eat it back?????? I don't get it

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  • MelWick524
    MelWick524 Posts: 215 Member
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    I think a lot of these answers, while absolutely correct, maybe explain it too much, which may make it more confusing. Let me try:

    1. You tell MyFitnessPal how many lbs per week you want to lose.

    2. MyFitnessPal says, "OK, if this girl does absolutely NO exercise at all, she can still lose the weight by eating this amount of calories daily (because her body will still be burning off more than what she consumed, even with no workout that day, so she'll still be in a calorie deficit)."

    3. If she DOES exercise, she can eat back up to as many calories as she burned off, and still lose weight, because it will even out.

    Yeah?
  • juliet3455
    juliet3455 Posts: 3,015 Member
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    This from @blankiefinder. Which is what I typically post as an answer to these common questions Plus this link.

    http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/833026/important-posts-to-read/p1

    blankiefinder wrote: »
    If you really want to do it right this time, some of the best knowledge, put the most succinctly, with answers to all your questions, are stickied at the top of the various forums. I would suggest starting with these posts

    A guide to get you started on your path to sexypants

    Calorie Counting

    Logging Accuracy
  • MelWick524
    MelWick524 Posts: 215 Member
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    ...but...MFP seems to REEEEALLY inflate calorie burn, so keep that in mind. (For example: I burn like 600cals in an hour of Zumba, but MFP gives me a calculation of like 800something...so my trick, that's worked so far, is to give myself 100 calories back for every 15 minutes of exercise in my target HR zone)...
  • erickirb
    erickirb Posts: 12,293 Member
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    MelWick524 wrote: »
    I think a lot of these answers, while absolutely correct, maybe explain it too much, which may make it more confusing. Let me try:

    1. You tell MyFitnessPal how many lbs per week you want to lose.

    2. MyFitnessPal says, "OK, if this girl does absolutely NO exercise at all, she can still lose the weight by eating this amount of calories daily (because her body will still be burning off more than what she consumed, even with no workout that day, so she'll still be in a calorie deficit)."

    3. If she DOES exercise, she can eat back up to as many calories as she burned off, and still lose weight, because it will even out.

    Yeah?
    Close but not quite on #3. it should say:

    "If she does exercise she should be eating those calories back in order to lose her goal amount of weight per week"
  • ninabaz
    ninabaz Posts: 75 Member
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    MelWick524 wrote: »
    I think a lot of these answers, while absolutely correct, maybe explain it too much, which may make it more confusing. Let me try:

    1. You tell MyFitnessPal how many lbs per week you want to lose.

    2. MyFitnessPal says, "OK, if this girl does absolutely NO exercise at all, she can still lose the weight by eating this amount of calories daily (because her body will still be burning off more than what she consumed, even with no workout that day, so she'll still be in a calorie deficit)."

    3. If she DOES exercise, she can eat back up to as many calories as she burned off, and still lose weight, because it will even out.

    Yeah?

    Ahh!!!! Simple thank you!!!!
  • erickirb
    erickirb Posts: 12,293 Member
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    MelWick524 wrote: »
    ...but...MFP seems to REEEEALLY inflate calorie burn, so keep that in mind. (For example: I burn like 600cals in an hour of Zumba, but MFP gives me a calculation of like 800something...so my trick, that's worked so far, is to give myself 100 calories back for every 15 minutes of exercise in my target HR zone)...

    MFP does seem to over estimate, but OP said she has a Garmin HRM, she isn't going off MFP estimates
  • blankiefinder
    blankiefinder Posts: 3,599 Member
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    @Juliet3455 another great link!

    If you want a quick fix, post on the forums and get answers from random strangers who may or may not know what they are talking about.

    If you want to learn from the respected experts, start with reading the stickied posts, they are there for a reason. Then ask questions when you have enough of a knowledge base to filter out the garbage from the pearls.
  • blankiefinder
    blankiefinder Posts: 3,599 Member
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    erickirb wrote: »
    MelWick524 wrote: »
    ...but...MFP seems to REEEEALLY inflate calorie burn, so keep that in mind. (For example: I burn like 600cals in an hour of Zumba, but MFP gives me a calculation of like 800something...so my trick, that's worked so far, is to give myself 100 calories back for every 15 minutes of exercise in my target HR zone)...

    MFP does seem to over estimate, but OP said she has a Garmin HRM, she isn't going off MFP estimates

    You'd be shocked how easy it is to mis-use a HRM. Simply by leaving it running after your workout 'to calculate after burn' will add on hundreds of calories, as it isn't meant to work that way! If I forget to pause mine and take a break, it will give me 300 calories for sitting on my butt. I wish.
  • amusedmonkey
    amusedmonkey Posts: 10,330 Member
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    Well, I will try to explain with a simple example:
    A car drives, say, 50 miles every day. To do that, it needs a particular amount of fuel.
    Now if this car starts driving 80 miles every, you could do one of two: give it a fuel allowance enough for 80 mile right off the bat, or use the same fuel amount you did for 50 miles then top it off with extra fuel later.

    The first method (giving an allowance) is like using TDEE. This method already accounts for exercise calories within your allowance so no need to eat back exercise. The second method is to set your activity level to sedentary (or whatever base level sans exercise) then top off your allowance with the extra calories.

    Now is this necessary? No, but it is preferable. It helps reserve your energy and your muscle mass. Having too steep of a deficit could cause you to be tired, could speed up muscle loss (and hence lowering your maintenance calories even further), and could cause some deficiencies in the nutrients that you need more of the more active you are. You get the added advantage of having more wiggle room in your diet - which is as important as weight loss itself, since it makes it easier for you to stick to your diet.
  • Primolite
    Primolite Posts: 4 Member
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    My dietitian has said don't eat back the workout calories as long as I am getting the right nutrition. She has focused more on the nutrients than the calories eaten. ( We wish we could hide the calories column in MFP). It is all about balance and if you want this to work long term you need the balance. Don't go hungry. Eat right and healthy, and exercise.
    She also says it is important to eat within an hour of getting up in the morning and to eat plenty of protein with every meal.
  • ninabaz
    ninabaz Posts: 75 Member
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    blankiefinder wrote: »
    @Juliet3455 another great link!

    If you want a quick fix, post on the forums and get answers from random strangers who may or may not know what they are talking about.

    If you want to learn from the respected experts, start with reading the stickied posts, they are there for a reason. Then ask questions when you have enough of a knowledge base to filter out the garbage from the pearls.

    Wow! First of all I already knew I may have bad answers second of all I didn't know there were posts pinned on here. Yes already knew I was a moron for asking so thank you for making me feel even dumber than I already did. I'm so glad you got amusement from my question. I'm trying real hard to lose the weight and now thanks to you a simple question has made me want to rethink this. Thank you so much for your support!
  • blankiefinder
    blankiefinder Posts: 3,599 Member
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    I have no idea where you think I called you a moron, but I am very sorry that you thought I did. However, there are a few pretty silly replies in here. I was only trying to help. If you think my replies were mean, though, you may want to stay away from the forums in general.
  • erickirb
    erickirb Posts: 12,293 Member
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    Primolite wrote: »
    My dietitian has said don't eat back the workout calories as long as I am getting the right nutrition. She has focused more on the nutrients than the calories eaten. ( We wish we could hide the calories column in MFP). It is all about balance and if you want this to work long term you need the balance. Don't go hungry. Eat right and healthy, and exercise.
    She also says it is important to eat within an hour of getting up in the morning and to eat plenty of protein with every meal.

    Did she set your goals or do you go by MFP? that is the difference. If you follow MFP caloric intake suggestions then eat back exercise cals, if you override with your own goals accounting for exercise then don't eat them back.
  • cwolfman13
    cwolfman13 Posts: 41,867 Member
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    ninafoster9 wrote: »
    Honestly without sounding like I'm a nit wit I honestly don't understand the concept. Can someone explain to me why I would eat back calories burned? I know hashed out many many times....I just want to do this right this time.

    For one thing, it's the way the MFP tool is designed. MFP calculates your calorie goal based on your stats, desired rate of loss, and your activity level. With MFP, your activity level is only supposed to be your day to day hum drum...so if you have a desk job, for example, you would put sedentary. Note that your exercise and fitness goals on MFP have NO bearing on your calorie goals...these goals are just for you.

    So let's say you are sedentary and MFP estimates your maintenance calories to be 2000 and you say you want to lose 1 Lb per week. That's a 3500 calorie per week deficit from your maintenance so MFP will give you a 500 calorie per day deficit to meet that goal...MFP would give you a calorie goal of 1500 calories. You hit that goal consistently and accurately and you will lose weight without any exercise whatsoever.

    Now let's say you burn 300 calories during a workout. MFP gives you those calories to eat back because that activity is unaccounted for...so you get 1800 calories but you still have a 500 calorie deficit because now your maintenance is 2300 vs 2000...your maintenance increases by those same calories.

    This is important because a big part of being healthy and fit is understanding how to fuel your activities. This also becomes increasingly important when/if you really get into fitness and your workouts get more intense and vigorous...while moderate and vigorous exercise can be good for you, it is also a stress on the body and breaks the body down...this requires energy (calories) to recover and build the body back up.

    The biggest issue with the MFP method is that people tend to underestimate their intake and overestimate their burn, so you need to make sure you're leaving yourself some kind of margin.

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