Eat back 1/2 calories reasonable?

[Anonymous]

I know weight loss happens in the kitchen, not the gym.

However, I really enjoy working out and it’s great for my overall mood and well-being. I can stick with a calorie deficit if I don’t exercise, and with exercise I can stick with it if I “count” about half the exercise calories apple watch says I’ve burned.

Is that reasonable or is it really best to pare down exercise while trying to lose/ignore all exercise calories? I have abt 15 lbs to lose.

[Anonymous]

Honest advice? Ignore any “exercise calories” from any calculation anywhere if you are trying to lose weight.

Unless you riding a bike with a power meter at over 200 watts for an hour or more or running at 8/mile or faster for an hour or more. Even then, you are eating back for recovery.

[Anonymous]

Well I hate to exercise, so my weight loss is mostly food-controlled. But if you love to exercise, that's wonderful and you should do option B.

[Anonymous]

I only lost weight when I stopped considering calories burned. I eat at a deficit and ignored what the apps said I 'earned' or could 'eat back'.

Exercise for me is just extra - firming, toning, mood lifting, fun, etc. Weight loss for me is from eating habits

[Anonymous]

Exercise if you like to, but don't eat back, the calculators are notoriously unreliable and you will likely tank your results.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I only lost weight when I stopped considering calories burned. I eat at a deficit and ignored what the apps said I 'earned' or could 'eat back'.

Exercise for me is just extra - firming, toning, mood lifting, fun, etc. Weight loss for me is from eating habits

Yep.

Eat only when hungry. If exercising makes you hungry, go for it. But don’t eat huge amounts (I’ve been there, just recently on Friday!)

If you’re hungry more than your 3 meals per day, larger meals are fine.

[Anonymous]

Stop eating garbage, keep exercising, become strong at a healthy weight that fits your lifestyle and metabolism.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I only lost weight when I stopped considering calories burned. I eat at a deficit and ignored what the apps said I 'earned' or could 'eat back'.

Exercise for me is just extra - firming, toning, mood lifting, fun, etc. Weight loss for me is from eating habits

This!

Some exercise, especially cardio can increase hunger, but it's not because you really need those calories to recover.

Unless you are training like an Olympic athlete you do not, and should not, be eating back calories. The vast majority of things that tell you calories burned in exercise are highly inaccurate.

Then only time you should eat more when dieting is if you are losing weight too quickly (>2 lbs/week unless very obese). Reason being is that if you are losing too fast it means you are in too large of a deficit and likely losing a lot of muscle along with that fat and you want to avoid losing muscle as much as possible.

[Anonymous]

Do count "calories burned" when exercising. All of those devices are known to be wildly inaccurate. Excercise yes but also be mindful of the quality of the calories you are eating. Eat lots of lean protein (nonfat greek yogurt, chicken breast, lean ground meat) that fills you up and lots of low calorie carbs (oatmeal, veggies and fruit). You can stay in deficit and exercise if you choose your calories wisely.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Do count "calories burned" when exercising. All of those devices are known to be wildly inaccurate. Excercise yes but also be mindful of the quality of the calories you are eating. Eat lots of lean protein (nonfat greek yogurt, chicken breast, lean ground meat) that fills you up and lots of low calorie carbs (oatmeal, veggies and fruit). You can stay in deficit and exercise if you choose your calories wisely.

Is that nonfat greek yogurt full of replacement sugar?
Are those lots of fruits (fructose sugar) filling in?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Do count "calories burned" when exercising. All of those devices are known to be wildly inaccurate. Excercise yes but also be mindful of the quality of the calories you are eating. Eat lots of lean protein (nonfat greek yogurt, chicken breast, lean ground meat) that fills you up and lots of low calorie carbs (oatmeal, veggies and fruit). You can stay in deficit and exercise if you choose your calories wisely.

Is that nonfat greek yogurt full of replacement sugar?
Are those lots of fruits (fructose sugar) filling in?

what on earth are you talking about or implying?

[Anonymous]

Op here with an update! I decided to eat back 2/3 of my Apple Watch exercise calories and it’s going great.

However, I think it’s working well because of three factors:

1) I set my activity level on LoseIt as sedentary (rather than lightly active, which is probably more accurate for my lifestyle not counting purposeful exercise.)

2) i am logging everything single item in terms of calories. If I’m at home, I use the kitchen scale to weight. If I can’t do that I really try to do an honest assessment rather than fudge it or underestimate.

3) I am very careful not to accidentally leave my Apple Watch on exercise after I’ve finished my workout/brisk walk, etc. once I left it on and had an insane calorie count so I just deleted that workout.

I’m losing about a 1.5-2 pounds per week, not restricting any “off limits” foods, and have been away for two weekends where I ate what I wanted but made myself log it all (which was sometimes shocking I’m terms of calories!)

Hope that’s helpful to someone!

[Anonymous]

How many weeks have you been losing for?

[Anonymous]

About a month and a half since I started closely tracking. Starting bmi 23.