“Earned” calories
cxwhit3
Posts: 293 Member
Hi all! How do you handle the calories that are earned through exercise? Do you use them as they are earned or save them up for something special? Since I am focused on establishing habits and routines, I don’t use mine at all. Thoughts are much appreciated!
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I do it weird, I get 10k steps a day minimum (usually more because i love walking as break from work) so I eat 1350 on days I don't exercise. On days I run an hour I eat 1450, on days I weight train I eat 1550. My TDEE is about 1950 if I don't jog or lift. So yeah, i eat my earned calories but I don't use the MFP calculators, I just assign 100 extra for days I jog, and 200 extra for when i lift. However on days I lift the 200 calories is saved for "something special". That being my protein shake that runs me 160-170 calories.1
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I know a lot of people have said to eat back half of the calories earned through exercise. Sometimes I eat back more then that but I think as long as your still under the calories earned throughout the day you are good to go
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I eat most of my Fitbit calories. I usually get my 10,000 steps including a deliberate walk, which gives me an extra 400. I think that's probably more than I deserve though, so I set my goal calories to the minimum 1200. I seem to lose about half a pound a week at that level which I am happy with. I could probably lose more if I put in the effort to NOT eat all the Fitbit calories! But I find it really hard not to eat something when the number is green
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I do not eat back any exercise calories. I gave myself 1800 calories for the day. I think originally MFP gave me 1500 then I was starving so I gave myself 1600 then I started lifting weights and I bumped it up 200 more. I probably should be eating less OR actually lifting weights more often and then I would see better weight loss results. I just came up with this "formula" on my own like Charlene. Since we are talking about this, come to think of it, I probably will keep this for another 3 weeks and stay within the 1800 and lower it to 1700 if I need to.1
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I usually eat all of my calories. At sedentary I get 1440 to lose .5#s a week. There is no way I could stick to that for more than 3 days. My Garmin activity tracker adds calories throughout the day, and I use them. This would probably work, except that I often go over budget. Thank goodness I enjoy exercise because I really like food.0
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When I started Intried not to eat the earned workout calories ... but for the last months I was just hungry so I ate them and even went over ... I think as long as you balance it out throughout the week you will lose weight.
I like what a couple people said that they add certain amount of calories depending on the type of workout they do ... I think it makes it easier and consistent.0 -
Thanks to all for responding. I am not doing much exercise yet, just 30 minutes on the treadmill, so I don’t think I’m adding enough activity to make myself hungry. Once I kick it up a notch, perhaps I will need those extra calories but for now it seems like I’m getting enough food, even on 1200 calories. —Carol1
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I end up eating some of my exercise calories back. I aim for around half but It varies from day to day.0
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I eat a lot of my calories back lol - but I’ve been doing a really tough daily workout and burning between 500-800 calories a day so I’m hungry!! I also don’t want to lose weight too quickly. I want to lose about 7-8 pounds total.1
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I don't know what is right or wrong and I have read so many conflicting articles and statements on this! That is my disclaimer.
My MFP goal is 1200 calories a day. Most days I exercise in some way (gym, walking, etc.) so I try to keep my calories around 1400. Some days I go over, some days I don't.1 -
I use them as a buffer. So I don’t plan to use them but they’re available in case I go over,1
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I don't eat any of the first 600 exercise calories, but I have my setting at maintenance and sedentary, so those exercise calories are my deficit to lose weight. I eat half of all my exercise calories over that. I do half to be safe in case the calories are over estimated.1
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I don't use mine as long as I'm feeling okay and making good progress. Probably later in my diet when my hunger hormones start going out of whack I'll slow down the weight loss and eat a little more, but that probably won't be for another month.1
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I just eat when I'm hungry, no matter if I've earned calories by working out or not 2
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