Should I eat back my exercise calories?

@SparklesFer097 I moved this to the general help board, you will get better answers here.

If you are using a MFP guided goal the deficit to lose your selected rate of loss is already built in ( unless you were given 1200 calories, if thats the case I can elaborate more on it). The system is designed so you to eat your exercise calories back. Not eating them back may give you a really big deficit, which speeds up weight loss but also can have other less awesome side effects (hangry anyone?). Most people eat back about half of their exercise calories if measured by MFP entry, or exercise equipment, as these methods tend to overestimate. Personal trackers may be more accurate. After a few weeks you can measure your progress, if you aren't seeing the results you expect exercise calories may be something you should to adjust.

Yes you should be accounting for your exercise.
Apart from being how this site is designed to be used it's also a great lesson for life after weight loss - you do more you eat more, you do less you need to eat less.

Your weight training can be logged as "strength training" (under CV part of the exercise diary), it's reasonable and modest estimate.
Your HIIT is more problematic to estimate - what exactly are you doing? (HIIT isn't an exercise, it's a style of doing a particular exercise.)

I choose to let hunger be my guide then try to make a healthful choice. Often an apple with a light string cheese or a banana... maybe even a handful of almonds. Sometimes I am hungry the day after a workout. I use the weekly net calories to guide me there

Agree with most folks here - let your own body guide your choices (i.e. everyone's requirements are different). Like @mybattle2006 , I do not eat back my calories. It is near impossible to know how many calories you burned during exercise (very difficult for resistance/weight training). However, if you have a general idea (and feel hungry) I would ensure you are eating a healthy diet (you know, protein and complex carbs) and then eat back 1/2 of what MFP is saying you 'earned'. I spoke to a co-worker about this (he holds a PhD in biology) and asked him about this very thing last Friday. His advice was that 'you definitely can eat back your calories - people make to big of a deal about dieting, it is simple and has not changed: eat less than your tdee and your lose wait, eat more and you'll gain it back'(ie calories in-calories out)'. He did point out though (and thats why I mentioned it) that it is difficult to accurately measure how many calories you burned during a workout and that is wher ea lot of people see stalls or even failures (gaining fat). They overeat because they think they are just eating back to deficit. If all else fails you can calculate MET (go with the lowest figure) and use that as your 'earned'. Good luck

Example of MET: I am on the 5x5 program. Yesterday was 45m (Squats,Bench,Barbell Row). The MET calculator says this type of activity is a 8.0 but I put it at 6.0. The result was ->384 calories burned. However, the compendium (see reference 2, below) notes this type of activity [resistance (weight) training, squats , slow or explosive effort] is [5.0] I go with the conservative estimate [5.0] and the result is ->320 kc burned. I cap this at 300 to be more conservative.

How to calculate MET by hand? MET*3.5*weight(kg)/200 = X*minutes . Example from above: 5*3.5*81/200=7.0875*45=319kc burned.

See:
https://www.businessinsider.com/how-to-calculate-calories-burned-exercise-met-value-2017-8
https://sites.google.com/site/compendiumofphysicalactivities/Activity-Categories
https://www.cooperinstitute.org/2017/12/07/using-met-minutes-to-track-volume-of-physical-activity

phke5716 wrote: »

Agree with most folks here - let your own body guide your choices (i.e. everyone's requirements are different). Like @mybattle2006 , I do not eat back my calories. It is near impossible to know how many calories you burned during exercise (very difficult for resistance/weight training). However, if you have a general idea (and feel hungry) I would ensure you are eating a healthy diet (you know, protein and complex carbs) and then eat back 1/2 of what MFP is saying you 'earned'. I spoke to a co-worker about this (he holds a PhD in biology) and asked him about this very thing last Friday. His advice was that 'you definitely can eat back your calories - people make to big of a deal about dieting, it is simple and has not changed: eat less than your tdee and your lose wait, eat more and you'll gain it back'(ie calories in-calories out)'. He did point out though (and thats why I mentioned it) that it is difficult to accurately measure how many calories you burned during a workout and that is wher ea lot of people see stalls or even failures (gaining fat). They overeat because they think they are just eating back to deficit. If all else fails you can calculate MET (go with the lowest figure) and use that as your 'earned'. Good luck

Example of MET: I am on the 5x5 program. Yesterday was 45m (Squats,Bench,Barbell Row). The MET calculator says this type of activity is a 8.0 but I put it at 6.0. The result was ->384 calories burned. However, the compendium (see reference 2, below) notes this type of activity [resistance (weight) training, squats , slow or explosive effort] is [5.0] I go with the conservative estimate [5.0] and the result is ->320 kc burned. I cap this at 300 to be more conservative.

How to calculate MET by hand? MET*3.5*weight(kg)/200 = X*minutes . Example from above: 5*3.5*81/200=7.0875*45=319kc burned.

See:
https://www.businessinsider.com/how-to-calculate-calories-burned-exercise-met-value-2017-8
https://sites.google.com/site/compendiumofphysicalactivities/Activity-Categories
https://www.cooperinstitute.org/2017/12/07/using-met-minutes-to-track-volume-of-physical-activity

But you know you burned SOME cals during exercise so eating NONE of them back is definitely wrong....

It’s really not a choice between absolute accuracy and nothing at all. Pick a method of estimating calorie burn: Calculator, HRM, MFP estimate, Equipment estimate, etc. Log that number. Eat back whatever you’re comfortable with - 50% is what a lot of people start with. If you lose at desired rate then keep using that same approach. If you lose faster than your chosen rate of loss - eat back a little more. If you lose slower - eat back a little less.

Just pick a number and stick with it for 4-6 weeks and monitor and adjust as needed. It’s simple trial and error but eating back none, if you are following the MFP method - is definitely not the right answer.