To eat your exercise calories or not... that is the ??

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  • returningmyfatsuit
    returningmyfatsuit Posts: 35 Member
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    You're going to get a lot of conflicting advise.

    I always ate mine back, at least half or more, and I'm almost at goal and I have moderately defined abs.

    The only conflicting answers come from those who do not understand simple math or how this site is designed to operate.

    THIS.
  • Nerdy_Rose
    Nerdy_Rose Posts: 1,277 Member
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    You're going to get a lot of conflicting advise.

    I always ate mine back, at least half or more, and I'm almost at goal and I have moderately defined abs.

    ditto

    He's lying. His abs are quite a bit more defined than mine.
  • wendiv130
    wendiv130 Posts: 26
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    You don't want to slow your metabolism down either by not eating back any exercise cals. It doesn't negate the work that you've done. You are conditioning your body and you want your metabolism to be effective all day. If you don't eat back the exercise calories, then to me, what's the point in exercising? You won't be giving your body what it needs to build muscle and stamina and keeping that metabolism going all day.
  • sydneysida
    sydneysida Posts: 2
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    Agree, this is something that confused me too. I have been 'flexible' about this but in general have NOT eaten my exercise calories although I do track them. Have tried to read up about this but can't find anything that really helps. A lot of literature talks about burning calories and that burning extra calories is really important but they never really address how they count and what you do with them. I've been at it for 4 months now and whenever my calorie consumption goes over about 1500 whether or not I have burnt more my weight bounces up.
    :smile: -25lbs
  • Vivaladziunia
    Vivaladziunia Posts: 7
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    Thats exactly how I feel. Its like going to the gym trying so hard to get in a good workout then eating. I feel guilty eating after a workout....I think everyone is different. A lot of people say its better but I guess it depends on how someone feels about it. To be honest I've never heard of eating back calories til today!
  • engineman312
    engineman312 Posts: 3,450 Member
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    You're going to get a lot of conflicting advise.

    I always ate mine back, at least half or more, and I'm almost at goal and I have moderately defined abs.

    ditto

    He's lying. His abs are quite a bit more defined than mine.

    true
  • irisheyez718
    irisheyez718 Posts: 677 Member
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    Nope. My nutritionist told me it sabotages your diet. the only way I have sucessfully lost weight, is to eat 1300 on days I dont exercise, and bump it up to 1400-1500 on days that I do (per her advice) that way I always have a deficit, but I'm still giving my body adequate nutrition. You have to work a billion times harder to burn calories than if you dont eat them!!! Calorie restrictions to lose weight, exercise for overall wellbeing and toning of muscles! Thats what I'm goin with! And it works! :)

    Wow, I guess your nutritionist knows more than my scale! I wonder how in the world I've gone down 4 pant sizes eating them back? Who knew?!?
  • wendyrvp
    wendyrvp Posts: 46 Member
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    Thanks for posting the links. So much to learn.
  • taso42
    taso42 Posts: 8,980 Member
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    Nope. My nutritionist told me it sabotages your diet. the only way I have sucessfully lost weight, is to eat 1300 on days I dont exercise, and bump it up to 1400-1500 on days that I do (per her advice) that way I always have a deficit, but I'm still giving my body adequate nutrition. You have to work a billion times harder to burn calories than if you dont eat them!!! Calorie restrictions to lose weight, exercise for overall wellbeing and toning of muscles! Thats what I'm goin with! And it works! :)

    Wow, I guess your nutritionist knows more than my scale! I wonder how in the world I've gone down 4 pant sizes eating them back? Who knew?!?

    Actually if you look at the numbers, she is roughly doing the same thing as "eating back exercise calories", and netting around 1200-1300 every day (perhaps a bit less than 1200 on exercise days).

    Same thing, different way of accounting.
  • irisheyez718
    irisheyez718 Posts: 677 Member
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    Nope. My nutritionist told me it sabotages your diet. the only way I have sucessfully lost weight, is to eat 1300 on days I dont exercise, and bump it up to 1400-1500 on days that I do (per her advice) that way I always have a deficit, but I'm still giving my body adequate nutrition. You have to work a billion times harder to burn calories than if you dont eat them!!! Calorie restrictions to lose weight, exercise for overall wellbeing and toning of muscles! Thats what I'm goin with! And it works! :)

    Wow, I guess your nutritionist knows more than my scale! I wonder how in the world I've gone down 4 pant sizes eating them back? Who knew?!?

    Actually if you look at the numbers, she is roughly doing the same thing as "eating back exercise calories", and netting around 1200-1300 every day (perhaps a bit less than 1200 on exercise days).

    Same thing, different way of accounting.
    True, I guess I was more disagreeing with the "You have to work a billion times harder than if you don't eat them". I should have just quoted that part. I feel that I CAN work harder, because I do eat them, if that makes sense at all :-)
  • bunny1006
    bunny1006 Posts: 325 Member
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    Nope. My nutritionist told me it sabotages your diet. the only way I have sucessfully lost weight, is to eat 1300 on days I dont exercise, and bump it up to 1400-1500 on days that I do (per her advice) that way I always have a deficit, but I'm still giving my body adequate nutrition. You have to work a billion times harder to burn calories than if you dont eat them!!! Calorie restrictions to lose weight, exercise for overall wellbeing and toning of muscles! Thats what I'm goin with! And it works! :)

    Wow, I guess your nutritionist knows more than my scale! I wonder how in the world I've gone down 4 pant sizes eating them back? Who knew?!?

    That's what I thought too. It's the same premise as eating back youre exercise calories.


    Actually if you look at the numbers, she is roughly doing the same thing as "eating back exercise calories", and netting around 1200-1300 every day (perhaps a bit less than 1200 on exercise days).

    Same thing, different way of accounting.
  • Sarauk2sf
    Sarauk2sf Posts: 28,072 Member
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    Okay so for the last 3 weeks I've been getting yelled at cause I'm having a hard time eating 1200 calories. Then on top of that I'm supposed to eat what I get back from exercizing.......seriously? So this week I did and guess what.......I didn't lose!!! I gained .4 of a lb, but I gained. ugh!!!!!! So, no I'm not gonna do it again.

    You need to give upping your calories more than 1 week - your body can take a couple of weeks to 'adapt' to the higher calories. Also, gaining .4 of a lb is nothing - it is most likely water weight. You have to have eaten 200 calories a day above maintenance to have a gain of that amount of fat.
  • offdutyguy
    offdutyguy Posts: 19
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    Here is my OPINION !!!!!!! Im not sure why some people seem to take it personal if you stray from this sites recommendations. There are a million OPINIONS and very little FACTS on this subject. Weight loss is simple math. Calories in and Calories out. Beyond that, there is no real exact science, just opinions. There are a million strategies to losing weight. Everyones body is different and reacts differently to diet and excercise. Find what works for you and adjust your calories according to how your body is feeling. You want eat clean, build lean muscle and allow your body to recover. I keep hearing that you will lose muscle if you have a low calorie diet. From everything I have read that isnt entirely accurate. Only in extreme cases of starvation. So dont starv yourself. HAHA. Good luck.
  • ronitabur
    ronitabur Posts: 178 Member
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    I eat back my calories and am on a 1230 calorie diet. Yes, my ticker is correct - I just hit the 50# weight loss this week. I lose an average of 1.8 pounds per week. I should note that I wear a heart rate monitor that has a calorie counter built in. I also delete 100 calories from my calories burned, assuming that this is approximately what I would've burned just by being alive. If my HRM says that I burned 450 calories in a 1 hour workout, then I consider it to be 350 calories. Then, I eat those calories. I sometimes go a little over 1230 calories on my off-gym days because it takes about 2 days for my body to react to calorie-need changes, but not too far over.

    You will lose weight faster if you don't eat back your calories, but personally I find that I have more energy to perform better at the gym if I allow myself that extra food, which usually consists of nuts, whole grain crackers or string cheese. And, I'm not as likely to binge.

    Good luck and be well.
  • Sarauk2sf
    Sarauk2sf Posts: 28,072 Member
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    Nope. My nutritionist told me it sabotages your diet. the only way I have sucessfully lost weight, is to eat 1300 on days I dont exercise, and bump it up to 1400-1500 on days that I do (per her advice) that way I always have a deficit, but I'm still giving my body adequate nutrition. You have to work a billion times harder to burn calories than if you dont eat them!!! Calorie restrictions to lose weight, exercise for overall wellbeing and toning of muscles! Thats what I'm goin with! And it works! :)

    Did your nutritionist calculate your BMR, your TDEE? If not, I would ask for my money back because they did not give you good advice. I have no idea as to what your appopriate target calories should be , but unless they calculated these things - neither do they.
  • engineman312
    engineman312 Posts: 3,450 Member
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    maybe you should drink them!

    2012-02-10_10-54-46_470.jpg
  • neverstray
    neverstray Posts: 3,845 Member
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    No one should be allowed to answer questions such as these expect fitness experts.

    Yes, you should eat them back. Why? Well, this is discussed daily, and the search feature works pretty well. If you're interested, the info is there.
  • iwantahealthierme13
    iwantahealthierme13 Posts: 337 Member
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    If I burn 400-600 calories swimming that puts me my goal at over 2000 for the day so I don't eat all of them back just because I find it really difficult to eat healthy while doing it, sure I could pick up a couple of chocolate bars but that wouldn't be good.

    If it's 300 or less when I don't swim but use the treadmill, I need those calories and I most often do eat almost all of them back with healthy foods.

    On days I don't exercise I sometimes go over. Like today, today I was just starving all day for some reason.

    I'm set at losing one pound a week, it's only my second week though.
  • dlhenry511
    dlhenry511 Posts: 64
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    My personal trainer and my nutrionist said you should ALWAYS replace what you have burned. So eat those calories. back. Make healthy choices and you will be fine and fueling your body. Good luck!
  • JennyAnn35
    JennyAnn35 Posts: 45
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    for me it is there as an option. I do not normally eat them back, but if I have a special night out planned that involves food I will get in extra calorie burn so that I can eat them back that one day and not blow my progress out of the water.

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