Do you eat back exercise calories?

Yes...in the sense that I use the TDEE method rather than MFP...so my estimated exercise and other activities are rolled up into my activity level and thus accounted for in that way. This means that I have a higher calorie target than I would get with MFP because with MFP as designed you don't roll up exercise into your activity level...you account for it after the fact by logging it and getting additional calories to account for that activity.

The more your body moves, the more fuel (calories) it uses...just like a car that commutes 120 miles per day is going to burn through a lot more fuel than a car that just drives around the block to get groceries. By using MFP's methodology, your calorie deficit (which is built into your target) remains the same after you have logged your exercise and get additional calories...because you're theoretical maintenance calories would have also moved up by the same amount.

If MFP gives me 2000 calories to lose 1 Lb per week with no exercise, that means MFP is estimating my maintenance without exercise to be around 2500 calories. If I then do exercise and burn 500 calories and eat 2500 calories (2000+500) I'm still at the same deficit because my maintenance would have also moved from 2500 calories to 3000...leaving me in a 500 calorie deficit still for the day.

FemmeAndi wrote: »

janejellyroll wrote: »

When you told MFP you were "active," were you counting the exercise?

MFP intends for you to set your activity level based on your lifestyle apart from exercise. You then log your exercise and eat those calories back. But if you use your exercise as part of your BASE activity level, you don't want to log it. That would be double-dipping.

If you're an active person in your daily life AND you're exercising on top of that, you will want to eat those back.

If that's you in your profile picture, it's possible that 1 pound a week is too aggressive of a goal for you. In that case, choosing a more reasonable goal like .5 pounds a week will give you more calories each day.

Yes, the reason I choose active was because I figured if I am doing Shaun Ts MAx 30 5 times a week i would be considered activie. Apart from that, I have a sit down job at the office and run around pick up and drop off of my 3 young children.

In that case you would be better served using a tool that is designed to be used that way as the multipliers applied to your estimated BMR will be different.
Here's a good TDEE calculator - https://www.sailrabbit.com/bmr/
You can then enter that goal manually into your goal setup here.

My exercise routine is high volume, very erratic in terms of daily/weekly/monthly volume and so the MyFitnessPal method of separating exercise and having a variable goal works better for me. If you prefer a same every day eating goal and your exercise is fairly consistent then it sounds like the TDEE method would be a good fit for you.

If however, you just prefer the MFP method I would suggest the Lightly Active setting and then log and eat back exercise. Both methods work, both methods have you taking your exercise into account and over time end up in roughly the same place.

I was told not to eat back your burned calories if you are hoping to lose weight that day, but if you wanted to maintain the present weight and have a larger calorie day you could eat them without weight gain. Happy Trails.

I use an overall TDEE method - in general.

My daily LIFE is really consistent re: movement, but it'd also be really hard to track with MFP. Basically it's a lot of high energy dog and dog sports. It gives me 10-12 hours of motion a day, but that's walking, hiking, sometimes swimming, sometimes sprinting, sometimes throwing things, whatever, all split up.

What I DO add and eat back is time I spend on purposeful exercise - I've taken up jogging for fun and I'm thisclose to fully vaccinated and joining a gym. Those I track separately and eat.

Basically I decide based on 'is this the same level of 'integrated into my life as doing the dishes where it's just going to happen whether I am 'motivated' or not, or is it an 'activity I do, even regularly'. If it's integrated that hard, then I don't track it - tdee. If it's an Activity I Make Time For, even if it's 3 or more times a week, it's Exercise and I track it.

FemmeAndi wrote: »

janejellyroll wrote: »

When you told MFP you were "active," were you counting the exercise?

MFP intends for you to set your activity level based on your lifestyle apart from exercise. You then log your exercise and eat those calories back. But if you use your exercise as part of your BASE activity level, you don't want to log it. That would be double-dipping.

If you're an active person in your daily life AND you're exercising on top of that, you will want to eat those back.

If that's you in your profile picture, it's possible that 1 pound a week is too aggressive of a goal for you. In that case, choosing a more reasonable goal like .5 pounds a week will give you more calories each day.

Yes, the reason I choose active was because I figured if I am doing Shaun Ts MAx 30 5 times a week i would be considered activie. Apart from that, I have a sit down job at the office and run around pick up and drop off of my 3 young children.

If you selected active because you're including your exercise in your activity level, you would be double dipping if you then logged that exercise and ate back more calories...those calories are already accounted for in your activity level.

The only reason you eat back exercise calories with MFP is because, as designed, your activity level would NOT include deliberate exercise. This is why the descriptors make no mention of exercise...just your day to day hum drum. What you are describing is the TDEE method I mentioned up thread...probably not a huge issue, but you would be better served by using and actual TDEE calculator and manually customizing your calorie targets here vs using the MFP setup. This is because the multipliers used on this site are different than the multipliers used with a TDEE calculator in that MFP's setting of active is going to use multipliers related to being active, but that activity being pretty low level...ie being on your feet most of the day, etc. A TDEE calculator will take into account that your actual workouts that are making you active are more rigorous than just standing on your feet most of the day...it's probably not a huge deal like I said, but you may want to play around with a couple of calculators to see what the differences are.

Eating exercise calories was THE KEY for my successful weight loss and subsequent maintenance.

I've tried eating them back and I plateau or lose .5 lbs a week vs the 2lbs I'd like. While you're trying to lose weight I wouldn't. Also the calories are not accurate on MFP they're over estimated.

I would suggest NOT eating your exercise calories. I believe MFP overestimates the number of calories that are burned during exercise. I have my goal set at 1 lb. a week my activity level set at the lowest setting and have pretty much lost that amount for the last 11 months. This is without logging/eating exercise calories.

gceinca wrote: »

I would suggest NOT eating your exercise calories. I believe MFP overestimates the number of calories that are burned during exercise. I have my goal set at 1 lb. a week my activity level set at the lowest setting and have pretty much lost that amount for the last 11 months. This is without logging/eating exercise calories.

Zero is for sure an underestimate. Pick your preferred error, I guess.

Since your weight loss is working out as you intend, you're all set, then. I'm skeptical that it's good generic advice to eat back zero exercise calories, on the rationale of it being easy to over-estimate them.

Losing weight more slowly than preferred can be frustrating. Losing weight too fast can increase health risks, not to mention impair exercise performance. I know which side I'd rather err on, even for the roughly 1-month period it takes to figure out whether MFP's calorie goal is an under or over-estimate for me personally. (But I may be biased because it underestimates, for me.)

I've been logging for nearly 6 years now, estimating exercise calories carefully, and eating them back all through loss (a bit less than a year) and maintenance (5+ years now since that loss). I've done everything from no exercise to hundreds of calories X 6 days a week, and my weight has behaved as I'd expect, exercise or no, once I got past that initial month or so experiment, and adjusted based on results. To me, for maintenance, it's a plus to understand my calorie needs with and without exercise. That creates flexibility, for me.

YMMV, of course.