Recent article on myfitnesspal

Nachise

Building muscle to burn more calories is very close to being a myth, apart from the difficulty in building muscle at a deficit the very, very few extra calories burned by having a few more pounds of muscle are more than offset by the reduced energy demands from losing weight.

Really? Then why am I losing weight and still building muscle? At the most, I am only eating back a couple of hundred calories of my exercise calories at the most, but I am still building muscle and losing fat. I've been on this course for the last four years, and I can now really see the progress that I have been making. My body comp studies are indicating that I have flipped the ratio of lean muscle mass to fat. I balance my exercise time between the pool, weight room, and the great outdoors.

sijomial

Nachise wrote: »

Building muscle to burn more calories is very close to being a myth, apart from the difficulty in building muscle at a deficit the very, very few extra calories burned by having a few more pounds of muscle are more than offset by the reduced energy demands from losing weight.

Really? Then why am I losing weight and still building muscle? At the most, I am only eating back a couple of hundred calories of my exercise calories at the most, but I am still building muscle and losing fat. I've been on this course for the last four years, and I can now really see the progress that I have been making. My body comp studies are indicating that I have flipped the ratio of lean muscle mass to fat. I balance my exercise time between the pool, weight room, and the great outdoors.

Think you are missing the point.

Skeletal muscle burns approx. 6cals / day / per lb.
Fat burns approx. 2cals / day / per lb.

Work out the significance on your calorie balance when you are losing weight.

lynn_glenmont

amandaherr wrote: »

Did anyone else read the article about feeling weight loss is hopeless? I am particularly wondering about the part that says you will sabotage weight loss by counting your exercise calories toward your daily allotted calories. Anyone have any comments on this? I am at a 16 pound loss and have 95 pounds to go for goal so I need the best advice.

Well, first, and most importantly. congrats and on the 16 pound loss, and assuming that the loss has been at an appropriate rate (with the amount you have to lose, say up to 3 lbs a week, or 1% of BW), I would say keep doing whatever you're doing. If you've been eating back exercise calories, it's working for you. If you're not, and you're not losing too fast, maybe you don't want to start eating the exercise calories.

I lost 30 lbs eating my exercise calories, and I lost faster than expected. (I asked for a 1 lb a week weight loss goal, and averaged 2 lbs a week loss.)

Online calculators and formulas are great to give you a starting place, but given the variation in people, lives, errors in food packaging, etc., nothing beats paying attention to your own results and using your own data to adjust your goals and behavior. If you're reasonably consistent, even if things you are doing are "wrong" in terms of accuracy, it's far easier to make adjustments based on your results than to try to beat the world (food scales, food manufacturers, restaurants, crazy schedules, the occasional meal you just have to take a wild guess about, and life in general) into some laboratory-level of accuracy.