Eating calories back

Beverlyyj

I work out 5 days a week to get 5-6 miles a day in. I have not lost weight, am I supposed to eat back the calories I burn or not? Does this stop the weight loss?

janejellyroll

If your calorie goal comes from MFP, it's designed for you to eat back the calories you burn through activity.

If you have been at this for a long enough time and not lost weight, one of several things might be going on. Did you over-estimate your activity level when setting up your MFP account (what is your activity level and does it already include your exercise)? Could you be over-estimating how much you're burning through exercise (how are you estimating your burns)? Could you be eating more than you think (are you using a scale to measure your food and are you choosing the most accurate items from the database)?

kshama2001

Did you ever get the food scale that was suggested in your thread from February?

JeromeBarry1

You joined MPF in 2013. Have you been sticking with the program for 3 years and suddenly have hit a 1-week plateau? You don't have a ticker on your page so I can't see how much weight you've lost since 2013. Your diary is private so I can't see if you've been logging your food.

Nachise

My nutritionist says that if you eat all your exercise calories back, you are probably not eating at a deficit. MFP has a tendency to inflate exercise calories.

diannethegeek

It looks like you've been struggling to lose since February. If you've consistently followed the steps here and haven't lost weight in all that time then it's time to make an appt with your doctor.

Opening your diary might help you get more specific advice. Otherwise, these are my generic tips.


1. If it's been less than 3 weeks or so, don't sweat it! Normal fluctuations happen and unfortunately sometimes we stall for a week or two even when we're doing everything right. Give your body some time to catch up with the changes you're making.

2. If you aren't already, be sure that you're logging everything. Sometimes people forget about things like veggies, drinks, cooking oils, and condiments. For some people these can add up to enough to halt your weight loss progress.

3. Consider buying a food scale if you don't already have one. They're about $10-$20 dollars in the US and easily found at places like Amazon, Target, and Walmart. Measuring cups and spoons are great, but they do come with some degree of inaccuracy. A food scale will be more accurate, and for some people it makes a big difference.

4. Logging accurately also means choosing accurate entries in the database. There are a lot of user-entered entries that are off. Double-check that you're using good entries and/or using the recipe builder instead of someone else's homemade entries.

5. Recalculate your goals if you haven't lately. As you lose weight your body requires fewer calories to run. Be sure you update your goals every ten pounds or so.

6. If you're eating back your exercise calories and you're relying on gym machine readouts or MFP's estimates, it might be best to eat back just 50-75% of those. Certain activities tend to be overestimated. If you're using an HRM or activity tracker, it might be a good idea to look into their accuracy and be sure that yours is calibrated properly.

7. If you're taking any cheat days that go over your calorie limits, it might be best to cut them out for a few weeks and see what happens. Some people go way over their calorie needs without realizing it when they don't track.

8. If you weigh yourself frequently, consider using a program like trendweight to even out the fluctuations. You could be losing weight but just don't see it because of the daily ups and downs.

9. Some people just burn fewer calories than the calculators predict. If you continue to have problems after 4-6 weeks, then it might be worth a trip to the doctor or a registered dietitian who can give you more specific advice.

I also think reading through the stickied "must reads" posts at the top of each forum section would be helpful.

janejellyroll

Nachise wrote: »

My nutritionist says that if you eat all your exercise calories back, you are probably not eating at a deficit. MFP has a tendency to inflate exercise calories.

I don't follow the logic here. If eating 1,260 calories puts me at a 200 calorie deficit given my energy needs as a sedentary person and I then burn an additional 200 calories from running and then eat 1,460 I am still at a 200 calorie deficit.

I can have problems from over-estimating my calorie burn, sure, but there's no foundation for the blanket statement that people who eat their exercise calories back are probably not eating at a deficit.

Beverlyyj

Thanks everyone, yes, I bought the scale, no I have not been able it since February, I have tried other programs because I had been on this for awhile and not lost since the time before that. I use MFP for calories, calories burned etc. I walk 6 miles a day 5 days a week, my top speed is 4.3. I don't eat chips, candy or processed food. I eat mostly vegetarian meals and some fish, also vegetarian meat substitutes, fruit, vegetables, and whole grains. I do eat whole grain breads, etc. Hope this helps

Aaron_K123

In theory you should absolutely eat your exercise calories back. In practice it can be very difficult to accurately measure the calories you burn through exercise. Often what people do is they will give themselves a buffer and eat back 1/2 the calories they burn from exercise and then closely moniter their progress. After a couple months you can see how you have progressed and adjust that as needed.

I think it would be a mistake though to not eat back anything from caloric burn, you need to fuel your exercise.

As an example yesterday my fitbit activity tracker estimated that I burned about 3000 calories from walking. I opted to eat about 1700 of that back.

SueInAz

Beverlyyj wrote: »

Thanks everyone, yes, I bought the scale, no I have not been able it since February, I have tried other programs because I had been on this for awhile and not lost since the time before that. I use MFP for calories, calories burned etc. I walk 6 miles a day 5 days a week, my top speed is 4.3. I don't eat chips, candy or processed food. I eat mostly vegetarian meals and some fish, also vegetarian meat substitutes, fruit, vegetables, and whole grains. I do eat whole grain breads, etc. Hope this helps

Use the scale and ensure that your portion sizes are in line with the entries you're choosing in MFP.

How much you eat, not what you eat, will determine whether or not you will lose weight. Worry less about not eating chips, candy or processed food and more about the calories in your vegetarian meals and fish. Again, use the scale, weigh your food and choose the right entries from the food list. Be sure you're tracking absolutely everything. Some people forget things like the oil in the pan they used to cook their food.

I don't know how much you weigh but a 150 pound person burns about 80 calories per mile walking. More calories if you're bigger, less if you're smaller. That's not really all that much in the grand scheme of things and can easily be wiped out by underestimating how much you're eating.

Beverlyyj

You guys helped me a lot! Thank you, and I have a Doctors appointment Sept 1, they are checking thyroid. Never had any problems with it, but still want to ck. Oh last thing I am only weighing protein and measuring everything else in measuring cups because the measurements on fitness pal is cups, 1/2 c, 3/4 etc. am I correct? Because I have never seen oz or lbs. etc. for grapes, bananas, spinach etc.

Gena575

Beverlyyj wrote: »

You guys helped me a lot! Thank you, and I have a Doctors appointment Sept 1, they are checking thyroid. Never had any problems with it, but still want to ck. Oh last thing I am only weighing protein and measuring everything else in measuring cups because the measurements on fitness pal is cups, 1/2 c, 3/4 etc. am I correct? Because I have never seen oz or lbs. etc. for grapes, bananas, spinach etc.

If you tap where the serving size is, a menu drops down with other measurements. Choose 1.0 grams and then in number of servings type in how many grams you weighed.

Beverlyyj

Ok, thank you

Christine_72

If you try the above and there is no g option, look for an entry that does have it.
For fresh foods i always add "USDA" behind what I'm searching for, these are 'usually ' correct.

Grapes usda
banana usda
Spinach usda
chicken breast raw usda


Use food scales for ALL solid foods, measuring cups are for liquids.

GYATagain

I see you eat meat substitutes.... check the sodium on the meat substitutes -- I grew up vegetarian and ate substitutes every single day - I no longer eat any of that stuff - ever! My husband and I actually worked several years at the company that makes the original meat substitutes and saw what all they put in the product. We ate the heck out of that stuff for many years. No more! The sodium level alone is off the chart! Also, with hypothyroid/hashimoto I steer clear of certain products to help myself feel better. And any soy by products is top of that list. Not saying it would work for everyone - but something to think about.

Beverlyyj

Wow, thank you, about the meat substitutes! Does that include the bran ones too?

somegirlsdo

If you are working out to increase the size of your calorie deficit, then it doesn't make any sense to eat back those calories. Additionally, if you set your profile with your activity level as "X workouts per week", then the average deficit gained from those workouts is already factored into your daily allowance and you still shouldn't be eating them back.

Christine_72

somegirlsdo wrote: »

If you are working out to increase the size of your calorie deficit, then it doesn't make any sense to eat back those calories. Additionally, if you set your profile with your activity level as "X workouts per week", then the average deficit gained from those workouts is already factored into your daily allowance and you still shouldn't be eating them back.

@somegirlsdo That X workouts a week thing has absolutely NO bearing on the calories mfp gives you, none! You could say you will be doing 50 or 0 workouts a week and it will have no affect on the calories you are given. I'm not even sure what the point of having that in there is..

What would you advise in this scenario? A person has a 1200 calorie per day allowance, they then exercise and burn 1000 calories. If they do not eat those exercise calories back they will be netting 200 calories that day. Is this a healthy and sustainable plan in your opinion?

RobD520

somegirlsdo wrote: »

If you are working out to increase the size of your calorie deficit, then it doesn't make any sense to eat back those calories. Additionally, if you set your profile with your activity level as "X workouts per week", then the average deficit gained from those workouts is already factored into your daily allowance and you still shouldn't be eating them back.

Every statement made in the post above is totally wrong.

The challenge with eating back calories is that some burn estimates are two high. I have to dial my burnes for cycling and Taekwondo back.