What is the purpose of eating back your exercise calories
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I hate to admit that my father was right all along, but starting off my day with even a small amount of exercise (I'm at about 15 minutes jogging with my dogs so far, up from 10 minutes walking and longer outings on the weekend) has noticeably helped my energy levels and mood. I am wishy-washy about eating back exercise calories, partly because it's not a huge amount of exercise in the first place, but also because I don't really make much effort to hit any particular daily goal - I average out my calories bi-monthly and try to eat as mindfully as possible while keeping that average on target. And yeah, I generally eat a bit more on days when I get more exercise than usual. I'm with @JeromeBarry1 here - I am NOT in this to suffer.2
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Others have already covered the fact that MFP is set up to provide you a calorie target that creates a deficit without any exercise, so that if you do exercise, you should eat back some of those calories to avoid having too large of a deficit.
Additionally, what I found is that by setting a moderate calorie deficit and approaching weight loss at a slow and steady pace, rather than going for broke and losing as fast as possible by cutting calories as low as possible - the whole process was more sustainable and far more enjoyable.
Lastly, what I found was that by keeping a modest calorie deficit and eating enough calories while losing, I continued to increase my overall activity (not just exercise but my daily activity contributing to my NEAT). As such, I find myself a 5'2 woman over 40 with a desk job maintaining a weight of 118 lbs with a TDEE of 2200 calories. Because I didn't cut too low, because I maintained lean body mass while losing, because I ate to fuel my workouts and because I steadily increased my activity level (which was sedentary when I started) to an average of 15K steps/day....
And don't forget what the wise rabbit said... "the winner is the one who eats the most and still loses the weight".13 -
I eat all my exercise calories. If I don't, I'm starving. I want to maintain my weight loss over the long term and that is possible if I don't feel completely deprived. I also need the calories for energy to do my runs. Being a good runner is important to me.6
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In short - to maintain a reasonable calorie deficit for sustainable weight loss and lifestyle.5
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I should also add that eating back half your calories is just an adjustment people do to do a better job of estimating their calories burned. If you are very good on estimating your calories burned and consumed you should be able to see your planned deficits come to reality. For me, it had to the tenth of a pound per week over 2-3 months2
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Because I'm 5'3 and sedentary* with about 40 lbs to goal, MFP has given me 1240 calories before exercise. I walk 2 hours or more most days. I strength train three days a week. I find that I feel hungry on 1240 before exercise. I shudder to think how I'd feel if I tried exercising with it. Eating back half my exercise calories, I'm getting around 1700 and losing right around where I should be.
*I'll grant you that getting over 2 hours of exercise a day probably isn't all that sedentary, but MFP's activity levels are meant to describe the amount of exercise you get exclusive of 'purposeful'. So, for example, a server in a restaurant is on their feet walking around for most of their shift and getting more exercise than someone at a desk job. If I didn't get up and move of my own volition, I'd spend my day glued to the computer, so I consider myself sedentary and count all exercise as purposeful.6 -
If you want to lose weight slow. Get depressed when you plateau etc then go ahead and have twinkie to eat back all that hard work you did today. I do not. Losing and loving it here.21
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I want to lose weight sanely. Haven't plateaued in 11 months/83 pounds. And I don't care for Twinkies. But I had a Nestle drumstick last week.11
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Ericnutrition. I eat back nearly all of my exercise calories and I have lost 17 lbs. in 2 months. I was set to lose 2 lbs. a week, so it works for me. As far as getting home late, I will pre log my exercise and food for the day so I know how much I need to eat to remain in deficit with the exercise I do. Most of my exercise is during the day BUT I usually do exercise (swim) two nights a week and that happens between 9:00-10:30 pm. I plan to eat something very small when I get back--I'm usually not very hungry, but I will have a snack of 100-200 calories. When I do not I wake up in the middle of the night with a headache or starving the next morning, and it's not a good feeling. During the summer on those swim nights, I'd walk 90 minutes each day and then swim in the evening. If I just ate the 1280 calories (then--since I lost I'm down to a 1230 cals) that MFP gave me to eat and did not eat back any exercise calories I probably would have eaten about 500-600 calories per day and that's not good. I have a lot of weight to lose so I burn a lot more exercising than a woman who is half my size.5
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Ericnutrition wrote: »soon2beeskinny wrote: »I'm not understanding the purpose of eating back your exercise calories. It defeats the purpose of exercising if you are using it to burn more calories. If you eat them back you don't burn more calories. Your're in the same place you were before you started. Am I missing something here?
I don't get it either. You ate dinner, and you did not exceed your goal of let's say 1,400 calories.
Later you go to the gym, work really hard, and burn 500 calories, so you are net 500 calories. You get home at 9:30 PM, and now you have to chow down on 500 calories, even if you are not particularly hungry?
Very strange indeed. Believe me, nothing bad is going to happen to you if you don't eat anymore.
Nearly everyone in this thread has provided the reasoning - not creating too large a deficit which, if done consistently over a long period of time, will have negative effects. I would not be able to maintain my level of activity if I didn't eat to fuel my actual level of activity after exercise.
It's not a strange concept at all. Most calculators include your exercise up front - they use the TDEE method. MFP just does it differently, using NEAT, so adding exercise in after the fact. For some reason, people think that's weird or defeating the purpose of exercise, but if they used a different site, they would still be including their exercise if they followed the guided setup.
Additionally, if you do regular exercise, you can eat those calories earlier in the day knowing you'll exercise later. Or you can eat them the next day, or save them for the weekend. They don't have to be eaten the same day they're earned. Many people find themselves hungrier the day after exercising.14 -
What is the purpose of eating back your exercise calories?
Fuel
You try cycling 100 miles on nothing and see how far you get.17 -
Ericnutrition wrote: »soon2beeskinny wrote: »I'm not understanding the purpose of eating back your exercise calories. It defeats the purpose of exercising if you are using it to burn more calories. If you eat them back you don't burn more calories. Your're in the same place you were before you started. Am I missing something here?
I don't get it either. You ate dinner, and you did not exceed your goal of let's say 1,400 calories.
Later you go to the gym, work really hard, and burn 500 calories, so you are net 500 calories. You get home at 9:30 PM, and now you have to chow down on 500 calories, even if you are not particularly hungry?
Very strange indeed. Believe me, nothing bad is going to happen to you if you don't eat anymore.
Actually, if that's what you do normally, then bad things will happen to you. Some of them very bad. But, y'know, if you don't care about your muscles (including your heart), your bones, your skin, your hair, your mental health, your libido...stunning that someone with the word nutrition in their username knows so very little.
Also, 1400 minus 500 cals from exercise would be a net of 900 (which is still too low).
OP, eat your calories from exercise.20 -
Ericnutrition wrote: »soon2beeskinny wrote: »I'm not understanding the purpose of eating back your exercise calories. It defeats the purpose of exercising if you are using it to burn more calories. If you eat them back you don't burn more calories. Your're in the same place you were before you started. Am I missing something here?
I don't get it either. You ate dinner, and you did not exceed your goal of let's say 1,400 calories.
Later you go to the gym, work really hard, and burn 500 calories, so you are net 500 calories. You get home at 9:30 PM, and now you have to chow down on 500 calories, even if you are not particularly hungry?
Very strange indeed. Believe me, nothing bad is going to happen to you if you don't eat anymore.
Nearly everyone in this thread has provided the reasoning - not creating too large a deficit which, if done consistently over a long period of time, will have negative effects. I would not be able to maintain my level of activity if I didn't eat to fuel my actual level of activity after exercise.
It's not a strange concept at all. Most calculators include your exercise up front - they use the TDEE method. MFP just does it differently, using NEAT, so adding exercise in after the fact. For some reason, people think that's weird or defeating the purpose of exercise, but if they used a different site, they would still be including their exercise if they followed the guided setup.
Additionally, if you do regular exercise, you can eat those calories earlier in the day knowing you'll exercise later. Or you can eat them the next day, or save them for the weekend. They don't have to be eaten the same day they're earned. Many people find themselves hungrier the day after exercising.
Well said. I've seen a lot of people with the same attitude. Most of them are in this to lose weight as fast as humanly possible and be done with it. Problem is, those are the people you see over and over in the forums posting things like 'back again.. gained it all back', or 'third time's the charm'. If a lifetime of yoyo dieting is the goal, then by all means lose the weight in a fast and unhealthy manner, gain it all back, and start again. As @veganbaum has said, negative effects will happen long term, not in the short term.9 -
Ericnutrition wrote: »soon2beeskinny wrote: »I'm not understanding the purpose of eating back your exercise calories. It defeats the purpose of exercising if you are using it to burn more calories. If you eat them back you don't burn more calories. Your're in the same place you were before you started. Am I missing something here?
I don't get it either. You ate dinner, and you did not exceed your goal of let's say 1,400 calories.
Later you go to the gym, work really hard, and burn 500 calories, so you are net 500 calories. You get home at 9:30 PM, and now you have to chow down on 500 calories, even if you are not particularly hungry?
Very strange indeed. Believe me, nothing bad is going to happen to you if you don't eat anymore.
I have always eaten back my Fitbit exercise calories and am down almost 110 lbs in the last 15 months. MFP has the deficit built into the calorie amount of gives you. If you exercise you are creating a bigger deficit which isn't always a good thing. I actually move more so that I can eat better foods and have more snacks
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Ericnutrition wrote: »soon2beeskinny wrote: »I'm not understanding the purpose of eating back your exercise calories. It defeats the purpose of exercising if you are using it to burn more calories. If you eat them back you don't burn more calories. Your're in the same place you were before you started. Am I missing something here?
I don't get it either. You ate dinner, and you did not exceed your goal of let's say 1,400 calories.
Later you go to the gym, work really hard, and burn 500 calories, so you are net 500 calories. You get home at 9:30 PM, and now you have to chow down on 500 calories, even if you are not particularly hungry?
Very strange indeed. Believe me, nothing bad is going to happen to you if you don't eat anymore.
You obviously neither understand the MFP N.E.A.T. model nor have read the explanation of it earlier in the thread. Also, it is not critical that one balance the calories within 24 hours as noted in your example. If you are 500 over on exercise for the day, have a little more the next day. Or bank it for the weekend. These are not difficult concepts.12 -
If you want to lose weight slow. Get depressed when you plateau etc then go ahead and have twinkie to eat back all that hard work you did today. I do not. Losing and loving it here.
If you're estimating your calories in and out accurately and using the goal generated by MFP, you will not lose weight slowly when you eat back exercise calories. You'll lose at goal rate.7 -
When I was actively (and successfully) losing weight, I used this rough guide ...
If I were doing just a little bit of exercise, like an hour's walk ... I would eat about 50% of my exercise calories back.
If I were going a moderate amount of exercise, like a 3 or 4 hours on the bicycle ... I would eat about 75% of my exercise calories back.
If I were going for a lot of exercise, like cycling 6+ hours on the bicycle ... I would eat closer to about 95% of my exercise calories back.
All approximate, of course, but that was the general plan I followed. I found, through experience, that I needed more calories when I exerted myself more ... and when I did something like an hour's walk, I really didn't need all my exercise calories.1 -
Ericnutrition wrote: »soon2beeskinny wrote: »I'm not understanding the purpose of eating back your exercise calories. It defeats the purpose of exercising if you are using it to burn more calories. If you eat them back you don't burn more calories. Your're in the same place you were before you started. Am I missing something here?
I don't get it either. You ate dinner, and you did not exceed your goal of let's say 1,400 calories.
Later you go to the gym, work really hard, and burn 500 calories, so you are net 500 calories. You get home at 9:30 PM, and now you have to chow down on 500 calories, even if you are not particularly hungry?
Very strange indeed. Believe me, nothing bad is going to happen to you if you don't eat anymore.
One day, sure. But regularly netting 900 calories is going to make most people feel pretty terrible.
You don't have to eat the 500 calories right after dinner. If you know you're going to work out, you could spread them out throughout the day or you could just eat them the next day. There are a lot of options.7 -
Ericnutrition wrote: »FYI - Those calorie counters on exercise machines are notoriously inaccurate on the high side, for obvious reasons.
Yes, which is why you will see virtually everyone in these threads stress the importance of estimating exercise calories accurately and using their real life results to make adjustments.8
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