Eating back exercise calories!??

bbrand975

It's pretty miserable. My husband is naturally fit and eats cakes, fruits, meat as much as he wants. Our house is full of crap. I have a select few things in here I can eat...steamed veggies, sure...but I'm just going to be hungry in 2 hours if I eat 2 cups of steamed broccoli...

tincanonastring

janejellyroll wrote: »

bbrand975 wrote: »

Because almost everything is too many calories and not worth it. I absolutely hate hate hate this. Lol it's come down to: eat one meal you actually like today or eat several craptastic low calorie meals. Hell even Tajik Osh (rice, shredded beef, shredded carrots, with fresh tomatoes, peppers, and onions) is too many calories unless you eat freakin 1/2 a cup.

3/4 of a cup oats is about 450 calories (assuming you measured dry, the most accurate way to measure oats). The sugar is about 30 calories or so. The orange juice is about 100 more. 580 calories could be a fantastic breakfast sandwich, a big bowl of tofu/egg scramble, toast with nut butter, lots of things.

Lots of people love oatmeal. Those people *should* eat oatmeal for breakfast. People who find it disgusting have lots of other options. Weight loss doesn't have to be miserable.

+1000

OP - if you don't like the food you're eating to lose weight, eat the food you like but just less of it than you used to.

janejellyroll

bbrand975 wrote: »

It's pretty miserable. My husband is naturally fit and eats cakes, fruits, meat as much as he wants. Our house is full of crap. I have a select few things in here I can eat...steamed veggies, sure...but I'm just going to be hungry in 2 hours if I eat 2 cups of steamed broccoli...

Guys are bigger and have more muscle and tend to have higher calorie needs. One of the fun things about living with a husband, to be sure. But it is what it is.

I think anyone would be full if they just ate two cups of broccoli -- things like fat and protein help us feel fuller and broccoli doesn't have much of those (although it does have fiber, which also helps us feel full). I recommend checking out the "Recipes" and "Food" sections of the forum -- you may get some tips on new dishes or foods to try that will help you feel fuller without having to eat foods that you hate.

bbrand975

Wow! Definitely going to start weighing stuff. I used to eat 2 scrambled eggs in a tortilla every morning...then nothing for lunch and a salad plate of dinner, but that gets boring every single day. It sucks being hungry, everything tasting like a pile of crap, and watching your family eat whatever they want and be fine lol. I never binge with them ever as well so it's like being kicked for having determination.
The only way I lost weight after my first kid is after developing an eating disorder and eating almost nothing a day except 2 boiled eggs...I got down to 100lbs from 180 then too but had to quit because that wasn't healthy. Husband is picky. He doesn't like "healthy stir frys" or anything of that nature. We are too poor to make separate meals, that's where the eating disorder came from the first time. It was wear your old clothes or eat.

Nuke_64

bbrand975 wrote: »

It's pretty miserable. My husband is naturally fit and eats cakes, fruits, meat as much as he wants.

Nope. There is no black hole in his stomach. This is a common helpless victim mentality I know I use to have. He may have more lean body mass than you, so he can eat more, but there is no such thing as naturally fit.

dubird

GuitarJerry wrote: »

Actually, technically, you eat 100% of your calories burned. This 50% and 75% crap is total BS. The rule is, by the book, you eat them all back. Some people don't because they feel like they don't properly estimate their food intake, or that their exercise calories might be off a bit, so they just take a percentage of their burn. That's sloppy. Be accurate and be correct in your estimates. MFP gives you a deficit. So, if you choose to lose 1lb per week, MFP tells you how much to eat to lose 1lb per week. When you exercise, you increase that deficit. If your plan is to lose 1lb per week, then you eat back all of your exercise calories. Be accurate in weighing your food, and be accurate in your calorie burns from exercise. And, it should work. Sometimes, though, you have to play with the numbers because your body might not be average, which is what all the estimates are based upon. So, you might burn calories faster or slower than average. Over time, not 3 weeks, but over time, you should learn where you lose, and where you maintain, and then this gets much easier.

The reason the advice is not to eat back all your calories burned is that MFP and gym machines use generic stats to calculate your calories burned, and for a majority of people, it's wrong. I know they both were for me. If you have a HRM and calculate yourself, you'll get much closer and then eating back all your exercise calories should be fine. But if MFP is telling you that you burned 200 calories and you really only burned 100, you don't want eat back the 200 because then you'll be over.


@bbrand975 yes, it sucks! Weighing and logging EVERYTHING is a major pain at first. And with a little one around, time is at a premium! But the benefit to it is not just to make sure your calories are within range, but to help you relearn eating habits, such as what a proper portion is. There are ways to make it less of a chore, but those involve pre-planning and pre-measuring out things for use. You can spend an afternoon measuring out snacks and various things for dinners so you'll have them ahead of time. And if you cook your meals, you can enter them in MFP to get the calorie counts, which also means they'll be there in the future. Losing weight doesn't mean limiting yourself to foods you don't like or the microwave type meals if you don't want to. It's perfectly possible to eat good filling meals that don't ruin your calories for the day. It just requires a bit of research ahead of time.

jessjessiejessica

I'm not positive but maybe it's so you can create muscle and tone, so you're not losing weight and left with loose skin *although You can still eat your calories back and not the carbs (that's probably it)

jessjessiejessica

Sorry I didn't see all these better answers here before I posted I'm new at this. And yes feeding that baby better make sure to get your calories so you are not deficient in nutrition. Have you tried the 21 day fix portion control it really helps

zenthebird

Also, remember that you are nursing. My guess is that your body may be "fighting you" to retain enough fat stores for the baby. Some people lose easily while nursing, and some, like me, experienced a big "whoosh" and lost weight when nursing was over. My son quit cold turkey (ow!). You may want to ask your doc about it.

veganbaum

Everyone has provided you with good answers, and it seems like you're listening.

I would just echo the importance of eating enough to keep breastfeeding. You probably are eating more than you think, as has been pointed out, so I'm not just saying "eat more." But, you really should try to be more accurate with your logging so you can be sure you keep up your nutrition and milk supply. 1200, even with some exercise calories, is really low - breastfeeding actually gives you more calories.

Also, you listed your BMR - in the context of your list, BMR is irrelevant, so I'm not sure why you posted that unless you think that's the base from which to take your deficit, which it's not.

I also noticed that you said you can't make separate meals because you're poor, and also your husband is a picky eater and can eat "whatever he wants." You don't have to make separate meals - you can have a smaller serving of higher calorie dishes and just give yourself a larger serving of vegetables. If you need to buy more vegetables to make this happen, then buy canned or frozen if those are cheaper than fresh. Also, depending on where you live, farmer's markets can often be cheaper (not where I live, but that's a whole other issue).

Finally, you talk about husband eating cakes and you eating "crap" and your family eating whatever they want. Don't eat things you don't like, but you may find that preparing things you think you don't like in different ways may lead to you finding a way you do like them. As I already said, you can also eat some of what they are, just a smaller portion and eat more of less calorie dense foods. Also, I'm wondering if you buy a lot of packaged food ("cakes," or whatever). If you do, that's a budgetary concern you may want to look at, as that may be an area you can cut back on and spend that on other foods.

ShrinkingScientist

I just wanted to point out that you don't have to eat breakfast foods for breakfast. There's no law that you have to have eggs or oatmeal. Have a sandwich, have a salad, eat what you like. This doesn't needs to be a miserable experience.

kshama2001

ShrinkingScientist wrote: »

I just wanted to point out that you don't have to eat breakfast foods for breakfast. There's no law that you have to have eggs or oatmeal. Have a sandwich, have a salad, eat what you like. This doesn't needs to be a miserable experience.

This ^

Also, I don't make separate meals. I just have less of the high calorie stuff and more of the low calorie stuff. He takes more rice and pasta than I do, and I take more veggies.

kshama2001

bbrand975 wrote: »

No I don't usually have time to weigh it

I find it faster to weigh than to use measuring cups, plus there's then no need to wash cups. I write down the weights in a notebook that goes back and forth from the kitchen to my computer.