Am I supposed to eat my exercise calories??

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  • Bankman1989
    Bankman1989 Posts: 1,116 Member
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    I feel more sluggish when I eat back net calories. I try to stay at 1500 cals regardless of my workouts. If I burn 3500 cals in a day I tend to eat more. It's at your discretion. Remember the less you eat the more you lose. If you watch the Biggest Loser you see them losing a lot of weight working out a lot while maintaining a 2,000 cal diet.
  • scrapbookdiva2
    scrapbookdiva2 Posts: 21
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    I don't but have increased my daily intake beyond what was recommended by MFP to 1550 calories per day on average vs the 1200. this works for me. I have had my metabolism tested and it's high so was told to eat about 1400-1700 to lose weight! Most of my friends that are on MFP are trying to eat around 1400 without deducting for exercise. So guess it's up to you. People just burn calories so differently, I figure its easier and more accurate to track what I put in, then what I may be burning through activity.
  • erickirb
    erickirb Posts: 12,293 Member
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    I feel more sluggish when I eat back net calories. I try to stay at 1500 cals regardless of my workouts. If I burn 3500 cals in a day I tend to eat more. It's at your discretion. Remember the less you eat the more you lose. If you watch the Biggest Loser you see them losing a lot of weight working out a lot while maintaining a 2,000 cal diet.

    What they do on BL is not healthy, and they are being monitored constantly by doctors. If your deficit is too large and you don't have a lot to lose you will lose a large % of lean muscle, so ask yourself, do you want to lose fat, or weight, if the answer is fat, then make sure your deficit is not too large and eat back the exercise calories, as MFP intended.

    If you don't eat your exercise cals back please change your activity level to active or very active and eat all of those cals instead.
  • scrapbookdiva2
    scrapbookdiva2 Posts: 21
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    lol
  • msarro
    msarro Posts: 2,748 Member
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    Yes. Eat your exercise calories. if you're not hungry, eat a spoonfull of almond butter.
  • thesweatybetty
    thesweatybetty Posts: 107 Member
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    I donate mine to charity.


    that's nice of you!
  • meerkat70
    meerkat70 Posts: 4,616 Member
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    Eat some. i lose a steady 3-4 lb a week, eating my food calories and a couple of hundred into my exercise calories. I've lost a loyal of weight. The only time I've ever stalled was when i let my net drop too low by not eating anything back.rop too low
  • kennethmgreen
    kennethmgreen Posts: 1,759 Member
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    Does this make sense?

    Edit: I should also reiterate what others have said already. MFP allows for you to have the deficit built into the suggested caloric intake based on your weight loss goal. If you have your caloric intake already preset to lose the weight through diet alone, those exercise calories are extra calories that need to go back into your body.
    Yes, you make sense.

    But your edit is what I want to highlight. I think this is where the discussion about eating back calories often goes off the rails.

    It drives me crazy to see the question of eating exercise calories come up so often and it get so quickly answered without considering context or other important information.

    It's like somebody posting a topic with the question: Should I wear a jacket?

    How do you answer that? Well, are you cold? What else are you wearing? What is the temperature where you are? Will the temp fluxuate much where you are? It's just not a simple yes or no question or answer. And because many dieticians, trainings and doctors are used to setting calories with the activity levels *already included* - you end up with people on MFP saying "but my doctor/trainer/best friend said..." And it goes even farther than that, because even within MFP, there are details to consider. How you set up your account matter.

    Got it? OK. Stop answering Yes or No to the eating exercise calories question. It's not that simple, even though *generally* on MFP (because of how the site is designed), the answer will *usually* be yes.

    But deathstarclock said it better and more succinctly that I could.

    So, even though I quoted you above, I am going to type your words again. Read these words:

    If you have your caloric intake already preset to lose the weight through diet alone, those exercise calories are extra calories that need to go back into your body.

    Now, everyone read these words again. This time, without your mouth moving:

    If you have your caloric intake already preset to lose the weight through diet alone, those exercise calories are extra calories that need to go back into your body.
  • sweetly_spicy
    sweetly_spicy Posts: 15 Member
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    I feel more sluggish when I eat back net calories. I try to stay at 1500 cals regardless of my workouts. If I burn 3500 cals in a day I tend to eat more. It's at your discretion. Remember the less you eat the more you lose. If you watch the Biggest Loser you see them losing a lot of weight working out a lot while maintaining a 2,000 cal diet.

    You have to remember though that Biggest Loser was a T.V. fantasy camp, engineered to appeal to it's audience, not to what's healthy or what will work in the long run. I wouldn't advise taking it as gospel on what's good for you.

    If you read the blogs of the contestants after the show ended, you find out that that the t.v. show demanded they exercise against doctors orders with pulled muscles and worse; dehydrated themselves severely before the measure by working out in layers of clothing and not allowing hydration in a hot yoga room; that a "week" of exercise was anywhere from ten to fourteen days in real time, and most to all of the chosen diet/exercise combo's were directly against the doctor-on-the-show's orders. Check it out; here's one who speaks out.

    http://m.jezebel.com/5564997/bigger-loser-finalist-says-show-gave-her-an-eating-disorder

    Just proves that slow, steady and kind to your body is the way to go.
  • rosied915
    rosied915 Posts: 799 Member
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    :heart: :heart: :heart: Kenneth and Deathstar :heart: :heart: :heart:

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