Do you eat your exercise calories and still lose weight?

Options
Carterbv9776
Carterbv9776 Posts: 2 Member
in Health and Weight Loss

Do you eat your exercise calories and still lose weight? 37 votes

Yes
54%
glassyomiddlehaitchkushiel1ninerbuffkshama2001RGv2nossmfvivmom2014KevHexgg3975fwchicaAnnPT77musicfan68Carriehelenespiriteagle99xxzenabxxLimerenceLifeLietchiRetroguy2000Reiaz100 20 votes
No
24%
GoRun2Teatimes2000wally2wikipropstomebradkcrewblkadrJaysFan82rhondacbeasley4056BartBVanBockstaele 9 votes
Sometimes
21%
mallymoo86staceybiomedMichelleMcKeeRNnat2815KatherineKetchumemilymay5857Rickc402myjourneyfmd 8 votes

Replies

  • Alatariel75
    Alatariel75 Posts: 17,959 Member
    Options
    Only some of them, they generally feel very overblown.
  • Carriehelene
    Carriehelene Posts: 178 Member
    Options
    Yes
    I have an Apple Watch, and pretty much eat all my calories back, while losing as expected.
  • Retroguy2000
    Retroguy2000 Posts: 1,514 Member
    Options
    Yes
    Of course.

    I do however manually log my workout calories, and I use conservative estimates for my workouts to account for:

    a) Potential of calorie count inflation from a machine.
    b) My RMR would be about 100 calories for one hour if I did nothing instead of the workout.
  • Carterbv9776
    Carterbv9776 Posts: 2 Member
    Options
    Carriehelene wrote: »
    I have an Apple Watch, and pretty much eat all my calories back, while losing as expected.

    I use my Fitbit do you think it's accurate it's just going off of my steps
  • Carriehelene
    Carriehelene Posts: 178 Member
    Options
    Yes
    Carterbv9776 wrote: »
    Carriehelene wrote: »
    I have an Apple Watch, and pretty much eat all my calories back, while losing as expected.

    I use my Fitbit do you think it's accurate it's just going off of my steps

    Really can’t answer that as it’s been years since I’ve used one. My best advice I can offer you is to track your calories, while eating back all your exercise calories for 4-6 weeks and see if you are losing as expected. If slower, change to eating back half, and monitor again.
  • spiriteagle99
    spiriteagle99 Posts: 3,677 Member
    Options
    Yes
    I'm also in maintenance and I eat back all my exercise calories, as estimated by MFP. They may be inflated, but they are close to those given by my Garmin (which isn't linked to MFP) and the results have been good.
  • BartBVanBockstaele
    BartBVanBockstaele Posts: 623 Member
    Options
    No
    Carterbv9776 wrote: »
    No. I tried that in the past, and I gained weight. I have learned to see those calories as evidence that I am not dead and still moving, but nothing more than that. I look at them in the same way I look at a horoscope: for fun and having a good laugh.

  • glassyo
    glassyo Posts: 7,595 Member
    Options
    Yes
    Retroguy2000 wrote: »
    Of course.

    I do however manually log my workout calories, and I use conservative estimates for my workouts to account for:

    a) Potential of calorie count inflation from a machine.
    b) My RMR would be about 100 calories for one hour if I did nothing instead of the workout.

    Mine's less than 60 so...

    Every last one of them.
  • Caralarma
    Caralarma Posts: 174 Member
    Options
    I go according to what my fitbit app tells me.. based on my output for the day. So it's not that I eat back every exercise calorie per say... but I look at what my output is and use that to make a deficit which often means being allowed to eat a bit more on active days.

    I wouldn't go by what MFP tells me regarding how many calories I burned. I don't think it's accurate. MfP is purely for logging food.
  • pridesabtch
    pridesabtch Posts: 2,323 Member
    edited October 2022
    Options
    Carterbv9776 wrote: »
    Carriehelene wrote: »
    I have an Apple Watch, and pretty much eat all my calories back, while losing as expected.

    I use my Fitbit do you think it's accurate it's just going off of my steps

    Depends on how you set your activity level in MFP.
    If you have set yourself as active MFP will have already accounted for you day to day activity such as steps. If you are set as sedentary, those step become important.

    I would set my day to day activity level on MFP as accurately as possible and only use intention exercise above your base rate for additional calories. Be careful using calorie burns from MFP & machines, they tend to be inflated. Use your Fitbit for a better estimate. It is still just an estimate though. It takes a month or so of logging and weight trending to figure out how your body works.

    Good luck!
  • Carriehelene
    Carriehelene Posts: 178 Member
    Options
    Yes
    pridesabtch wrote: »
    Carterbv9776 wrote: »
    Carriehelene wrote: »
    I have an Apple Watch, and pretty much eat all my calories back, while losing as expected.

    I use my Fitbit do you think it's accurate it's just going off of my steps

    Depends on how you set your activity level in MFP.
    If you have set yourself as active MFP will have already accounted for you day to day activity such as steps. If you are set as sedentary, those step become important.

    I would set my day to day activity level on MFP as accurately as possible and only use intention exercise above your base rate for additional calories. Be careful using calorie burns from MFP & machines, they tend to be inflated. Use your Fitbit for a better estimate. It is still just an estimate though. It takes a month or so of logging and weight trending to figure out how your body works.

    Good luck!

    Yes, but that’s what the negative calorie adjustment is for, people who wear their fitness trackers all day.
  • pridesabtch
    pridesabtch Posts: 2,323 Member
    Options
    Carriehelene wrote: »
    pridesabtch wrote: »
    Carterbv9776 wrote: »
    Carriehelene wrote: »
    I have an Apple Watch, and pretty much eat all my calories back, while losing as expected.

    I use my Fitbit do you think it's accurate it's just going off of my steps

    Depends on how you set your activity level in MFP.
    If you have set yourself as active MFP will have already accounted for you day to day activity such as steps. If you are set as sedentary, those step become important.

    I would set my day to day activity level on MFP as accurately as possible and only use intention exercise above your base rate for additional calories. Be careful using calorie burns from MFP & machines, they tend to be inflated. Use your Fitbit for a better estimate. It is still just an estimate though. It takes a month or so of logging and weight trending to figure out how your body works.

    Good luck!

    Yes, but that’s what the negative calorie adjustment is for, people who wear their fitness trackers all day.

    agreed, I just wasn't sure the OP had her Fitbit sync'd to MFP.
  • nossmf
    nossmf Posts: 9,056 Member
    Options
    Yes
    I eat them back intentionally, adding a touch more meat or veggies, or else risk eating them back accidentally along with extras in the form of whatever temptation gets triggered, bread or sweets or sodas or whatnot.
  • JaysFan82
    JaysFan82 Posts: 852 Member
    edited October 2022
    Options
    No
    I hardly ever. It's nice to have them but I rarely use them. I'm also allowed 2400 calories as a base currently so it's not like I have none to use (set to lightly active)
  • lynn_glenmont
    lynn_glenmont Posts: 9,966 Member
    Options
    Sometimes I eat them back, and I still lose. Sometimes I don't eat them back, or only eat some of them back, and I lose more.
  • kshama2001
    kshama2001 Posts: 27,900 Member
    Options
    Yes
    Exercise calories taste the best. ;):D

    I shoot for 400-500 exercise calories per day and lose weight when I limit myself to about 80% of them.
  • AnnPT77
    AnnPT77 Posts: 32,147 Member
    Options
    Yes
    As a general observation, I'd encourage folks to think through how their decision about exercise calories affects their maintenance plans. I'm not suggesting there's a "one true way"- far from.

    The only point is this: One way or another, to maintain weight you'll need to eat back exercise calories. (If you don't, you'll keep losing. It's just a math truism.) Over the long haul, good odds exercise calories will vary. Your exercise preferences may change, or your time budget; or you'll need to back off (sadly) when ill, super busy, recovering from surgery, or whatever. Life gets complicated!

    If your planned maintenance strategy includes counting long term - as not everyone's will - then estimating exercise calories semi-accurately is a useful skill to learn and practice,.

    Just a thought, only applies for some people, etc.
  • BartBVanBockstaele
    BartBVanBockstaele Posts: 623 Member
    edited October 2022
    Options
    No
    AnnPT77 wrote: »
    As a general observation, I'd encourage folks to think through how their decision about exercise calories affects their maintenance plans. I'm not suggesting there's a "one true way"- far from.

    The only point is this: One way or another, to maintain weight you'll need to eat back exercise calories. (If you don't, you'll keep losing. It's just a math truism.) Over the long haul, good odds exercise calories will vary. Your exercise preferences may change, or your time budget; or you'll need to back off (sadly) when ill, super busy, recovering from surgery, or whatever. Life gets complicated!

    If your planned maintenance strategy includes counting long term - as not everyone's will - then estimating exercise calories semi-accurately is a useful skill to learn and practice,.

    Just a thought, only applies for some people, etc.

    Wise words. As long as weight loss is desired, I personally ignore the calories lost by it, because we know it isn't much and almost guaranteed to be overestimated. One problem is that "exercise calories" are usually the sum of the basal metabolic rate to which the calories consumed by the actual exercise have been added, leading to a gross overestimation of how much is actually used and in turn leading to overconsumption of food and weight gain instead of weight loss.
    But, clearly, as you say: if you want to maintain your weight (without losing or gaining) you will have to spend some time carefully titrating to find out what you should or should not do, since there are no hard-and-fast rules and everyone is really different.
    What I personally do is just keep up my diet, and an occasional top-up by adding a small bag of nuts or cheese or an avocado or something else I really like and can buy in small portions.

Categories