Extra calories for excercising

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Hi when I put in how long I have exercised or walked the dog it says how many calories I burned and adds extra calories on to my 1200 daily allowance do you have to use these extra calories to lose weight or do you stick to the 1200 weather you exercise or not. Thanks

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  • willismack2
    willismack2 Posts: 84
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    There are different opinions on this subject. I try to eat most of those exercise calories back so I feel like exercising the next day.
  • Sabine_Stroehm
    Sabine_Stroehm Posts: 19,263 Member
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    Hi when I put in how long I have exercised or walked the dog it says how many calories I burned and adds extra calories on to my 1200 daily allowance do you have to use these extra calories to lose weight or do you stick to the 1200 weather you exercise or not. Thanks
    You'll get MANY answers. However, because you're already on a 1200 a day plan, I'd say YES eat more calories. I'm in the camp of: don't NET less than 1200 day after day.
  • Rohnic
    Rohnic Posts: 82
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    I usually eat my exercise calories, its the main reason i exercise, lol.
  • Legals81
    Legals81 Posts: 81 Member
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    I gained almost 500 calories today from exercise but I dont think im going to eat them. I dont think I'm going to be hungry enough to eat them. Im on 1200 a day too. Ive had my three meals for the day and I still have about 350 cals left without counting my exercise cals. Will probably have a snack later tonight to try to get up to 1200 but cant see myself going beyond that. The simple concept of weightloss is to burn more than you eat so im going to stick to that.
  • tami101
    tami101 Posts: 617 Member
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    MFP is designed for you to eat your exercise calories back. However, many people say that they overestimate the calories burned, so I only eat 50 to 75 % of them back.
  • thelovelyLIZ
    thelovelyLIZ Posts: 1,227 Member
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    Keep in mind your deficit is already calculated in, so you can eat them back and still lose weight. You don't have to (I don't always eat all of mine back), but if you're doing a really intense workout, it's probably a good idea to at least eat some of them back.
  • skyan
    skyan Posts: 12
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    Depends of I'm hungry or not, honestly xD; I'm not going to FORCE myself to eat those calories.
  • kkg68
    kkg68 Posts: 2
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    Thanks for all your replys just wasn't sure if had to eat ALL of them as some days I don't quite reach 1200 .i have an under active thyroid so my weight is a struggle I am going to start a fresh tomoro and will stick to 1200 this week but at least I know they there if I go over
  • Zara11
    Zara11 Posts: 1,247 Member
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    do a site search on "exercise calories" and read through them before making any decisions.
  • fayelein
    fayelein Posts: 51 Member
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    I try and eat some of them back but sometimes don't manage it because i'm making healthy choices I don't want to as I can stick to my none workout cals and feel full (if that makes sense)

    I find milk is good though, it's good for you and is a healthy way to take back some of your cals burnt without feeling like you're making your workout pointless (i know eating back cals DOESN'T make your workout pointless, it's just sometimes - for me anyway - it feels that way :p). I normally drink a lot more milk on workout days than on none workout days.

    Hope that helps.
  • PollyannaVoldi
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    I usually eat back burnt calories however not all of them - normally approx. 3/4.

    I don't trust MFP in the matter of counting them, though; it very much overestimates the numbers. I try to use calorie-counters built in the machinery I workout on whenever possible or GPS-based apps whilst I'm running outside (SmartRunner's quite nice actually, but there are plenty of others).

    Hope my comment was helpful.
    Cheers.x
  • Sabine_Stroehm
    Sabine_Stroehm Posts: 19,263 Member
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    I gained almost 500 calories today from exercise but I dont think im going to eat them. I dont think I'm going to be hungry enough to eat them. Im on 1200 a day too. Ive had my three meals for the day and I still have about 350 cals left without counting my exercise cals. Will probably have a snack later tonight to try to get up to 1200 but cant see myself going beyond that. The simple concept of weightloss is to burn more than you eat so im going to stick to that.
    which puts you at 700 net for the day.