Eating what I lose in Exercise

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kreat
kreat Posts: 136
in Fitness and Exercise
So is it a good idea to eat the calories you burn during exercise? For instance, If my Calorie goal is 1500 / day, and I exercise, I gain 700 calories from exercising, do I need to eat the extra It tells me I gained?
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Replies

  • paeli
    paeli Posts: 295 Member
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    Yes, eat your exercise calories back, the food fuels your body so you can work out.
  • amdahwd
    amdahwd Posts: 237 Member
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    You are going to get a lot of different answers on this and a lot of reasons why. I do not eat my exercise calorie. I used to do weight watchers and they always stressed the fact that if you did not eat all of your food they told you to you were not going to lose weight because you would go into starvation mode. However, with this last program they introduced, even they admitted that you will still lose weight if you do not eat all your food everyday. You eat until you are not hungry.

    I was researching this topic and found an article (and if I remember right it came from the Mayo clinic) that said the starvation mode thing that everybody talks about is only correct when you are talking about people who are already thin (men with less than 5% body fat and women with less than 10% body fat).

    I guess in the long run, it is up to you to figure out which way works best for you. Good luck!!
  • SueD66
    SueD66 Posts: 405 Member
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    Thank you for asking this. I had the same question.
  • amaried621
    amaried621 Posts: 260 Member
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    It's totally up to you but I think as far as making sure you give your body enough of what it needs you should try and eat some back. I would make it so that you are at least back to your 1500 calorie goal. I don't know about you but the more I exercise the more I want to eat! ;)
  • erickirb
    erickirb Posts: 12,293 Member
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    Yes, it is the way MFP is programed and designed to work and is how you meet your daily caloric deficit target to lose your weekly goal amount of weight..
  • BranMuffin210
    BranMuffin210 Posts: 3
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    What I've been told is that if you eat your exercise calories you'll maintain you're current weight. In order to lose weight there has to be a deficit of some kind. As long as you eat the 1500 calories your body won't go into starvation mode.
  • MyaPapaya75
    MyaPapaya75 Posts: 3,143 Member
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    MFP is based on the fact that you do eat them...some people do and some dont you need to find what works for you by experimenting ..have some if your hungry..omit them on days your not
  • RAFValentina
    RAFValentina Posts: 1,231 Member
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    Have to agree with amdahwd. You'll hear a lot of deconflicting advice I'm afraid. Personally, I don't eat all mine back and just eat to what makes me feel satisfied. It's never had any detrimental health/weight loss/performance/mood effects - but this may not work for you too! :)

    Try eating some back and see how you get on, But ultimately, if you are having big workouts daily, then you should eat some back purely for direct fuel! :)
  • erickirb
    erickirb Posts: 12,293 Member
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    What I've been told is that if you eat your exercise calories you'll maintain you're current weight. In order to lose weight there has to be a deficit of some kind. As long as you eat the 1500 calories your body won't go into starvation mode.

    This is wrong you will lose your goal amount of weight by eating them as your inital calorie goal is a deficit, to keep the deficit the same on days you do or don't workout you must eat them back on the days you do otherwise you will not lose your goal amount of weight. (you will probably lose more not eating them but losing faster is not necessarily better or healthy).
  • sweettoothfairy
    sweettoothfairy Posts: 212 Member
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    Yes you need to eat your exercise calories however MFP over estimate ur calorie burn, if you are using an HRM eat all of them, if u r using MFP to track exercise calories i would say eat 70-80% back..you need to fuel your body.
  • jamiesadler
    jamiesadler Posts: 634 Member
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    My trainer told me no. It kind of defeats the point.
  • MissMaryMac33
    MissMaryMac33 Posts: 1,433 Member
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    Wow .. the amount of confusion and misinformation every timet his topic comes us is amazing to me.
    I can't even respond to these anymore - some of the replies make me want to bang my head against a brick wall.
  • MaximalLife
    MaximalLife Posts: 2,447 Member
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    So is it a good idea to eat the calories you burn during exercise? For instance, If my Calorie goal is 1500 / day, and I exercise, I gain 700 calories from exercising, do I need to eat the extra It tells me I gained?
    Yes, eat all the calories back.
    MFP calculates our total daily calorie intake WITHOUT exercise to lose 1 pound or so per week.
    And after we log exercises, our daily calorie limit increases.
    Why?
    Because MFP telling us to eat our exercise calories.
    Large deficits are unhealthy, because while you will lose weight, what's the quality of the weight loss?
    In many cases you'll lose lean body mass - MUSCLE - which LOWERS your metabolic rate, making weight loss harder.
    These crash diets work well for a season -- and sure enough, the pounds melt away. But when you eat so
    few calories, you train your metabolism to slow down. Once the diet is over, you have a body that burns calories
    more slowly -- and you gain weight.
    Be smart.
    Exercise well both cardio and resistance, and eat back the calories.
    The exercise will RAISE your metabolism and burn more fat at rest.
  • hiker282
    hiker282 Posts: 983 Member
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    Dang it, Max beat me to it. Just do what he said I can vouch for its effectiveness!
  • pokeypeep
    pokeypeep Posts: 36
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    I was wondering the same thing yesterday.In my opinion,if i try to burn 3500 calories to lose a pound,what would be the point in eating them if i'm trying to lose pounds?
  • MissMaryMac33
    MissMaryMac33 Posts: 1,433 Member
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    My trainer told me no. It kind of defeats the point.

    Your trainer doesn't know that MFP ALREADY calculated a deficit in your calories per day.
    In summary, he doesn't know what he's talking about. The only time he would be correct is if you had no deficit built in already and even then, if you work off 1000 calories or some crazy amount one day, you need to eat some back!
  • JohnnyResets
    JohnnyResets Posts: 177 Member
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    What I've been told is that if you eat your exercise calories you'll maintain you're current weight. In order to lose weight there has to be a deficit of some kind. As long as you eat the 1500 calories your body won't go into starvation mode.

    MFP calculates your deficit for you so even when you exercise, the MFP deficit is built in and still there :wink: Like others have said try and eat as much of those as possible;
  • erickirb
    erickirb Posts: 12,293 Member
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    My trainer told me no. It kind of defeats the point.

    He probably does not know how MFP works and assumes your intake takes exercise into account. Since MFP ignores you exercise goal you should be eating them back.

    Most professionals will tell you not to eat your exercise calories back because they added it into your Total Daily Energy Expenditure (TDEE), whereas MFP ignores exercise and only accounts for it when you perform it. Either setting your intake higher or using MFP's lower and eating back the cals should get you to the same place.

    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.
  • MaximalLife
    MaximalLife Posts: 2,447 Member
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    My trainer told me no. It kind of defeats the point.
    Your trainer is wrong so far as MFP is concerned.
    Why?
    Exercise calories are NOT calculated into the daily goals here.
    Why?
    Because people are not consistent in what they do or when.
    MFP calculates daily goals WITHOUT accounting for any cardio exercise. These goals have a daily deficit built in, so if you add exercise calories, eat them back or you will stifle all progress.
  • awestfall
    awestfall Posts: 1,774 Member
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    My trainer told me no. It kind of defeats the point.
    I agree my weight loss doc said the same

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