Should I eat the calories added from exercise

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Hi. I've never done My Fitness Pal before, and I really need to loose weight, should I eat the calories that are added from exercise?

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  • Hobartlemagne
    Hobartlemagne Posts: 277 Member
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    Only eat back your calories from exercise if you really cant stand the hunger or if your daily total is way too low. I have my daily calories set for 1800. Sometimes I eat less than that before calculating exercise. If I feel like I can get to sleep without feeling hungry, I call it a day. Its just extra progress.
  • AnnPT77
    AnnPT77 Posts: 32,853 Member
    edited May 15 Answer ✓
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    I've eaten back all of my carefully-estimated exercise calories all through about a year of loss from class 1 obese to healthy weight, and for going on 8 years of successful maintenance at a healthy weight since.

    That would be a reasonable choice if someone has followed MFP's instructions and set "activity level" in their profile based on daily life (job, home chores, etc.) excluding intentional exercise.

    Syncing a fitness tracker to MFP somewhat compensates for inappropriate activity level setting, as long as a person enables negative adjustments in MFP.

    If someone tells MFP they want a very slow weight loss rate (like half a pound a week), and doesn't do much exercise, it's fine to let that small amount of exercise make the calorie deficit bigger, to achieve faster loss.

    Someone who sets a very aggressive loss rate target (more than 0.5% to an absolute max of 1% of current weight per week) and does a bunch of exercise is increasing their health risks, plus increasing the odds of failure to stick with it long enough to lose a meaningful total amount of weight, not to mention learn new habits that will let them keep the weight off long term.

    In between those extremes, it's a judgement call about how much health risk (and failure risk) the person likes to take on.

    Personally, I value my health, and I did (do) want to accomplish my goals. I averaged about a pound a week loss when I was losing. It was a bit faster than that average at first when I had more available to lose, and intentionally very slow when I got close to goal weight.

    That worked great for me. I was overweight/obese for around 30 years, and have now been at a healthy weight, as I said, for around 8 years. My quality of life has improved a lot as a result.

    It's also possible to get a calorie goal from an outside calculator like this one, that averages in your exercise plans:

    https://www.sailrabbit.com/bmr/

    One way or another, exercise burns calories, and one needs to consider how to manage that. Any of these methods can work IMO, with conscious attention to reasonable goals.

    No matter the way of estimating calorie needs, it's very important to stick with a plan for 4-6 weeks (or at least 1 to 2 full menstrual cycles for those who have them) in order to see a reasonable actual average loss rate. Weight loss isn't linear, so we need a few weeks to average, in order to know whether a plan is working.

    The estimates will be close for most people, but can be high or low, in rare cases surprisingly much so. The estimate isn't Pure Universal Truth, it's just a statistical average calorie need for superficially similar people. Individuals can vary from average.

    Best wishes for success - IME the effort is worth the reward!
  • exstromn
    exstromn Posts: 176 Member
    edited May 14 Answer ✓
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    I try to stick to my daily calorie goal, but if I'm really hungry I'll eat my calories back. You can do it on occasion or every time and it's just fine. If you want to lose more weight than your daily calorie goal suggests, not eating calories back from exercise will get you there sooner. Good luck!
  • MargaretYakoda
    MargaretYakoda Posts: 2,857 Member
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    Miserable is not sustainable.

    If you’re hungry and/or feeling exhausted?

    Eat those calories.

Answers

  • Milliechris1972
    Milliechris1972 Posts: 2 Member
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    So it's given me 1710 a day to eat, do I need to eat all my daily calories? Do you calculate your salads and veg?
  • riesettk
    riesettk Posts: 6 Member
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    I was wondering this too. I am a recently diagnosed type 2 diabetic trying to find my Target that sustains me properly. Still not sure my calorie goal is the right fit Dr does not have me monitoring or on meds. Quite hungry at the day's end. I keep losing weight, which is fine, but I'm trying to be in balance in all facets necessary. I'd be fine if I didn't lose any more. I find myself eating the extra, because I walk around 3 miles a day.
  • MargaretYakoda
    MargaretYakoda Posts: 2,857 Member
    edited May 15
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    riesettk wrote: »
    I was wondering this too. I am a recently diagnosed type 2 diabetic trying to find my Target that sustains me properly. Still not sure my calorie goal is the right fit Dr does not have me monitoring or on meds. Quite hungry at the day's end. I keep losing weight, which is fine, but I'm trying to be in balance in all facets necessary. I'd be fine if I didn't lose any more. I find myself eating the extra, because I walk around 3 miles a day.

    There are ways to manage or mitigate your hunger. That’s a whole big discussion.

    I’m also. T2 diabetic.
    If you’re newly diagnosed you might want to ask your doctor for an appointment or two with a registered dietitian, and maybe some diabetes education program. Many healthcare systems have that available.

    As for testing, you probably will be prescribed a glucose monitor sooner or later. In the meantime you can pick one up for relatively cheap at Walmart. Their house brand (ReliOn) is OK. Not fancy. But it gets the job done. Keep in mind that the monitors are almost always inexpensive. Where they get you is the test strips.

    There’s a group here dedicated to diabetics and discussion of things specific to managing our health and related Diabetes support discussions. It’s a great place to ask questions.
    https://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/group/1772-type-2-diabetes-support-group