can someone help me understand eating back calories

pchesnut

I don't understand why it is necessary to eat back the calories you have burned through exercise. If you want to loose weight by burning calories through exercise, why would you eat those calories back. Can someone help me understand the logic here.

jennagoogles13

Because MFP already has you set at a caloric deficit. Therefore, when you exercise, you are creating an even larger deficit. Once you eat back the calories, you are at your original deficit.

Remember, food is fuel!

jknight001

I see it as that is how the body works. It is easy to think of it the other way - exercise to lose weight. However, exercise is good for the body and the body needs fuel to burn to be able to do exercise. So rather than let my blood sugar get low due to exercise (which can trigger overeating for me), I give my body the fuel it is asking for by eating back calories I have burned. As long as I don't go over my total calorie count for the day, I don't worry about it. And if I am a little bit under my calorie count due to exercise and I still feel good then it is a bonus!

tcraw15

Because MFP already has you set at a caloric deficit. Therefore, when you exercise, you are creating an even larger deficit. Once you eat back the calories, you are at your original deficit.

Remember, food is fuel!

^^This. It's THAT simple!

ninerbuff

I don't understand why it is necessary to eat back the calories you have burned through exercise. If you want to loose weight by burning calories through exercise, why would you eat those calories back. Can someone help me understand the logic here.

Simple. If you're supposed to NET 1500 calories to lose weight, then you exercise 500 calories off, then your NET calories are now decreased by 500 leaving you a NET of 1000. So to ensure correct calorie intake for weight loss, you eat back those 500 calories to bring your NET back to 1500. Trust the system, it works.

A.C.E. Certified Personal/Group FitnessTrainer
IDEA Fitness member
Kickboxing Certified Instructor
Been in fitness for 30 years and have studied kinesiology and nutrition

grau62000ameze

I don't understand why it is necessary to eat back the calories you have burned through exercise. If you want to loose weight by burning calories through exercise, why would you eat those calories back. Can someone help me understand the logic here.

Simple. If you're supposed to NET 1500 calories to lose weight, then you exercise 500 calories off, then your NET calories are now decreased by 500 leaving you a NET of 1000. So to ensure correct calorie intake for weight loss, you eat back those 500 calories to bring your NET back to 1500. Trust the system, it works.

A.C.E. Certified Personal/Group FitnessTrainer
IDEA Fitness member
Kickboxing Certified Instructor
Been in fitness for 30 years and have studied kinesiology and nutrition

stil dont get it.kindly explain further.i ve 1590 allowance and i work out minium 300 cal.inorder for me to loose weight,what should i take in()eat)1590 or 1590+300?
pleas i need answers
thanks

sophieburningham

As those above have said, I personally see as extra fuel if I need it, I walk 80 minutes every day for work so I burn around 400 calories through doing this, as it's not an intense work out I don't tend to eat those calories back as I don't feel I need it, but they are there if I feel my body needs a little extra fuel to keep it going. On days where I do more intense cardio workouts such as swimming or gym sessions then I'll give my body the extra fuel it needs to keep it going. You don't HAVE to eat it back, if you're not hungry, or don't feel you need it, don't eat it, but they are there if you do.

redbreva

in that case you should eat 1890. It was a mistake I was making for a while and was just not losing any weight! Now I 'Back Eat' I have been losing steadily again.

The way it was explained to me is if you go too low with your intake, your body goes into some type of 'starvation mode' so just stores everything it can, rather than burning the fat - it protects it!

JesterMFP

As those above have said, I personally see as extra fuel if I need it, I walk 80 minutes every day for work so I burn around 400 calories through doing this, as it's not an intense work out I don't tend to eat those calories back as I don't feel I need it, but they are there if I feel my body needs a little extra fuel to keep it going. On days where I do more intense cardio workouts such as swimming or gym sessions then I'll give my body the extra fuel it needs to keep it going. You don't HAVE to eat it back, if you're not hungry, or don't feel you need it, don't eat it, but they are there if you do.

Actually you're kind of missing the points made by those above you. That's not how MFP is designed to work. When you choose not to eat back exercise calories, you are choosing to make your calorie deficit larger than MFP recommends. Which is fine - that's your choice (as long as you understand that you're making that choice). It's maybe not a great idea to recommend to other members that they also make their calorie deficits larger than is recommended.

WaterBunnie

As others have said, your deficit is already included in your day to day allowance, so you'll lose weight regardless of whether you exercise or not. Exercise is a great way of earning more food, increasing your metabolism and retaining lean muscle.

SleeplessinBerlin

I don't understand why it is necessary to eat back the calories you have burned through exercise. If you want to loose weight by burning calories through exercise, why would you eat those calories back. Can someone help me understand the logic here.

Simple. If you're supposed to NET 1500 calories to lose weight, then you exercise 500 calories off, then your NET calories are now decreased by 500 leaving you a NET of 1000. So to ensure correct calorie intake for weight loss, you eat back those 500 calories to bring your NET back to 1500. Trust the system, it works.

A.C.E. Certified Personal/Group FitnessTrainer
IDEA Fitness member
Kickboxing Certified Instructor
Been in fitness for 30 years and have studied kinesiology and nutrition

stil dont get it.kindly explain further.i ve 1590 allowance and i work out minium 300 cal.inorder for me to loose weight,what should i take in()eat)1590 or 1590+300?
pleas i need answers
thanks

Which lifestyle setting do you use on MPF? Is it sedentary? If yes - any additional activity like a workout burning 300kcal should be added to your allowance and you should eat these 300 kcal back.

If you chose "lightly active" or something else because you work out on a regular basis, your activity is already included in your daily allowance.

weeshaz74

hey me too.. I have the same question as u...

deegeyspazms

This is how I see it: when you exercise, your muscles, bones and tendons etc. need to grow and repair to adjust. They need food - especially protein to do this.
As your muscles are stimulated from exercise, your metabolism increases. A higher metabolism means that you continue to burn more calories - even in your sleep!
However, if you don't eat enough, your body will lower your metabolism (metabolic rate) to survive. This is not good - it happened to me a few years ago - you have no energy, move about less (and feel v tearful/ grumpy) - leading to slower weight loss!
So eat back your calories - preferably food containing protein.
Enjoy x

FerryfieldLad

I generally don't eat back all my calories, maybe around half...

tryclyn

Exercise for health.
Modest deficit for fat loss.
The deficit should already be factored in and exercise is more effective when fueled properly.

AbsoluteNG

No one has answered the OP's question. She wants to know why it is necessary to eat back exercise calories. The only bad thing that can come back from not eating them is you binge eating it back if you create too large of a deficit. If your not having that problem, carry on. Also, the bigger the deficit, the faster you should be losing.

One last thing. If you are of low body fat, large deficits can cause muscle loss.

mcibty

I think people get confused because it does negate the need to exercise at all. You can't log a change in your physique.

Sarauk2sf

This explains it:

http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/818082-exercise-calories-again-wtf

DatMurse

I don't understand why it is necessary to eat back the calories you have burned through exercise. If you want to loose weight by burning calories through exercise, why would you eat those calories back. Can someone help me understand the logic here.

Cause people are retarded. Why would you eat it back. Still eat at a deficit regardless of how much you worked out. 20% deficit is standard for the average person.

Advanced dieters are different

Lyadeia

This question is only seen on this website because I swear this is the only website that DOES NOT factor in exercise when calculating your calorie needs.

If you have used some other calculator to tell you how many calories you need to eat, then you do NOT eat exercise calories back because all those other calculators accounted for exercise already.

If you are relying on MFP, since they do NOT account for exercise calories until you log them, if you don't eat the calories back your deficit will be too large. If MFP says you need to eat 1200 calories and then you exercise for 300 calories, you need to eat 1500 calories because the 1200 calories is what your body needs to function when you are doing nothing, but you need those extra 300 calories to do the workout properly and healthfully. Those other calculators would have already told you to eat 1500 calories anyway since they would have already accounted for the 300, and you don't eat those back then.

It's just 2 different methods to get to the same goal.