Do I need to eat my exercise calories?

Btheodore138

I'm 5'2, 153 lbs, and sedentary to lightly active depending on the day. I have my calories set to 1200, and so far I'm feeling OK with that number. Question is for the few days a week I exercise: should I be eating extra calories those days, since 1200 is the absolute minimum calories one should be eating? Will it bite me in the @ss if I just stick to 1200 no matter what I do that day?

megs_1985

Yes eat back your exercise calories otherwise your net calories will be less then 1200.

rheddmobile

You may feel fine for a while, especially since you are petite, but eventually eating too few calories will take its toll on you. You will feel tired, may lose muscle as well as fat, and may have issues with hormone regulation or even hair loss. The first symptom many people who try too steep a calorie deficit notice is that they suddenly binge and go off their diet. Eat rationally from the beginning and you will be more likely to stick to it long term.

malibu927

That's exactly how the program is set up. http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10503681/exercise-calories-do-i-eat-these-a-video-explanation

Orphia

Short answer: Yes, you eat them back.

Long answer:

Faithful_Chosen wrote: »

Losinandmovin wrote: »

Faithful_Chosen wrote: »

Two weeks is not a lot, so be patient and keep at it... But just to be sure: do you weigh everything in grams? Do you eat back all you exercise calories? Weight loss is a simple equation: calories in vs calories out: eat at a deficit and you lose. People tend to underestimate what they eat (especially when weighing in cups and pieces) and overestimate their exercise burns (do not trust MFP or your device. Heart rate monitors for steady-state are the only things even close to accurate). Weigh and log all your food in grams on a digital scale up to your goal as set by MFP and eat back 50 to 75 percent of you exercise calories (75% for HRM) and you will lose. It's science.

What is HRM? WHY would one eat back their exercise calories? Wouldn't that deficit lead to weight loss? What are you reading and basing your advise on? I really want to lose this weight, but some of the advise I'm reading on MFP confuses me. I'm a registered nurse, and fairly intelligent, but some of the acronyms I see on here are foreign. Thank you.

Thanks, everyone, for the answers already I am just going to add that MyFitnessPal calculates your projected loss (so, the amount you have set to lose a week) into the net goal you recieve. It assumes that if you want to eat more, you have to move more to stay in that deficit. Makes sense, right?

Now, especially newbies have a tendency to up the cardio and decrease the food to make a bigger deficit, assuming they will lose faster--and they might! I am not gonna sit here and say that you won't lose more. It's probably not going to show up on the scale due to water weight, but they will lose more. The question is: at what price? And what are they losing?

The MyFitnessPal method (built in deficit based on your numbers, especially plus purposeful exercise) is designed to steadily lose fat and preserving as much muscle as possible. You see, there is a (science proven) limit to how much fat a body can convert into usable energy during any period of time. If you go over that limit, it turns to muscle for fuel instead. You will always get a little bit of muscle tissue loss when eating at a deficit, but if you undereat and up the cardio (or even strength training!) like I see a lot of people on here do, you are forcing your body to canibalize its muscle tissue on top of the max level of fat it can burn. Not to mention that meeting your macro and micro nutrient goals with this method is virtually impossible, creating massive hormone imbalances (leptine, for example) and vitamins and mineral deficits.

The long term effects of crash dieting and deprivation dieting (which is basically what happens when you become one of the people who net in the low hundreds to negatives day after day for an extended period of time) can be really severe. Basically, you are systematically starving yourself, after all. The results tend to be this (one example, hypothetical you):

- your body burns fat, then muscle tissue to sustain itself. You become weaker and sore. You also start having cravings because your brain is sending out warning signs: 'I am starving! Feed me!'. So, you either binge and up your overall net a little, or you persevere and pat yourself on the back for a job well done! You wanted lots of fatty food, but you fed it a celery stick instead. Sadly, your whole timeline congratulates you on your willpower. You start to wonder, though, why your willpower is not being rewarded! The scale doesn't budge! You fail to realize it's because of water weight due to too much exercise and the body's inability to recover due to a lack of nurishment. The solution is often to eat even less and work out even more to get the scale to move.

- the body is further unable to sustain. It changed the body's chemistry to preserve all it can--after all, it needs to protect vital organs from becoming affected and keep you going so you can hunt and gather for food! At this stage, the body becomes its own worst enemy: it no longer tells you you are starving so you can make a last ditch effort to get food. You think you are fine on 1000 calories a day, burning 1200, because your body shows no signs of hunger anymore, but basically, the little neutrients you are providing your body with get sucked towards your vital organs, leaving nothing for the rest. You become more tired, and cranky, and your muscles no longer recover from all the stress you put them through working out. As a result, they break down even faster and hold on to even more water to prevent that breakdown from affecting your ability to throw a spear at a prey animal (hey, I can't help it your body still thinks we are living in caves!). The scale drops oh so slowly--if at all--but meanwhile you do see you are slimming down! Your measurements are less! MyFitnessPal celebrates! 'Hurray! The weight must come off in a 'woosh' soon now! Keep doing what you are doing!'. Note that (thankfully) many people drop out at this stage. The psychological burden becomes too great, they feel *kitten*, and life isn't fun anymore. They stop dieting, start binging, and gain even more weight. The jojo'ing has begun.

- you keep doing what you were doing. We are a few months in now. You develop headaches, fatigue, and you start finding more and more hair on your pillow in the morning. In fact, you start finding hair everywhere. You also get hungry again, not in a way that makes you binge but a sort of steady nagging: a gentle reminder that time is running out. Fail to meet it (MyFitnessPal people pat your back when you tell them you went to bed early instead of having more food) and slowly, your body gives up its protective hold on more systems. You can survive without full function to certain organs, so your body throws them to the wolves: nutrients go towards your brain, heart, and lungs. Pretty much all other organs start running at half capacity. You hold on to more toxins, which start chipping away at your system, and your ability to process food (get nutrients out of them) suffers greatly, so you are truly starving now. This is the point where the weight starts coming off, and pretty quickly, too, usually. A big whoosh! (MyFitnessPal people cheer in the distance). What you are really seeing is your body giving up on protecting muscle tissue completely: the water weight falls away, showing you that you actually did lose a lot of fat and muscle tissue. More cheering! It must be working! Keep at it! Work harder! Eat less!

- now you are in serious *kitten*! Your organs are not keeping up, your muscles are breaking down, and the body has to start looking elsewhere for fuel: your organs and the more vital muscles, including your heart. At this point, your nails will become brittle and start falling out. Your hair falls out. Your period stops. You experience bouts of nausea and muscle weakness. You might find yourself pulling into a run and suddenly blacking out. You still function, but on the inside you are shutting down.

From here on out, it all depends on if you start eating again and stop exercising or not. If you don't, you can end up killing yourself. If you do, it is a long road to recovery, sometimes lasting years and it sometimes includes permanent damage to the function of certain organs, especially the liver and kidneys. Worst of all, this entire crash diet hasn't taught you how to sustain weight loss, so as soon as you crash and burn, the weight flies back on! And trust me, it takes a fraction of the time it took to lose it to gain it back.

I am not saying this to frighten you (well, I am a little), but as a nurse, you should be aware of the ramifications of crash dieting. Those of us that do realize the effects therefor recommend you lose weight slowly, at a sustainable rate that gives you the best ratio of fat loss vs. muscle loss. Stick to your MyFitnessPal calculated net, take the time, eat back your true exercise calories (which is probably 50 to 75 percent of your machine or database given calories), and learn how to eat (and what to eat) for weight loss you can maintain for years to come. It might not go as fast, but you will be able to see it on the scale, and best of all, it will be safe. That is my very long winded answer to 'why' you should eat back exercise calories.

LivingtheLeanDream

Yes eat (most) your exercise calories back, your body needs them.

all4eternity125

guess, I've been doing it wrong the whole time! I choose all food for the day, well plan, log in app in advance, see if calories and macros match. Trying to eat up to 1500 kcal. But some days I have very hard training, 45min circuit, heavy lifting and after that 20min of hiit, plus walking upstairs( 10 floors) several times a day and walking uphill to work (2km uphill). Burn 500-800 kcal. But never eat them back. Stick to my 1500 initially. But if I eat back those, that would make over 2000 kcal a day and I'm trying to lose some kg so I'm afraid to do so.
Really don't know what to do! What is your experience?

lucerorojo

Eat back the calories. At least 50 percent. I've eaten back 100 percent and I've lost 35 lbs. So far.

midlomel1971

I have to eat back my exercise calories or else I feel tired, ravenously hungry and malnourished. That being said, I don't always have time to eat them back and I can usually tell the next day.

rheddmobile

all4eternity125 wrote: »

guess, I've been doing it wrong the whole time! I choose all food for the day, well plan, log in app in advance, see if calories and macros match. Trying to eat up to 1500 kcal. But some days I have very hard training, 45min circuit, heavy lifting and after that 20min of hiit, plus walking upstairs( 10 floors) several times a day and walking uphill to work (2km uphill). Burn 500-800 kcal. But never eat them back. Stick to my 1500 initially. But if I eat back those, that would make over 2000 kcal a day and I'm trying to lose some kg so I'm afraid to do so.
Really don't know what to do! What is your experience?

I've lost 113 lbs, from obese to normal weight, while never eating fewer than 1600 gross calories a day, usually more like 2100, and maintaining a deficit through shorter periods of intense exercise. I take my calorie burns with a grain of salt, but for the most part my bike and mapmyhike seem to have been pretty accurate, as reflected by my rate of loss. I also record strength training sessions as a generic "strength training" period under cardio so it gives me calories.

Doing HIIT, lifting, and strength training without enough food is going to burn through muscle. The main thing is to observe your rate of loss (I weigh every day but record only my weekly low) and adjust.

Jthanmyfitnesspal

Remember that your daily calorie allotment is an estimate of what you need on average. So you certainly don't need to eat back all your exercise calories on the same day you exercise. When I cut, I often don't eat all the exercise calories back, and subsequently I have at times lost slightly more than a pound a week.

The consensus of the nutrition community appears to indicate that its fine to lose up to 2 lbs per week (presuming you have significant weight to lose). I have to say that shooting for 2 is very difficult, and I did better staying closer to 1, even though it takes longer. Again, you have to be mindful of weight variations, which can also be easily plus or minus 2 lbs day-to-day. Weighing daily and computing a moving average (or just looking at the spread and eyeballing it, which is what I do) is required.

Finally, MFP is a little heavy handed in stating a daily calorie minimum. I imagine that there are some (essentially, very petite) people who need very low calorie numbers to lose weight. But this is an unusual situation, and if you have any questions about your situation, it pays to consult a doctor or nutritionist.

fitoverfortymom

If you net below 1200 calories for too long (like a few months), all sorts of crappy things start to happen to your body, such as constipation and hair loss and vitamin D deficiency. I know because last year I was a weight loss rock star, but felt like *kitten* about 6 months in, when I should have felt awesome having lost 50lbs or so at that point. Instead, I ended up on heavy-duty vitamin D supplements and promised my doctor I would eat at least 1200 calories + whatever I earned in exercise.

I still have lost all of the weight I wanted to lose, and it hasn't really taken any longer than had I adjusted my calories-per-week expectation and just ate more from the beginning--either through a smaller deficit or eating more of my exercise calories.

Texas_Don

A great protein shake with all the nutrients is a great way to quickly make up exercise calories

cwolfman13

all4eternity125 wrote: »

guess, I've been doing it wrong the whole time! I choose all food for the day, well plan, log in app in advance, see if calories and macros match. Trying to eat up to 1500 kcal. But some days I have very hard training, 45min circuit, heavy lifting and after that 20min of hiit, plus walking upstairs( 10 floors) several times a day and walking uphill to work (2km uphill). Burn 500-800 kcal. But never eat them back. Stick to my 1500 initially. But if I eat back those, that would make over 2000 kcal a day and I'm trying to lose some kg so I'm afraid to do so.
Really don't know what to do! What is your experience?

Does a car that commutes 100 miles per day need more fuel than a car that just goes around the corner to the grocery store?

kshama2001

MFP uses the NEAT method (Non-Exercise Activity Thermogenesis), and as such this system is designed for exercise calories to be eaten back. However, many consider the burns given by MFP to be inflated and only eat a percentage, such as 50%, back. Others, however, are able to lose weight while eating 100% of their exercise calories.

My FitBit One is far less generous with calories than the MFP database and I comfortably eat 100% of the calories I earn from it back.

http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/818082/exercise-calories-again-wtf/p1

Orphia

all4eternity125 wrote: »

guess, I've been doing it wrong the whole time! I choose all food for the day, well plan, log in app in advance, see if calories and macros match. Trying to eat up to 1500 kcal. But some days I have very hard training, 45min circuit, heavy lifting and after that 20min of hiit, plus walking upstairs( 10 floors) several times a day and walking uphill to work (2km uphill). Burn 500-800 kcal. But never eat them back. Stick to my 1500 initially. But if I eat back those, that would make over 2000 kcal a day and I'm trying to lose some kg so I'm afraid to do so.
Really don't know what to do! What is your experience?

I'd be more afraid of losing my hair and fertility.

This type of loss only works for a while, then bad things happen.

Rebecca0224

Orphia wrote: »

all4eternity125 wrote: »

guess, I've been doing it wrong the whole time! I choose all food for the day, well plan, log in app in advance, see if calories and macros match. Trying to eat up to 1500 kcal. But some days I have very hard training, 45min circuit, heavy lifting and after that 20min of hiit, plus walking upstairs( 10 floors) several times a day and walking uphill to work (2km uphill). Burn 500-800 kcal. But never eat them back. Stick to my 1500 initially. But if I eat back those, that would make over 2000 kcal a day and I'm trying to lose some kg so I'm afraid to do so.
Really don't know what to do! What is your experience?

I'd be more afraid of losing my hair and fertility.

This type of loss only works for a while, then bad things happen.

This and muscle loss, I wouldn't eat that low consistently because I don't want my body to eat my muscle.