Am I supposed to eat my exercise calories back?

Well if you don't eat your calories back, you'll have a deficit and lose weight FASTER!!!

I am still very new to all of this, but if you search that topic you will see alot of answers / opinions.

HTH

Nicole

My doctor and nutritionist told me not to eat back my exercise calories. I would ask your doctor.

This is what they usually do, but they usually give you many more calories than MFP gives you, which accounts for the exercise you plan on doing, whereas your MFP intake assumes no exercise, even if you filled in planed exercise.

Most professionals will tell you not to eat your exercise calories back because they added it into your TDEE, whereas MFP ignores exercise and only accounts for it when you perform it. Either way should get you to the same place, assuming if you follow MFP that you eat your exercise calories.

As an example say MFP gives you 1450 calories to lose 1 lb/week, and you plan on exercising 5x/week for an average of 400 cals per workout. well MFP will tell you to eat 1450 on the days you don't workout and 1850 on the days you do whereas a "professional" may tell you to eat 1750 everyday regardless if you workout.

So for the week MFP will have you eat 12,150 (1450*2+1850*5) whereas doing it the other way will have you eat 12,250 (1750*7) almost the same number of cals for the week. The issue in not following MFP is if you don't workout the full 5 days or burn more or less than planned. If that is the case you may lose more or less than your goal, whereas MFP will have you lose your goal amount regardless how much you actually workout.

What many MFPers do is take the low 1450 and not eat back exercise calories which is wrong, if you are not eating them back then your daily activity level should reflect the higher burn with would be covered in the 1750/day above.

Well if you don't eat your calories back, you'll have a deficit and lose weight FASTER!!!

faster is not always better, faster weight loss may mean you are losing a large amount of lean muscle, not just the fat you are trying to lose. Slow and steady wins the race. Most likely the slower you lose the lower your body fat % will be at your goal weight.

eat your exercise calories.
you don't have to eat all of them but you should eat most of them.
if you do an intense work out and burn 1000 calories, and you're on a 1200 calorie diet - you're only netting 200 calories - which is WAY too low! I try to eat within 100 calories of all my exercise calories - and I've lost 83.4 pounds so far this year!

Congrats on your weight loss. Great post. Love the real world experience. I hope you post this story in every "should I eat my exercise calories back?" thread that pops up.

I know that here it is advocated TO eat your exercise cals back...but I honestly think I do better NOT eating them back!! Now granted, I am not going to do very many days of exercising over 500-600 cals. If I did, I would eat half back. It seems like I struggle more w/ losing now that MFP has me eating my work out cals.

I try not to eat my calories back, but that very much depends on the day. For example I am on 1000 calories per day, Today I have gone for a swim and a walk burning 750 calories. I have eaten 897 calories, so only have a daily total of 147calories, which is very low. However I won't eat them back as it's now too late in the day to eat, I try not to eat after 6pm, that way I don't go to bed with a full stomach. If tomorrow I then eat my exercise calories it still means I'm in overall deficit over the week.

I know 1000 per day is low, but I don't seem to be hungry on it, and have lost 15kg since the beginning of August, so it seems to be working for me.

I say eat them back. If you lose weight too fast (dieting and working out) you might put the lbs right back on. I personally work out to 1) get stronger and 2) so I can eat more calories. (Mostly so I can eat more. I know, aren't I horrible?)

My doctor and nutritionist told me not to eat back my exercise calories. I would ask your doctor.

This is what they usually do, but they usually give you many more calories than MFP gives you, which accounts for the exercise you plan on doing, whereas your MFP intake assumes no exercise, even if you filled in planed exercise.

Most professionals will tell you not to eat your exercise calories back because they added it into your TDEE, whereas MFP ignores exercise and only accounts for it when you perform it. Either way should get you to the same place, assuming if you follow MFP that you eat your exercise calories.

As an example say MFP gives you 1450 calories to lose 1 lb/week, and you plan on exercising 5x/week for an average of 400 cals per workout. well MFP will tell you to eat 1450 on the days you don't workout and 1850 on the days you do whereas a "professional" may tell you to eat 1750 everyday regardless if you workout.

So for the week MFP will have you eat 12,150 (1450*2+1850*5) whereas doing it the other way will have you eat 12,250 (1750*7) almost the same number of cals for the week. The issue in not following MFP is if you don't workout the full 5 days or burn more or less than planned. If that is the case you may lose more or less than your goal, whereas MFP will have you lose your goal amount regardless how much you actually workout.

What many MFPers do is take the low 1450 and not eat back exercise calories which is wrong, if you are not eating them back then your daily activity level should reflect the higher burn with would be covered in the 1750/day above.

+1

I eat most of my exercise calories back. Not only because I should but also because when I work out as hard as I do I get hungry for protien!

The pancake pictures are so cruel!! lol