Eating calories burned
lyuro57
Posts: 10 Member
Should I be eating my calories burned? I've heard varying opinions on this!
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Replies
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If you were losing weight then , I wouldn't if I were you. People tend to cheat both counting their food calories and exercise calories. If anything, not eating your exercise calories will provide you with a safe cushion that you actually running a deficit.23
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As i said in your other post - If you are using MFP to determine calories to eat YES. MFP is designed in a way you must eat back the exercise calories burned.
MFP gives you an amount to lose based on info you entered WITHOUT any purposeful exericse. if you don't eat the exercise calories you are INCREASING the deficit and thus under fueling your body which can lead to health issues.
here is a more detailed explanation
https://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10503681/exercise-calories-do-i-eat-these-a-video-explanation/p1
and more info on how MFP works:
https://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/1399829/step-by-step-guide-to-losing-weight-with-myfitnesspal
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We have to agree to disagree.13
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This is why I posted the question. Many people say don't eat them, then I have others who say you should. I haven't been, but since I've increased my workouts I've found myself hungry more, tired, etc...
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This is why I posted the question. Many people say don't eat them, then I have others who say you should. I haven't been, but since I've increased my workouts I've found myself hungry more, tired, etc...
Well... Unfortunately, you won't find a single answer. It really depends on your unique situation. If you get tired and dizzy, then may be yes you need to eat more. Maybe you need to change your macros. Maybe you need more energy carbs, maybe you don't have enough fats in your diet. Often it is not about amount of calories, but the composition of your diet and whether you get enough micro-nutrients and vitamins.
It's hard to say. Everyone's situation is fairly unique when you get to the nuts and bolts.
It works best for me when i don't eat the calories. I learned that experimental way over a long period of time.
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We have to agree to disagree.
The biggest problem is that if you are not underestimating the calories you are eating and you don't eat back your exercise calories, you run the risk of undereating which has negative health consequences. I burn around 500 additional calories a day. If I didn't eat them back I'd have been averaging around 700-800 net calories a day only when I was losing. Does that sound healthy to you? Not only that, at some point you need to look into maintenance. How can you successfully and easily transition into maintenance if you really have no idea of how much you are eating and burning?17 -
That's my thought. Some days my net calories are like 500-600 a day, it was my understanding that you should never eat below 1200. Well if I'm eating 1200 but burning 500+ that seems terrible for my overall health.4
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Lillymoo01 wrote: »We have to agree to disagree.
The biggest problem is that if you are not underestimating the calories you are eating and you don't eat back your exercise calories, you run the risk of undereating which has negative health consequences. I burn around 500 additional calories a day. If I didn't eat them back I'd have been averaging around 700-800 net calories a day only when I was losing. Does that sound healthy to you? Not only that, at some point you need to look into maintenance. How can you successfully and easily transition into maintenance if you really have no idea of how much you are eating and burning?
That's why my first sentence in my first post was "If you were losing weight...." at that point running 500 deficit or occasionally 1000 deficit won't make any difference. You have all the fat in the world to burn. Just make sure you get those micro-nutrients and vitamins, and yes it's healthy.
Enough protein too if you need to preserve your muscle mass and do any strength training
If you are on a maintenance or bulking up, it's a totally different story.
I was only commenting about people who are trying to lose weight.15 -
You are the only one who can answer that. You have to experiment and find what works for you. I eat mine back but others don't.
There is no one size fits all.3 -
That's my thought. Some days my net calories are like 500-600 a day, it was my understanding that you should never eat below 1200. Well if I'm eating 1200 but burning 500+ that seems terrible for my overall health.
it IS terrible for your health.
https://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10569458/why-eating-too-little-calories-is-a-bad-idea/p1
how long have you been tracking your food now? how much have you lost?7 -
I've been tracking for around 1.5-2 months. I've lost 12 lbs.2
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Which is what I'm aiming to do, don't get me wrong. But I want to do it in a healthy way!0
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Congrats on the weight loss!
What you're describing sounds like what happens when you don't get enough food. And the numbers back it up.
You're going to want to keep the weight off one you get to your goal. I mean it'll fluctuates and your goal will turn out to be a range not a single number, but you want to stay in that range, not gain it all back. Running unsustainably big deficits can get dinner weight off quickly, but it's not a long term strategy for keeping it off. Running a moderate deficit, including eating your exercise calories, will help you establish habits that will serve you long term.5 -
We have to agree to disagree.
Are you agreeing to disagree with a previous poster or with the way MFP is designed to be used? If you use MFP to set up your calorie target, then you’re meant to eat back exercise calories, provided you’re logging accurately. By not doing so, as OP indicates and ending up with net intake of 400-500 calories, you risk loss of lean body mass, fatigue, brittle nails, sallow skin and eventually organ damage.
But hey as you said, to each their own! Who wants a healthy head of hair, good skin and energy to support an active lifestyle. <sarcasm>16 -
This isn't an opinion question. It is a question about using MFP correctly, using MFP incorrectly, or using a different method of calculating your calorie goal.
MFP's calorie calculations take into account the non-exercise activity that you stated in your goals setup. You are intended to log intentional exercise separately and eat back all of your exercise calories assuming they are calculated correctly. However, many people struggle to calculate exercise calories correctly, and they find that estimates of exercise calorie burns are too high. This is why you often see the suggestion to eat half your exercise calories. It is simply a way to account for inflated exercise calorie estimates.
If you are using MFP's calorie calculations and you are not eating back calories from intentional exercise, then you are not using MFP correctly. Depending on how many calories you burn and how many errors you have in your food logging, you may be creating an unhealthy deficit.
If you would rather have a calorie goal that already includes your exercise, you need to use a TDEE calculator rather than MFP to get your calorie goal.8 -
It depends on you and how you're trying to lose. I think MFP's calorie recommendations are off for me, so I've figured out my calorie needs before exercise using the Mifflin-St. Jeor formula and am trying to eat 3500 fewer calories for one pound loss per week. I like to exercise, but I don't like to depend on it for any weight loss, because I can't guarantee that I'll be able to work out a given number of days per week. (I'm a homeschooling, SAHM.) I get maybe 800 calories from exercise a week, so that might be an extra pound a month. I don't think it's significant enough to worry about right now.
If I felt hungrier from the exercise, which I don't usually, I might eat up to half the estimated exercise calories back but no more, because it's hard to know how many calories you're really burning. Even a Fitbit isn't completely accurate, because it's based solely off your heart rate. If you want accurate calorie burn you need to use one of those breathing masks & instrumentation that measure actual oxygen consumption. And let's face it. That would be pretty annoying.
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If you are trying to lose weight, you must burn the calories.10
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If you are trying to lose weight, you must burn the calories.
No, absolutely not.
The calorie allocation MFP gives you already includes a deficit. If you follow it accurately, you'll lose weight whether you exercise or not.
Exercise is good for health, but increasing your deficit probably isn't. Undereating can cause all sorts of problems. So when you burn calories through exercise, you should eat them back. The whole 'eat half' thing is just because a lot of people and devices overestimate how many calories are actually being burned.4 -
This is why I posted the question. Many people say don't eat them, then I have others who say you should. I haven't been, but since I've increased my workouts I've found myself hungry more, tired, etc...
There's your answer!
Don't make a hard job even harder.
Unfortunately "many people" includes those that don't understand how either MyFitnessPal or TDEE calculators account for exercise.
Unfortunately "many people" includes those without a working grasp of mathematics.
Unfortunately "many people" includes those that think faster weight loss is better weight loss.
Unfortunately "many people" includes those that think exercise is for weight loss not health and fitness and therefore a short term thing not something for life.
Unfortunately "many people" includes those that don't look ahead to maintenance at goal weight when you must account for your exercise.
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