'Should I Eat Back My Exercise Calories?'

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Video Summary:

"Should I Eat Back My Exercise Calories?"

Should you eat back the calories burned from exercise? This is a question I receive fairly often, and quite honestly it's a bit of a confusing one that seems to stem from a basic misunderstanding of how fat loss works.

The basic principle of losing fat is to create an ongoing "calorie deficit" by burning more calories than you consume on a consistent basis. This is accomplished by taking in fewer calories through your diet, as well as burning more calories through exercise.

The combination of both ensures that your total caloric expenditure exceeds your total caloric consumption, and as a result the body will turn to its excess fat stores to correct the deficit.

So the question of "eating back calories burned" shouldn't even really come into play. Burning calories through exercise is one of the ways that you create your calorie deficit in the first place, so intentionally "eating back" those calories wouldn't make any sense.

Just find the right combination for yourself between reducing caloric intake and increasing your exercise frequency until you're landing somewhere in that standard 1-2 pound per week fat loss range.

Some people prefer to eat a bit less and do a bit less cardio, while others prefer to eat more and do more cardio; either one is acceptable and you just have to find the right balance for yourself since they'll both create the same bottom line result.

At the end of the day though, all that fat loss comes down to is managing energy input/output so that a NET calorie deficit is maintained in the big picture. Asking the question "should I eat back burned calories" doesn't really make any sense in the first place.

If your primary goal is to gain muscle then the same logic applies here, except that your goal will be to maintain a net calorie surplus (calories in should exceed calories out) and aim for around half a pound per week gained rather than 1-2 pounds per week lost.

[Sean_Nalewanyj]

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[Frabelow]

you didnt answer the question. at all.
everybody knows that calorie deficit is the only chance to lose weight. the thing is. will it help build muscle, if i eat back all my calories right after exercise???

[Neofolis]

Whilst I would agree with everything you said, there are occasions where I may burn an extra 2000-3000 calories in a day, due to a long duration activity and on such occasions I would tend to increase my calories for that day, rather than have such a large deficit for the day, which I would think is more likely to hit muscle mass to a larger extent. This would not apply to most people, because very few are likely to burn that many extra calories in a day, but for people who do all day hill hikes or ultramarathons or any other reasonable exertion activity that lasts most of the day, when they would normally only be burning extra calories for an hour or so per day, extra calories may even be essential for you to complete the activity.

[LS-bbqh]

That's not really the questions. If you don't eat those calories from workout... is there a threshold where you eat too little and it will hinder you? is there too much of a deficit?

[dnibcn]

I feel like it didn't answer the question. Should I track exercise?
If so, does that give me more room to eat more?

[Ozhtube]

My biggest fear is muscle loss when I cut down calories

[AussieAngeS]

Common knowledge and very good advice Sean.thank you for this. I have dropped my cardio to 2-3 fasted mornings a week rather than 4 but I've upped my training sessions.

[reviewstalinussr]

My biggest question is, If i exercise for a whole hour and burn 300 calories, And come home and eat a 500 calorie meal, Even on 1500 calories a day, Will this make me gain weight?

[ChopOn]

Sean, you ever think about growing a beard?

[wildernorth]

What if I am trying to both lose fat AND gain muscle. I'm a female and although I don't want to get huge, I want to look cut and improve my strength.

[stevetheyardguy]

Im wondering if my calories are too low at the end of the day. According to my fitness pal, At 180Lbs I need to eat 1500 cals/day to lose 1.5 Lbs/week. I also burn 250-280 cals on the treadmill almost every day and resistance train for around 45 minutes. When I subtract the calories burned from cardio from what im eating (around 1500) Im at about 1300. Im wondering if thats too low

[mschieeef]

What if your calorie budget per day is already set for weight lose? For example, to maintain my current weight, I would need to take in around 1500 calories... but I've set it for weight loss and it recommended to take in 1200. If I work out and burn 200 calories, does that mean I would need to consume 1400 or is it optional? Thank you so much.

[davidmargaryan]

finally someone who answered this question. I was wondering however...I am currently doing p90x3 (I'm on day 80 and hope to do another two full rounds of p90x3 back to back) and according to my nutrition guide I am supposed to eat 2700 calories ( 40% carb, 30% protein and 30% fat ). I'm 184 but when I started I was 196. I definitely do not burn 2700 calories during a workout although as you know p90x is very intensive and often incorporates a high amount of cardio paired with synergistic resistance exercise. I also use a food scale and my fitness pal to track everything that goes into my mouth. my goal to drop 5 percent more body fat (to 7%) and build as much lean muscle possible. do you think 2700 calories per day is too much or too little. Mind you my main primary goal is to cut fat.

[ItsAlwaysTimeTea]

My question is, if you're already in a calorific burn a further more load of calories, do you eat those back or not?

I am 196lbs, almost 30 and a female. I want to loose 20lbs for my first realistic goal (long term is more weight but want to do this in stages), the online calculator says to maintain this weight, I have to consume 2, 500, to lose weight at a normal pace then its about 2, 000 and to lose weight fast it is 1, 500

I'm currently at 1, 500 to lose it fast, so I'm already in a deficit, so if I burn 200 calories in a 25min cardio workout, could I eat them back in protein for example (so like 3 extra medium eggs or something)?

[jayrudio]

Hey Sean..I have a friend that has a question....she eats an average of 1200-1250 calories per day...She also work out once or sometimes twice a day. She aim to burn at least 800 calories a day doing cardio (She said she knows these machines can overestimate calories burned sometimes so does she take this into consideration). Should she eat more than 1200-1250 calories per day if she's  burning off lots of calories?? Her goal is fat loss. Thanks.

[paigeyp]

So i burned like 700 calories today and i have 1000 calories left and its 7pm and i dont know if im overeating

[boofboof]

I'm female and used to be huge and I started losing weight by just bringing my calories down with almost no exercise, and got down to 13.7 stone quite quickly. But since about three months ago it's not working any more, even if I lower the calorie intake and exercise. I went down as low as 1300 calories for a whole 2 weeks (all healthy stuff, low fat and hardly any sugar) and I didn't lose any weight. Then I consumed 1300 AND exercised for 30 mins to an hour every day (mostly jogging) but still haven't lost weight and it's been another 3 weeks. So I'm going down to 1200 and exercising even more to see if that works. I want to just be 9 or 10 stone by next year, not too thin. But I'm stuck at 13.7 and sometimes it goes even higher! Nothing is working.

[iLoveAltNation]

How would I guess how many calories I burned during cardio/weight training

[choochoo]

Sean,
does that mean during your cut, when u refeed for the week, u should lower your calories on other days to compensate for the weekly calorie deficit because of the refeed?

[XEnigmax]

Awesome video Sean! This question isn't really about this particular topic but I've noticed that whenever i play any sports (I'm 24), I get tired very easily. I believe it's because I rarely do any cardio since I lose weight so easily. How can I incorporate cardio for endurance and stamina and still be able to gain mass at the same time? Thanks in advance!