Do you eat back your exercise calories?

LauraSrock18
LauraSrock18 Posts: 125 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
If so, how much? How often?

And did you notice a difference eating back exercise calories vs not eating them back?
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Replies

  • SCoil123
    SCoil123 Posts: 2,108 Member
    When losing I at all or most of my exercise calories. I had FitBit synced and went by the adjustments. I needed to properly fuel my workouts. My goal was to get fit not just lose weight.

    Now I’m in maintenance and have transitioned to using the TDEE method which accounts for my activity but has me eating the same amount pretty much every day.
  • Freedom1862
    Freedom1862 Posts: 20 Member
    Yes, as much of them as possible
  • AnvilHead
    AnvilHead Posts: 18,344 Member
    https://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10503681/exercise-calories-do-i-eat-these-a-video-explanation/p1
  • amusedmonkey
    amusedmonkey Posts: 10,330 Member
    I always do. Dare I say none of my 100 lb lost would have been possible without it because I can't maintain a deficit without it.
  • MelanieCN77
    MelanieCN77 Posts: 4,047 Member
    All of them - I am set up so I can count on my numbers, though. There's some fuzzy math - I eat all exercise cals but am set to sedentary when I'm not really - but it balances out for me.
  • sgt1372
    sgt1372 Posts: 3,976 Member
    I eat all of my exercise cals back because I am in maintenance and exercise mainly to be able to eat more.

    My maintenance level is currently 1850 cal/day and I row 1 hr/day which burns 550 cals/day which allows me to eat 2400 rather than just 1850 cals/day.

    This eliminates any hunger, provides,greater freedom in fpod choices and allows me to eat more protein and other nutrients,than I could on just 1850 cal/day.
  • Panini911
    Panini911 Posts: 2,325 Member
    edited July 2018
    not really but I probably set my daily calories to play into that (I am at 1300 cals while MFP recommends 1200 if I input my data and let it calculate)
  • AnnPT77
    AnnPT77 Posts: 31,972 Member
    I ate all of them while losing, and now in maintenance. I did take special pains at first to estimate them as carefully as possible, though, comparing various sources of estimates and usually picking the lowest plausible one.

    If I didn't eat them back, my exercise performance would suffer, I'd feel fatigued/weak, and generally not enjoy life as much. (How do I know these things would happen, if I always ate them back? When I first joined MFP, it gave me a calorie goal that was too low for me, so I underate, and those bad things happened . . . and it took several weeks to recover even though I corrected as soon as I realized I was losing too fast. Undereating, and not fueling exercise, get one to the same place calorically, even if the calculation details differ.)
  • kami3006
    kami3006 Posts: 4,978 Member
    I eat every one of them but I don't take a tracker's word for it. I started with about 75% of the value given and assessed my progress after several weeks. Now I know what my actual burns are and I use them all. I tried early on to not eat them but my exercise suffered and my weight lifting plateaued. With them, I lost at the exact rate that I wanted to.
  • nutmegoreo
    nutmegoreo Posts: 15,532 Member
    No.... BUT I don't use the MFP target. I aim for between 1500 and 1700. MFP gave me 1200. I like have a set daily target. And 1200 calories per day makes my dog look like a tasty steak, or ribs...
  • DomesticKat
    DomesticKat Posts: 565 Member
    I eat them all. I use my Fitbit and go by the adjustment it gives me. I would be losing way too fast and would have zero energy otherwise.
  • cwolfman13
    cwolfman13 Posts: 41,876 Member
    https://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10503681/exercise-calories-do-i-eat-these-a-video-explanation/p1
  • ssssanaaaa
    ssssanaaaa Posts: 567 Member
    I used to but then I read a couple of research papers that suggested that people tend to overestimate their calories burned through exercise so that's when I decided to stop since I was trying to lose weight and figured that whatever I burned would aid the weight loss. That being said, I did not do STRENUOUS exercise. Just jogging and some weight lifting. If you ARE, I'd suggest going ahead and eating them back otherwise you could actually be harming yourself if you're not eating enough. I think it just depends on the person. Listening to your body is important. If you find yourself feeling famished and fatigued after a workout that probably tells you that you should eat some more! :)
  • TrishSeren
    TrishSeren Posts: 587 Member
    I stopped because I have to rely on the database (I'm trying to get out of debt so can't afford a tracking device yet :) ) and I don't think it's accurate.

    For example, I seriously doubt I'm burning 237 calories in a 30 min spin class. I used to eat them all back but now I'm aiming for 50%.

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