Eating exercise calories?????

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minibagz1203
minibagz1203 Posts: 35 Member
in Food and Nutrition
Do you or do you not eat exercise calories? I'm already at a major deficit to begin with, just debating of i should dip into them.

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  • janejellyroll
    janejellyroll Posts: 25,763 Member
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    Yes, I use MFP as designed. Lost 40+ pounds doing that and have been maintaining that weight loss since 2015.
  • moonangel12
    moonangel12 Posts: 971 Member
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    Yes! Especially if you are already at a significant deficit. Dipping too low long term can lead to some uncomfortable and sometimes even dangerous side effects - hunger, fatigue, brittle nails, hair loss, muscle loss (heeellllooo heart muscle), heart issues, etc.

    I successfully ate back nearly every tasty bit and still lost at the expected rate over the last year, but what works for me doesn’t work for everyone (I use my Garmin calories, not MFP or RunKeeper - finding RK especially to be super inflated when comparing side by side). Some days I literally ran for chocolate, especially in the beginning when my budget was pretty low and I was still figuring things out.
  • MichelleMcKeeRN
    MichelleMcKeeRN Posts: 450 Member
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    Mfp has a couple options. You can pick sedentary and eat back exercise calories as another mentioned or if you are active you can select that option in which case you are allotted extra calories every day. I select active. It works best for my lifestyle.
  • wilson10102018
    wilson10102018 Posts: 1,306 Member
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    If you exercise to eat, I think that is a symptom of an eating disorder.
  • riffraff2112
    riffraff2112 Posts: 1,757 Member
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    Eating them back usually makes the workout more enjoyable :)

    I found my pace of losing weight didn't change at all no matter what my deficit was, so for pure enjoyment and to allow me to keep my muscle mass, i tended to eat back my calories.

    If already at significant deficit I would def. eat them back. A lot of people eat back half....just to account for possible inflated estimated numbers in cardio burns and or consumption.
  • mssue18
    mssue18 Posts: 117 Member
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    I’m so glad I have exercise calories, even a few sometimes. They help me feel less deprived even if I don’t use them. Just knowing I earned them feels good.
  • lalepepper
    lalepepper Posts: 447 Member
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    It really depends on what exercise I did and how I feel. If my exercise was relatively slow-paced and easy, I might just let those calories stay with my deficit. Many calculated calorie burns can be overinflated, so for low-burn exercise, eating it all back could negatively impact your deficit.

    If I've been cycling or doing other higher burn cardio, I will typically eat back at least half as long as it doesn't leave me feeling uncomfortably full. I do not rely on MFP's calculations for calorie burn (often 2-3x higher than realistic calorie burn), preferring to veer closer to the calories my watch w/HR determines.
  • AnnPT77
    AnnPT77 Posts: 32,381 Member
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    Yes, eat them back, if you chose your MFP activity level (as per instructions) based on pre-exercise activity.** This is especially important if you already have a big deficit.

    Why? Because slow weight loss can be frustrating, but fast weight loss can increase health risks. Choosing a fast weight loss rate, then increasing the deficit futher by not eating exercise calories, is turning the dial way over into the red zone.

    Will something bad for sure happen? No. But risk is increased. Fatigue, weakness, hair loss (usually several months later) are among the more minor possible bad effects. Much, much worse ones are possible, though fortunately less probable.

    Personally, I tried to learn about how to estimate exercise conservatively but reasonable accurately, when I started here. (For some things, the MFP database estimate has best odds of being sound; for other things, not at all.) Folks in the forums will be helpful, about estimating methods, if you say what your exercise is.

    Throughout weight loss, I ate all my exercise calories. (I think they taste the best.😆) I lost weight just fine, around 50 pounds in a bit less than a year. I've maintained a healthy weight for 4+ years since, doing the same. (In maintenance, if you don't somehow account for exercise calories, you keep losing beyond goal weight, not an ideal plan. It may be good to practice the skill during loss - I think it helped me.)

    ** If you want to get a calorie goal that includes planned exercise, averaged in, and give you the same number of calories to eat each day, then use an outside TDEE calculator to estimate it, and set your MFP calorie goal manually. Details of the mechanics differ, between how MFP estimates ("NEAT method") and the TDEE method.
  • mssue18
    mssue18 Posts: 117 Member
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    I eat them back. I still lose weight and I can enjoy the extra calories while staying within my calorie goal.

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