Eat Exercise calories or not

If you get your calorie goal from MFP, yes you eat at least some if not all of your exercise calories. MFP's goal is NEAT (not TDEE) and is lower because you are supposed to log and eat your exercise calories too.

https://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10503681/exercise-calories-do-i-eat-these-a-video-explanation/p1

If you use a TDEE calculator, then no you don't eat your exercise calories as they are already included in your TDEE goal.

In a perfect world MFP calorie goal + exercise calories = TDEE calorie goal.

Yes if you use MFP for your calorie goal, you need to eat them back. If you don't, you are not giving your body enough energy and can find yourself with unhealthy weight loss.

Another vote for eating exercise calories. I like to be fueled for my activities. And yeah, they do taste the best!

I’ve always eaten back all my exercise calories.

1year weight loss ~10yr maintenance.

If I didn’t eat them I would lack energy, that would lead to underperforming my exercise routine, and/or not getting as much out of my daily life as I could.

ie: I would be lethargically stuck in a chair watching tv instead of building a new garden bed.

Another good reason why I eat them back, I can take a break when I want or need to and know how to adjust my calorie intake without gaining or losing weight.

Cheers, h.

I take a different approach. I set my calorie goal on MFP to "maintain." Then eat my maintenance calories every day. Any calories burned toward exercise go toward my weight loss. It's a slower process this way, but much more sustainable for me personally.

purwonder wrote: »

I don’t, but I would consider it if I had constant hunger or cravings that would cause me to not stick with my plan. Maybe try eating the exercise calories on special occasions and track how your body responds.

If you’re usingMFP to set calorie targets, as mentioned above, you’re supposed to eat back those calories or risk underfueling your activity.

Jthanmyfitnesspal wrote: »

We have a "Woo-er" on the thread who is "Woo-ing" any post that suggests eating your exercise calories.

Woo-er, I'm living proof that it works if your exercise and intake calorie estimates are good. I've been near my weight goal for about 3 years now!

Haha you're right! Why would someone woo that?

If I used the exercise calculations provided by MFP then I might eat half because I found them overinflated. But I spent a couple months trying to find the most accurate exercise calculator for me so that I could eat them all, so that I could best fuel my workouts and so that I would lose weight somewhat close to plan. Some people may want an easier solution which might be to eat half and then watch your loss over several weeks and then adjust if necessary.

My plan of eating all exercise calories is working very well for me as I'm dropping weight as expected, am not hungry and have lots of energy.




Bring the woo! 😆

sammidelvecchio wrote: »

I do not eat mine back 95% of the time. I have the premium MFP, and one of the main features of it is to not have your daily goal increased by your exercise calories.

I will listen to my body though, and there have been occasions where I am very hungry and I will eat them back on those days but it has been rare.

I also was set @ 1200 calories by MFP when I started, and I manually adjusted it to 1399 as that fits better with my macro goals. So in a sense I might be already eating 200 calories over what MFP says and the reason i'm still losing weight at the same rate is because those extra 200 are covered by exercise, i'm not sure

Most premium features are meant for people who are doing things more specialized than just using traditional MFP set goals. MFP offers the no exercise calorie option for people who are using TDEE calculators to calculate their goals. I have premium and use a TDEE calculator for my goal, so I've turned off the exercise calories. But exercise is already built into my calorie goal. It sounds like you are doing somewhat of a rough equivalent to TDEE by adding more calories to your goal, which could cover your exercise level. You may want to check out a TDEE calculator to see how what you are doing matches with what they project for you.

The point remains though that using MFP generated goals and not eating your exercise calories back are incompatible with one another. It is not how the site is intended to be used. People should only not eat their calories back if they use a goal setting method that already accounts for exercise, which MFP does not.

@MikePTY I agree with you mostly, but it can also be a good thing for people who aren't as meticulous with their food measuring. Or if you like to take a free day on the weekend, not eating back your exercise calories during the week will give you more freedom on the free day you choose (you're ultimately eating them back but not daily). I think there are a lot of options for people to play around with and I don't think people need to eat them back everyday like a lot of people suggest here. I just think its nice to let people know they have options