Losing while eating back exercise calories

Andrea222
Andrea222 Posts: 27 Member
edited December 2022 in Health and Weight Loss
Has anyone ever eaten back all their exercise calories consistently and still lost weight? Or has anyone tried it and then the weight loss stopped. I’m never sure how much of my exercise calories I can eat

Replies

  • Rockmama1111
    Rockmama1111 Posts: 262 Member
    I take kind of a hybrid approach. I have my Fitbit synced to MFP, which is set to not very active. I allow myself to use the Fitbit calorie adjustment IF I want/need it. I don’t log any other non-Fitbit exercise at all, it’s just bonus if I do it. I’m losing about a pound a week. (I wanted to lose 20.)
  • lynn_glenmont
    lynn_glenmont Posts: 10,089 Member
    edited December 2022
    People are going to differ in how intensely they exercise, how accurately they log, and how close they are to the average BMR for someone of their height, weight, age, and gender, among other things. You just need to try something for a while, look at your own results, and adjust as needed.

    But to answer your question, I have lost weight as expected when eating my exercise calories, and I have lost extra weight when I wasn't hungry enough to eat them all back.
  • cwolfman13
    cwolfman13 Posts: 41,865 Member
    Andrea222 wrote: »
    Has anyone ever eaten back all their exercise calories consistently and still lost weight? Or has anyone tried it and then the weight loss stopped. I’m never sure how much of my exercise calories I can eat

    Yes, but I have a power meter on my bike which is very accurate for calorie burn. Prior to that I just used my HRM and at back around 70%
  • spiriteagle99
    spiriteagle99 Posts: 3,740 Member
    I lost weight and have maintained that loss for several years while eating back all of my exercise calories. I don't have my watch synced to MFP, but I do manually enter deliberate exercise, using MFP's numbers. The numbers at the end of the day are similar to those my Garmin gives me. I actually burn more than expected, which gives me some leeway for inexact food entries.
  • westrich20940
    westrich20940 Posts: 913 Member
    Yes, I ate back my exercise calories. 100% of them.

    If you use the guided set up for MFP...you are supposed to eat them. MFP uses the information you put in to calculate your maintenance calories, then when you say 'want to lose weight'...and put in how much you want to lose it takes away calories from your maintenance to create a deficit. If you then do intention activity on top of that, you should eat that back and you will *still* be in a deficit.

    When MFP asks your activity level - they do not include intention exercise, it's just your lifestyle.
  • Retroguy2000
    Retroguy2000 Posts: 1,826 Member
    edited December 2022
    Of course you can eat back all the exercise calories, if you don't want to exceed a certain deficit. e.g. if your goal is a deficit of 500, say you're on track for that, and then you burn a few hundred more exercising, yes you should eat those back. OTOH if you've indulged that day, the workout may be the thing which gets your deficit back on track, in which case don't eat it back.

    The key is to not over-estimate those exercise calories, as is common.

    Gym machines may inflate calorie estimates by as much as 50%. You can't trust YouTuber's with their "burn X hundred calories in Y minutes doing this!" The calories used in strength training are going to vary widely based on your weight, your intensity, etc. Then there's the fact you would have burned calories while at rest if you weren't working out instead, and is that being double counted? e.g. if I would burn 100 calories in an hour while doing nothing, and instead I workout and the estimate is I burned 400, the net there is 300 additional burned... again assuming the estimate is right in the first place.

    That's why I manually enter conservative estimates for my exercise.
  • mcdriffill
    mcdriffill Posts: 1 Member
    To a degree, I would not eat back "earnt" kj/cals. They are bonus to weight loss.
    However, working out gives your body needs other than the energy it gets from fat, it needs protein to repair damages done by working out.
    Not ingesting enough my lead to your body seeking the building blocks (protein) from your bodies own muscles...leading to muscle loss.
    Fine balance of intake and output....in your macros and micros. Enjoy.
  • glassyo
    glassyo Posts: 7,732 Member
    mcdriffill wrote: »
    To a degree, I would not eat back "earnt" kj/cals. They are bonus to weight loss.
    However, working out gives your body needs other than the energy it gets from fat, it needs protein to repair damages done by working out.
    Not ingesting enough my lead to your body seeking the building blocks (protein) from your bodies own muscles...leading to muscle loss.
    Fine balance of intake and output....in your macros and micros. Enjoy.

    Yes, the bonus is the extra food you can eat since you're presumably already in a deficit if you're using mfp the way it was intended. :)

    OP, on both Weight Watchers and here, I ate every last damned calorie I was alloted and did just fine (more or less). :)
  • I_AM_ISRAEL
    I_AM_ISRAEL Posts: 160 Member
    Don’t eat back the calories you’ve burned. Keep it simple.
  • kshama2001
    kshama2001 Posts: 28,052 Member
    If you use MFP to set your calorie goal, exercise, but don't eat back any exercise calories, you are not using MFP the way it was designed.

    https://support.myfitnesspal.com/hc/en-us/articles/360032625391-How-does-MyFitnessPal-calculate-my-initial-goals-

    Unlike other sites which use TDEE calculators, MFP uses the NEAT method (Non-Exercise Activity Thermogenesis), and as such this system is designed for exercise calories to be eaten back. However, many consider the burns given by MFP to be inflated for them and only eat a percentage, such as 50%, back. Others are able to lose weight while eating 100% of their exercise calories.
  • panda4153
    panda4153 Posts: 417 Member
    Yes, while I was losing I ate every single calorie back. The last couple years I’ve been very loose with logging but am getting back into being consistent again and once again I am eating all of my exercise calories.
  • Wynterbourne
    Wynterbourne Posts: 2,225 Member
    Don’t eat back the calories you’ve burned. Keep it simple.

    No. No. No. No. So tired of seeing this completely erroneous blanket statement over and over again. It's not a simple yes or no and saying don't ever do it could be dangerous depending on the individual circumstances.
  • XxAngry_Pixi
    XxAngry_Pixi Posts: 236 Member
    I eat back some of mine.

    I was insulin resistant and needed to eat much less calories than the calculator said to lose weight, and even though I am not insulin resistant any more this is still the case, though not as extreme.

    I have my mfp set to sedentary, have my garmin synced and I eat back about half my exercise calories, though if I am very hungry/feel I need them I will eat them all.

    I am losing slightly slower than mfp says I should be, but still slowly steadily and most importantly, sustainably this time.
  • tomcustombuilder
    tomcustombuilder Posts: 2,191 Member
    It doesn’t matter. What matters is your weekly calorie consumption.
  • cmriverside
    cmriverside Posts: 34,393 Member
    .
    It doesn’t matter. What matters is your weekly calorie consumption.

    ...which involves calories used during exercise. PLEASE read the replies in this thread. I see you're new here and you likely don't understand HOW myfitnesspal differs from TDEE calculators. In this case, it does matter how exercise is treated, calorie-wise.

    In general, yes, the weekly calories can be used. In general, exercise has to be calculated in, whether it is using myfitnesspal's calculation method or some other way - but additional calories need to be accounted for one way or another. Myfitnesspal does not use them in the weight-loss calorie calculation when you set your Goals unless you do some tweaking of the Goal yourself.

    Please also read this so you understand how this site works. https://support.myfitnesspal.com/hc/en-us/articles/360032625391-How-does-MyFitnessPal-calculate-my-initial-goals-
  • tomcustombuilder
    tomcustombuilder Posts: 2,191 Member
    You can calculate till you’re blue in the face however weekly/monthly results will determine if you’re on the right track.