Thread: Eating back exercise calories?

I usually do a workout at the start of the day before eating, and at the end of the day after eating.

But I see a lot of people on here saying that they eat their exercise calories back. I don't really understand this? Obviously there is a reason for it but I don't really understand.

If you eat back the calories that you burned, does that not take away the whole point of doing the exercise in the first place and bring you back to square one? If anyone has information about this id really appreciate it, thanks !

They could be exercising to get fitter, burn muscle and because it's not healthy to sit on your butt all day. They might eat the exercise calories back because some people on here (and there's debate about this) say it's unhealthy to go under a certain amount of calories per day. Some say it causes your body to go into starvation mode which burns muscle as well as / instead of fat and stuffs your metabolism up so that when you go back to eating 'normal' calories after the end of your diet, you gain weight. Other people on here say you can go lower calories than 1200 (usually the number you're advised not to go under), if you're really big, or if you are eating more on other days to make up for it, or if your doctor advises you to. So, that's why people might exercise but eat the calories back.

I'm a bit confused about all this too. I have 1500 cals everyday. And I allow myself 200 cals on gym days if I really need it. But I've decided to use these extra cals better than for chocolate and other snacks!! I've ordered some protein shakes and bars online, the shakes are only 100 cals so i will have 1500 food and 100 of protein shakes so 1600 total on gym days. Eating them all back definatley slows it down. I burn around 500-600 cals in a gym sesh I would not dream of eating all those back!! Hope this helps, you need to find what works right for you. Good luck

I eat 1200 calories on a normal day and then on days when I exercise I work out how many calories I have burnt and eat this many extra, normally with a banana on toast or a SF shake!