my doc says don't eat exercise calories??????

stroutman81

I will still say they know a bloody lot more than 99% of the general public when it comes to bodily functions.

General Practioners will train for over nine or ten years to get to a GP, so I really do consider that they are a little more qualified than message board forums are.

Anybody who is given bad advice by their doctor needs to change their GP.

Questioning their doctor is one thing, but to override somebody else's doctor is a bad idea.

You'd be surprised how horrible most GPs are in the context of helping people lose weight. They have very little schooling, relatively speaking, in actual dietetics. And in my experience* many are simply atrocious at offering weight loss/control guidance.

*Take my experience for what it's worth - I've been a fitness consultant for just over a decade and have worked closely with many doctors in the Philadelphia area. Am I an expert on doctor quality? Nope. Just offering my 2 cents since I do have quite a bit of experience in this context.

stormieweather

May I make a suggestion? I watched an interesting BBC program on weight loss and they showed that on average, people under-report their calories, even when keeping a food journal. In a case study, there was a woman who swore up and down that she ate well between 1100-1200 calories but couldn't lose weight and blamed her lack of progress to a slow metabolism.

I would place my bet on this reason.

Most of us are not going to be dead-on 100% of the time in our MFP diary. This diary is much easier for me than remembering to write it down by hand each morning, but the one member who said it isn't 100% right is correct also. I compare mine to a BMR formula I was taught in my training certification class and there's at least a 10% difference.
The MFP has me at 2620 calories per day and I almost always have 500-600 cal. remaining, even on cheat days.

I'd say DON'T eat your extra calories, especially if you're not feeling hungry. You may have missed adding something or the MFP is not calculating your totals as accurately as you think. Also, when it comes to diet, I'd take a general MD's advice with a grain of salt.

I'd say this would be reasonable except that all too often it's a case of either a) the person in question is burning 800+ calories per day in cardio and barely eating 1200 and b) many of us have fubar'd our hunger mechanism.

I've come to believe that the people who say they cannot lose weight by eating their exercise calories are a) overestimating their burn and/or b) underestimating their intake. It's really easy to do...both of them simultaneously will wipe out your deficit.

batty5

"I've come to believe that the people who say they cannot lose weight by eating their exercise calories are a) overestimating their burn and/or b) underestimating their intake. It's really easy to do...both of them simultaneously will wipe out your deficit."

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Now I think you have it & in my case think it may be the "burn" because mfp presumably has it set at an average burn per type of exercise per body weight & naturally no one is average (who would even want to be called "average").I am taking a sensible approach with 1000 set as basic calories & on my workout days I still try to stick to 1200, more importantly I am eating loads of fresh fruit & vegetables & am pleased with the results so far. Years ago 1,000 calories per day was always the base line anyway for women at least. At least I am now 20% of the way there!

spicy618

I ate every single "exercise calorie" and lost over 30 lbs. It took me over a year, but in that time I learned how to change my "Lifestyle". If there is a deficit there is a loss, eventually.

Just saying :flowerforyou: