Eat back calories or no?
bruinsgirl3319
Posts: 32 Member
So right now according to MFP I've eaten 1550 calories (lunch, snack, and dinner, as I don't usually eat breakfast) and burned 905 (404 from 40 minutes on the elliptical and the rest from walking 14,000 steps), for a net of 645. My calorie goal is 1210 and I have the negative calorie adjustment enabled since I have a Flex. If it's around 11:00pm my time (about 1.5 hrs from now) should I eat something else? I do not want to overeat but if I finish my log now I'm worried MFP will say I'm under my goal, which I also don't want. I just started logging my food and exercise again today after being lazy for the last couple months.
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Actually, I think what you mean is that you've logged 1550 calories eaten and your Fitbit Calorie Adjustment is 905 calories. That means that MFP has taken the number of calories Fitbit says you'll burn today (a lot more than 905!) subtracted off how many calories MFP thinks you'd burn in a day (basically 1210 plus your daily deficit) and the difference is 905.
If you don't eat anything else today (assuming your Fitbit is accurate for you and your food logging is accurate), then you'll have an extra 565 calorie deficit today, over and above the deficit that is built into your 1210 calorie goal. That could be fine if you've got a lot of weight to lose but have chosen to only aim for 1/2 pound a week - you probably won't do any damage by undereating. However, if you've already got an aggressive weight loss goal and/or you don't have a lot to lose, your body will respond to such a high deficit in undesirable ways - causing you to lose muscle rather than fat, slowing your metabolism and/or making you less energetic in the long run. You have a Fitbit in order to get a better estimate of how many calories to eat. Use it.0 -
In other words you should eat back that 565 calories. As MFP has already built in the deficit.0
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Of course you shouldn't. I don't know why MFP people get this idea. No one else will tell you to do this anywhere.1
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bruinsgirl3319 wrote: »So right now according to MFP I've eaten 1550 calories (lunch, snack, and dinner, as I don't usually eat breakfast) and burned 905 (404 from 40 minutes on the elliptical and the rest from walking 14,000 steps), for a net of 645. My calorie goal is 1210 and I have the negative calorie adjustment enabled since I have a Flex. If it's around 11:00pm my time (about 1.5 hrs from now) should I eat something else? I do not want to overeat but if I finish my log now I'm worried MFP will say I'm under my goal, which I also don't want. I just started logging my food and exercise again today after being lazy for the last couple months.
The calories we eat and the calories we burn are both estimations. We try to be as accurate as possible with them, but in the end, they're not perfect. What most on MFP will say is to eat back only about 50% of the adjustment you receive for your exercise, as there is no way to be certain that it is 100% accurate. Many, many people have been successful doing this. You really shouldn't net 645 calories for the day. That's much too low a number for anyone. 1200 net calories should really be the minimum to ensure you are reaching the macro and micronutrient levels you need to fuel your body.0 -
seekingdaintiness wrote: »Of course you shouldn't. I don't know why MFP people get this idea. No one else will tell you to do this anywhere.
Because MFP people understand how MFP works, without trackers, and in this forum - with trackers.
Almost all other sites have you estimate an activity level that INCLUDES exercise, then you get a deficit eating goal to lose weight.
So you better hit your exercise goals or you may not really have a deficit.
MFP takes care of this long standing issue by estimating a daily burn from your selection of NON-exercise activity level. Then taking a deficit to eating to lose weight.
But when you do exercise, you just burned more, take the same deficit, you now eat more.
All Fitbit is doing is allowing MFP to adjust YOUR selection of activity level to something more accurate - then taking a deficit.
So perhaps it would be wise to understand how the systems work before thinking all the MFP people get this idea wrong, and anywhere else they are right.
2 different tools basically.
Use a tool wrong - at best it doesn't work well - at worst you get hurt.3 -
What if you can not eat back the calories? Every day last week I have been under my calorie limit on both fitbit and MFP, and I am just not hungry so I don't eat it back. I lost 1lb in a week and don't feel any worse off.0
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seekingdaintiness wrote: »Of course you shouldn't. I don't know why MFP people get this idea. No one else will tell you to do this anywhere.
Because most other places providing calorie goals will include exercise in your goal and MFP specifically doesn't.
If you know for a fact that you're burnt more calories than MFP estimated you would, I don't know why you wouldn't want to account for that in some way.1 -
What if you can not eat back the calories? Every day last week I have been under my calorie limit on both fitbit and MFP, and I am just not hungry so I don't eat it back. I lost 1lb in a week and don't feel any worse off.
It depends on how big an actual deficit that creates and how much weight you have to lose. Too big a deficit is counterproductive in the long term.
One week is too short a time to actually assess how fast you're losing. I weigh every day but use Trendweight to smooth out the fluctuations. Plus, the minimum length of time I use for assessing how accurate my logging efforts have been is a month.0 -
What if you can not eat back the calories? Every day last week I have been under my calorie limit on both fitbit and MFP, and I am just not hungry so I don't eat it back. I lost 1lb in a week and don't feel any worse off.
To add - your body can fool you in many ways. Slight calorie deficits it usually responds by indeed giving hunger signals - make it bad enough though and it'll adapt to slow you down and you may not get those at all.
So be very concerned if that has happened to you already.
I'd wager decent majority of people are here to lose weight because they listened to hunger signals when actually, their body didn't need any more food.
Same as I can finish a 3 hr intense bike ride and only be a little thirsty and not hungry at first. Skip eating long enough and all I get is very tired (duh).
Does this mean my body doesn't need food to help recover from that workout? of course not.
Only listen to your body if your brain is knowledgable enough to know when it isn't being honest.
And bigger deficit is not better, counter-productive long run. (bears repeating)
Ask everyone that tried a crash low calorie diet and is attempting weight loss again after gaining some / all / more weight back, how many were successful long term.
If your numbers with decent accuracy say you should have lost 2-3 lbs, then be concerned about only 1 lb.
1 week as mentioned above is a tad short because of water weight fluctuations, but hopefully numbers won't say that.
But slower is better when it's purposely done, when the body forces that on you because of extreme attempts - not good.
Merely have to plan your day better - you should have general idea of how much goal is going to be near end of day - don't leave so much to end of day to fail reaching goal.
You wouldn't want to miss your goal weight by 20% and call it enough, would you?0 -
Today I have ended the day (well potentially, it;s only 8 pm) with 542 calories left, and 424 of those were gained from Fitbit activities. I am genuinely not hungry and as I will be heading to bed around 10 ish, i doubt I'll get those last 500 odd calories in me. This is on an already 500 calorie deficit on both fitbit and mfp. I am no more tired than I usually am, and i went for a short run today (really short, it lasted about 12 mins, but I am only just starting training again) I am 14 stone 13.8oz, down from 15 stone 1lb last week. (Start weight was 15 stone 11 on 15th June) I attend Zumba 2 times a week and gym once a week and will be working up to running 2-3 days a week from mid july. i'll give it a few more weeks and see how things go.0
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Today I have ended the day (well potentially, it;s only 8 pm) with 542 calories left, and 424 of those were gained from Fitbit activities. I am genuinely not hungry and as I will be heading to bed around 10 ish, i doubt I'll get those last 500 odd calories in me. This is on an already 500 calorie deficit on both fitbit and mfp. I am no more tired than I usually am, and i went for a short run today (really short, it lasted about 12 mins, but I am only just starting training again) I am 14 stone 13.8oz, down from 15 stone 1lb last week. (Start weight was 15 stone 11 on 15th June) I attend Zumba 2 times a week and gym once a week and will be working up to running 2-3 days a week from mid july. i'll give it a few more weeks and see how things go.
Wow. Way to completely disregard the sage advice just given by @heybales
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Um...I can't exactly help it if i genuinely do not feel hungry and can not eat any more today. I know me well enough that if i eat anything now, or make up a huel, I know I will feel sick and horrid for the rest of the evening. Is it really worth it? I am not going to force myself to eat to make up 500 odd calories and feel like crud just because someone i have never met metered out some advice. advice is there to guide, not an order I must follow. Was there really any need for the sarcasm? Less than helpful and I now will not be asking for advice again as it seems disregarding advice you know won't work for your current situation is met sarcasm. no ta. I don't have time in my life for that kinda of negativity.0
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Today I have ended the day (well potentially, it;s only 8 pm) with 542 calories left, and 424 of those were gained from Fitbit activities. I am genuinely not hungry and as I will be heading to bed around 10 ish, i doubt I'll get those last 500 odd calories in me. This is on an already 500 calorie deficit on both fitbit and mfp. I am no more tired than I usually am, and i went for a short run today (really short, it lasted about 12 mins, but I am only just starting training again) I am 14 stone 13.8oz, down from 15 stone 1lb last week. (Start weight was 15 stone 11 on 15th June) I attend Zumba 2 times a week and gym once a week and will be working up to running 2-3 days a week from mid july. i'll give it a few more weeks and see how things go.
You don't say what your goal weight is, but assuming you're aiming for 150lbs or below, then losing 1-2 pounds a week at this point isn't unreasonable, so you're probably not doing a lot of damage by having a 1000 calorie deficit, especially if it isn't every day. (If you're only aiming to lose 20 or 30 lbs, rather than 60 or more, then that's different). I occasionally have days when I end up with an extra 500 calories on MFP, but then I have other days when I go over, so it balances out. For a while there, I was losing faster than I like - about a pound a week, when I prefer a half pound a week - but that followed several months of much slower loss and for the last couple of weeks I haven't lost anything, despite no big changes in what I'm doing. So, weight loss isn't linear, and doesn't always track closely with what you think you're doing.0 -
How someone can seem to sustain on lower than potential calories and not think there is anything wrong - for a long time perhaps.
http://skepchick.org/2014/02/the-female-athlete-triad-not-as-fun-as-it-sounds/
Plan better - you eating low/no fat stuff because you think eating fat makes you fat?
Not so, good fat needed - perhaps get more in.
Not really difficult- you didn't reach the point you need to lose weight eating anywhere near this level, unless bed-ridden.
Also, it's about impossible to compare your energy levels or how good a workout was while in the state, because you can only compare when not in this state.
Weight on a bar tells a true tale between in and out of this state, as does perhaps pace and HR on a run/bike ride.
Something objective.2
