Exercise calories?

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kes820
kes820 Posts: 5 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
Am I supposed to eat the calories I burn through exercise?

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  • mowu
    mowu Posts: 245 Member
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    MFP is build around the concept that you should eat back the exercise calories.

    You will find people adhering strictly to the mindset that YES you should always do it and you will find people adhering to NO you should never do it....and a broad spectra of everything in between.

    I would recommend trying to eat back your calories and find out what works optimally for YOU - personally I try o eat back most of my exercise calories, but more often than not I can only eat back about half of them. This works for me - but it may work differently for you.
  • dgirllamius
    dgirllamius Posts: 171 Member
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    I eat mine back and haven't had any set backs so far. As long as I net in over 1200 but not going over my overall limit then it's fine. Plus it's nice to have something nice to eat for dinner instead of something boring. Worth working for IMO.
  • robin52077
    robin52077 Posts: 4,383 Member
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    yes, the program is designed that way. There is already a deficit built into your goal so if you burn more you need to eat it to keep the deficit where it is and not make it TOO large which can hinder more than help.

    Provided you know a fairly accurate burn from an HRM or other device. If you use MFPs burn estimates then only eat half of it to be safe because they overestimate. Most cardio machines at gyms overestimate too.
    You want to eat them so your body has fuel, but not if the number was entered way too high, in which case you'll eat up your deficit and just maintain instead of lose.

    So eat, but be conservative with burn numbers.
  • aigam
    aigam Posts: 2
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    I agree, you must be very cautious basing on cardio figures pre-defined in MFP. As I started using Endomondo for my bicycling I've discovered that discrepancy in calorie burn score vary between 35-50%. Endomondo use GPS tracker which allowes to calculate actual speed and altitude changes. In effect the numbers are way more precise and reliable.

    Cheers, M
  • seyran
    seyran Posts: 43
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    I do not eat them back as when I eat I feel like I am only maintaining my weight. So for now I decided to eat 1/3 or half of them. Everyone is different so I think you should observe your body and decide accordingly.

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