Eating exercise calories.
ndjohnson526
Posts: 7 Member
How many of you eat your exercise calories?
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Replies
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I do. Not all of them, but definitely some of them.1
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I do. All of them.
Do the experiment: pick either "yes" "no" or "some of them." Do that for a month, see how it affects you. I use a set number for an hour of moderate exercise, because I've been at this for ten years and I know from past data that is what works for me.4 -
I try not to eat them but sometimes do.0
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ndjohnson526 wrote: »I try not to eat them but sometimes do.
Well, you'll find out if that works. It's a big ole science project. You're the guinea pig.
Welcome to the site.2 -
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cmriverside wrote: »I do. All of them.
Do the experiment: pick either "yes" "no" or "some of them." Do that for a month, see how it affects you. I use a set number for an hour of moderate exercise, because I've been at this for ten years and I know from past data that is what works for me.
Where do you find that setting?1 -
cmriverside wrote: »I do. All of them.
Do the experiment: pick either "yes" "no" or "some of them." Do that for a month, see how it affects you. I use a set number for an hour of moderate exercise, because I've been at this for ten years and I know from past data that is what works for me.
Where do you find that setting?
There's not a setting. You can manually adjust your exercise calories burned as you enter them into your diary.1 -
I'm so confused by this. Why in the world would you eat back calories burned from exercise? For example: If I burn 900 calories at the gym and my TDEE for maintenance is 3000 and I eat 2500 calories that day, I have a deficit of 1400 (500+900) with exercise. Eating back the 900 calories I burned from exercise would only give me a 500 calorie deficit. Wouldn't staying home not exercising and eating -500 TDEE maintenance produce the same result net calories wise? Someone explain the logic of this to me please.6
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I'm so confused by this. Why in the world would you eat back calories burned from exercise? For example: If I burn 900 calories at the gym and my TDEE for maintenance is 3000 and I eat 2500 calories that day, I have a deficit of 1400 (500+900) with exercise. Eating back the 900 calories I burned from exercise would only give me a 500 calorie deficit. Wouldn't staying home eating not exercising and eating -500 TDEE maintenance produce the same result net calories wise? Someone explain the logic of this to me please.
YOU may have a maintenance TDEE of over 3000, but small people with a TDEE under 1500 can't really eat 500 calories net a day, now can they?
Doubt you actually "burn" 900 calories at the gym, for that matter.
Here's the info on how this site calculates.
https://myfitnesspal.desk.com/customer/en/portal/articles/410332-how-does-myfitnesspal-calculate-my-initial-goals-
Do whatever you want. You don't need a 1400 calorie deficit unless you're more than 100+ pounds overweight. He who loses and eats the most food wins.8 -
MFP calculates your deficit without exercise. When you exercise you increase that deficit, possibly to dangerous levels. It takes energy to fuel your workouts.
You WANT a 500 calorie deficit to lose 1lb per week 1,000 is really the highest you should go (assuming you're 75lbs or more overweight) unless you've significantly more than 75 to lose. I'm sure someone will chime in with the exact numbers.
Exercise is for health and fitness. Calorie deficit is for weight.
And just my n=1: to lose 1lb/week I'm on 1380 calories, meaning I probably maintain on around 900. If I walk for three hours at 3mph, MFP tells me I burned just under 800 calories. If I don't eat some of those back, I'm pretty darned hungry.1 -
I almost always eat back my calories from exercise. In order to lose the weight (2 lbs. a week) MFP has me set at 1280 calories which is NOT a lot of food. So I exercise and can eat more. I also enjoy working out, it is stress release and also will keep me in better condition than not exercising.0
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cmriverside wrote: »I do. All of them.
Do the experiment: pick either "yes" "no" or "some of them." Do that for a month, see how it affects you. I use a set number for an hour of moderate exercise, because I've been at this for ten years and I know from past data that is what works for me.
Where do you find that setting?
It's not a setting. It's a decision. So you either eat them back, you don't, or you eat some of them. Pick one.
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I choose to not eat my exercise calories. If I'm working hard to burn them, I don't want to eat them back. My doctor and dietician are completely supportive of NOT eating exercise calories.3
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I'm so confused by this. Why in the world would you eat back calories burned from exercise? For example: If I burn 900 calories at the gym and my TDEE for maintenance is 3000 and I eat 2500 calories that day, I have a deficit of 1400 (500+900) with exercise. Eating back the 900 calories I burned from exercise would only give me a 500 calorie deficit. Wouldn't staying home not exercising and eating -500 TDEE maintenance produce the same result net calories wise? Someone explain the logic of this to me please.
I eat my exercise calories - all of them - because I have two separate goals: one is to lose weight, the other is to become physically strong and aerobically fit.
Sure, you can lose weight by not exercising, and just eating the right foods. But the way I see it, losing weight and becoming physically fit are two very different things. I have to eat enough, not only to lose weight, but also to be able to support my secondary goal of becoming aerobically fit. That means I have to eat more. I see the extra food intake as fuel for my fitness goal. It's a different mindset to thinking of exercise as "another way to create a deficit."
If a person is on 1200 calories a day, and manages (by some miracle - I could never do this) to eat only that amount, but then exercises 500 calories off, that's a net intake of 700 calories, which is way too low to be healthy. You end up starving yourself and training your body to become more efficient at storing fat for another famine, which is opposite to what you want in the long run.
I eat right to lose weight. I do aerobics (mainly) for heart health. I do yoga and Pilates for flexibility and core strength. I do weightlifting for strength and, especially as a woman, to prevent osteoporosis later in life. Each of these things, I do for different reasons, with different goals in mind. The one big massive goal I work towards is to become the healthiest person I can be, well into old age.
I have to eat enough to be able to do all of that.5 -
I do so I reach at least 1200 cals net for the day0
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I use TDEE so I don't have to deal with eating back exercise calories. My daily calorie burn is pretty consistent day to day, so I just focus on keeping calories where they need to be and turn off the "add back calories" feature on MFP.1
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I'm a huge runner....I run 4-7 miles per workout. Im burning a lot of cals. If I don't eat a bigger dinner and eat back some of those cals I feel like crud. Huge deficits are great if you want to hurt yourself. Also, remember that exercising is worth it for more than just losing weight, you're also toning muscle, being healthy and maintaining an awesome metabolism.3
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I'm so confused by this. Why in the world would you eat back calories burned from exercise? For example: If I burn 900 calories at the gym and my TDEE for maintenance is 3000 and I eat 2500 calories that day, I have a deficit of 1400 (500+900) with exercise. Eating back the 900 calories I burned from exercise would only give me a 500 calorie deficit. Wouldn't staying home not exercising and eating -500 TDEE maintenance produce the same result net calories wise? Someone explain the logic of this to me please.
Unless you are overestimating your exercise burn or underestimating your food intake, you will burn out with a deficit that steep. Gotta fuel those workouts. That's why I eat back most of my exercise.3 -
I ate back pretty much every exercise calorie - after estimating them carefully - while losing 50+ pounds, down to a healthy body weight . . . and now, well into my second year of maintenance, I still eat them.
If MFP calculates your goal calories, a deficit is already included, before exercise. Losing too fast is an unhealthful choice. Why take that risk of an unhealthily expedited weight loss, to get to the goal of a healthy weight? Illogical.2 -
Ok so eating the exercise calories back would stabilize to the "safe" deficit of 500cal a day specifically for weight loss, not maintenance or gains. So your TDEE essentially changes daily based on what you did that day. That seems exhausting. In the long term is counting calories burned and eating them back to hit that 500 cal deficit a sustainable practice for most, either in weight loss mode or maintenance mode? Also where in the heck is this 1200cal minimum a day thing coming from? 1200 seems awfully low for anyone performing exercise on the regular. Is 1200 calories sustainable for a prolonged time frame? Also fasting is a thing, a lot of people do it, is consuming zero calories a day harmful? The science is still out for prolonged fasting techniques (not eating for 7 plus days) but for short term fasting (ADF,20/4,16/8, etc) there has been shown to be huge benefits both to HGH and a plethora of other health benefits for weight loss.0
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My TDEE is only about 2380, due to my age, height and activity (not sedentary). I started 2 months ago needing to lose 100 lbs. and for health reasons, the sooner I lose the first 40-50, the better, which is why I picked 2 lbs. per month. I need a 1000 cal. deficit to lose 2 lbs. per week. (2380-1000=1280) I've lost 13.5 lbs. in 8 weeks, which is close enough for me. I eat back my exercise calories on most days.
Try eating just 1280 calories and exercising and see if you like it. I doubt it. On a couple of days a week I walk 80 minutes and then swim 25 minutes. Even considering that it might not be accurate, for my weight it comes out to approx. 600 calories and days that I do zumba, apparently 800-900 calories. If I did not eat back some of the calories on those days I'd eat 1280 and then burn off over half of them! Besides being very hungry that would just be dangerous and unsustainable on 300-600 calories each day.
In general I prefer eating at 1500-1900 calories. I could do that and not exercise if I made my goal just 1 lb. a week, but I don't want to. I would rather work out (for its own benefits) and eat the exercise calories. I will continue to do so as long as I am losing. To me it is the best of all words--exercising, eating more and losing weight.4 -
I don't. Never have. It doesn't affect my energy one bit so long as I am eating adequate protein and fats.1
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I do. I use that to be flexible with how I eat. If I want to eat more or higher calorie foods, I exercise more. If I don't want to exercise more, then I choose to eat lighter.
I have a lot of weight to lose, so as I get closer to my goal weight, I may choose to eat back less. We'll see.2 -
I have been yes. Im at 1200cal and my exercise calories are just from walking so not much but i generally eat 60-70% of them back. Im in my first month though so kind of judging what is working and isnt working for me to lose weight0
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The more accurate your logging, the more essential it is to comply with the program and eat those exercise calories back IF YOU'RE USING MFP'S CALORIE GOALS and IF YOU'VE SET YOUR ACTIVITY LEVELS CORRECTLY.
Unless you're weighing your food, your logging's going to be prone to significant error, although very consistent measuring can compensate to a degree. Now, regarding exercise calories, there's a few ways to approach this, none is really superior to another but they aren't all equally easy for all situations.
(1) You set as sedentary, and log all activities that require physical effort
This is a VERY good approach for people who do not have a step counter or activity tracker, and who have wildly erratic daily exertion or are exceptionally sedentary (people with autoimmune disorders or other physical handicaps, for example). This is the method I used my first 2.5 years on MFP, and it worked pretty well, although I only ate 1/2 exercise calories, I wasn't weighing food, and wound up losing at the expected and target rate for me.
(2) You set as sedentary, and use a pedometer or activity tracker to adjust calories automatically
This is pretty accurate if your activity tracker/pedometer is giving a realistic adjustment. This is the method I use right now. It seems to work pretty well.
(3) You set as a higher level of activity, and log all activities that are truly exercise
You're not logging those extra flights of stairs or housework & gardening here, because they're rolled into your daily activity level; instead you're logging that 45 minute walk at night or your 30 minute workout. You eat both the higher base calories allotted by the higher activity setting AND the exercise, but keep in mind that machines frequently overestimate calories burned. You may use negative adjustments if synced to an activity tracker in case some days you're a little less active. These activities may be logged via pedometer/activity tracker or manually.
I've tried this method, it doesn't really work very well with my particular activity tracker (SHealth) so I don't use it, but I've seen others find great success with it with other trackers that are less persnickety.
In all situations, MFP tells you your baseline calories: the MINIMUM you will need for the day, given you do no more than the base for which you've set it.
People get their egos all up in this stuff. Don't. As long as you're consistent with tracking, you can see your experience pretty quickly (over about a month) and adjust. Losing too fast is not a healthy thing, and its not a competition to lose faster than anyone else. Eating back exercise calories is good, it keeps your nutrient levels in balance and weight loss in line with your goals. This is how MFP works.
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I'm so confused by this. Why in the world would you eat back calories burned from exercise? For example: If I burn 900 calories at the gym and my TDEE for maintenance is 3000 and I eat 2500 calories that day, I have a deficit of 1400 (500+900) with exercise. Eating back the 900 calories I burned from exercise would only give me a 500 calorie deficit. Wouldn't staying home not exercising and eating -500 TDEE maintenance produce the same result net calories wise? Someone explain the logic of this to me please.
Yes - there is no logic in doing the workouts merely for weight loss.
Exercise is for heart healthy and body transformation.
Diet is for fat loss.
You are confusing them.
And a 500 cal deficit may indeed be the best reasonable sustainable deficit that actually allows your workouts to cause a transformation.
How bad would it suck if your 1400 deficit starting making your workouts suck and become a waste of time because they then caused no transformation to the body. And that will happen if you keep it up.
So instead of sitting at home and getting 1 lb weekly loss - you are trying to knock yourself out and end up getting less than that and terrible workouts!
Because you are thinking of every other site on the internet that helps with diet.
Where you select how active with exercise you plan to be.
A daily burn is estimated, a deficit is taken to cause weight loss, you eat that amount.
In those cases - you better do the workout or you likely don't have the deficit or not as much as you planned to have.
And you certainly don't eat back calories burned from exercise because you already accounted for them.
It's what causes people the confusion that exercise is for weight loss - it's not.
MFP doesn't assume you'd actually do the workouts - because frankly that's what causes those other methods to fail - people are goal happy and unrealistic and don't stick to exercise goals - but stick to eating goals (maybe).
And fail to lose weight eventually.
MFP assumes no exercise when done.
And then works on the life lesson everyone must learn as far as weight is concerned.
You do more - you eat more.
You do less - you eat less.
In a diet - a tad less in either case.
So when you do exercise - you eat those back, and your deficit is still there.
Then exercise becomes the body transforming thing it's meant to be - not the weight loss thing it's actually not good at.
Now - the problem comes into what is logged as exercise - accuracy of such (Spin class 60 min, but 5 min warmup, 5 min cooldown, 5 min stretching, means it was only 45 min of "spinning") logging, and logging stuff that is already included in your daily non-exercise activity level accounted for.
It's why the bad mythical advice to start eating 50% of calories back when there isn't even knowledge of what the workouts are or how accurate in logging, by people that don't understand potential issues except they experienced one.4 -
I eat as many of my exercise calories as possible. My aim has never been to be skinny it's to be fit and strong. I'm not saying I always manage to eat them all, I struggle on Tuesdays which are my crazy active days. But as I've kept my weight stable +/-1lb for the last 10 days I must be doing a pretty good job of it.3
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