Eating back exercised calories VS not: Which worked for you?

jacksonpt

Why are you listening to a fitness trainer for nutritional advice?

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

Edit: Since it's been made quite apparent that people can't be bothered to actually go to a link that is posted I'll give a simple answer here.

MFP assumes you're not going to do any exercise so it gives you a calorie goal with a deficit already built in. So you'll lose weight even without exercise. When you exercise, you further increase that deficit to a possibly unhealthy level. Fuel your body.

The link is too complicated for a beginner.

OP: There are 2 methods.

1.You eat back your calories(MFP)
2. You don't eat them back(you calculated your own TDEE and deficit)

More than likely you didn't do step 2, so stick to step 1 (eat back your calories).

The link is too complicated for a beginner or for you...? :huh:

Basic reading comprehension is all that is required to understand that link.

For a beginner, I have been doing this for a long time, that's newbie stuff to me... Below in bold are excerpts from the link... below that is possible questions that... a beginner might have.
EAT (Exercise Associated Thermogenesis): Caloric requirements of training, or training expenditure.

Whats the difference from calorie requirement of training, or training expenditure? What training expenditure, is this calories burned or exercises performed? What is being expended?

"If you are using most other online calculation tools to determine an intake estimate, that estimate is going to already include EAT as part of the suggested intake"

Wait, what is EAT again???

Why would some ask what EAT is again when they can refer back up to the top of the post where the (oh hai) list of definitions is? Also, you took sentences from a paragraph. Context. Matters.


Your blatant problem with any links other than yours (namely anything that comes from the Eat, Train, Progess group) is really appalling and quite sad.

Go show it to any beginner. They won't get it much. The reason they would need to refer back to it is that they don't fully understand it. If it was for a more advanced member, i wouldn't have a problem with it. I don't have a problem with that group...

There are a number of beginners who have PM'd me to thank me for writing that link and I have not yet heard ANYONE ask me additional questions or ask for additional clarifications for anything in that link.

Having said that, my experience tells me that your assumptions are wrong.

If that's the case I'd honestly be surprised. I just believe you write to technical sometimes for MFP. There are many peoole out there who has English as their second language, who have lower education levels (i know some people on MFP who didn't even go to high school).

Just take it in to consideration, if you wish.

We get it... you don't like his (and probably most of that goup's) posts... move along. Talk about hijacking...

Raeontherun

I eat almost all of mine back; I like to eat

bacitracin

Do science. Experiment on yourself. Try it for a month without eating back exercise calories (or don't, since you have for a year already, it sounds like) and then try slowly starting to eat back exercise calories and chart your progress. Eat back half for a week or two, then eat back almost all for awhile and come back and tell us what works FOR YOU.

SkinnyMozza

Im glad to hear all the responses... I was wondering the same thanks everyone!

ElizaRoche

not.. I never ate them back when losing weight. Worked perfectly nice for me. I tried once eating them back for a while (talking about weeks not days), and i either started to gain or maintened. So nope, for me eating them back didnt work.

cwolfman13

Anyone who is confused in this matter simply needs to google...

NEAT method vs TDEE method.

Then pick a method and go with it. NEAT method you eat back exercise calories...TDEE method you don't. It's actually really all very simple and takes about 10 minutes of research to understand what you are doing.

jacksonpt

Anyone who is confused in this matter simply needs to google...

NEAT method vs TDEE method.

Then pick a method and go with it. NEAT method you eat back exercise calories...TDEE method you don't. It's actually really all very simple and takes about 10 minutes of research to understand what you are doing.

Completely agree, however... for some people, that's about 20 minutes more research than they are willing to do.

scrapjen

I like to eat, and I like to exercise ... I like that my exercise does allow me to eat more. I think I had been eating a LOT before I was tracking, so I am trying to exercise some level of control. MFP gives me a daily limit of 1350 then adds in my exercise. I have a mental goal of keeping calories around 1800. My exercise has often earned me more than that. I don't feel like I HAVE to eat back my calories if I'm not feeling particularly hungry, but I'm glad to have a cushion if I am.

Jesseca118

I did the low calorie 1200 -1400 working out 5-6 days a week for a long time. Eventually it stopped working. No energy. Then I found the group EM2WL and they have a website that will answer questions you might have. It makes sense and its working. I can tell my body is much happier and I want to be able to keep the muscle im working for.

Fuzzbang

I generally do not eat them back because I do not use a food scale so I am eyeballing and doing best guesses for sizes. The cushion I have with my exercise cals keeps me within my range that I am targeting. I predict that a lot of us are eating more than we think and also burning less then we think so by not eating my cals back, I have that safety zone. YMMV.

allisonrinkel

I would eat them because i'm hungry. I would not eat them if I am not hungry. Food=fuel

robinschwalb

Sometimes I do not eat enough, came close to passing out a couple of days ago. To exercise I need fuel....I have not on this long but I eat lots of protein which keeps me full so I don't eat a lot.

luckydays27

Gee, who to listen to here?

If I do a little investigation, sometimes easy here and sometimes not but I conclude that:

The eater backers more often than not have a profile with some of their pics, either before, after or current. I hardly see any of the 1200 calorie group with them despite some being on this site for 1-3 years.

Another trend I have noticed is that many of the huge calorie restricters make an "I'm back" announcement which tells me .............. they gained the weight back. They are largely still proponents of the 1200 calorie regimen because "it worked last time" which is false because IF IT HAD worked they wouldn't be back.

Simple observations.

I have noticed this as well. I would rather be a success story one of these days than a diet repeater for the rest of my life.

I too have done the 1200 cals a day thing and not ate back the cals. It worked... for a while. Then I stalled and thought of giving up. Plus I was a royal bi!ch to everybody because I was obsessing over food. Hallelujah for MFP. I upped my cal intake to match my fitness level and lifestyle. Its been 6 weeks. I've lost 8 lbs.

I use a fitbit to determine my daily burn and Polar FT60 to calculate my exercise burn. After the infor is synced/entered into MFP, I get a total for the day that I am supposed to eat (500 less than my total cal burn) and I try to eat about 100 cals less than that or so.

I say eat back the calories from exercise, if you know what you have burned during exercise. If you a trusting MFP to give you a cals burned number, eat 50-75% of those back as MFP over estimates cals burned during exercise.

erikkmcvay

I've lost 45 lbs in 7 months by eating back my exercise calories -- why does this work? In my opinion it's because your body sees 1200 calories per day as a famine and reacts to famine the same way always: a) reduce metabolism, eat muscle and hang in their until the famine is over b) when famine ends eat all you can, gain back the lost weight and then gain back more so next famine you won't be in as much danger.

I recommend watching 'Hungry For Change' which is a great movie on the subject.

Losing weight isn't about dieting in my book (and I'm no expert so take what I say/write for what it's worth) but rather about changing how you live and what 'FOOD' is to you. Food is not sex (pleasure) darnit, so stop treating it as such. Food is fuel or 'sustenance' and should be treated that way. Doesn't mean it won't taste good but does mean it can't be entertainment/pleasure.

Structure your diet (as in what you eat daily) based on what your body NEEDS and view your deficit as something that should not remain stable (or you run the risk of getting too used to it) but rather something that should fluctuate daily based on activity level.

Think like a 'Hunter Gatherer': today ran after a deer and I killed it so I'll eat plenty for tomorrow I'll run after a deer and not kill one and will have to eat plants all day in order to survive. I'll be hungry tomorrow, and maybe all week but sooner or later I'll kill another deer and eat well that day.

Ya I know it's silly but that's kinda how the human body is: we're designed to survive the feast and famine cycle by storing fat during the feast and burning it during the famine but if the famine is too long then we'll burn muscle first and then slow down the metabolism to protect the last reserves we have which in turn makes us lethargic/without energy.

So for me it's feast on the days I do a lot of cardio but try to keep the feasting BELOW the earned calories and stick strictly to the famine of reduced cals on days I don't do cardio.

Lyadeia

The MFP method did not work for me because it set my calorie level way too low. The highest it would ever set for me is 1240 calories (unless I lied and said I was active which I am not). So 1240 + my average calorie burn of 400 is just 1640 calories a day when exercising and 1240 when not. I was practically starving.

I calculated my TDEE and started subtracting a slight deficit from that (1800 calories) and ate that every day...I was losing weight faster and not starving at all.

I think that my personal case goes to show how important it is to fuel your body and eat correctly. That being said, this can be done with MFP + eating back exercise calories IF it calculates things correctly for you (for me it was wrong) or it can be done with TDEE-20% or less.

Sticking to 1200 a day no matter what like your trainer is insisting sounds like a recipe for disaster.

ponyskates

The MFP method did not work for me because it set my calorie level way too low. The highest it would ever set for me is 1240 calories (unless I lied and said I was active which I am not). So 1240 + my average calorie burn of 400 is just 1640 calories a day when exercising and 1240 when not. I was practically starving.

I calculated my TDEE and started subtracting a slight deficit from that (1800 calories) and ate that every day...I was losing weight faster and not starving at all.

I think that my personal case goes to show how important it is to fuel your body and eat correctly. That being said, this can be done with MFP + eating back exercise calories IF it calculates things correctly for you (for me it was wrong) or it can be done with TDEE-20% or less.

Sticking to 1200 a day no matter what like your trainer is insisting sounds like a recipe for disaster.

This sounds like a good plan. I'm tossing around the idea of doing the TDEE-20% (which would give me 1600 cals per day, OMG FOOD!) orrrr trying to eat back most of my burnt calories. With TDEE, it means I would be eating this amount of calories every day, regardless of exercise, correct? Like, maybe one day I'll burn 400 cals from exercise and another day burn 800, then not work out the day after. Always eating 1600?

ajominy

@ Smithkulaga - congratulations on your accomplishments so far!!!

When I first started out I was doing aqua aerobics and estimated that I was burning about 300 - 400 calories a class. After several months of aqua aerobics, I was able to do more and started doing 2 classes in a row a few times a week which was aqua aerobics and zumba. I estimated (based on what I found on different websites) that Zumba was burning about 500 - 600 calories. From there I started doing weights and spinning.

A few months ago I purchased a heart rate monitor (at the advice of my trainer and several instructors i know) and discovered that I was overestimating my burned calories with Zumba especially. I really only burn about 350 - 400 calories a class. My heart rate monitor has been the best investment in my weight loss journey. It is like a personal trainer on your wrist. It calculates your calories based on your personal height, weight and heart rate. Now I know when I burn 1000 calories, I really am. I don't work out w/out it.

Any suggestions on a heart rate monitor brand? I'd love to get one that is super accurate!

They are all just estimates, and there is no way to guarantee that any one is going to be more or less accurate than any other. If you believe the hype, the new Garmins are using a pretty advanced formula, so in theory it'll be more accurate more often. But ultimately even that is an estimate.

Anything from Garmin, Suunto or Polar will be good quality. Then it just comes down to finding the one with the features you want.

i purchased the polar ft60 and love it. but as @jacksonpt said, there is no way to guarantee complete accuracy. i have heard good things about polar and garmin.

i know that w/ my heart rate monitor it is still an estimate but it is a better estimate than mfp or the heart rate monitors on the machines at the gym.

essentially most everything is an estimate when it comes to counting the calories that aren't written on the package or when you are out at dinner or working out. you just have to do your best at estimating it.

KPMP1992

If I'm not hungry enough at the end of the day to eat back my exercise calories, I roll them over to the next day. :-D

jramaral

I am so sorry to offend you with my absolute statement. I am replying to the idea of the post question "
TOPIC: Eating back exercised calories VS not: Which worked for you?"

thanks for the awesome negative vibes, totally makes me feel welcome.

aelunyu

This entirely depends on how consistent your exercise output is. If you do the same kind of workout everyday, without positive progression or negative regression, you can establish a baseline to either eat more to get stronger/faster/etc, or eat less to lose weight. I never calculate exercise calories since they are pretty impossible to calculate. But I know my body pretty well, and I believe that to be more important than what a calorie burner wristband will spit out...just my two cents!