Eating back exercise calories?

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cheshirechic
cheshirechic Posts: 489 Member
in Food and Nutrition
Do you eat back your exercise calories? Why/why not?

There are probably thousands of threads on this but I couldn't find them.

For me, rn, I'm not. I usually burn (it's all an approximation anyway) 400 extra. Eating 1400 rn, without adding those back.

Thanks! <3
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Replies

  • Lietchi
    Lietchi Posts: 6,114 Member
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    I eat every extra calorie my (Garmin) fitness tracker gives me, because I know (after months of tracking) that it's pretty reliable for me and I've lost weight as intended.
    If anything, my Garmin underestimates my calorie burns slightly, although I'm not sure if that's specifically exercise-related or a general underestimation (I do know my runs burn more calories than my Garmin says, based on a calculator I use).
  • MsCzar
    MsCzar Posts: 1,042 Member
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    I don't. But I burn only about 330 calories during my daily 30 minute workouts and eat about 1200-1400 calories when in deficit. 80lbs/36kg down with about 20lbs/9kg to go.
  • rheddmobile
    rheddmobile Posts: 6,840 Member
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    AnnPT77 wrote: »
    Of course I eat them.

    I'm maintaining my weight now (have been for 5+ years, with a bit of up and down within that healthy range). If I didn't eat back my exercise calories, I'd lose weight, and that would be a really dumb thing to do when I'm at BMI 20-point-something (around 125 pounds at 5'5", which is a good weight, on the lighter side, for me).

    I ate back exercise calories while losing, too, because:

    (1) it was good practice for maintaining - I used weight loss to practice quite a few skills I'd need to stay at a healthy weight long term. (I'd been overweight/obese for around 30 years before that, and that needed to be *over*, permanently.) Estimating exercise calories is a skill I need in maintenance.
    (2) I value my exercise performance, including the strength that's useful in daily life, and the appearance benefits of properly fueled exercise for body composition (muscle/fat ratios).

    In one sense, exercise calories aren't special. They're not a different type of calories from tooth-brushing calories or car-driving calories. On MFP, we're encouraged to account for them separately because they're more variable than daily life calorie burn for most of us, and it teaches the useful lesson that when we move more, we ought to eat more . . . or move less, eat less.

    If someone has a pretty-slow weight loss rate target (say, half a pound a week), and doesn't do much exercise (hundred or two calories, maybe, perhaps 3 days a week), it's probably fine to let them increase deficit (make weight loss faster). If someone's already targeting an aggressive loss rate, like 2 pounds a week, then does hundreds of calories of exercise daily, that's a Bad Plan, IMO. In between, it's a question of how much health risk a person wants to take on.

    Fast loss increases health risks, and can make the process unsustainable. Losing any meaningful amount of weight is a long-term process, and sustainability matters to reaching goal.

    Besides, exercise calories taste the best. 😉

    There’s a good point made here - accounting for and eating back your exercise calories is good training for those inevitable times when you are injured, change jobs, or are otherwise unable to be active, and need to reduce your calories accordingly. Lots of runners in particular gain weight when injured because they get used to maintaining at a certain level and don’t think of it as connected to their running.
  • rosebarnalice
    rosebarnalice Posts: 3,488 Member
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    I eat back about half. Some days I don't eat any, others I eat back every one. But in the long run it's about half.
  • wilson10102018
    wilson10102018 Posts: 1,306 Member
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    Exercise to support eating. Doesn't seem that healthy to me.
  • ninerbuff
    ninerbuff Posts: 48,522 Member
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    cheshirechic wrote: »
    Do you eat back your exercise calories? Why/why not?

    There are probably thousands of threads on this but I couldn't find them.

    For me, rn, I'm not. I usually burn (it's all an approximation anyway) 400 extra. Eating 1400 rn, without adding those back.

    Thanks! <3
    So then your NET calorie intake is 1000.............................which can be nutritional difficient and force your metabolic rate to lower at rest........which is where you burn the most bodyfat.

    A.C.E. Certified Personal and Group Fitness Trainer
    IDEA Fitness member
    Kickboxing Certified Instructor
    Been in fitness for 30 years and have studied kinesiology and nutrition
    9285851.png

  • swimmchick87
    swimmchick87 Posts: 458 Member
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    I think you have to see what works for you as far as how accurate the exercise calories are- i.e. if you eat them all back, do you still lose as expected? A lot of people overestimate what they burn and underestimate what they eat, which can lead to issues if you regularly eat them all back. The only exercise I do is walking and I know my fitbit way overestimates calories. I use my exercise calories as a cushion if needed but I would never eat all of them, because at least for me it's not accurate. I usually will allow myself to go over my regular calorie goal by maybe 50-100 calories as long as I've done my walking that day. I also have my goal set to lose 1 pound per week and therefore get a higher daily calorie goal to begin with, so if I'm accidentally off in the other direction I don't really need to worry about undereating either. Most days I eat around 1600 calories.
  • wilson10102018
    wilson10102018 Posts: 1,306 Member
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    sijomial wrote: »
    wilson10102018 wrote: »
    Exercise to support eating. Doesn't seem that healthy to me.

    Eating to support exercise is a very healthy mindset.

    Exercise to support eating is a very unhealthy mindset.
  • autobahn66
    autobahn66 Posts: 59 Member
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    rheddmobile wrote: »
    wilson10102018 wrote: »
    Exercise to support eating. Doesn't seem that healthy to me.

    It is, though. Regular exercise is the single most healthy thing you can do for yourself, and if eating more food motivates you to do it, that’s fine. Eating more and exercising enough to maintain at that calorie level is far healthier than being sedentary and eating less to maintain at that activity level.

    I substantially agree with this.

    The only caveats I would have is that it can be really challenging to shift dietary habits, and it can be really difficult to always sustain exercise for some people.

    I am troubled by gout, which, when it flares and makes exercise essentially impossible for between 3-7 days due to pain (also apparently increased risk of injury).

    So while doing an exact amount of exercise and eating back to that limit is fine when the situation is stable, I know that if I am in the habit of assuming that I will be able to eat back the calories indefinitely I know I'll hungry some days when I'm not able to exercise, or putting on weight when I'm not exercising.

    As I'm trying to lose weight at the moment I don't want my inevitable off days to completely destroy my progress, so I'm viewing 50% of my exercise calories as an insurance against having to take a week off later!

    But as you noted: overall activity is paramount. Ideal includes a both activity and weight control, but if it has to be one, activity is the key.
  • wunderkindking
    wunderkindking Posts: 1,615 Member
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    autobahn66 wrote: »
    rheddmobile wrote: »
    wilson10102018 wrote: »
    Exercise to support eating. Doesn't seem that healthy to me.

    It is, though. Regular exercise is the single most healthy thing you can do for yourself, and if eating more food motivates you to do it, that’s fine. Eating more and exercising enough to maintain at that calorie level is far healthier than being sedentary and eating less to maintain at that activity level.

    I substantially agree with this.

    The only caveats I would have is that it can be really challenging to shift dietary habits, and it can be really difficult to always sustain exercise for some people.

    I am troubled by gout, which, when it flares and makes exercise essentially impossible for between 3-7 days due to pain (also apparently increased risk of injury).

    So while doing an exact amount of exercise and eating back to that limit is fine when the situation is stable, I know that if I am in the habit of assuming that I will be able to eat back the calories indefinitely I know I'll hungry some days when I'm not able to exercise, or putting on weight when I'm not exercising.

    As I'm trying to lose weight at the moment I don't want my inevitable off days to completely destroy my progress, so I'm viewing 50% of my exercise calories as an insurance against having to take a week off later!

    But as you noted: overall activity is paramount. Ideal includes a both activity and weight control, but if it has to be one, activity is the key.

    This really can go both ways, too, and is fair.

    I gave myself an avulsion fracture in my ankle early this month.

    I said 'okay', decided to eat at maintenance instead of my small deficit and set my activity to sedentary because, well, broken ankle and that meant less activity.

    Nope.

    I kept dropping weight.

    Some of this is 'the scale is a lagging indicator of habits/lifestyle'. Some of it is that I had no idea HOW LOW the threshold for sedentary was. Apparently just limping around daily life even with a desk job is above it.

    OTOH, worth realizing that when you're actively trying to lose, your cushion is your deficit and if you're really injured you dont' want an aggressive deficit, anyway. Your deficit was probably bigger than most people's daily calorie burn through exercise. So you're not going to go backward if you keep tracking and paying attention. At most it's going to slow or you're going to pause the process by eating about what you were.

    In maintenance when you're used to eating to maintain your weight WITH exercise in calories in there different story.

    But that deficit will usually give you plenty of room to eat more without active gain while injured, as long as you're aware and keep tracking/watching, and get some practice at maintenance.

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