Should I eat back exercise calories?
My Apple Watch says I burned 400 calories running. My tracking app already has me at 1800 calories for the day. Should I eat an extra 400 to compensate or just stick with 1800?
General rule: DON'T eat back all exercise calories. Fitness trackers vastly overestimate calorie burn — often by 30-50%. If your Watch says 400, you probably burned 200-280 actual calories.
If you're trying to lose weight: eat back maybe half at most, or just ignore them. If you're maintaining or gaining: eat some back but be conservative.
I NEVER eat back exercise calories and it's been the key to my weight loss. If I eat them back I basically erase the caloric benefit of exercising. Your 1800 calorie target should already account for your general activity level.
Exception: if you're running seriously (long runs, half/full marathon training), you absolutely need to eat more on training days. But for a casual 3-mile run? Just eat your normal amount.
My rule: if my deficit is already aggressive (500+ cal) AND I did hard exercise, I'll eat back about 200 cal. If my deficit is moderate, I leave them alone. Listen to your body — if you're genuinely starving after a workout, eat something.
Important context: it depends on how your calorie target was set. If you used "sedentary" as your activity level and then exercise on top, you'll need some extra fuel. If you set it at "active," exercise calories are already baked in.
This is why I like setting my activity to sedentary and then NOT eating back exercise cals. Keeps things simple and provides a built-in buffer for tracking errors.
Not eating them back. My 1800 is based on "lightly active" so exercise is somewhat accounted for. If I'm truly hungry after a run I'll have a small protein snack. Thanks for saving me from self-sabotage!
I used to eat back all my exercise calories and wondered why I wasn't losing weight. Turned out my Fitbit was saying I burned 800 cals on a "hard" workout when it was probably more like 400. Those devices are not accurate.