Do you eat back your exercise calories?
Replies
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Yes I eat them. Every delicious one of them.
If I don’t, I am hungry, cranky, tired, unable to do well with my runs and workouts, I can’t really fit in “treats” and “fun foods” and I feel deprived and prone to binges. I’m also less active in general because I’m so tired and grumpy that I end up burning even fewer calories in my normal every day to day life.
When I eat them, I’m not hungry, I get adequate nutrition and can also fit in treats and fun foods (which is incredibly important), my runs and workouts are well fueled, I have the energy to participate in life, I don’t binge, and I’m generally far more pleasant to be around.
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TrishSeren wrote: »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%.
Trackers really aren't necessary. Stick with your 50% and after several weeks, adjust up or down according to your results. Good for you for working on your debt. I'm doing the same.7 -
TavistockToad wrote: »I deliberately underestimate my exercise calories to allow for error. For example I walk for 60 minutes on a treadmill. The treadmill says I've burnt 450 calories. I treat that as 300 calories, allowing for any errors, then I eat back 75% of those so 225. It works for me.
So you eat half....?
In that example yes but not always. For instance if I walk for 90 minutes and it says I've burnt 600 if probably treat that as 500 and eat back 400. I suppose roughly half is a good starting point.
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I'll be honest, I don't really get why it's a thing to think of as a concept?
As I see it, we eat a certain number of calories a day because it has been calculated that we USE a certain number of calories a day and we adjust what we eat based on that. Saying 'I'm not eating back my exercise calories today' is basically just saying, ' I'm going to have more a calorie deficit today,' that's all.
Because we have a giant tub of calories-used that we entitle "calories you used today by being alive and doing what you do." And it involves all the calories we used to breathe, to sleep, to drive, to draw, to move, to digest food, etc... Exercise is no different from any other category of 'calories-used.'
And just as I wouldn't think about it as eating back breathing or sleeping calories, I wouldn't think about eating back exercise calories, because it's effectively the same thing, IMHO.
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I'll be honest, I don't really get why it's a thing to think of as a concept?
As I see it, we eat a certain number of calories a day because it has been calculated that we USE a certain number of calories a day and we adjust what we eat based on that. Saying 'I'm not eating back my exercise calories today' is basically just saying, ' I'm going to have more a calorie deficit today,' that's all.
Because we have a giant tub of calories-used that we entitle "calories you used today by being alive and doing what you do." And it involves all the calories we used to breathe, to sleep, to drive, to draw, to move, to digest food, etc... Exercise is no different from any other category of 'calories-used.'
And just as I wouldn't think about it as eating back breathing or sleeping calories, I wouldn't think about eating back exercise calories, because it's effectively the same thing, IMHO.
It is different on here because exercise is deliberately excluded from your "giant tub of calories".
What you are describing is how TDEE calculators work and MyFitnessPal isn't a TDEE calculator.9 -
No I do not. Calories burned is an estimate, I try to stay under my original suggested calories as it is. If you want to lose weight you have to burn more than you consume.11
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DoubleUbea wrote: »No I do not. Calories burned is an estimate, I try to stay under my original suggested calories as it is. If you want to lose weight you have to burn more than you consume.
Except when you use MFP and set your account to lose weight, your deficit is already incorporated into your calorie goal. You are supposed to consume enough calories to meet that goal, not under it. It expects you to log exercise and eat at least some of those calories back if you believe they're over-estimated. You're not doing yourself any favors but not eating any exercise calories back and creating an even bigger deficit by not eating the appropriate amount of calories MFP gives you.7 -
Thank you but If I am not hungry I am not going to eat. I never feel hungry when I close the day.
I am sure the treadmill is over estimating my calories burned. Everything I read has said those treadmill estimates usually over estimate your calories burned.
When I complete the day MFP will give me a warning if I have not eaten enough. I have not seen the warning since my first week, when I wasn't logging everything correctly.6 -
Not unless i work out on a rest day, like someone said above, my macros account for my daily energy expenditure. If for some reason I overeat I will use exercise to try to compensate but don't prefer doing that0
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DoubleUbea wrote: »Thank you but If I am not hungry I am not going to eat. I never feel hungry when I close the day.
I am sure the treadmill is over estimating my calories burned. Everything I read has said those treadmill estimates usually over estimate your calories burned.
When I complete the day MFP will give me a warning if I have not eaten enough. I have not seen the warning since my first week, when I wasn't logging everything correctly.
Not feeling hungry doesn't mean your body doesn't need the food. While a higher deficit means more weight lost in the week, it can be detrimental in the long run (muscle loss, hair loss, brittle nails, hormonal issues, missed periods, etc.). There are formulas that can nearly guarantee how much you burn walking or running if you don't want to trust what the treadmill says, or you can log half of the amount and eat that much.5 -
DoubleUbea wrote: »Thank you but If I am not hungry I am not going to eat. I never feel hungry when I close the day.
I am sure the treadmill is over estimating my calories burned. Everything I read has said those treadmill estimates usually over estimate your calories burned.
When I complete the day MFP will give me a warning if I have not eaten enough. I have not seen the warning since my first week, when I wasn't logging everything correctly.
Best of luck to you then!3 -
DoubleUbea wrote: »No I do not. Calories burned is an estimate, I try to stay under my original suggested calories as it is. If you want to lose weight you have to burn more than you consume.
MFP gives you a calorie goal for losing weight without exercising. If you eat your exercise calories, you will still be burning more than you consume.
Even your calorie goal is an estimate and you may burn more or less than the number the estimate is based off of. So, choosing not to eat any exercise calories at all because the numbers might be inflated for you does not seem reasonable. What does seem reasonable is eating a percentage and adjusting based off of real world results after a reasonable period of time (4-6 weeks).
ETA: I eat all of my fitbit adjustment. There is no way I would be properly fueled if I didn't.
I've lost just fine and am in maintenance.4 -
I have my daily calories set higher than the MFP recommendation so I eat between 1400 and 1500 a day. I tend not to eat back my exercise calories unless I'm having a hungry day or I've had an intense work out.
I never let myself go hungry though. If I need extra food and I've done the work I'm going to eat and enjoy it0 -
I eat my Fitbit adjustment and half of my exercise calories.0
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Not really, but I don't worry so much about going over my goal range.0
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I eat back some of my exercise calories, but on days I exercise, I like to leave at least 315 calories in the green.0
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There is no way I could meet my fitness goals and maintain my energy if I didn't eat back my exercise calories.2
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Only rarely. I’m in my 40’s and weight loss is slow enough as it is. If I’m really hungry I’ll eat back some, but I don’t really exercise that strenuously anyway.0
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I switched a long time ago to IIFYM. I do the same amount of exercise each week without fail, so those calories are already calculated into my daily calories. I simply go to iifym.com, use their macro calculator, answer all the questions honestly about how much exercise I do, enter those calories into MFP and adjust the macros like it tells me and eat the same amount every day. This way I don't have to starve on rest days and eat more on days I exercise. It's the same every day and works just the same over time. The catch is that you can't slack off on the exercise you input in their calculators or you'll either gain weight or not lose at the projected rate. Any exercise that gets entered into MFP automatically by my apps/devices I simply change the calorie burn to 0 or 1 so that I'm not double dipping on calories. If I do anything above and beyond what I planned on a weekly basis I may keep those calories and eat about 50% of them back.0
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When cutting I tend to leave about a 100 calorie buffer to account for logging errors/calorie burn estimate errors. But the best way to know how accurate everything is, is to watch your body weight on the scale, to see if you're losing at the expected rate. If not, your calorie burns may be over estimated or you may have a logging error. If you're losing faster than expected, you can eat back more if you like.0
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