Calorie deficit & exercise calories earnt

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I'm currently on a calorie deficit and when I cycle it's adding the calories burnt to what I can eat. Should I be consuming these & how would if impact on my goal of loosing body fat %

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  • sijomial
    sijomial Posts: 19,811 Member
    edited April 2018
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    Yes your base calorie goal is for a day you don't exercise.
    Eating back your exercise calories has the impact of keeping your calorie deficit at the rate you selected in your goals.

    But beware the calorie estimates for cycling in the exercise database here. The speed categories are just generic and might work if you are cycling off road but in my experience for a road bike they are badly over-stated.
    Just like the food database - use with thoughtfulness and don't assume everything is accurate.

    Indoor cycling I convert power output (watts) to calories, outdoor cycling I use Strava which for me at least comes up with pretty reasonable estimates.

  • LivingtheLeanDream
    LivingtheLeanDream Posts: 13,342 Member
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    Yes, eat back your exercise calories. Be aware that they are estimated burns so you can err on the side of caution and eat say 50% of them back. If you are losing at a faster rate then you'll know you can eat more of them back.
  • Jamesb2405
    Jamesb2405 Posts: 19 Member
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    Thank you so much for the responses, I'll stick to eating back 50% of what gets burnt. Its all applied by my fitbit for walking and cycling that I do.
  • fitoverfortymom
    fitoverfortymom Posts: 3,452 Member
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    Sounds like you are on the right track!