Confused about 'eating back' calories...

hollyfoord

Hi there, still newish to the site. Isn't the point of exercising to create a bigger deficit in calories & therefore speed up weight loss? I understand CICO is the rule of thumb for dieting but I don't understand what appears to be slowing your progress by 'undoing' exercise calories. What is the benefit here? Doesn't going over your original goal (mine is 1200 FYI) count as failing for the day given the fact that your food diary congratulates you for staying under?

lemonychild

your goal is too low to begin with. its not sustainable and then you want to create a bigger deficit with exercise - which means you won't even have the 1200 cals to nourish your body with then you're setting yourself up for 'diet failure' and possibly health problems.

malibu927

https://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10503681/exercise-calories-do-i-eat-these-a-video-explanation

gamerbabe14

No, going over your calories is not failure. If you eat 1201 calories you will not gain. If you go over your TDEE then you will gain. Your 1200 goal is already a deficit of your TDEE. Mostly likely by 500 calories or more. So by not eating back your exercise calories, you may think 'oh! Well I'll lose weight faster this wait because now I'm even more at a deficit!'. Well yes/no. You're more likely to give up bc your starving, you are not giving your body enough calories which can results in malnutrition and it's unnecessary because you can still lose weight at a safer rate and enjoy food/life! The benefit is you can get to your goal enjoyably, safely and also not lose muscle mass.

Also, not sure why your goal is 1200. My goal is 1340, I'm 5'7", 199lbs and sedentary meaning I only use walking for exercise. I try everyday to eat up to 1340.

ferd_ttp5

malibu927 wrote: »

https://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10503681/exercise-calories-do-i-eat-these-a-video-explanation

I never knew this link up! Well thanks for this.

SezxyStef

hollyfoord wrote: »

Hi there, still newish to the site. Isn't the point of exercising to create a bigger deficit in calories & therefore speed up weight loss? I understand CICO is the rule of thumb for dieting but I don't understand what appears to be slowing your progress by 'undoing' exercise calories. What is the benefit here? Doesn't going over your original goal (mine is 1200 FYI) count as failing for the day given the fact that your food diary congratulates you for staying under?

What people fail to get on MFP is that the calorie goal given by MFP is low enough for you to lose the weekly amount you put in the setup.

So for example if you said you want to lose 1lb a week MFP will take your information...ie age, gender, height, current weight and activity level and calculate the amount of calories you need to maintain that and then subtract 500 from it....so even if you don't exercise you lose 1lb a week.

If you do exercise MFP is setup for you to eat those back....to help keep you from losing too fast...keeping in mind that the calories given may or may not be accurate for you as they are based on averages so the suggestion is to eat back at least half of them and adjust as necessary.

Your goal should not be to lose as fast as possible it should be to lose at a reasonable pace so that you maintain muscle mass and it is sustainable and you wont get to stressed over being hungry...

If you put the weight on over a year why try to lose it in a month?

tinkerbellang83

The calorie goal already puts you in a deficit to lose at your chosen rate (with a minimum of 1200 calories for females),

Example
So if your estimated daily calorie burn for your current weight/height/gender is 1900 calories and you put into MFP that you want to lose 1lb per week.

1lb is equivalent to 3500 calories, so you would need to eat at a deficit of 500 calories per day (3500 calories/7 day). This would put your calorie goal at 1400 calories per day.

So you start the day with your 1400 calorie goal and do some exercise which burns maybe 200 calories.

1400 goal-200 calorie burn = 1200 Net calories, which is a deficit of 700 calories, if you ate them back:

1400 goal - 200 calories burn + 200 calories additional food = 1400 Net Calories which is your original calorie goal and still has you at the 500 calorie deficit and on track for your 1lb per week loss.

So in short, you are not undoing anything because exercise isn't factored into the goal that MFP gives you, it means you're fueling your body properly and still eating the amount to lose weight at your chosen rate.

DanyellMcGinnis

MFP congratulates you for staying under your original goal + exercise calories. During weight loss, I was down to like 1310 calories at the end as set by MFP, but I would do a whole lot of cardio and eat 1900-2000 calories per day and I still lost. I would've been losing at an unsafe rate if I only ate the 1310 and then did 600 or 700 exercise calories on top of that without eating them back. Also I probably wouldn't have had the energy for exercise if I stuck to the 1310. By exercising a lot, I got to eat more and I greatly improved my cardiovascular fitness.

There is no one right way for everyone, some people may not have the time, energy, or inclination to do as much cardio as I did, or may prefer Paleo diets (I'm a vegetarian eating high carb, low fat), etc., but MFP is set up to make it easy for everyone. You don't have to do any math because it is all displayed on the screen for you -- if you have 200 calories left after dinner, you should eat them to make sure you have adequate intake to support vital bodily functions.

rightoncommander

hollyfoord wrote: »

Isn't the point of exercising to create a bigger deficit in calories & therefore speed up weight loss?

Well, you could use exercise to create a bigger calorie deficit, but it would be much easier to just eat even less. If I have a calorie goal of 1200, do a 400 calorie workout and eat 1600 calories. You do the same but eat 1200 calories. You will certainly lose weight faster, to the tune of almost 1lb/week. But in that case, why not just eat 800 calories and save yourself the effort of exercising?

Exercising regularly is a healthy habit that most people would benefit from. Exercising very intermittently has much more limited benefit. If you only do it when you're losing weight, and never properly fuel your exercise because you always have a huge deficit on your exercise days, it's hard to see how that healthy habit could ever be established.

When it comes to a choice between healthy habits and faster weight loss, I'll pick the habits every time.

CoachJen71

If you are a tight logger and relatively accurate accounting for exercise burns, then eat them back. I weigh my food and use a Fitbit, but didn't eat back enough cals and lost more muscle than I had to.
____________________________________________

Down 140lbs: My story.

StaciMarie1974

hollyfoord wrote: »

Hi there, still newish to the site. Isn't the point of exercising to create a bigger deficit in calories & therefore speed up weight loss??

Not for everyone. THe basic benefit to exercise is heart, lung health and improved strength, endurance, energy, etc.

MFP does not start with the assumption that you will exercise. They take your stats and activity level (which you indicate) and estimate your calories burned. Lets say its 2000 per day. You say you want to lose 1 pound per week, so MFP tells you to eat 1500. That's a 500/day deficit. If you log 350 calories for running for 45 minutes, you're now looking at an 850 deficit, so MFP says to eat additional to get back to 500/day deficit.

If you have a low weight loss goal (.5-1 pound per week) then there is probably less harm in NOT eating back the calories. If you have a more aggressive goal (2 pounds per week) then its more important to eat them as creating too large of a deficit can result in excessive loss of muscle, damage to organs, etc.

NorthCascades

hollyfoord wrote: »

Hi there, still newish to the site. Isn't the point of exercising to create a bigger deficit in calories & therefore speed up weight loss? I understand CICO is the rule of thumb for dieting but I don't understand what appears to be slowing your progress by 'undoing' exercise calories.

Why would you slow your weight loss progress by eating on week days? Wouldn't you lose faster if you cut out all those Monday through Friday calories? Isn't the point of life to be skinny?

hollyfoord

So if I know I'm going to go over my calories on the weekend, and create deficits throughout the week to 'hoard' calories, am I doing myself more harm than good? I've lost 100 lbs. over the last year through an aggressively restrictive diet that I now realize probably wasn't healthy and am trying to learn 'how' to eat again. Wondering if I've harmed my metabolism considering I work out for an hour 7 days per week. Thoughts?

hollyfoord

For reference, I'll also add that I have Cushing's Disease which is characterized by high levels of cortisol & affects hormones/metabolic process as well as causing muscle weakness/osteoporosis so I can't really be sure if the same rules that affect everybody else apply to me.

fitmom4lifemfp

hollyfoord wrote: »

Hi there, still newish to the site. Isn't the point of exercising to create a bigger deficit in calories & therefore speed up weight loss? I understand CICO is the rule of thumb for dieting but I don't understand what appears to be slowing your progress by 'undoing' exercise calories. What is the benefit here? Doesn't going over your original goal (mine is 1200 FYI) count as failing for the day given the fact that your food diary congratulates you for staying under?

Wow really??

The point of exercise is to increase your strength, improve balance, and strengthen your heart to help you live a longer healthier, happier life.

There are plenty of people that don't subscribe to the "eat all your exercise calories" train of thought.
It's not a rule. Do whatever works best for you. It IS logical that if you have a really active day, your body WILL want more fuel, so you will naturally need to eat a little more on those days. Just keep in mind that you don't need to starve yourself at all.

NorthCascades

hollyfoord wrote: »

So if I know I'm going to go over my calories on the weekend, and create deficits throughout the week to 'hoard' calories, am I doing myself more harm than good?

No, you're not. Let's take a step back and let me put my last post in context. Dieting and losing weight can seem really hard and complicated. The truth is it's just hard. People make it complicated when it doesn't have to be. Sometimes, using really exaggerated examples can be a good way to highlight a point, especially when there's so much confusion.

One point of exercise is to burn calories, but it's also to make you stronger and fitter. And to get out of the house. And to allow you to eat more (so the diet is easier to stick to) while still losing weight. Also remember that more isn't always better, sometimes slow and steady is the way to go - like the tortoise and the hair.

hollyfoord wrote: »

I've lost 100 lbs. over the last year through an aggressively restrictive diet that I now realize probably wasn't healthy and am trying to learn 'how' to eat again. Wondering if I've harmed my metabolism considering I work out for an hour 7 days per week. Thoughts?

If you're worrying that you triggered some kind of "starvation mode," you didn't. You've probably affected your metabolism, but not in any kind of permanent way.

When you have really big calorie deficits, a bunch of different things happen, some of them are good and most of them are bad. You lose weight quickly, yay! But you pay a price for it. You'll lose more muscle than you need to, which is bad in a lot of ways, including for your metabolism because even at rest muscle burns more calories than fat does. (But you can gain it back over time.) You tend to have less energy, so you don't walk around or fidget as much, and burn fewer calories, which looks like your metabolism has slowed down, but you can turn that around. Also, really big deficits can be bad for your skin, your hair, your nails, etc, because you might not be getting enough nutrients for everything your body needs.

I knew somebody who had Cushing's Disease and I don't know much about details but I do know this was harder for her than most people.

cwolfman13

hollyfoord wrote: »

Hi there, still newish to the site. Isn't the point of exercising to create a bigger deficit in calories & therefore speed up weight loss? I understand CICO is the rule of thumb for dieting but I don't understand what appears to be slowing your progress by 'undoing' exercise calories. What is the benefit here? Doesn't going over your original goal (mine is 1200 FYI) count as failing for the day given the fact that your food diary congratulates you for staying under?

If that were the point of exercise, people of a healthy weight and people maintaining their weight wouldn't exercise...

Your calorie goal is your deficit for weight loss before exercise...it assumes no exercise. When you exercise, you are doing activity that goes beyond what you have established in your activity level...obviously if you're doing additional activity, your calorie requisites would go up...your maintenance calories would increase and thus you would still lose weight at your stated rate of loss target eating exercise calories.

MFP gives me a target of 1,900 calories before exercise to lose about 1 Lb per week...that means MFP is estimating my non exercise maintenance to be around 2,400 calories. If I go for a 40 mile ride, I will burn around 1,400 calories...if I didn't account for that activity by consuming more calories, I'd be leaving my body a mere 500 calories to work with...does that sound like something healthy to you? I could eat those back (and would generally do so over a couple of days) because my maintenance would jump to 2400+1400=3,800 calories...so if I actually ate those 1400 + 1900= 3,300 I would still have my deficit because 3,800-3,400 = 500 calorie deficit.

Maths...

hollyfoord

Many thanks to everyone who responded & continue to do so. Cautiously attempting to undo mental barriers & telling myself its okay to approach daily goal without the world spontaneously combusting...will be interesting to see if/how it impacts my next weigh-in.

TimothyFish

Probably the best way to look at it is that the goal MFP gives you before exercise is too low because you are expected to exercise enough to allow yourself to eat more. But exercise is for improving your quality of life. Many people associate their problems with obesity, and some of their problems are caused by obesity, but most of the problems people have are due to a lack of exercise rather than being overweight.

Tacklewasher

hollyfoord wrote: »

So if I know I'm going to go over my calories on the weekend, and create deficits throughout the week to 'hoard' calories, am I doing myself more harm than good? I've lost 100 lbs. over the last year through an aggressively restrictive diet that I now realize probably wasn't healthy and am trying to learn 'how' to eat again. Wondering if I've harmed my metabolism considering I work out for an hour 7 days per week. Thoughts?

Further to the answer above, there is no harm in hoarding a couple hundred calories a day and using them on the weekend. Many do this and still lose weight safely. If you do this, then try to focus on the week view of your net calories to make sure you are not overdoing it one way or the other.

tomteboda

hollyfoord wrote: »

For reference, I'll also add that I have Cushing's Disease which is characterized by high levels of cortisol & affects hormones/metabolic process as well as causing muscle weakness/osteoporosis so I can't really be sure if the same rules that affect everybody else apply to me.

OK, so this is something I know a lot about. My mom has endogenous Cushing'(not causes by corticosteroid treatment or any known tumor). Also I've studied it at the graduate level and read a lot of scientific papers on this topic.

My mom has successfully lost 185 lbs with her disease.

You absolutely can lose weight with Cushing's. It's going to be appreciably harder for you, and you need to be more careful with your diet than most people.

1. Cortisol up regulates hunger signals. You will feel hungrier than most people. This is the number one cause of weight gain. Careful and honest weighing of all food can go a long way to helping with this.
2. Cortisol messes up blood sugar levels. For this reason, getting enough fiber can go a long way towards moderating the swingy spikes.
3. With elevated cortisol, you need to make sure you get at least 20% of your calories from protein every day, more if you are on a very restrictive diet. Your body wants to make fat very very badly, and will actually scavenge muscle tissue to make fat. It's weird as heck, and without adequate protein, the disease will cause your muscles to weaken over time.
4.
Best wishes!