Do you eat back the calories you burned off from exercise??

jscns
jscns Posts: 6 Member
in Food and Nutrition
I'm just curious as to who eats back the calories worked off and who doesn't. How does it affect your weight loss?

Replies

  • Scorpioangel
    Scorpioangel Posts: 951 Member
    I usually don't but if I did a long run that day and am hungry I may eat some it just depends on how hungry I am :)
  • rubysphoto
    rubysphoto Posts: 254 Member
    For the first 6 months I didn't and was losing the weight but then I hit a plateau for almost 3 weeks so I increased my calories an extra 300 plus started eating back my exercise calories and started losing the weight again.
  • Anyaaaa11
    Anyaaaa11 Posts: 242 Member
    At first when I started dieting and didn't know what I was doing I was on 1200calories and burned off 600 and didn't eat my exercise cals. Big mistake led me to develope binge eating. To make a long story short... I now eat 1550net cals and eat back all of my cals so I must eat around 1700-1900 on days I exercise and 1600 on normal days. This is definitely wiling for me. I'm fortunate enough to be losing a pound a week (but the rate is declining probably because I'm already at a healthy weight)
    So I guess I just got away with eating more, thankfully or I wouldve never gotten this far.
    Just experiment with your intake. I had to tweak my cals a lot before I figured it out.
  • _AllieCat_
    _AllieCat_ Posts: 515 Member
    ALWAYS eat back your exercise calories. I have lost a steady one pound a week doing this. If you don't, your body will not get what it needs to function properly. Trust me on this.
  • MindyG150
    MindyG150 Posts: 1,296 Member
    I don't set out to eat back my exercise calories but I don't stress about using them also.
  • RedMotoRider
    RedMotoRider Posts: 224
    I don't eat back my calories and its not even on purpose, after I exercise I'm exhausted and hungry, I eat dinner, carbs and all but it's still not enough to make it to my daily allowance of calories, so I normally leave upwards of 1000 calories on the table on the days I exercise.
  • Tdk4685
    Tdk4685 Posts: 293 Member
    I eat back most of my calories burned from exercise. I found that it made the weight come off quicker that way.
  • TrailRunner61
    TrailRunner61 Posts: 2,505 Member
    I quit losing weight because I was eating back too many of them. Now I just eat some IF I'm hungry. I refuse to stuff myself to prevent 'starvation mode'. I really get sick of hearing about it. The best thing to do is do what works for YOU. Try eating some for a few weeks, try not eating some. If you're hungry, eat but I wouldn't eat all of them. Also, make sure that the calories you do eat are from quality, healthy food to nourish you. Not junk.
  • irisheyez718
    irisheyez718 Posts: 677 Member
    Yes, I do eat back my exercise calories. YUM!
  • mom2mozart
    mom2mozart Posts: 307 Member
    I almost always eat them. Most of the time I exercise so I can eat more. It is insurance against hunger for me.
  • dfair1967
    dfair1967 Posts: 91
    I rarely ever eat back the calories. If I have a huge surplus I may go over a hundred or so but not doing a couple thousand extra.
  • bigd65
    bigd65 Posts: 171 Member
    have been eating everyone of them for the last 7 months, and dropped weight right on schedule, now I have upped my calories 500 under my TDEE as an experiment and low and behold still loosing, but exercise calories are included in so I don't have to track them anymore, and I get to eat 700 more calories a day. Don't be afraid to experiment, the weight doesn't go back on over night. One note now that I upped my calories I eat almost 500 calories at each meal and about 30 minutes after eating I am hungry, so the furnace is burning
  • MoreThanMommie
    MoreThanMommie Posts: 597 Member
    If exercise drops my calories for the day too low, then I eat some of them back. But usually not all.
  • TanyaCurtis
    TanyaCurtis Posts: 630
    I always eat them back, I'm losing weight :)
  • dlpnrn2b
    dlpnrn2b Posts: 441 Member
    Yes..
  • kpetty60
    kpetty60 Posts: 14
    I'll eat half the calories earned by exercise... but then again, I'm not eating all my daily calories either.
  • Railr0aderTony
    Railr0aderTony Posts: 6,803 Member
    YES, not always all of them but as many as i can.
  • dfair1967
    dfair1967 Posts: 91
    ALWAYS eat back your exercise calories. I have lost a steady one pound a week doing this. If you don't, your body will not get what it needs to function properly. Trust me on this.



    I lost on average a pound to a pound and a half the past four days not eating any more than two hundred extra calories I got from all the cardio I been doing which was close to 4,000 calories I could ate back. instead I did eat 1500
  • goosepappa
    goosepappa Posts: 20 Member
    I eat about half of mine. When I first started I ate all of them and it didn't matter. But the closer I got to my target weight it seemed like it was harder for the lbs to come off.
  • Mommsue3
    Mommsue3 Posts: 5
    Sometimes I do but normally as long as I'm satisfied I'm good to go. My trainer said that as long as I don't go overboard on the days I workout then it's okay. Your body will let you know if it needs more so listen to what it's saying and go from there. On the days that I do eat back the exercise calories it causes a minor flux in the numbers but nothing to get worried about. Just mark it down and remember - since you can't un-do the past no need to worry over it just learn from it.
  • 77tes
    77tes Posts: 8,469 Member
    Yes, I eat back my exercise calories. I think that is the secret to my success on MFP. I never knew that was an option before, so exercise always seemed like a punishment. If I want to go out for a big dinner, I fit in a workout in the morning, so I can "afford" the splurge. I never feel deprived, so I don't get discouraged. I eat pretty clean, but I can have a candy bar or an order of fries if I budget for it.
  • xochi71
    xochi71 Posts: 33
    Thank you for asking this!!!! I had hit a plateau when I started here at MFP. I was surprised that i needed to consume nearly 300 less calories but I was determined to lose the weight so I never ate my exercise calories. For the last 6 months I have struggled and actually gain back 10 lbs. I am frustrated but now after reading this I think I just might need to play with my calorie intake. A few more calories for the amount of exercise that I do might be the trick!
  • oats4breakfast
    oats4breakfast Posts: 225
    I just setup my activity level and quota to include exercise cals and the adjust over time. So I end up eating the same each day regardless of exercise. Effectively, I'm zig-zagging my cal intake.
    I do crossfit and run different distances and swim, and sometimes just do active stuff. I also walk golf a few times a week. But I'm basically sedentary in other parts of my life. So if I were to set me at sedentary and then add back exercise, I'd have like 1800 cals to eat each day, then add anything from 200-800 cals back in exercise. One of the problems I found, asides from the inaccuracies, was that it was very hard to plan just what I was going to eat during the day. What if I planned to workout but didn't get to because something came up at work ? Then I might overeat or undereat or whatever.
    So now, I setup to eat 2200 cals a day, every day, regardless if I work out or not.
    There are some days where this is hard to make, so I may only eat 2000 but the next day, I might do a big workout and run too so I will need extra cals (you can feel it) so I'll eat 2400 cals that day. Over two days, I'm still at 2200 cals. So, as I do this, I can plan my diet easily and then after two weeks, if I only lost 1.5 pounds but was expecting 2 pounds, well then I can adjust my daily quota and reduce it be 125 cals per day.
    Why 125 ? Because the theory is 3500 cals per pound per week which is 500 a day. I was off by 1/4 pound per week so that's 125 cals.
    The same formula will be used if I loose 2.5 pounds instead of 2.

    I don't tweak it every two weeks, it was just an example.
    But I will also tweak if I find that I'm hungry all the time and are still loosing. Or if I'm always tired or whatever. It's a long game so I have time. 2200 seems to work really well for me. I'm fueled, feel good and perform well. Occasionally I will get more into me, but sometimes I don't need it too. It's certainly simpler and makes planning easier.

    EDIT: Often, what I eat post workout will make the difference between me eating 2000 or less versus 2200 or more. So I have a "eat back workout cals" function in there too. Almost all other planned meals are the same (same in cals, but variety to eat).
  • jscns
    jscns Posts: 6 Member
    Thank you everyone for answering. I am noticing that i seem to eat about half of my exercise calories back and i lost 4 lb in 2 weeks so i think i might stick with what i'm doing for now and see how it goes. Then maybe experiment with it a bit to see what works for me.
  • JesterMFP
    JesterMFP Posts: 3,596 Member
    I eat every single one of them. :smile:
  • Mommsue3
    Mommsue3 Posts: 5
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  • megsmom2
    megsmom2 Posts: 2,362 Member
    I eat most of them back...love having those calories to use!
  • gsager
    gsager Posts: 977 Member
    ALWAYS eat back your exercise calories. I have lost a steady one pound a week doing this. If you don't, your body will not get what it needs to function properly. Trust me on this.
    Thank you! I flip out every time I see people not eating their exercise calories. You're right, it's how the site is set up, at the end of the day our goal and net should be equal.
  • dixiewhiskey
    dixiewhiskey Posts: 3,333 Member
    Well I don't and those exercise calories just go to waste sometimes... No biggie.. I've kept weight off before, its only due to pregnancy that I'm overweight. I DO zig zag my calories though which in a sense means I do sometimes eat them back.. sometimes I don't. I know that I've created a 500 cal food deficit and up to 500 cal working out everyday so that's always worked for me.

    Whatever floats your boat. No need to get up in arms

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