Should we really be eating back the calories we burn??
mirandafinch
Posts: 24 Member
I find this so confusing, say I work hard to burn 300 calories at the gym should i be eating them back or keep the deficit?
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Replies
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Eat up to half if you’re hungry.6
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Why is it confusing you? It all depends of how big of a deficit you want.
For example, my maintenance is 1700, I eat 1200, so the deficit is 500 (to lose 1kg/week). If I burn extra 300 at the gym, I can eat them back and still lose that 1kg, or not eat them back and lose more than 1kg.10 -
mirandafinch wrote: »I find this so confusing, say I work hard to burn 300 calories at the gym should i be eating them back or keep the deficit?
Eat them. You have a deficit before exercise.16 -
mirandafinch wrote: »I find this so confusing, say I work hard to burn 300 calories at the gym should i be eating them back or keep the deficit?
You've used probably any other sites - where you were asked to provide some level of planned weekly exercise.
An estimated daily burn was computed, and deficit taken for daily eating goal.
If you didn't do the exercise, or at the calories back - weight loss would slow or not happen.
MFP is different - helping to learn a life lesson as far as weight management.
You do more - you eat more.
You do less - you eat less. (that's the kicker for most)
In a diet, a tad less in either case.
MFP obtains that goal by not having any exercise expected or accounted for up front, merely daily life - and hopefully you were honest on that level.
Bigger deficit is not better in all cases.16 -
Take the couple minutes it takes to watch this video, great explanation of it: http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10503681/exercise-calories-do-i-eat-these-a-video-explanation/p112
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It depends on what activity level you used to compute your daily burn of calories. If you said you are fairly active exercising a few hours a week, then you are already getting "credit " for the first few hours.8
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I go by this rule: If my heart rate was sustained in at least zone 3 (e.g., above ~120BPM) during the workout, I enter the workout in my diary and eat at least some of the calories back, depending on how hungry I am. Note that you can always bank them up for later, you don't have to eat all of them back on the same day!
You can get your calorie estimate from the MFP website, from an exercise machine, from a FitBit, from MapMy<whatever>, Garmin, GoogleFit, SamsungFit, AppleWatch, you name it. It helps if you have something to tell you that you actually elevated your HR.
This eliminates adding calories for activities that really don't burn that many calories, such as low intensity walking, etc.12 -
I eat back all my exercise calories and have maintained easily for the past year. I actually eat somewhat over my goal, and still maintain, because the exercise I do burns a bit more than MFP says since I run and walk in a hilly area.4
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I personally do it intuitively. If I don't feel hungry, I won't eat just because I can, rather eat more on another day when I do feel like it.6
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How many exercise calories you eat back depends on:
1) how accurately you estimate and log your food and exercise calories AND
2) whether or not your calorie goal is accurate for the intended purpose (eg., the desired rate of loss or maintenance).
So, obviously there are too many variables involved to establish any hard/fast rules for how many exercise cals anyone "should" eat back.
Only experience (eg., trial and error) will determine what is "right" for each person.6 -
Thanks guys for taking the time to respond. I think following the eat them back if I’m hungry strategy will work for me, I’m sure I won’t actually need them all x3
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@CarvedTonesCarvedTones wrote: »It depends on what activity level you used to compute your daily burn of calories. If you said you are fairly active exercising a few hours a week, then you are already getting "credit " for the first few hours.
Not true for MyFitnessPal.
Activity and exercise are completely separate entities.
You can be sedentary and do loads of exercise - that was me before I retired.
I'm now active and still do loads of exercise.
You could also be highly active and do no formal exercise at all.
On a TDEE site activity and exercise are lumped together, not on here - the daily goal is plus exercise.
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You already have a deficit built in without exercise. Exercise makes that deficit even bigger. Extreme deficits aren't sustainable for me, personally. I've always eaten most or all of my exercise calories back. I successfully lost and have maintained for almost 7 years now doing it. I earned those extra calories, I'm gonna eat them. Not only do I love eating food, but I also want to keep my body properly fueled so I don't burn out.
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I set my activity level to sedentary as I work a desk job, then any exercise I do on top of that I log and eat back the extra calories for after I subtract the calories I would have burned if I had just rested during that time using this net calorie converter.1
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CarvedTones wrote: »It depends on what activity level you used to compute your daily burn of calories. If you said you are fairly active exercising a few hours a week, then you are already getting "credit " for the first few hours.
To add to correct response by @sijomial - the hours of exercise merely created a goal on the Exercise Diary.
I've found the majority don't even notice it.
I wonder if it's still broken from years ago.
If you mean hoping the activity level makes up for doing some exercise - it really doesn't ramp up fast enough to incorporate exercise, since it has no corresponding level of matching exercise.
If walking is the exercise you mean, ya, there could be some trade, but you'd have no idea if correct trade.
Why not use it as designed rather than guessing.3 -
I set my activity level to sedentary as I work a desk job, then any exercise I do on top of that I log and eat back the extra calories for after I subtract the calories I would have burned if I had just rested during that time using this net calorie converter.
If interested in getting that accurate, may as well move it up a level.
MFP already had you estimated to burn a certain amount per day/hour/min.
A deficit was taken from that to give you your eating goal.
If you really want it correct, you want the calories from exercise above and beyond what was already accounted for.
And it was not BMR level burn like that site is doing.
It was BMR x activity factor.
This is why some exercise that is low level calorie burn and low intensity for a long time can be such a negative effect with the whole eat back method. And why for others doing more intense shorter things it doesn't matter and it works as expected.
Look at what MFP expects you to burn daily, or a fresh day's eating goal + deficit.
That non-exercise TDEE / 1440 = per minute calorie burn already accounted for.
Whatever estimate for exercise you receive from the database - subtract that.
Eat that back.0 -
mirandafinch wrote: »I find this so confusing, say I work hard to burn 300 calories at the gym should i be eating them back or keep the deficit?
You've received some good answers, but I also think it is important to know if you are in maintenance (you posted this in the maintaining weight forum) or if you are still set up to lose weight. If you are in maintenance you do not want to eat at a deficit so you need to eat back the exercise calories. And if you are trying to lose you already have a deficit built in so you should still eat back the exercise calories so that you don't have too large of a deficit.5 -
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Sorry, I didn't mean activity level on MFP. Poor choice of term when it's being used already.
I meant in context a higher level of accuracy. Which I then gave how to do.0 -
I eat back around 1/4 of the calories I burn and it seems to be working well for me.0
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mirandafinch wrote: »Thanks guys for taking the time to respond. I think following the eat them back if I’m hungry strategy will work for me, I’m sure I won’t actually need them all x
Except hunger cues aren't always the best indicator of whether more energy (calories) are needed, not always timed according to when the exercise occurred, etc. Some people find exercise blunts their hunger, some find it spikes it. Some feel nothing the day they do the exercise but then are ravenous days later. It's best to figure out a consistent approach and stick with that, in order to audit your results and monitor and adjust as needed.
For what it's worth - I always ate back all of my exercise calories, back when I was just using MFP estimates and now that I have a FitBit tracker. It didn't prevent me from losing weight at the desired rate of loss and it hasn't prevented me from successfully maintaining. Having too large of a deficit and losing weight faster isn't always desirable...6 -
Sorry, I didn't mean activity level on MFP. Poor choice of term when it's being used already.
I meant in context a higher level of accuracy. Which I then gave how to do.
Oh I misunderstood, sorry!0 -
Since this is an associated topic I'll jump in with a question...
I am about to get an RMR test and am a bit confused. Is RMR the same as NEAT?0 -
I will attempt to clarify Heybale's point
You use an external net calculator to estimate your net calories.
He is saying that you don't know if that calculation uses the same assumptions as MFP.
Bales suggested that you grab MFP calories from a new day, divide by 1440, and subtract that per minute value from your activity calories. They way you will have a more correct net.
ETA: oops, he did say plus deficit.
Add MFP cals from new day PLUS daily deficit and then divide by 1440 is his suggestion.
So our calculations (see next post) are *exactly* the same.
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If I understood correctly, Bale's suggestion would start from your target daily calories, which already include your deficit.
More correctly you can calculate your per minute value to deduct as follows:
http://www.myfitnesspal.com/tools/bmr-calculator
Multiply your MFP BMR from the above calculator by the following activity factor depending on how you're setup on MFP:
Sedentary, lightly active, active, very active use 1.25, 1.4, 1.6 and 1.8 respectively.
Divide total by 1440 for per minute value or by 24 for per hour value.
Subtract from gross exercise calories to get net value.0 -
mirandafinch wrote: »I find this so confusing, say I work hard to burn 300 calories at the gym should i be eating them back or keep the deficit?
If you're doing MFP the way it is intended then exercise isn't included in your activity level...thus your calorie target excludes exercise activity. Exercise increases your overall energy expenditure and this tool is designed for you to log and eat back additional calories for additional activity...that's how you account for that activity.
MFP will give me about 2000 calories per day to lose about 1 Lb per week...this doesn't include exercise...this only includes a light active activity setting...this means that MFP is estimating my NON exercise maintenance to be around 2500 calories.
When I exercise and say I burn 350 calories, my target will move from 2000 to 2350...I'm still going to lose the same 1 Lb per week because my maintenance also moved from 2500 to 2,850 and 2,850 - 2,350 = 500 calorie deficit still.1 -
Since this is an associated topic I'll jump in with a question...
I am about to get an RMR test and am a bit confused. Is RMR the same as NEAT?
No...NEAT would be additional daily activity like getting up and walking around and brushing your teeth and cooking, cleaning, going to work, etc...your RMR is basically your BMR...the calories you burn merely existing.3
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