I believe this question has been posted on 3fc before but I cant find the thread and am SUPER interested in the feedback . Do you eat back the calories you burn through exercise? If so... how many? For example if you allow yourself a certain amount of cals per day by calorie counting, say 1500, and you burn 250 while exercising do you actually consume 1750 cals or close to it because technically you are within your "budget" because of exercise? If so, what are your losses like? Are you still able to pull off 2+ lbs per week?

I don't eat back to calories that I burn through exercise. However, I am also interested in what others have to say about this topic.

No I don't eat them back. I find being allowed to eat more because i've exercised actually curbs my cravings oddly enough. I'm the kind of person that when told I can't do something, I suddenly want to do it, so having some flexibility there keeps me on track.

No, but when I'm really good about calorie logging, I'll let myself eat in a range... Say, I try to stick to 1250 KCals/day, but if I feel really hungry or unsatisfied with that, once or twice a week I might go as high as 1500 or 1600.

Since I'll eat more if I'm actually hungrier, I think that makes up for any deficits from my very sporadic exercising...

When I exercise really regularly, I just raise my base calories in general (like from 1250 to 1350 or 1400) to balance out the activity overall. I'm not looking for superspeed weightloss, just a nice healthy and gradual weight decline. I know that if I feel hungry or deprived I'll fall off the boat, and I DEFINITELY feel hungrier when I exercise.

I don't eat back most of my exercise calories. Like Lula Belle I raise my base cals when I'm exercising daily, however when I do exercise on top of my usual (for example, yesterday I did my usual 5k and then went to fencing practice which is not part of my usual routine, and I did eat back the 150 or so calories I burned at practice.) If I ate back all the calories from my exercise, I would maintain or gain a little.

When I was training for the marathon I had to start thinking about food in a very different way - as fuel and absolutely necessary.

As soon as I hit the longer training runs (14+ miles or so) I found that a couple of jelly babies after every mile made me able to run faster and further before feeling exhausted. That sugar was used up instantly during the run so it was literally fuel. I don't think I ate as many calories as I burned though, and I didn't eat anything extra afterwards.

For normal levels of exercise, I might occasionally allow myself an extra treat but again I try not to eat all of the cals I used.

No I don't eat back calories unless I'm really really hungry after a workout... My hunger usually hits me the day after though, so I'll eat a bit more that day...

Yes Im feeling this now! lol. Just had a huge, 500 cal breakfast made up of fruit, oatmeal, nuts, and wheat bread. And still feeling munchy

Umm... no. I get a number on my GPS app for so-called 'calories burned' according to my height and weight but it doesn't really mean much to me (except as a comparison to previous work out calorie numbers) because I'm not a calorie counter.

I try to listen to my body, if I'm extra hungry after a workout, fine, I'll eat a bit more but as an example, if I do a hard workout, I don't just give myself 'permission' to go nuts... usually a hard workout suppresses my appetite if anything.

On the whole, I'm trying not to be too rigid about this weight loss thing - when it happens it happens, I intend for this to be a lifelong LIFESTYLE CHANGE.

Yes and no.


I do not consistently eat back all my cals. I do however retain a min cal intake based on net cals.

My workouts are often 5-6 days a week. Each of those days is usually 45m cardio and 10-30m of intervals/circuits. I have found that if I dont require myself a minimum Net Cal intake, I can feel low energy the next day.

As others note, I do sometimes allow myself to eat on the higher end of net allowed cals if I do feel hungrier.

I stopped tracking work out calories bc if I worked out 250 calories, I would just eat the calories.

No, not purposely, but if I know I'm going out to eat or out to drink later in the day, I might work out 30mins or so extra to sort of balance it out a bit.

At the same token, if I'm hungry or craving or whatever past my caloric limit and I know I had a good gym workout, I'm more likely to indulge than if I had burned less calories at the gym.

Although, it's so hard to say how much youre REALLY burning at the gym. I enter my weight like 20lbs lower than it is on the treadmill to maybe get a more accurate calories burned value.

No, I try not to.

Yes and no.

On excercise days, I'll eat an extra 200 cals, as long as it was a bona fide hard workout! It's like my reward on days for busting it out, not just a stroll on the treadmill.

On the days where I don't workout, I stick to my regular, low-level of cals and it never makes me feel guilty for "not working out x times a week". Thsi way...work out = slightly higher. No work out = suck it up.

On the flip side, my cals are so low, that it could technically be looked at as workout = eat normal deficit amount. And no workout = 200 less. To each their own! My weight has flown off, so I guess it works so far.

Awesome! How many cals do you eat per day?