Do you eat your exercise calories?
 

I'm curious: if you work out regularly, do you 'eat back' your exercise calories? As in, if you run five miles and earn 500 calories, do you then eat 500 more calories worth of food?

Or do you ignore calories earned? Is your daily calorie goal based upon you doing a certain amount of exercise anyway?

I run or do other exercise 3-4 times a week and I eat back what I burn (calculated with a heart rate monitor, so it's fairly accurate). My daily goal is fairly low, so I feel better eating back what I've run off.

What do you do?

I've seen this question come around quite a few times; it seems pretty evenly split between people who eat back and those who don't. I don't, unless I'm feeling shaky or unwell, and take that as a sign that I need a bit more in my system.

I have been wondering whether I should eat them back or not. I am on a 5 week plateau right now and I decided to start eating back some (but not all) of my burned calories to see if that helps bring on a woosh.

If I have only eaten 1200 calories and I burn 650 on my bike, then I think it would be unhealthy not to eat something extra.

I never did while losing weight. I guess I didnt see the point in working so hard and not being rewarded by weight loss. I was in it to get the weight off as quickly possible. I was in a race for my life. Not a bad thing in my book!

However, now that I am in maintaince I do eat more, and if I work really hard, sure, I'll eat a whole steak instead of 4 oz!

i usually eat about 1600-1700 calories per day of good food (rarely junk) and exercise about 210 calories away....according to the treadmill which i'm not sure i believe...when i top 180s heartrate and leave dripping in sweat i find it hard to believe i only killed 210 calories :( ....but regardless, that's where i'm at right now

I don't, I only eat when I'm hungry and I usually don't dip into my workout calories.

It depends on my activity for the day; I split my workout days into weights versus cardio, and eat differently according to my activity.

For example, if it's a cardio day (where I do a long run or session on the stair climber) the purpose is for me to burn a ton of calories... so I don't "eat those back". I only do cardio like that 1-2 days per week.

If I am lifting weights that day (4-5 days per week) I do eat a bit more. The act of lifting weights does burn calories, but that isn't really its purpose. It's purpose is to build muscle, and that requires more food in order to fuel those muscles. My protein intake is slightly higher in my post workout meal, and overall calories for the day are increased.

Hope that helps!

I don't, but I eat a fairly "high" number of calories (compared to all the people of every size I see on here who are eating 1200 calories a day) of 1500-1800 per day.

I keep my calorie intake and exercise output separate (and aim to burn between 2500-3000 per week.)

This, yes. I eat between 1,800 and 2,000 calories a day, and cycle about four times a week for an hour. I lose around 1 1/2 lbs a week, and don't feel drained or overly hungry. So, I know I'm doing okay.

No I don't. I eat between 1400-1600 per week, but I workout about an hour and a half a day and burn about 900 cals. I do spike up my calories though on Saturdays when my husband and I have our "free" day from counting calories or working out. I think that it probably makes up for not eating back any calories during the week.

I'm on a calorie split, because I'm lifting weights to gain muscle. But I don't specifically eat back calories burned through activity. I'm going to go on a full cut, here soon, and back to the same # of calories every day. I like to keep myself guessing haha.

I just found a formula this say 0.63xmilles run x your current weight equal calories burn, so a put a base of 1000 calories and then I add my calories earn on the day. I usually run early in the morning 4:30 -5:00am, so I know how many calories I am going to eat, been 1200 the lowest.
I run every day, and I planning to join a gym on September to lift some weighs.

That means I only burn 280 calories on my 3-mile jog? I was hoping it was more!

F.

I don't , in fact I never could see the point in it. I want to burn calories !

FOR ME: Not eating back my exercise calories = plateau. Remember to eat a snack after you exercise at least...try a carb to protein ration of 4/1 to help your muscles recover (yes, even for cardio - your heart is a muscle!).

I do, unless I'm just not hungry. But I'm also a heavy lifter, so my body needs as much for recovery as possible.

I don't since it's hard to really tell if I'm working hard enough to justify eating those calories back and I don't know how many I really burned. Even with a polar chest strap heart rate monitor I read they only give an estimate and might not always give the accurate calorie burned amount.

I normally do not unless I am extra hungry for the day.

I think whether you need to or not probably depends on your weight, how much you're eating in the first place, your net calories, how much you're losing, whether you're at a plateau, what kind of exercise... I don't know whether there's any right answer!

Personally I don't. Unless I really, really need to go out for dinner or eat something bad, and then I tap into my exercise calories to justify it in my head :)

Yes, I eat them. I eat every calorie I have coming to me!

That is how I see too, hubby keeps telling me to eat my workout calories but then I feel like what is the point then, why not just not workout and not eat extra. But lately my plateau has me thinking I need to start. Going to look into shakes.

When I do Krav Maga I burn about 1000 calories and so I try to eat back some of those. If I only burn 100-300 then I won't.

confused over exercise calories
 

Say the calorie count says for your body/weight you should eat 1800 calories a day then you exercise and burn say 200 calories a day...what are your total calories input for the day? is it 1800 - 200 which totals 1600 calories or can I add the extra 200 to the 1800? Please explain. Thanks!!

Also thought 1800-2000 calories a day would be good for my weight/height to lose weight but its not working so I think i am going to have to drop on calories going in. Hopefully this will fix lack of loss. Thanks for all the input!!

I dont eat all of them back, but I often eat some.
I'm a diabetic, so I find there is a fine line between creating a calorie deficit and getting low blood sugar and the shakes, so if I work out hard, I need to compensate for some of that to avoid that problem.

My weight loss has been slow, but I've kept it off and it really hasnt felt like I've made great sacrifices... probably because its been slow but steady progress.

If you are to eat say 2000 to maintain your weight and you want to lose weight by watching calories only and reduce your intake to say 1600, that is a 400 calorie deficit. If you are at a deficit of 400 and you burn 200 calories that day doing exercise then you are a deficit of 600. Or you can eat them back and it will be 1600 + 200= 1800. I hope this helps!