To eat or not to eat that is the question

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Seattlema
Seattlema Posts: 51 Member
in Food and Nutrition
Hi everyone,

So I've had sucess on the plan that MFP has set up for me. I don't generally eat back all of my workout calories and I have been losing weight consistantly each week. MFP has be at 1470 for calorie intake, in which I eat a little over that when I workout. I guess my question is how many of you eat back the calories you burn during excerise? I've seen many diaries where people have not been eating back but I haven't seen one where someone does eat back all of there workout calories.

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  • marieautumn
    marieautumn Posts: 932 Member
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    i usually burn about 500- 800 calories per my HRM so i try to eat back as much as possible as i'm on a 1200 cals. Most of the time i'm still under by 100 or so calories but i don't feel like my energy is depleted. i would suggest eating those cals back.
  • szuszanna
    szuszanna Posts: 38 Member
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    You should be eating back your exercise calories. When you set up your MFP profile you filled in your information and it gives you a calorie goal based on your own situation. This already has a deficit built in for you. So if you were honest in setting it up, you should eat them back to give your body enough fuel to keep going. If you don't, over time, your metabolism will slow down and you'll end up having a major set back.
  • pastryari
    pastryari Posts: 8,646 Member
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    I try to eat most of mine back. My diary is set up for my calculated calories from Insanity so my exercise is factored into my calorie goal already. So it may look as though I'm not eating them back since I'm just logging the exercise to keep track of it, not for the calories.
  • TKHappy
    TKHappy Posts: 659 Member
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    When MFP put me at 1200 calories I always ate back all my exercise calories!! I've since learned that I do best and feel best working out and eating 1700-1900 calories a day...above my BMR and below my TDEE! :)
  • DonniesGirl69
    DonniesGirl69 Posts: 644 Member
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    I usually eat at least some of them back.
  • misskerouac
    misskerouac Posts: 2,242 Member
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    I eat most of mine back which some days means i'm eating over 2000 calories, but i'm still netting between 1400-1600
  • Jackieonappy
    Jackieonappy Posts: 92 Member
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    Some days, I burn 1200 calories, it is almost impossible for me to eat all of that back on top of the 1700 calories I'm supposed to eat but I try to make sure my net calories are at decent numbers so my body isn't starving. For a while, I was burning a ton of cals and eating my 1700 and ended up with a net 400, 500, 600..then i gained 4 lbs in a week because my body was HOLDING on to the food rather than releasing it, thinking i was starving.
  • myfitnessnmhoy
    myfitnessnmhoy Posts: 2,105 Member
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    I eat them back, most of them if I can independently verify the calorie burn (some of MFP's calorie burns are downright fanciful), all of them if it's a fairly insignificant amount, and half of them if MFP is the only source I have for calorie burns.

    I'm running a 500 calorie deficit at the moment to lose weight at one pound a week. MFP claims that my 28-mile hilly daily bike ride (commute to and from work) burns a total of over 2000 calories. In reality, it's closer to 1400. If I ate that "extra" 600 back, I'd not be losing any weight.
  • cartmail
    cartmail Posts: 36 Member
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    As long as my over all net intake is over 1200 I don't worry about eating mine back. Some times I have to eat to get them to there even when I'm not hungry.
  • Seattlema
    Seattlema Posts: 51 Member
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    Thanks everyone. Everyone I know has their own opinions on this and I just wanted to see how many of you actually eat the calories back.
  • Seattlema
    Seattlema Posts: 51 Member
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    So if you were honest in setting it up, you should eat them back to give your body enough fuel to keep going. If you don't, over time, your metabolism will slow down and you'll end up having a major set back.

    I generally try to eat at my calorie goal set by MPF and sometimes a little over. Yes all of my information is correct. Why lie about that when your trying to lose weight??? Doesn't make much sense.
  • szuszanna
    szuszanna Posts: 38 Member
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    Not saying you weren't being honest! I've seen quite a few people posting who say that they have their activity level set to active or very active, and then are logging in their regular activities again as exercise too. That's double counting calories burned, and so they aren't getting the same net calories. Same thing if you set it to sedentary, but are actually lightly active, you should be eating a few more calories than your "custom" goal on here is. Lets face it, most of us here were in some sort of denial in order to get to the point we're at now (*please note I said most of us, not all of us. Some people have medical issues, etc that pushed us to where we are*). I know for me, the hardest part about starting this journey was being completely honest and realistic about my behaviors. "Oh, I'll get the bigger meal and just bring home half for left overs." "Oh, I'm working over time today, that means its ok to have a BigMac cause I'm working more." "I'll exercise tomorrow. Yeah, tomorrow!" Just speaking from experience! Good luck on your journey :)

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