To eat or not to eat...

I have been eating some of them back, but not all. I guess it just depends on how hungry you are for that day.

When I ate my calories back I didn't lose weight so I stopped

I think it depends to on how intense the workout was. For example, if the calories are for "light cleaning" I would probably not eat them. When I ran the 1/2 marathon last month, I ate some of the calories but not all - I think it was over 1000 for that! Usually if I do an intense cardio workout, I do eat some (most) of them to refuel my body.

When I ate my calories back I didn't lose weight so I stopped

And I had the opposite effect. I didn't lose until I ate them back! it's a matter of finding what works for you!

I don't stress as much about my calorie goal if I have some exercise calories to add. I am trying to stay close to 1200 but average 1300 so the exercise calories keeps me under most days .

I eat most, if not all, of mine. The however to this, and something not many people mention, is that I only count actual time in the gym as activity and use a Polar HRM with chest strap so I know my calorie numbers are spot on (for you naysayers, I know they're not 100% but pretty darn close). If you're using the calorie #s MFP gives you, they may not be very accurate so if you do eat them back, you may be overeating, or even undereating.

Try different methods (eat all back, don't eat any back, eat half back) for 2-3 weeks each and see how the scale responds...

I eat them if I'm hungry. If not, I don't.

Eat when you're hungry up to your cals allowed, including exercise cals. If you're not hungry, don't eat.

Somedays I eat them back, some days I don't.

Results of not eating those exercise calories








Yes you will lose faster but because of the larger deficit you are prone to catabolism and loose skin...

I read a quote a while ago that I stick with

"If you want to eat like a champ, workout like a champ"

so if I burn a ton (800+) calories, I will eat some back. But if I only burn around like 400, which is my usual, I won't eat those back.

Results of not eating those exercise calories








Yes you will lose faster but because of the larger deficit you are prone to catabolism and loose skin...

I know the point of this was to promote eating the calories back, but it has kind of um, ruined my appetite for the moment! I will eat most of them back, all if I am hungry enough. I won't go below about 1300 calories unless I am sick. If I am really not hungry, I will try to eat something higher calorie, or watch my hunger level the next day and eat more then.

I eat mine back until I am full. I never try to eat all of them though to account for errors in my calories burned (i.e. as one poster noted - house cleaning - which I do not log that stuff). Personally, I have noticed that while I lost more weight initially eating less I have lost more overall eating most of them back. It also has to do with what kind of calories. Just because you have an extra 800, you shouldn't have a bowl of ice cream.

I do not eat mine back. MFP has me set at 1200/day. I'm usually a little under that in actual food. I work out 5-6 x week - I use my HRM when I work out so I'm tracking REAL calories

To all folks with HRMs.... do you log the calories that the HRM tells you or do you subtract your TDEE calories from that total?

Just that in the beginning I just logged what the HRM told me I'd burnt, but then it was brought to my attention that if you spent 60mins sat on your padded backside you would also burn calories because we all do every second/minute/hour of the day. So now I have worked out my TDEE per minute and multiply that by however many minutes I've swum or cycled or walked and then subtract that from the calories my HRM (or MFP) tells me I've used.

That way I should have a more accurate account for calories out so I know how many calories I CAN take in.

:bigsmile:

I was eating them all back but then I stopped losing for a month. I've changed a few things up recently (stopped eating back exercise calories, increased protein, eating 5-6 smaller meals throughout the day) and I finally lost again this week. I feel better too and I'm not hungry.

The topic of eating back calories is a huge one....some say yes others say no....

My personal belief is that it has to do with the type of foods you eat, your body composition, etc...

If your purpose is to loose weight - then the addage is calories in vs calories out - so you have to work at a deficit to loose weight...exercise creates a greater deficit and therefore SHOULD have you loosing weight..

However one part of the equation is the food you eat - if you are eating clean and healthy and getting loads of vitamins, minerals, protiens, good fats, etc...from the food you are eating rather than processed "diet" food crap - then you may not need to eat back your exercise calories...

Another part is your body type - if you have a high % of body fat - body fat is stored potential energy...when you eat your body will first use what you give it in any given day and then turn to using your stored fat to use as energy. While it is true that if you don't feed your body enough it can screw with your metabolism and want to hold on to energy reserves because it doesn't know whenit will get more food (another reason not to "skip" meals) People with lower body fat can and should eat more during a day and would probably benefit from eating back exercise calories as muscle burns more calories at rest than fat does.

Yet another part of the equation is how many calories do you actually burn in any given day...Calucations can give you a rough idea of how many you burn (i.e. your metabolism rate) - but it could be wayyyyyy off due to all sorts of things...think about people you may know who can seemingly eat anything and not gain a lb...whereas others have an extra piece of cake and bam gain 2 lbs...so here at MFP everything is based on a calculation...based on height, weight, age, etc... so MFP tells me to loose 1 lb a week i should eat no more than 1400 calories for a total of 9800/week...so it is calculating my daily burn rate is about 1900 calories or 13300/week - well it could be that my burn rate is only 1700 calories a day - 11900/week - thereby leaving me a deficit of only 2100 - so rather than loosing a lb a week I loose much less...

All of that being said everyone is different...and you may have to experiment to see what works best for you. I know for me the days I do big workouts I attempt to make sure I eat as close to my goal as possible and not to net under 1000 calories...the days I don't do workouts I do my best to stay a little under my 1400 calorie goal...

As far as the pictures go - if someone is overweight and the skin stretches - sometimes it doesn't matter how fast you loose weight - the skin has lost elasticity and therefore will never be smooth and taunt without medical intervention - ask most women who have been pregnant of they can ever get rid of stretch marks...I know mine are around to stay