Eating back those exercise calories!
luciewhitefield25
Posts: 70 Member
I am always in limbo about this question - do you eat back your exercise calories? At the moment I have lowered my daily intake from about 1600 a day to 1400 just to get rid of some of those Christmas calories I consumed! Feel like I have dropped some weight since but not officially weighing in until next week.
I don't really feel the need to eat back my exercise calories at the moment, perhaps at the weekend If I am out then I will have my daily allowance plus my exercise calories, but on a day to day basis I don't do this. I train 5-6 times a week, varying from boxing, PT, weight sessions and HIIT training so I am quite fit and do burn a fair amount of calories throughout the week! Should I be forcing myself to eat these back?
I am currently doing 16:8 IF, so that naturally cuts my calories down as I have a smaller time frame to eat, but if I really need to eat those calories back then I guess I should introduce breakfast again? Just wanted idea's really.. do you all eat yours back? Or only if you feel like you need it? Sometimes I just overthink it all!
I wear a Apple watch to measure my heart rate for my training, I normally average between 350-550 calories per session, I just worry that my daily intake - exercise = too fewer calories.
eg. 1400 - 400 = 1000 calories per day.
P.S I don't track every single item, my foods I do but I don't track my cups of tea or sauce used on food (fully aware my food isn't 100% accurate) I know it's probably within range of 200 calories different and I try to not obsess so just find it easier sticking to the main food that I consume.
I don't really feel the need to eat back my exercise calories at the moment, perhaps at the weekend If I am out then I will have my daily allowance plus my exercise calories, but on a day to day basis I don't do this. I train 5-6 times a week, varying from boxing, PT, weight sessions and HIIT training so I am quite fit and do burn a fair amount of calories throughout the week! Should I be forcing myself to eat these back?
I am currently doing 16:8 IF, so that naturally cuts my calories down as I have a smaller time frame to eat, but if I really need to eat those calories back then I guess I should introduce breakfast again? Just wanted idea's really.. do you all eat yours back? Or only if you feel like you need it? Sometimes I just overthink it all!
I wear a Apple watch to measure my heart rate for my training, I normally average between 350-550 calories per session, I just worry that my daily intake - exercise = too fewer calories.
eg. 1400 - 400 = 1000 calories per day.
P.S I don't track every single item, my foods I do but I don't track my cups of tea or sauce used on food (fully aware my food isn't 100% accurate) I know it's probably within range of 200 calories different and I try to not obsess so just find it easier sticking to the main food that I consume.
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It is actually pretty important to nail down logging accuracy before you determine how many exercise calories to eat back, and yes, if you use MFP's numbers you are meant to eat at least some of them back.
If you are not using a food scale to weigh your solid foods you could be off by far more than 200 calories.
I strongly suggest that for a few weeks (at least) you log everything you put in your mouth that has >0 calories per serving. Use that information to determine what calories you may not need to log within your personal margin of error comfort zone.
In the meantime you should consider eating back at least half of your exercise calories until you can determine your true rate of loss.
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While MFP is designed so that your exercise calories are eaten back, if your food logging is not on point you may wish to skip eating exercise calories to make up for underestimating food.
How long ago did you lower your intake? If it's been at least four weeks when you weigh in and you lost as expected while not eating exercise calories, you are under-counting your food. You can either tighten up your logging and eat exercise calories, or just continue as you are.
If you lose less than expected, you are really under counting your food and should definitely tighten up your logging.
If you lose more than expected, start eating back some percentage of your exercise calories.2 -
I am aware that I am logging inaccurately, I am also aware that I probably am not burning as much as I think I am according to my watch, therefore I feel quite comfortable not eating my exercise calories back (unless I am starving and need them!) I weigh all food that is logged, the only thing I haven't logged for today example is 2 cups of tea and I'll have some tomato ketchup with my fish cakes tonight.. so aware there is some give and take in there.
I have only been doing it for 3 weeks now, and jeans are fitting more comfortable than they was and I have my definition coming back on my stomach, so assuming something is working in the right direction. I just wanted to hear from people whether they eat theirs back or not.. I just read so many stories about the under eating your calories that I panic it isn't enough, but I guess you just need to listen to your body and go with that.
I don't have a set amount I want to loose, I was just going to weigh in to make sure I am heading in the right way, I have always weighed heavy for my size, but tend to carry a lot of muscle so I try to focus on how I am feeling/looking/clothes fitting rather than just going by the scales or as I like to call them.. sad steps lol!2 -
luciewhitefield25 wrote: »I am aware that I am logging inaccurately, I am also aware that I probably am not burning as much as I think I am according to my watch, therefore I feel quite comfortable not eating my exercise calories back (unless I am starving and need them!) I weigh all food that is logged, the only thing I haven't logged for today example is 2 cups of tea and I'll have some tomato ketchup with my fish cakes tonight.. so aware there is some give and take in there.
I have only been doing it for 3 weeks now, and jeans are fitting more comfortable than they was and I have my definition coming back on my stomach, so assuming something is working in the right direction. I just wanted to hear from people whether they eat theirs back or not.. I just read so many stories about the under eating your calories that I panic it isn't enough, but I guess you just need to listen to your body and go with that.
I don't have a set amount I want to loose, I was just going to weigh in to make sure I am heading in the right way, I have always weighed heavy for my size, but tend to carry a lot of muscle so I try to focus on how I am feeling/looking/clothes fitting rather than just going by the scales or as I like to call them.. sad steps lol!
If you don't want to log more accurately, then all you can go by is your weight. If after 4-6 weeks you are losing at too fast a pace, you need to eat more.
The problem is, if you don't really know how much weight you need to lose, don't really know how many calories you are eating, and aren't logging your exercise, you really have no benchmarks to go by. I guess, if you don't have a lot of weight to lose, you really probably shouldn't be averaging more than 1 lb per week. So if you start consistently losing faster, you need to increase your calories in.
Unfortunately, if "listening to my body" worked for me, I probably would've never needed to lose weight. I feel hunger when I'm not really hungry. I thought I was active, but my Fitbit proved me wrong. I thought I had decent muscle mass, until I actually tried weight lifting. Many symptoms of under-eating like loss of muscle, hair loss, weakened immune system - show up because damage is already done.
As a general rule for lurkers reading this thread - if you are using a calorie goal from MFP, YES you need to eat back at least some of your exercise calories. MFP calorie goals are too low if you aren't taking exercise into consideration, and under-eating is just as unhealthy as over-eating.
Figuring out the best way for you personally to find the right balance - where effort, results, and safety all work for you - can be difficult. What works for me is accuracy, but I know that's not the right way for everyone. But if your numbers are hazy, it's tough for us to really figure out if you're on the right track. 1000 calories net is too little, but who knows whether that's the real number or not? Hopefully you're getting enough info here, combined with the specifics you aren't giving us, to help you figure it out.10 -
I am happy you are starting to see and feel results after 3 weeks. That is a nice feeling. 3 weeks is unlikely enough time for you to have figured everything out though.
It is very important that you eat a healthy amount of calories. It is important enough to check and double check and then to periodically check again. A good rule is that you should not lose more than 1 percent of your body weight in a single week and I believe in giving that rule a comfortable margin. This is because your body can only metabolize a certain amount of fat each day before turning to muscle for energy.
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There is no way I can eat back my exercise calories. I cycled for 2 hours today and did squats, deadlift, overhead press and rows at the gym. I've eaten 2000 calories and I'm overestimating just in case of inaccuracies. Strava (linked to mfp) thinks I've burned 800 calories just on my bike ride. It hasn't made an assessment of the gym work.
There is no way I can eat even 500 more calories today and lose weight.
How accurate is the calories expended estimate?
I've lost 1lb per week for four weeks and I'm quite happy with it. I'm just doing this to be fitter and I'm desperate to not lose muscle. I'm am getting very tired though and finding it hard to wake up and I have had a nap in the day time, which I never do.
I'm just a bit confused about eating back any of these calories expended.1 -
@cyclefaster, the lethargy you are exhibiting is due to underfuelling. Eat back your exercise calories.
@luciewhitefield25, as above, be aware of lethargy. After 3 weeks you may be feeling fine, but learhargy sneaks up.
First you just can’t be bothered doing the odd little thing, then it is putting off movement so you will have the energy to work out, and/or lower workout performance.
This was my observation over a few weeks of not eating back lifting cals, few though they may be.
It took me,probably, longer to get my energy levels back, than it did to drop them.
(I say probably because it was hard to pinpoint when I started slowing down in hindsight)
If you are not wanting to do a 6-8 week tight monitoring of your intake/output and weight, at least monitor your energy levels, when not working out, and your weight (daily) very closely and up your calories as soon as you feel sluggish or lose over 0.5lbs a week.
Cheers, h.5 -
@cyclefastercyclefaster wrote: »There is no way I can eat back my exercise calories. I cycled for 2 hours today and did squats, deadlift, overhead press and rows at the gym. I've eaten 2000 calories and I'm overestimating just in case of inaccuracies. Strava (linked to mfp) thinks I've burned 800 calories just on my bike ride. It hasn't made an assessment of the gym work.
There is no way I can eat even 500 more calories today and lose weight.
How accurate is the calories expended estimate?
I've lost 1lb per week for four weeks and I'm quite happy with it. I'm just doing this to be fitter and I'm desperate to not lose muscle. I'm am getting very tired though and finding it hard to wake up and I have had a nap in the day time, which I never do.
I'm just a bit confused about eating back any of these calories expended.
The bolded comment makes no sense at all.
Your calorie balance determines weight loss/maintenance/gain not the simple amount of food you ate.
On my longest ride days I've had a calorie goal of almost 6,500.
Anything under that amount would indeed mean I'm in a calorie deficit and would have a net loss of fat.
Those awesome but skinny guys doing the Tour de France eat a huge volume of food to adequately fuel their vast energy expenditure and avoid "getting very tired", "finding it hard to wake up" and needing a nap.
If you want to match your cyclefaster profile name you need to fuel yourself properly. 2000 cals is often given as an average calorie intake for the mythical average female to maintain - with your exercise you are literally miles away from average!
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I love the 16:8 and sometimes struggle to get all my calories in because of the shorter feed window. I might have overlooked it if you said, but do you or have you tried supplements (protein bars/shakes, meal replacement bars/shakes) etc in your 8 hour window to help out? That's always the easiest way for me.1
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Right or wrong I never add my exercise into this app. So I never eat back the calories. I want a pure number from a calorie standpoint on what I need to eat regardless if I exercise or not (and what it takes to lose weight). I weight lift and walk but I don't feel I go hard enough to really eat the calories back. So far I don't feel that the weight is coming off too fast. I think if I was going much harder with the exercise I would probably eat some back. I hope this helps.3
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cyclefaster wrote: »There is no way I can eat back my exercise calories. I cycled for 2 hours today and did squats, deadlift, overhead press and rows at the gym. I've eaten 2000 calories and I'm overestimating just in case of inaccuracies. Strava (linked to mfp) thinks I've burned 800 calories just on my bike ride. It hasn't made an assessment of the gym work.
There is no way I can eat even 500 more calories today and lose weight.
How accurate is the calories expended estimate?
I've lost 1lb per week for four weeks and I'm quite happy with it. I'm just doing this to be fitter and I'm desperate to not lose muscle. I'm am getting very tired though and finding it hard to wake up and I have had a nap in the day time, which I never do.
I'm just a bit confused about eating back any of these calories expended.
Well yeah...you're going to be tired if you're not fueling 2 hour bike rides and whatnot...fitness requires fuel. On an easy endurance ride I'll go around 30 miles in a couple of hours and burn 800-900 calories...that's a lot of fuel out of the tank and not refueling would leave me in a deficit that is too large.
https://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10503681/exercise-calories-do-i-eat-these-a-video-explanation/p16 -
cyclefaster wrote: »There is no way I can eat back my exercise calories. I cycled for 2 hours today and did squats, deadlift, overhead press and rows at the gym. I've eaten 2000 calories and I'm overestimating just in case of inaccuracies. Strava (linked to mfp) thinks I've burned 800 calories just on my bike ride. It hasn't made an assessment of the gym work.
There is no way I can eat even 500 more calories today and lose weight.
How accurate is the calories expended estimate?
I've lost 1lb per week for four weeks and I'm quite happy with it. I'm just doing this to be fitter and I'm desperate to not lose muscle. I'm am getting very tired though and finding it hard to wake up and I have had a nap in the day time, which I never do.
I'm just a bit confused about eating back any of these calories expended.
If you use MFP to set your calorie goal, exercise, but don't eat back any exercise calories, you are not using MFP the way it was designed.
Unlike other sites which use TDEE calculators, MFP uses the NEAT method (Non-Exercise Activity Thermogenesis), and as such this system is designed for exercise calories to be eaten back. However, many consider the burns given by MFP to be inflated and only eat a percentage, such as 50%, back. Others, however, are able to lose weight while eating 100% of their exercise calories.
http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/818082/exercise-calories-again-wtf/p1
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@cyclefastercyclefaster wrote: »
There is no way I can eat even 500 more calories today and lose weight.
The bolded comment makes no sense at all.
Your calorie balance determines weight loss/maintenance/gain not the simple amount of food you ate.
On my longest ride days I've had a calorie goal of almost 6,500.
Anything under that amount would indeed mean I'm in a calorie deficit and would have a net loss of fat.
Fair enough. Let me try to explain.
I do a lot of exercise. The long stuff is done at a lower intensity, makes me very hungry and when I'm not dieting I eat loads. For example, I do 200km rides in 10 hours. I never lose weight doing this long stuff. Marathon training etc. I always end up weighing the same or more as when I started but I am much fitter through the training.
So I've stopped doing the long/slow endurance exercise to lose weight. I've got some big challenges this year and I need to be a stone lighter. I am still doing high-intensity exercise to maintain fitness and weight training in the hope that I'll retain as much muscle mass as possible.
I've put into MFP that I am very active and get 2,300 calories a day to eat. This is more than what I eat when I'm not cutting. If I cycle to work and back the app adds on 700 calories or more. Unfortunately, it doesn't track the weight training.
I've been logging meticulously and I am eating around 2,000 calories a day. I've done this for four weeks and I'm losing 1lb a week. I'm drinking almost no alcohol and no fast food / crisps / chips or anything like that but this has been what I eat for a long time. Years.
I've also got polycystic ovaries so I'm cutting back on carbs but not cutting them out entirely. I still eat sweet potato, rye bread and brown rice but not in the evening.
So I suppose I'm asking, is my deficit 300 calories at the moment or 1000 calories or somewhere inbetween?
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cyclefaster wrote: »
@cyclefastercyclefaster wrote: »
There is no way I can eat even 500 more calories today and lose weight.
The bolded comment makes no sense at all.
Your calorie balance determines weight loss/maintenance/gain not the simple amount of food you ate.
On my longest ride days I've had a calorie goal of almost 6,500.
Anything under that amount would indeed mean I'm in a calorie deficit and would have a net loss of fat.
Fair enough. Let me try to explain.
I do a lot of exercise. The long stuff is done at a lower intensity, makes me very hungry and when I'm not dieting I eat loads. For example, I do 200km rides in 10 hours. I never lose weight doing this long stuff. Marathon training etc. I always end up weighing the same or more as when I started but I am much fitter through the training.
So I've stopped doing the long/slow endurance exercise to lose weight. I've got some big challenges this year and I need to be a stone lighter. I am still doing high-intensity exercise to maintain fitness and weight training in the hope that I'll retain as much muscle mass as possible.
I've put into MFP that I am very active and get 2,300 calories a day to eat. This is more than what I eat when I'm not cutting. If I cycle to work and back the app adds on 700 calories or more. Unfortunately, it doesn't track the weight training.
I've been logging meticulously and I am eating around 2,000 calories a day. I've done this for four weeks and I'm losing 1lb a week. I'm drinking almost no alcohol and no fast food / crisps / chips or anything like that but this has been what I eat for a long time. Years.
I've also got polycystic ovaries so I'm cutting back on carbs but not cutting them out entirely. I still eat sweet potato, rye bread and brown rice but not in the evening.
So I suppose I'm asking, is my deficit 300 calories at the moment or 1000 calories or somewhere inbetween?
The best estimator of your deficit is your weight loss rate, over a long enough time period to be certain you're not just seeing fluctuations. For premenopausal women, that will necessarily be at least a full menstrual cycle plus a bit, and preferably a couple of them. For other sub-groups, shorter may work, but long enough to ignore the first week or two of loss, if weight is roller-coastering or otherwise behaving non-characteristically then, which is common.
However, if you're feeling fatigued or weak persistently, with no other good explanation, you're underfueling (in all likelihood), no matter how sensible your loss rate is theoretically, IMO.
ETA: A pound a week, if enough data to be certain, would be a 500 calorie daily deficit, on average. That would be too high IMO for someone with less than maybe 20-25 pounds to lose, and possibly for some above that . . . and the "if fatigued/weak" rule still applies. Again, just my opinion.
Edited: typo4 -
cyclefaster wrote: »
@cyclefastercyclefaster wrote: »
There is no way I can eat even 500 more calories today and lose weight.
The bolded comment makes no sense at all.
Your calorie balance determines weight loss/maintenance/gain not the simple amount of food you ate.
On my longest ride days I've had a calorie goal of almost 6,500.
Anything under that amount would indeed mean I'm in a calorie deficit and would have a net loss of fat.
Fair enough. Let me try to explain.
I do a lot of exercise. The long stuff is done at a lower intensity, makes me very hungry and when I'm not dieting I eat loads. For example, I do 200km rides in 10 hours. I never lose weight doing this long stuff. Marathon training etc. I always end up weighing the same or more as when I started but I am much fitter through the training.
So I've stopped doing the long/slow endurance exercise to lose weight. I've got some big challenges this year and I need to be a stone lighter. I am still doing high-intensity exercise to maintain fitness and weight training in the hope that I'll retain as much muscle mass as possible.
I've put into MFP that I am very active and get 2,300 calories a day to eat. This is more than what I eat when I'm not cutting. If I cycle to work and back the app adds on 700 calories or more. Unfortunately, it doesn't track the weight training.
I've been logging meticulously and I am eating around 2,000 calories a day. I've done this for four weeks and I'm losing 1lb a week. I'm drinking almost no alcohol and no fast food / crisps / chips or anything like that but this has been what I eat for a long time. Years.
I've also got polycystic ovaries so I'm cutting back on carbs but not cutting them out entirely. I still eat sweet potato, rye bread and brown rice but not in the evening.
So I suppose I'm asking, is my deficit 300 calories at the moment or 1000 calories or somewhere inbetween?
You do realise that the activity setting has absolutely nothing to do with your exercise? It is purely your job and lifestyle.
You can get an estimate for strength training but you have to enter the duration in the CV part of the exercise diary.
The TDEE method gives you same every day allowance but that includes an estimate of your exercise already, unlike MyFitnessPal. Trying to eat the same every day with a highly varied and intense exercise routine doesn't tend to work well.
I wish you well but showing signs of fatigue already doesn't look good.
One sure fire way I spot sign of overtraining/under fuelling during intense pre-event training is a rise in my resting heart rate - you might think about tracking yours.6 -
Thank you @AnnPT77
Very interesting. I am premenopausal so it'll be interesting to see what happens in a couple of weeks. I have been eating more carbs when I've been very tired to try to compensate and boost energy.
I've always found losing weight very difficult. And so it continues.
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cyclefaster wrote: »cyclefaster wrote: »
You do realise that the activity setting has absolutely nothing to do with your exercise? It is purely your job and lifestyle.
I wish you well but showing signs of fatigue already doesn't look good.
One sure fire way I spot sign of overtraining/under fuelling during intense pre-event training is a rise in my resting heart rate - you might think about tracking yours.
Yes, I do know activity setting it is about my job and lifestyle. I'm very active. I don't have a desk job.
I'll track my resting HR as you suggest. I regularly put a HR monitor on and I haven't noticed it being elevated but I'll keep my eye on it. I also factor in plenty of rest days from exercise but my job is quite strenuous.0 -
If you're including exercise in your activity level, you wouldn't want to log it again...it's already accounted for in your target. The reason (if done as designed) you log exercise and get additional calories with MFP is because exercise isn't to be included in your activity level and thus not accounted for, so you account for it after the fact when you log it.2
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JohnnytotheB wrote: »Right or wrong I never add my exercise into this app. So I never eat back the calories. I want a pure number from a calorie standpoint on what I need to eat regardless if I exercise or not (and what it takes to lose weight). I weight lift and walk but I don't feel I go hard enough to really eat the calories back. So far I don't feel that the weight is coming off too fast. I think if I was going much harder with the exercise I would probably eat some back. I hope this helps.
To the bolded: You basically just described your TDEE. If you don't want to log or eat back your exercise calories for whatever reason, you can use an online calculator to find your TDEE, subtract calories from that (250 a day for .5lb a week, 500 for 1lb a week, and so on) and eat to that number every day regardless of whether or not you exercise. Personally, I just dont like logging exercise calories, dont have a tracker, and really just dont want to deal with it. So, I used this method and manually put my calorie goal into MFP and by following that number I've lost and gained weight at exactly the intended rate (I average .56lb a week, currently). So I've found it to be pretty accurate without all the guess work.
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thanks for your messages guys! I am going to weigh in next week, see what the figures say and what my rate is for weight loss then decide whether I need to look closer at logging/eating more etc.. I am liking the routine I have now and feel good so fingers crossed I don't crash. Plus I like the idea of not eating my exercise calories back so if I do have a treat on the weekend (maybe a dessert or a meal out) I know I have some room to play form what I have saved during the week. But by all means, as soon as I feel like I am about to "crash" with my energy levels, not wanting to train then I definitely will eat more as I have burnt myself out before when training for the Marathon and not eating enough - it wasn't pleasant!!!
Only time will tell! Will keep you all updated. Does anyone else do IF? I do occasionally have Protein shakes when I have heavy training days and not enough protein from my food intake, but I don't have them everyday, I find that they make me feel very bloated!
I use to have really unrealistic goals when I first started my journey but now I am aware that good things take time, dedication & some patience! love listening to everyone's stories on here!
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Super. I've just done my TDEE. I have to eat 2,547 calories to maintain. So 2,047 to lose a pound a week for me. Pretty much where I am without eating the exercise calories. I'll cautiously up my calories on a day that I do hard workouts. It still seems like a lot to me but I am tired so does make sense.
I'm going out for sushi tomorrow so that should wipe you most of my under fueling.1 -
I don't regularly do it, but every once in a while if I wanted a little more to eat in a day I would use them up.0
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What did you use to calculate your TDEE? I always feel that over 2000k is LOADS of food for me, but I think perhaps 1600-1800 would be more ideal for me long term once I have lost this extra bit of weight that I am carrying. I have found when calculating my TDEE I end up with a few different results depending what I use.0
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I used this: https://tdeecalculator.net
I feel like 2000 is loads of food too but I'll stick to it and see how it goes. I would like to get more scientific about my diet so that I can keep track of my weight when I go back to endurance exercise. I need to be much more honest with myself when I have rest days so I don't eat back the calories that I've expended.0
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