Should I Eat Back My Exercise Calories on MyFitnessPal? The Ultimate Guide

October 19, 2025 •

4 min read

Studies suggest that fitness trackers can overestimate calorie burn by a wide margin, leading many users to question: Should I eat back my exercise calories on MyFitnessPal? The answer depends heavily on your specific goals and how you approach your overall calorie strategy.

Quick Summary

Deciding whether to eat back exercise calories in MyFitnessPal requires considering your goals, the unreliability of calorie burn estimates, and a strategic approach to your deficit or surplus, rather than a direct compensation.

Key Points

Assume Inaccuracy: Most fitness trackers and apps, including MyFitnessPal, tend to overestimate calories burned, so relying on their numbers can be misleading.
Listen to Your Body: Use your hunger levels and energy signals as a more reliable indicator of whether you need to refuel after a workout, rather than an app's calorie count.
Weight Loss vs. Performance: The need to eat back calories differs by goal. Weight loss typically benefits from the added deficit, while athletes need to refuel to support muscle repair and performance.
Use Exercise as a Buffer: For weight loss, consider the extra calories burned as a safety net that deepens your deficit, rather than an invitation to eat more.
Prioritize Nutrient Quality: If you do decide to eat back some calories, choose nutrient-dense whole foods like lean protein and complex carbs over processed snacks to support your body best.
Adjust Settings Strategically: Setting your MyFitnessPal activity level to sedentary provides a more accurate baseline and avoids 'double-dipping' on calorie burn estimates.
Consistency Over Fluctuation: Focusing on consistent, healthy eating patterns and regular exercise provides more sustainable results than trying to perfectly balance daily calorie intake and expenditure.

The Calorie Conundrum in MyFitnessPal

For anyone on a weight management journey using a calorie-tracking app like MyFitnessPal, the appearance of “extra” calories after a workout can be both a reward and a point of confusion. MyFitnessPal works on a net calorie principle: calories consumed minus calories burned equals your net total for the day. When you log a workout, the app adds those estimated calories back into your daily allowance, essentially giving you more room to eat. This system, while seemingly straightforward, can be a major pitfall depending on your goals.

The All-Too-Common Error

Many users, especially those focused on weight loss, fall into a common trap. They see their calorie budget increase and feel entitled to consume those extra calories, often with a less-than-healthy treat. The issue is that most commercial fitness trackers and app-based estimates of calorie burn are notoriously inaccurate. Some studies have found that these devices can overestimate energy expenditure by a significant percentage, sometimes by as much as 93%. Eating back all the calories a device claims you’ve burned can easily erase your hard-earned calorie deficit, halting your progress towards weight loss.

The Right Approach for Your Goal

Whether or not you should eat back your exercise calories is entirely dependent on your objective. A one-size-fits-all approach is not effective, and understanding your primary goal is key to making the right decision.

Weight Loss: Proceed with Caution

If your main goal is to lose weight, the general consensus is to avoid eating back all your exercise calories. Your exercise serves to enhance your calorie deficit, not to justify eating more. The added activity provides a buffer, helping to ensure you stay in a deficit even if your food logging or the app’s baseline estimate is slightly off. For most people engaging in moderate, daily activity, it’s best to consider the exercise as a bonus to your overall deficit.

For those who feel a need to refuel after an intense workout to prevent fatigue, eating back only a portion of the estimated calories is a safer bet, perhaps 50% or less. Focus on nutrient-dense foods, prioritizing protein to support muscle repair and recovery without jeopardizing your overall deficit.

Muscle Gain and Performance: Fuel for Recovery

For athletes or individuals focused on building muscle, the strategy shifts significantly. In this scenario, intentionally under-eating can be detrimental. High-intensity training depletes your body's energy stores and breaks down muscle tissue that requires proper nutrition to repair and grow. Failing to refuel adequately can lead to:

Fatigue and decreased performance
Muscle loss instead of growth
Slower recovery times between workouts
Overall decreased energy and mental clarity

In this case, eating back a significant portion of your exercise calories—or even ensuring you meet a higher daily target to begin with—is essential for supporting performance and recovery. However, the quality of these calories is paramount. The focus should be on a balance of lean protein, healthy fats, and complex carbohydrates to provide sustained energy.

A Smarter Strategy: Listen to Your Body

Beyond relying solely on an app's calculations, a more mindful approach involves paying attention to your body's signals. If you are consistently exhausted or excessively hungry after workouts, it's a sign that you might need more fuel. Conversely, if you are meeting your goals without eating back the calories, your current strategy is likely working. The key is to find a sustainable balance.

Here are some alternative strategies to consider:

Set Your Goal to Sedentary: When initially setting up your profile in MyFitnessPal, choose a sedentary or lightly active lifestyle, even if you plan to exercise regularly. This will give you a lower, more reliable baseline calorie target. Any exercise you do then creates a true, uncompromised deficit.
Use Exercise as a Buffer: Instead of thinking of exercise as permission to eat more, use it as insurance. It provides a larger margin of error for any inaccuracies in food logging or tracker data.
Focus on Consistency, Not Daily Numbers: Consistency in your diet and activity level is more important than day-to-day calorie fluctuations. You don't need to perfectly balance calories and exercise every single day to see results over time.

Making the Right Choice for Your Goals


Factor	Weight Loss Goal	Muscle Gain / Performance Goal
Calorie Burn Accuracy	Assume the estimate is an overestimation and adjust accordingly.	Use estimates as a guide, but listen to hunger/energy signals more closely.
Eating Back Calories?	Rarely. Consider a modest refeed of 25-50% for intense sessions, but generally avoid.	Yes, to replenish glycogen stores and aid muscle repair. Prioritize nutrient quality.
Risks of Not Eating Back	Slower progress due to insufficient deficit. Potential overestimation of burned calories.	Fatigue, poor recovery, muscle loss, decreased performance.
Best Practice	Set a calorie target based on your sedentary lifestyle and let exercise accelerate results.	Align calorie intake with training volume, ensuring you meet macronutrient needs.

Conclusion: A Personalized Approach is Best

For most people using MyFitnessPal for weight loss, the data suggests that refraining from eating back your exercise calories is the most direct and effective path to achieving your goals. Your body is already designed to burn calories through daily functions; exercise is the accelerant. Relying on potentially inaccurate tracker estimates can be a significant roadblock to progress. However, this is not a universal rule. Athletes with high-performance goals must ensure they are properly fueled for recovery and sustained effort. The key is a personalized, mindful approach. Pay attention to your body's signals, focus on consistent, healthy habits, and view exercise as a powerful tool for overall health, not just a way to "earn" more food. If you are ever in doubt, remember that it's nearly impossible to out-exercise a poor diet.

For additional resources on diet and weight management, explore credible health publications such as the NIH website.

Frequently Asked Questions

No, MyFitnessPal's exercise calorie estimates, especially when synced with fitness trackers, are often inaccurate and tend to overestimate the actual calories burned. They are best used as a rough guide, not a precise measure.

Generally, no. For weight loss, it is often counterproductive to eat back all your exercise calories. Doing so can easily cancel out your calorie deficit due to the inaccuracies of fitness trackers.

If you're excessively hungry, it's okay to eat. Instead of eating all the calories the app suggests, consume a portion (e.g., 25-50%) and focus on nutrient-dense foods like protein and complex carbs to aid recovery.

Athletes performing intense, prolonged training should eat back their exercise calories to properly fuel their performance, support muscle repair, and prevent fatigue. The focus should be on high-quality macronutrients.

You can set your activity level to 'sedentary' in your profile settings. This gives you a baseline calorie goal that doesn't account for daily exercise, allowing your workouts to create a more consistent and reliable deficit.

A combination of both is most effective. However, a majority of the deficit should come from your diet, as it is much easier to cut 500 calories than to burn an extra 500 calories through exercise.

Repeatedly relying on inaccurate exercise estimates and eating back calories can lead to a cycle of stalled progress. Sustainable, long-term weight maintenance is better achieved by focusing on consistent eating habits and regular, rather than over-compensatory, exercise.