For those confused or questioning "Eating your exercise calo

jamiesurv

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Marianna05

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ssp1977

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MenaMena

This was so helpful.

Mickeynminnie

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lcarr60

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sharpei65

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AislingRA

Marking my place to read later

fearie_jae

bump. i have had this question since i started losing weight so i wasnt working out at first.. thanks for the info!!

BWThomson

I have experienced a decent weight loss(22 lbs so far) success in just over the month that i have started to "correct" my eating habits. since i have found this site and started to monitor my caloric (1500) intake i see that i have stumbled into a pretty close range of calories for the day. I started by doing a bit of portion control and spreading out eating from 2 meals a day to about 6. I have also increased my water from none to about 3 litres a day(12 cups). I have gotten into a bad habit of drinking alot of diet coke, which i have cut way back with the increase in water. I lead a pretty busy life working about 15 hrs a day (two jobs) so i don't have a lot of time to excercise but i would like to try and get some excercise on the weekend and those days i just work one job. I have had concerns about starvation mode which i have heard about before and am glad to see it described so well here. I know i am going to see a slow down in weight loss and i am hoping what i experienced at the start wasn't aloss of a lot of muscle mass. I am at 204lbs and 5'11 now. I would like to work more towards toning and definition even tho the bmi figures i should be closer to 170. I have a weigh scale that supposedly measures body fat%, how accurate are those? It is showing i am around 20%. What is the goal body fat % a person should work towards?

sar123bear

AWESOME info! Thank you soooo much! Ever since I started using MFP, I've been losing weight. I'm a new mom trying to lose the baby weight... I played around with 1700 calories (w/ 500 cals burned via breastfeeding for a total of 1200) and it seemed like things slowed down tremendously. I have since increased my intake to just under 2000 calories (with 500 cals burned/day due to breastfeeding for a total of 1500). I'm now losing at a steady pace - Just this last week I lost 2.8 lbs, and overall since eating "cleaner" (but more food) on 2/6/12 I've lost 12 lbs. Overall since the birth of my daughter on 12/14/11, I've lost 55 lbs, mind you some of that was baby, but I still have roughly 70 to lose to get to my ultimate goal. I finally feel like I can do it, especially after reading this! Again, thank you... I do believe you've changed my life for the better. :happy:

Debbsoc

So here's my question, for those who might have been where I am now...

I've been maintaining the same (too high) weight for years, and come to find out, I've been eating too little. My body has been in starvation mode for a long time, and now that I've been eating more and healthier food, I'm dropping weight, without even exercising.

I'm now to the point where I want to start exercising, but the thought of eating my calories burned is daunting, because I have a hard time eating enough to reach my daily goal as it is. Does it get easier over time to eat more than you are used to?

I know I'll be hungrier when I'm exercising, but it seems like that would make my current goal comfortable - without eating my exercise calories!

Thank you for asking this question, this is my problem too, my biggest issue is eating enough of the good calories. I have set up my food diary with bkfast / morning snack / lunch / afternoon snack / dinner and supplements. Hopefully this will prompt me to eat through out the day. Now I have to be concerned about adding on extra calories for work-out days too?

haylesmom

This needs to be bumped up....bump!

carolcarole

Bump

SHBoss1673

So here's my question, for those who might have been where I am now...

I've been maintaining the same (too high) weight for years, and come to find out, I've been eating too little. My body has been in starvation mode for a long time, and now that I've been eating more and healthier food, I'm dropping weight, without even exercising.

I'm now to the point where I want to start exercising, but the thought of eating my calories burned is daunting, because I have a hard time eating enough to reach my daily goal as it is. Does it get easier over time to eat more than you are used to?

I know I'll be hungrier when I'm exercising, but it seems like that would make my current goal comfortable - without eating my exercise calories!

Thank you for asking this question, this is my problem too, my biggest issue is eating enough of the good calories. I have set up my food diary with bkfast / morning snack / lunch / afternoon snack / dinner and supplements. Hopefully this will prompt me to eat through out the day. Now I have to be concerned about adding on extra calories for work-out days too?

I've mentioned this before, but google calorie dense foods. that will help with fulfilling your calories for the day without resorting to nasty high sugar and trans fats.

ackkk

Thank you! This settles it with me. I will be happy to "eat my exercise calories " back. Don't need to be talked into that!

azrose81

Bump!

Thank you! Explains so much and why my weight loss has stalled! Everyone needs to read this!

shellsie_j

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PercivalHackworth

http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/533285-should-i-eat-my-calories-back-for-dummies

Pfauxmeh

BUMP.

sondyscraps

BUMP

haylesmom

Bump this back to the top :-)

Angybabefitzg

Bump

sweets154

Ok, I have scrolled through 19+ pages of this thread so hope the veterans of this site aren't going to roll eyes too much when I ask for clarification on a small bit. I understand the rationale about eating back exercise calories for weight loss but I don't quite follow the connection to how if you don't do this you will struggle more to maintain once you reach your target weight. How does that happen?

Also, in what timeframe do you eat back your exercise calories? I currently am quite inconsistent about my calorie intake on different days so over a week it probably evens out, although on any specific day probably not. Does that matter?

SHBoss1673

Ok, I have scrolled through 19+ pages of this thread so hope the veterans of this site aren't going to roll eyes too much when I ask for clarification on a small bit. I understand the rationale about eating back exercise calories for weight loss but I don't quite follow the connection to how if you don't do this you will struggle more to maintain once you reach your target weight. How does that happen?

Also, in what timeframe do you eat back your exercise calories? I currently am quite inconsistent about my calorie intake on different days so over a week it probably evens out, although on any specific day probably not. Does that matter?

the easiest way to think about maintenance (post weight loss) is that it takes time to develop a habit, the more drastic the change, the more difficult that development will be. So gradually shrinking your calorie deficit as you progress towards your goals is the easiest way to ease yourself into a maintenance schedule. One of the big reasons why so many people "diet and fail" is because they are cutting calories way back, then immediately returning to their "pre-diet" habits after, that's bad news for your body, shocking it is not a good idea in this situation.

Generally, you want to space out your calories throughout the day, so the best idea is to try to plan for workout days and increase all your meals by a small amount rather than realizing at 6 pm that you've burned an extra 500 calories that day and try to scramble to shove that extra food in before you go to bed. I.E. if you are relatively sure you'll be working out that day, plan for that when you figure out your food before hand, this way you're ready from the start. It takes a small amount of preparation, but it's far easier to sustain this way.

sar123bear

saving to my topics

SunKissed1989

BUMP!

RilantheFirebug

Saving for later.

lesita75

Bump....I finally get it.

Dimples1975

This was so helpful! Thank you so much for taking the time to educate us on this matter.