout calories and to my amazement, I started losing weight again. I actually lost 3.6 pounds this week. I am still somewhat nervous about increasing my calories too much, but at least now I make sure that I don't go below 1200 calores NET. I understand that what works for me may not work for someone else, but I am so pleasantly suprise that this is working for me right now. I think you have to see what works for you too. :)
  • ChantalGG
    ChantalGG Posts: 2,404 Member
    If you are burning 1000s of calories it will be hard to do. I eat mine back mainly when i use the weights, i have a protein shake afterwards. But i dont always eat mine back anymore. But I used too.
  • UpEarly
    UpEarly Posts: 2,555 Member
    I don't have a hard and fast rule about this. I don't force myself to eat my exercise calories if I'm not hungry. But, most days I AM hungry and ultimately eat 50-75% of my exercise calories before I feel full and satisfied.

    I have MFP set to keep me on track to lose half a pound a week. In actuality, I've lost about 1.75 pounds a week for a total of 25 pounds between 4/10-7/16. (I only weigh in once a month.)

    So, I guess eating some of my exercise calories has worked pretty well for me so far. :-)
  • Riebop
    Riebop Posts: 275
    Honestly, it depends on your body. Some people need to eat them to lose weight. Some people don't. You just need to experiment with it until you find out what works for you. Personally, I usually eat them because I'm hungrier on the days that I workout.
  • stroutman81
    stroutman81 Posts: 2,474 Member
    There's no magic to eating them or not. I find it sort of silly that people worry about this as they're really missing the forest for the trees. Read this thread. If you still have questions, ask away...

    http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/173853-an-objective-look-at-eating-exercise-calories
  • kennedyallin
    kennedyallin Posts: 1 Member
    I eat my workout calories as well. If our bodies think that we are starving then our metabolism will slow down to conserve the energy. Losing weight for the long term is a slow process. And, the thing is... if something isn't enjoyable then usually we won't sustain it. So exercising is a way to get the food we love and still be under the amount of calories that our body is burning.

    Eating healthy is essential always!! But it is okay to have some of the typically "off-limits" foods. Everything in moderation!! But the key is to enjoy this process.... that way it will last and last and be sustainable.
  • Mad_Dog_Muscle
    Mad_Dog_Muscle Posts: 1,251 Member
    I see exercise as a way to earn wine with dinner, so technically I don't "eat" them but I nearly always consume them. :drinker:
    LOL THIS! :drinker: :drinker:
  • o4itsme
    o4itsme Posts: 16
    Thank you for all of you fast responses. I figured worst to worst I'll go two weeks without and two weeks with and see what difference it makes if any at all.
  • clrrrr
    clrrrr Posts: 261 Member
    The owner of my gym once said "you want your body to run like a Maserati, not a Prius." So yes, I usually do. I always do if I'm hungry.
  • kappy_hollowell
    kappy_hollowell Posts: 399
    There's no magic to eating them or not. I find it sort of silly that people worry about this as they're really missing the forest for the trees. Read this thread. If you still have questions, ask away...

    http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/173853-an-objective-look-at-eating-exercise-calories

    I understand this thread "explains" the mathematics of losing weight, but MFP does all this calculating for you. I need 1600 for maintenance. 1200 net to lose. I exercise (on a good day) about an hour doing TurboFIre (657 calories burned +/-) So I usually consume 1800 calories, which almost nets 1200. Therefore, I'm eating 400 less calories than to maintain.

    I think MFP does it just fine!
  • LilRedRooster
    LilRedRooster Posts: 1,421 Member
    I eat them back, just about every day. And I've lost weight steadily, no problem. If I'm hungry, I eat. I just don't eat a doughnut.
  • stroutman81
    stroutman81 Posts: 2,474 Member
    There's no magic to eating them or not. I find it sort of silly that people worry about this as they're really missing the forest for the trees. Read this thread. If you still have questions, ask away...

    http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/173853-an-objective-look-at-eating-exercise-calories

    I understand this thread "explains" the mathematics of losing weight, but MFP does all this calculating for you. I need 1600 for maintenance. 1200 net to lose. I exercise (on a good day) about an hour doing TurboFIre (657 calories burned +/-) So I usually consume 1800 calories, which almost nets 1200. Therefore, I'm eating 400 less calories than to maintain.

    I think MFP does it just fine!

    If MFP did it just fine, so many people wouldn't be confused by it. Not downing MFP at all... but there's obviously an issue since I receive at least 2 emails about this every single day.

    And the primary point that people need to keep in mind is that it's the overall deficit that matters here. If eating your exercise calories back puts you in the sweet spot for a deficit... so be it. If if it doesn't though... then don't.

    Secondly, MFP tells a lot of people to consume 1200 calories who likely shouldn't be. It's just their stopping point where they don't allow anyone to go below.

    For instance, if you're 140 lbs and you exercise most days... you likely have a maintenance of around 2000 calories. If you tell MFP that you want to lose 2 lbs per week.... they simply assume that every ounce lost comes from fat and since there are 3500 calories in 1 lb of fat... you need a daily deficit of 1000 calories to lose 1 pound per week. Of course this is grossly simplistic, and it's unfortunate that so many people assume it's that easy. But in this example, MFP's goal would be 1200 since that's they're lowest allowed even though it should really be 1000 based on the math.

    Now I agree... most people don't need to be going below 1200. But there isn't anything inherently evil that happens if you do go below 1200 net... especially if you have your nutrient requirements met. I'm of the opinion that there should be cutoffs where if you weigh below a certain weight, you can't select a 2 lb rate of weight loss per week... as it's highly unrealistic for lighter folks.

    Anyhow, rambling a bit.

    I'm sure some people will think I'm bashing. I assure you I'm not. I love it here and think it's the best tool on the net for weight loss.

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