Why Eating Exercise Calories is so important.

I've read all 16 pages and it's been very educational

I have an overfeeding day every week, usually on a Sunday and it works. I exercise 6 days a week (Insanity and Turbofire). Thanks for this thread

Thank you for this explanation, I was totally not getting it, especially since what I grew up with is you have to "burn more than you take in." However, this is making me apprehensive as I am an under eater and having a hard time with getting my daily food in on my non work out days and now I will have to eat like a whole meal more on days I exercise This is great to know, here I go again!

Bump!

I agree but disagree, MFP is very optimistic when assigning Calories for Exercise, so I try and not eat them all back...

This is very true - while I am a total believer in eating your calories back (assuming you have your deficit built into your goal) but folks should always err on the side of caution with the amount they eat back due to over-stated calories burned.

I'm glad you posted this. I was wondering this same thing today. And funny enough, I already understood it, just not the way I thought I did. In my head, working out just gets me more food. :-D

I love the way you've explained this. It's a great reminder of why you need to eat those exercise calories back, especially when the scale may not moving as fast as it was in the beginning of the weight loss journey!

So far I've been extremely happy following the "eat more" plan and I've been trying to get as close to goal calories as possible, eating back my exercise calories. Sometimes I'm tempted to not exercise because I'm eating so dang much now! I know that's not the right answer... I just need to plan my days better so I don't end the day with a load of calories to still eat. That could be why exercising in the morning is a better idea - then you can plan for recouping those calories.

Anyway, thanks for the great example - I really enjoyed reading this and hope to share your knowledge with my friends trying to lose. :bigsmile:

Thanks. saving to read later

bump

I fully believe my body is partially in starvation mode. I have a 1200 cal/day to attain, but it is very difficult some days. I get so full and I know that it is bad on a regular basis to not consume those essential 1200. even when i plan out my meals, it really is up-in-the-air as to how many cals i really burn in a day when i am flying around the house doing house work, yard work, shopping etc. maybe i actually am eating to much or maybe I am under eating. uhhh sigh! i guess if i just consume 1300 cals a day... it will all work out cross my fingers. need to add lots more nuts and beans into the diet

Take a look at this post (its locked as it has 500 posts but you can view it): http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/538381-in-place-of-a-road-map

This week I decided to test this theory and ate back all my exercise calories and did not lose a pound, not even a tenth of a pound. So I'm going back to what worked for me before - setting my net calories at slightly higher than what MFP recommends and only eating back SOME of my exercise calories if I'm still hungry. So I guess you could argue that just by setting my net calories higher than what MFP recommends, that I am, in fact, eating back exercise calories - but that's my net regardless of whether or not I exercise, and I only increase them by 100 higher than what MFP recommends. And I also agree with the fact that if you exercise a lot or burn a lot of calories, you definitely should not attempt to eat them all back. Let's be real, we're not olympic athletes, so we don't need to eat loads of calories to fuel our bodies when we exercise. And by exercise, I mean going to a gym or setting aside time to do an actual workout. I don't think anyone should be counting "cooking" or "doing housework" as exercise if you're planning to eat your exercise calories back.

I also want to point out, as I did in my earlier post to the OP, that the calories burned on both the cardio equipment and especially here on MFP are GROSSLY overstated. Best thing we can do is invest in a good HR monitor (I recommend the Polar FT7) and even then I don't assume that I burned as much as what my HRM shows, and that number is significantly lower than what the cardio equipment or MFP says I burned. So if you eat back all of what MFP or the cardio equipment says you burned, you're more than likely eating a surplus and your net is no longer a deficit. So just be conservative if you're choosing to eat back your exercise calories. Better to error on the side of caution - in my opinion.

But I guess at the end of the day, we all have to do what works best for us, and unfortunately it takes some trial and error to find the "sweet spot" for our bodies to lose weight.

Good point. Thanks.

BUMP and THANKS. I will do this the HEALTHY way DAMN IT!

Hm, a little confused, so say my calorie goal is 1400 without exercise, and I burn 500 calories. Now I have to eat 1900 calories right? Do you mean that eating back your exercise calories is eating the whole 1900 calories or leaving a 500 calorie deficit? Thanks!

Your deficit is already built into that 1400. If you then burn 500 calories, you effectively only consume 900 that day, which increase your deficit to (I'm assuming you picked 2lbs a week) 1500 a day and puts you dangerously far under your BMR. If you eat back those 500 calories, you're back to the safer (though still high) 1000 a day deficit.

I understand what you are saying, but I do Zumba and sometimes or a lot times it's hard to eat those exercise calories back. Zumba is about 600 cal burned for me, is this why my weight is isn't moving only inches

Thank you so much..... NOW I understand!!! :smokin: