Do I eat back my exercise calories?
CoffeenSquats
Posts: 982 Member
In simple terms, please. I'm a fitness idiot. lol. When I exercise and it gives me back x calories, should I make a point to eat those calories? Sometimes I have a lot.
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dragonmamas wrote: »In simple terms, please. I'm a fitness idiot. lol. When I exercise and it gives me back x calories, should I make a point to eat those calories? Sometimes I have a lot.
It is the way this tool is designed as exercise activity is unaccounted activity in your activity level. The difficulty is estimating energy expenditure...many databases, etc substantially exaggerate expenditure so you'd want to have some kind of allowance for estimation error and/or do more research into energy expenditure for a particular exercise rather than blindly relying on the database.2 -
I eat mine back
Sometimes all, sometimes just some... I figure I earnt them! It won't impact your weight loss if you do, just make it a bit slower I think. I'm an idiot when it comes to this so I'm just doing my own thing. It's working so I'm just going with it 
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cwolfman13 wrote: »dragonmamas wrote: »In simple terms, please. I'm a fitness idiot. lol. When I exercise and it gives me back x calories, should I make a point to eat those calories? Sometimes I have a lot.
It is the way this tool is designed as exercise activity is unaccounted activity in your activity level. The difficulty is estimating energy expenditure...many databases, etc substantially exaggerate expenditure so you'd want to have some kind of allowance for estimation error and/or do more research into energy expenditure for a particular exercise rather than blindly relying on the database.
Well I exercise in the evening after dinner so I'm more concerned with whether I should be forcing myself to consume the extra calories afterwards even though I've eaten plenty for the day and usually am not hungry enough to eat more than a couple of grapes.
I guess it's a stupid question, because it's obvious that you shouldn't be eating if you're not hungry, but in terms of losing weight I was unsure if it was something that benefits to do or if it isn't important.0 -
I eat mine back Sometimes all, sometimes just some... I figure I earnt them! It won't impact your weight loss if you do, just make it a bit slower I think. I'm an idiot when it comes to this so I'm just doing my own thing. It's working so I'm just going with it
When I'm showing like 50 calories I don't bother, because without precise weights and measurements it's possible that you've already consumed them, but sometimes I have like 300+ after I exercise and as much as I would love to go pick up a medium pizza, I don't want it to ruin all of my progress for the day so I leave them. lol. But I was just thinking, maybe you're supposed to eat some of the calories back. There are so many little rules in the fitness world.0 -
dragonmamas wrote: »cwolfman13 wrote: »dragonmamas wrote: »In simple terms, please. I'm a fitness idiot. lol. When I exercise and it gives me back x calories, should I make a point to eat those calories? Sometimes I have a lot.
It is the way this tool is designed as exercise activity is unaccounted activity in your activity level. The difficulty is estimating energy expenditure...many databases, etc substantially exaggerate expenditure so you'd want to have some kind of allowance for estimation error and/or do more research into energy expenditure for a particular exercise rather than blindly relying on the database.
Well I exercise in the evening after dinner so I'm more concerned with whether I should be forcing myself to consume the extra calories afterwards even though I've eaten plenty for the day and usually am not hungry enough to eat more than a couple of grapes.
I guess it's a stupid question, because it's obvious that you shouldn't be eating if you're not hungry, but in terms of losing weight I was unsure if it was something that benefits to do or if it isn't important.
Just eat them the next day then.
It is beneficial to properly fuel your body, even when you're losing weight.3 -
I have found it helpful to eat them. My body shuts down the weight loss if i dont eat enough when im active. I dont get petty with exact #s but its also a great incentive to work out if you want to splurge.0
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I have about 100 lbs yet to loose - I'm down 30, so I do not eat them back.0
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I would say yes, you should eat at least some of your exercise calories, but you certainly don't have to force yourself to eat more if you're not hungry.
What usually happens to me if I'm cutting is that I'll leave a lot of calories in the "green" for a week or two because I'm being very strict and I'm not that hungry, but then I'll hit a few days when I'm RAVENOUS and I want to eat All The Things. So I end up eating all of my exercise calories, but not necessarily on a day-to-day basis. It evens out.0 -
I wasnt eating my exercise calories and was going down in weight pretty quickly (which is great but not the healthy way) I started eating just some of them back and am going to track that over the next few weeks, if im still loosing too quickly I will add some more back. The exception was yesterday when I wanted to eat literally anything and everything and ate all of them back.1
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bikecheryl wrote: »I have about 100 lbs yet to loose - I'm down 30, so I do not eat them back.
how much you have lost or have to lose shouldn't have any bearing on it.
MFP gave you the calories you need to eat to lose the weight you want at the speed you want without exercise so the exercise calories are a bonus and should be eaten...at least some of them otherwise you are probably netting to low calories and potentially damaging yourself and losing muscle in the process.1 -
janejellyroll wrote: »dragonmamas wrote: »cwolfman13 wrote: »dragonmamas wrote: »In simple terms, please. I'm a fitness idiot. lol. When I exercise and it gives me back x calories, should I make a point to eat those calories? Sometimes I have a lot.
It is the way this tool is designed as exercise activity is unaccounted activity in your activity level. The difficulty is estimating energy expenditure...many databases, etc substantially exaggerate expenditure so you'd want to have some kind of allowance for estimation error and/or do more research into energy expenditure for a particular exercise rather than blindly relying on the database.
Well I exercise in the evening after dinner so I'm more concerned with whether I should be forcing myself to consume the extra calories afterwards even though I've eaten plenty for the day and usually am not hungry enough to eat more than a couple of grapes.
I guess it's a stupid question, because it's obvious that you shouldn't be eating if you're not hungry, but in terms of losing weight I was unsure if it was something that benefits to do or if it isn't important.
Just eat them the next day then.
It is beneficial to properly fuel your body, even when you're losing weight.
Yes, and learning to properly fuel your fitness is quite important if you care about improving your fitness.1 -
I eat my exercise calories on the weekends when I'm less active but have more access to food (and am more bored and hungry) means that my week over all is still in deficit but I don't end up feeling deprived. Win.1
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I have learned to listen to my body. When I eat my exercise calories back, I don't lose weight as fast as when I don't eat them.0
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I'm at 1300 calories set at sedentary and 1/2 lb loss per week. I "earn" 500 to 900 calories more most days. I lose about a lb to lb1/2 per week when I don't eat more than 25% or so back on average. If I eat more, loss is less of course. Not eating them back in no way puts me at a dangerous or unhealthy weight loss, nutrition, calories, etc. It is up to you and looking at it this way gives me plenty of food while never dipping below 1300 on any given day.0
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I have learned to listen to my body. When I eat my exercise calories back, I don't lose weight as fast as when I don't eat them.
Yeah, a larger deficit will result in faster weight loss than a smaller deficit. That's what you're doing when you don't eat back your exercise calories.
That said, there are many good reasons to consider *not* creating a larger deficit -- preserving muscle mass, fueling your fitness, reducing hunger, and ensuring you're meeting your nutritional needs.6 -
janejellyroll wrote: »I have learned to listen to my body. When I eat my exercise calories back, I don't lose weight as fast as when I don't eat them.
Yeah, a larger deficit will result in faster weight loss than a smaller deficit. That's what you're doing when you don't eat back your exercise calories.
That said, there are many good reasons to consider *not* creating a larger deficit -- preserving muscle mass, fueling your fitness, reducing hunger, and ensuring you're meeting your nutritional needs.
Nah, it's all about getting skinny as quickly as possible...it's all about the scale!
/sarcasm6 -
Yes, eat your exercise calories, BUT
But do it for a month then carefully review your results. With 4 weeks logging, do you see weight loss? Yes? Good. Carry on. No? Find the problem. The problem might be that you have been logging and eating excessive exercise calories. The problem might be that you have failed to log all your food properly. If your records show that you have no net calorie deficit in 4 weeks and have gained weight, you might want to decide if you're really interested in losing weight.5
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