Exercise calories burned

This topic contains 7 replies, has 5 voices, and was last updated by Stef. 9 years, 11 months ago.

Viewing 8 posts - 1 through 8 (of 8 total)

PaulaW

7:01 am
16 Dec 14
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Hi. I’m new to the 5:2 diet and would like to know if you can subtract the calories burned by exercise from your 500cals on fast days, enabling you to eat more?

muffin10

7:53 am
16 Dec 14
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Unfortunately I don’t think it works like that.

Stef.

5:53 pm
16 Dec 14
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Welcome to the forum.

I have been on this way of life since November 2013 and I have reached my goal weight a couple of months back. I am now in maintenance and I’m doing tons off sports every week day, in fact I am currently training for a marathon in 2015 when I will be turning 50.

Here is my take on eating back exercise calories: when you start your diet you better not eat back calories that you might have gained through exercise, particularly if you do not exactly know your calorie expenditure through exercise and if you do not exercise regularly.

If you calculate your TDEE on this website you will have incorporated the amount of exercises you do per week. So no, you do normally not eat back your exercise calories.

BUT, there is another way of doing this, one that I personally follow and one that works very well for me:

I set my life style to “sedentary” when calculating my TDEE. When I work out I wear my multisportswatch with heart rate monitor, which can calculate my VO2max and which can therefore pretty accurately calculate my caloric expenditure during steady state (!) cardio exercises.

As I burn tons of calories during my training I will eat back at least half if not three quarters of those calories. This is a bit trial and error as those heart rate monitors are never 100% accurate.

So, for the time being I would not eat my exercise calories back, particularly if you have not set your exercise level to sedentary when calculating your TDEE and if you are not exercising to a level where you really need to eat back calories for not to lose muscle mass. Once you have lost a fair amount of weight you might consider it.

Stef.

PaulaW

12:01 am
17 Dec 14
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Thanks for that info Stef

Stef.

3:46 am
17 Dec 14
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Welcome!

ipswichmatt

12:33 pm
17 Dec 14
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Hi Stef, I like that approach to calculating your TDEE.

But you don’t eat these extra calories on fast days, or do you?

TracyJ

2:27 pm
17 Dec 14
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No – you do not eat extra calories (no matter how much exercise you do on your fastday) if you expect to lose weight through 5:2. Hopefully that is clear.

Stef.

2:06 am
21 Dec 14
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Well…here is my take on this. Once you are close to your goal weight, you might want to consider eating back some of those calories that you have earned through exercise even on your fast days.

Now I can speak only for myself and I do know pretty accurately how many calories I burn during steady state cardio workouts such as runs.

Let me give you an example:
Two days ago I ran 15 km in 1 hour 53 minutes. I burned 979 calories during this time. If I were to eat only 500 calories on those days I would end up with minus 479 calories which would not be good for my recovery from this strenuous exercise.

I am training for a marathon, therefore proper nutrition is vital for my success, not only the amount of calories but also what I eat is playing a crucial role.

On days such as the above, I do eat exercise calories back, not all of them but a fair amount. I would probably eat around 1000 calories which puts me just about at 100 calories net.

Now…and this is crucial:
I have reached my goal weight and for me fitness is now the primary goal. Under-eating is NOT good for MY goal. As I work out 6-7 days a week, I can not do my fast days on non exercise days, therefore I need to adjust my calorie intake.

Just beware…exercising and burning 200 calories and eating them fully back might end up in over-eating. You have to be really honest with yourself and you need to know pretty accurately how many calories you have burned before you can allow yourself to eat back calories.

I can tell you from experience: if I walk with my heart rate monitor for lets say an hour or so, most online exercise calculators would give me a much higher burned calorie allowance than what I have really burned!

The other day I was doing an 1 1/2 hour long fast walk and Fitbit (one of the websites I use) wanted to give me over 500 calories for that time while my heart rate monitor gave me slightly over 200! That is a huge difference so you can see where the potential problem lies.

So apologies for a long blurb: in short if you do non strenuous exercise a couple of times a week I would NOT eat the exercise calories back. If you are into serious training and fitness and you are close to your goal weight, then yes, I would eat some of them back as otherwise it would be detremential to your fitness goal.

Stef.