eating back calories results and expreiences
Replies
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I don't eat them back-don't see the point in burning them off if you do
lost 1lb per week,0 -
I lost 21 pounds eating back at least 80% of my calories.0
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The reason there is debate is because people A) don't understand why they should or shouldn't eat them back and/or
can't estimate/measure correctly.
Figure out those 2 things and it all becomes incredibly easy.
^ This is a fair view of most of the problem.0 -
i know this has been asked ALOT. It seems 50% of people eat them back and 50% dont.
so i was wondering... do you eat them back? and do you still lose weight?
or if you dont eat them back, do you lose more weight than those who do?
I do the TDEE method. I calculate my weekly intake needs based on my weekly exercise and non-exercise calorie burn, divide by 7, and that sets my daily goals. My TDEE calculations are based on averaging 500 calories a day of dedicated exercise. Most days, I exceed that. On days I exceed that, I do NOT eat back all the exercise calories, I only eat back those in excess of 500 calories a day. IE, if I run for 500 calories, I eat at my goal. If I run at 800 calories, I eat 300 extra calories (800 - 500).
My principle calorie burns are from running, cycling and swimming. For those, there are solid calculations for calorie burn based on distance and weight, so while I use an HRM for monitoring my training, I do NOT use it for calorie burn. I also do SS/SL 2x a week, I assume a relatively conservative value of around 200-300 calories for a full round of lifting.
From what I've seen of the MFP community, the second most common cause of problems like stalling is following the blanket advice to eat back calories. The reason is most people have an even harder time getting a handle on their actual exercise burn than they do on their food intake (and for good reason, it *is* harder!). Given that most people here are doing relatively low amounts of exercise, the better advice would be to add 100 calories to the daily target and NOT eat back exercise calories.0 -
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I follow this reasoning as well. I am down 36lbs and have always eaten my calories back. Well at least some of them. I don't push it if im not hungry. I try to give my body the bare minimum of 1200 for my brain and organs to run properly. I rarely ever get sick and barely ever feel restricted in my diet. I like the idea of being able to work out hard for a big frickin piece of cheesecake (or whatever your cheat may be). I think it is a healthy way of looking at food and a good habit to get into. It is okay to indulge in life, but it means putting in a little work.Youre supposed to eat them back, after exercising, look at the NET calorie section on MFP... when you exercise, youre burning and using calories youve already eaten.. if you have MFP set to put you at a deficit ALREADY.. then you eat LESS and BURN some of those you ate... YES you need to eat MORE to make up for it. If you have eaten 800 calories before dinner... and worked out for an hour and burned 400 calories... youve only given your body 400 calories to RUN OFF OF and live... if you eat a dinner thats 500 calories, youre still only at 900 calories for the day...
if youre BMR is 1300 calories... that means you would need at LEAST 1300 calories to live if you were in a COMA... asleep all day and not moving.. just breathing and keeping your body alive takes 1300 calories a day... even if you have a desk job, you need WAY more than 1300 calories to keep your body and brain running at capacity all day... if youre working out, you need MUCH more than that... starvation mode isnt just detrimental to your body... youll mess up your brain functionality too... memory goes, youll feel tired and irritated all the time.
EAT BACK YOUR CALORIES...if you have MFP set at a deficit, make sure your NET calories at the end of the sat, meets that deficit goal! Sometimes its hard.. esp if youre working out HARD, to eat MORE... i have a hard time eating enough on some days... its a daily grind for sure! haha
Really dieting is like basic finance. It's all about having a certain amount of money/calories to spend. If you want more than that then you will need to work more.0 -
I don't eat mine back. I work out at night, and I'm not hungry when I get home. As long as my calories are over 1250 and I get my vitamins in, I don't panic. I do the "if it fits my macros" and high protein/fats and low carbs so my calories are pretty low anyway. I'm not starving, and I still have 40lbs to lose. I also don't believe MFP when it estimates my exercise calories, and I don't want to buy a HRM for the pool.0
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I don't eat them back-don't see the point in burning them off if you do
lost 1lb per week,
*sigh*0 -
I do the TDEE-15% method....see ticker below. :happy:0
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i know this has been asked ALOT. It seems 50% of people eat them back and 50% dont.
so i was wondering... do you eat them back? and do you still lose weight?
or if you dont eat them back, do you lose more weight than those who do?
I don't eat them all back because I want to account for any error in exercise calorie estimations. I know I get my food calorie estimations correct because I read the packages and look up nutritional information and only use MFP calculations if I know the calorie count is correct. But, for exercise, MFP's estimations are generally much higher than my pedometer on my IPhone and the machines at the gym where you put in your height and weight.
Thus far, when I've stayed within my calorie limit most of the time and eaten back only a portion of my calories, I have lost pretty much at the rate that I wanted to: the first 16 or so pounds at 2 pounds a week, the next 6 or 7 pounds 1 pound per week, and today I set my goals to .5 pounds per week for the last 10 pounds.0 -
I eat them back but use a HRM rather than MFP's calorie estimate for exercise as I find MFP over-estimates calorie burn for me. A little over 6 months on I've lost 66lbs and not been hungry or felt deprived in that time so eating back exercise cals is working for me.0
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There really needs to be a sticky thread on the dangers of relying on an HRM or FitBit or BodyBug or etc for accurate calorie burns....0
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I eat them back. Hell, most of the reason I work out is so I can eat more. And in the process I end up looking and feeling better anyway.
Yes. I love to eat so that's one of the main reasons I work out (As bad as it sounds)
same here.
plus if i want to run better and longer i need to fuel my body..0 -
never mind0
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I don't eat them back-don't see the point in burning them off if you do
lost 1lb per week,
LOL.
and this is funny, why?0 -
I don't eat them back-don't see the point in burning them off if you do
lost 1lb per week,
*sigh*
so sorry this makes you sad, but it is MY opinion of MY experience. And that is what was asked.0 -
I eat some of them back. Basically, what decides whether i eat them back or not is if my minimum netted calories falls under 1200... I try to keep my net calories at least above 12000
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The first 15lb was lost not eating them back, and then I stalled for a good 5/6 months and wondered why I felt tired and sluggish and generally awful. Oh, and starving - complete with the snarling shewolf grumpiness.
Then I read the forums on here, I researched how MFP should actually work - yes, I was stupid and assumed that eating cals back defeated the object and I needed to see negative net.
Now, I eat about 80% of mine back - again, mostly for MFP's errors with the logging. Lost 60lb doing it. I feel fitter, stronger, healthier... I'm losing weight, and I get to eat food!0 -
There really needs to be a sticky thread on the dangers of relying on an HRM or FitBit or BodyBug or etc for accurate calorie burns....
Why? (Specifically HRM) - mine links to my Garmin Forerunner which has my age, weight, sex details. Given my consistent weight loss (and I log everything), I have no reason to think that the HRM data is significantly incorrect for cardio exercise.0 -
I don't eat them back-don't see the point in burning them off if you do
lost 1lb per week,
*sigh*
make that a double....0 -
There really needs to be a sticky thread on the dangers of relying on an HRM or FitBit or BodyBug or etc for accurate calorie burns....
Disagree - they don't have to be accurate, they just have to be consistent.
If you are consistent in your food logging plus your exercise estimates and then adjust intake based on results then I really don't see the problem?0 -
The reason there is debate is because people A) don't understand why they should or shouldn't eat them back and/or can't estimate/measure correctly.
Figure out those 2 things and it all becomes incredibly easy.
^ This is a fair view of most of the problem.
Just to belabor the point....0 -
Disagree - they don't have to be accurate, they just have to be consistent.
They're not that, either. Do a 12 week running program and the HRM will give significantly different results at the end of it than at the beginning of it.
They're a great tool, and I love mine, and use it daily, but it's a cluster**** for the majority of people who don't understand what they actually do.0 -
There really needs to be a sticky thread on the dangers of relying on an HRM or FitBit or BodyBug or etc for accurate calorie burns....
Disagree - they don't have to be accurate, they just have to be consistent.
If you are consistent in your food logging plus your exercise estimates and then adjust intake based on results then I really don't see the problem?
Agreed.
The point is that there are way to many people who, seemingly, blindly swear by them under all conditions without any thought. And that's the problem.0 -
making sarcastic comments doesn't really help anyone......the 3 of you that commented on my post should enlighten me as to why I am so incorrect in my statement? Share your wealth of knowledge if you have any....0
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I eat mine! Exercise calories are the most delicious calories. Size 10 down from a 16.0
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I always eat them back. I'm ravenous after workouts. I suppose I'd lose more weight but part of the fun of working out is the increased appetite so I can enjoy all the food
I might go back on a 'cut' soon and see how eating back only a portion may help...0 -
I don't think this thread has helped the OP.
I usually take a glass of Jack Daniels as a reward for working out or exercising. But my rule is to eat back 50% of exercise calories, otherwise there's no point in exercising in the first place!0 -
bottom line is you need to do what works for you. Every BODY is different. There is no one correct way. Try both methods and see which works for you.0
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Ate the vast majority back while losing weight, while maintaining, and right now, doing my best to eat them all while bulking. Learnt that my fitbit does underestimate my tdee by somewhere in the range of 200-300 calories a day on average, so I get to enjoy an insane amount of food just to keep up with my lifestyle before even factoring in exercise.0
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