When You Overeat, Do This To Make Up For It

25 Jul 2025 · 1 min

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1:29

In this video, fitness coach Eric Roberts explains why you should not try to "burn off" calories after overeating on a calorie‑deficit diet. He warns that using extra exercise to compensate can foster disordered eating habits, emphasizing that you are not a dog earning a treat. Roberts then describes the body's natural response to excess calories—adaptive thermogenesis—where the body automatically increases energy expenditure through processes like fidgeting and digestion, meaning a modest over‑eat (e.g., 300 kcal) does not fully count against your deficit. He notes that even after a small surplus you remain in a calorie deficit, just a smaller one, and advises staying the course rather than over‑compensating. Finally, he directs viewers to a free calorie‑deficit calculator linked in his bio for personalized guidance.

Chapters

If you overeat on your calorie deficit, you should not do extra work to burn it off, and here's why. The first reason: this is a great way to start an eating disorder. You're not a dog earning a treat. And what most people don't know about overeating on your calorie deficit: if you eat more calories, your body has to burn more calories automatically to digest the food that you're eating. And when your body has a bit more calories, it will automatically burn more calories through things like fidgeting, through things like having higher energy. And the fancy term for this is adaptive thermogenesis. So even if you eat 300 calories over your deficit, you really didn't even eat 300 calories over because your body will burn some of those calories automatically. Not to mention, if you eat a couple hundred calories over, you're still in a calorie deficit, just a smaller one. That's what she said. So please don't think you need to go burn off the calories you overate. That is a very unhealthy way of thinking about your fitness, and it's not going to yield you progress in the long run. And if you need to know how many calories you should be eating per day, click the link in my bio for a free calorie deficit calculator.