Eating back exercise calories

Don't eat back the calories you burn. 1200 seems low.


What is your current weight?
Male or female?
How much exercise do you get weekly?

I set my activity to sedentary and that puts me at 1200 calories then I measure my real activity with my pedometer and it gives me what I should really be eating. I am at 1300 to 1400 calories per day with my activity and losing 2 lbs a week that way. I eat when I am hungry and often have calories left over but I really try to listen to what my body is telling me. Mostly it tells me to stay away from salt.

I got myself a pedometer and had decided to do similar to what you said and eat 1310 as a basic level then add on any calories earned. I wore it today and spent a long time on my feet, and it said that I burnt off 249 calories. I suppose I now eat the extra 249 calories to make my intake back up to 1310, is this right? Is this an accurate way of doing things? It seems to make sense to me! Thanks.

I asked a dietician the same thing and she couldnt seem to undertstand what I meant lol. Because think of it, if you burned all your cal allowence every day wouldnt that be starvation.

Good grief people. YES you should eat back your exercise calories. Assuming you're using MFP. That is how it is set up. If you're eating 1200, burning 400 exercising, and not eating it back, you're only actually eating 800. NOT ENOUGH. The important part is to measure your exercise calories as accurately as possible. I recommend a heart rate monitor (with a chest strap) for any cardio work.

Personal opinion, and I know it's not popular with a lot of people because they want immediate results for motivation--believe me I get that-- but I think I'd prefer to err on the side of eating too much at first, and scaling back if you're consistently gaining a small bit weight over 3 or 4 weeks. You'd want to keep your workouts pretty consistent to what you normally do.

I realize the goal here is to lose weight, but I think eating just a tad above maintenance to start would give people a better idea of what their maintenance really is when the daily calorie limit is at the bottom of MFP's suggest range (i.e. 1200/day).

I have a lot of weight to lose. My calories per day is right around 1200. I am eating and yet exercising. Yestarday I had a lot of calories left at the end of the day. I had 4, yes 4 pieces of pizza for supper last nite. Should I be eating more even if i am not hungry? Help!

What you're doing is working well for you. You shouldn't eat more if you're not hungry. Listen to your body.

The MFP way of "eat this much unless you EXERCISE than add that back" is firstly, confusing as hell to people and secondly, a pain in the *kitten*. Why not just compute your actual TDEE, with your activity/exercise? If you go to the gym twice a week and workout like a fiend, allocate it across the week. Then figure your ONE calorie goal and just use that every day. Of course, cycle things all you want but you don't have to do a math problem every single day guess/track your 'workout' calories and 'eat back' your workout. (I personally would skip the workout.)

This method also is hokey for those of who don't do distinct "workouts" so much as just increase our NEAT (non-exercise activity thermogenesis) to a goal level each day.