Non exercise calorie eaters, please explain something to me

lauren3101

However, I would say 90% of the threads I read that say 'help, I'm not losing weight!' are made by people that are not eating their exercise calories back

Seems to me it's the other way 'round - most "Help! I'm Stalling!" posts are from people who ARE eating exercise calories back. Since it's even harder to correctly measure calorie burn than it is to measure calorie intake, it's no surprise that people are getting in trouble this way.

IMO, the the "TDEE - X%" approach is much easier to manage, for most people, on a day-to-day basis, and that method does not eat back exercise calories.

Do you actually know what the TDEE method is? It takes into account your exercise calories, so yes, you do eat them back. :huh:

Hezzietiger1

u will ALWAYS lose weight if you are eating at a calorie deficit. ALWAYS. If you are not losing weight you are not eating at a deficit. End of story. So all the posts of people not losing weight has nothing to do with eating exercise calories back.. it has way more to do with over estimating exercise burn and eating more calories than they need to eat to lose weight.

I don't eat back exercise calories.. ever. I eat at a calorie deficit way below what mfp would say is my bmr. I'm strong and healthy and losing weight consistently. Reason- I eat well, organize, plan, stay accountable, and bust my *kitten*. I was well over 50% bf when I started, now I'm at 23%. Soon, I will be at 18%, I will have lost over 100 lbs, and I will have done it by eating 1100-1200 calories a day and netting 500-600 calories a day.

Who can argue with hard evidence and real results, no one.

MickeyBoo

u will ALWAYS lose weight if you are eating at a calorie deficit. ALWAYS. If you are not losing weight you are not eating at a deficit. End of story. So all the posts of people not losing weight has nothing to do with eating exercise calories back.. it has way more to do with over estimating exercise burn and eating more calories than they need to eat to lose weight.

I don't eat back exercise calories.. ever. I eat at a calorie deficit way below what mfp would say is my bmr. I'm strong and healthy and losing weight consistently. Reason- I eat well, organize, plan, stay accountable, and bust my *kitten*. I was well over 50% bf when I started, now I'm at 23%. Soon, I will be at 18%, I will have lost over 100 lbs, and I will have done it by eating 1100-1200 calories a day and netting 500-600 calories a day.

Who can argue with hard evidence and real results, no one.

AGREE!

I see more posts from people who are struggling to lose when eating back calories, because they either don't measure their portions and calculate input correctly or they overestimate their burn and end up at a stalemate. There needs to be a big deficit to lose weight, how do you think the Biggest Loser gets them to lose weight so quickly? They're burning 2000 calories a day and only eating 1200-1500 cal (their issue is the lack of follow up care and being thrust back into reality with no tools to help combat the issues they faced beforehand)

It is not a One Size Fits All approach, everyone is different and what works for one won't work for another. You need to find what it is that works for you and stick with it. I lost 110pd (50kg) by initially eating 1500cal and then at the halfway point reducing it to 1300cal and not eating back any calories, I was burning anywhere between 600-1000cal a day and consistently lost over 0.51kg (1-2pds) a week for 18months, I never hit a plateau except for when I realised I needed to drop my calories a bit lower.

I am doing the same thing this time, except I am eating 1300 cal and I am only able to do 400-700 cal burn 3-4 times a week, I am now dropping 2pds+ a week and know that it will continue until I reach my goal. I do not eat back exercise calories and never will until I reach maintenance and need to re-tweak what I am doing.

Mr_Knight

Do you actually know what the TDEE method is? It takes into account your exercise calories, so yes, you do eat them back. :huh:

No, you don't, not in the sense MFP means it. That's why many people who do the TDEE path don't enter exercise into MFP, or if they do enter it, they log it as "1 calorie" or something equally insignificant.

This is an endless source of confusion on MFP. There are daily threads by people who think "But I'm supposed to eat back exercise calories!" while trying the TDEE method of tracking. Which of course means they are eating their exercise calories *twice*, so no surprise they're stalling even when trying to do everything right.

tl;dr If you do TDEE, your exercise calories are already accounted for, DO NOT eat them back, no matter what the "totals" on your MFP log are saying.

AmyWininger

I'm scared to eat back my exercise calories normally because I'm pretty sure the calories I burned during exercise were overestimated, and i probably underestimated my calorie intake. I do eat back some normally, just not all of them.

But, I do agree. A lot of people don't eat them back, and they end up with a net calorie intake under 1200, which can't be good for your health. Guess our minds just like messing with us.

burbgirl

Well I think you are exactly right!

burbgirl

There is no way I could eat all those calories back, I think it is over estimated, I don't feel hungry enough to eat all those calories, and happily I am loosing weight! I always exercise in the evening, I couldn't imagine eating another 400 cals just before going to bed! My body stays in burning mode all thru the night, feel great when I wake up! You should just make sure you are doing what you think is right for you, and don't be the Calorie Eaters Policewoman! :bigsmile: lol good luck on your own weightloss Journey.

Cattfish42

I'll jump in and say I recently switched to eating back calories and although my weight loss hasn't increased (maybe slowed a tad) the important thing is that i binge eat way less.

j6o4

Because those people think the number MFP gives them is to maintain their weight so they have to eat under that to lose weight.

Sabine_Stroehm

However, I would say 90% of the threads I read that say 'help, I'm not losing weight!' are made by people that are not eating their exercise calories back

Seems to me it's the other way 'round - most "Help! I'm Stalling!" posts are from people who ARE eating exercise calories back. Since it's even harder to correctly measure calorie burn than it is to measure calorie intake, it's no surprise that people are getting in trouble this way.

IMO, the the "TDEE - X%" approach is much easier to manage, for most people, on a day-to-day basis, and that method does not eat back exercise calories.

Do you actually know what the TDEE method is? It takes into account your exercise calories, so yes, you do eat them back. :huh:

What don't you get about how humans work?

Andanism

I used to use a different calorie counter, but since I started using this one, I never eat back my exercise calories, in fact, I rarely even eat the calories I'm supposed to take in for the day (I'm usually about 400-500 off) since I'm usually really busy and either don't have time to eat, forget to, or I just plain don't feel hungry. And I still lost 10lbs over the summer with pretty moderate exercise. The exercise calories they say you earned are just that, you earned them if you want to eat them, there's no consequence to eating those calories since eating them isn't adding anything on top of your daily calorie intake without the exercise, if you get what I mean.

To lose weight, you have to burn more calories than you take in. Eating the exercise calories back may or may not do this for some people depending on their daily calorie/energy expenditure. I've gone to the doctor several times due to different problems affected by my weight (arthritis and asthma) and he makes it very clear that you have to burn more calories than you take in to lose weight so that your body will start to use up the "fat/calorie reserves" which causes the weight loss, and you can't really argue with a doctor's knowledge on it.

So for a lot of people, eating the exercise calories back isn't going to help them lose weight. In fact from what I can tell, for most people it isn't going to make any progress.

To lose weight you have to take in less than you expend. That's all there is to it. Eating back the exercise calories isn't really going to help or hinder in most cases, unless you get very little exercise. To say you have to eat them back to lose weight is a little far-fetched from what I can see.

upscalelifedownscalebutt

Maybe they set their activity level to the right amount at the beginning, but they like to track their exercise too, so eating back exercise calories is redundant?

lauren3101

Do you actually know what the TDEE method is? It takes into account your exercise calories, so yes, you do eat them back. :huh:

No, you don't, not in the sense MFP means it. That's why many people who do the TDEE path don't enter exercise into MFP, or if they do enter it, they log it as "1 calorie" or something equally insignificant.

This is an endless source of confusion on MFP. There are daily threads by people who think "But I'm supposed to eat back exercise calories!" while trying the TDEE method of tracking. Which of course means they are eating their exercise calories *twice*, so no surprise they're stalling even when trying to do everything right.

tl;dr If you do TDEE, your exercise calories are already accounted for, DO NOT eat them back, no matter what the "totals" on your MFP log are saying.

Wow, I actually can't believe I'm having to explain this.

This thread, as I have said countless times before, was aimed at people that, for example, eat 1200 calories, log 600 calories of exercise, then don't eat them back, then 6 months down the line moan about why they can't lose weight.

People that do the TDEE method select their activity level, WHICH INCLUDES EXERCISE - then eat at a deficit from that. It's like mfp giving you 1200 calories then asking you to eat bavk your exercise calories, or TDEE giving you 1600 without logging your exercise calories. You may not physically log them and eat them back, but that's because they are already included, right?!

The people getting their knickers in a twist over this thread seem to be mostly TDEE followers, which is utterly pointless, because TDEE includes exercise. *facepalm*

leebesstoad

This thread, as I have said countless times before, was aimed at people that, for example, eat 1200 calories, log 600 calories of exercise, then don't eat them back, then 6 months down the line moan about why they can't lose weight.

That certainly isn't what you said in the very first post, was it? In fact, it implied that anyone using this website should only be using MFP's methodology. Why else would we be here.

Please could someone explain to me why you would join a website designed to help you lose weight, with many, many successful members, and trust this website to give you your daily calorie amounts, your macro targets, and to provide the nutritional information for thousands of different foods, yet when it tells you to eat your exercise calories back, said website is obviously out to sabotage your weight loss?

OMGeeeHorses

Well, I think you're right, you should probably just concern yourself with your own routine and methods.

I would imagine there are numerous reasons people don't always eat their calories back from exercise. For those who have a higher calorie intake as it is, 1800+, I can imagine that you could feel like you're eating enough within that and trying to consume more when you're not hungry would feel pointless and uncomfortable. I also think that MFP can overestimate on calories burned for certain exercise so perhaps people are worried about that aspect. I am sure there are a multitude of other reasons.

I actually think it's so rude to suggest people who don't eat their exercise calories back are so stupid or naïve that they assume MFP is "sabotaging" their weight loss.

^^ DITTO

Siansonea

I don't eat exercise calories back because I don't exercise. I'd rather just diet the weight off. Seems to be working just fine. I'll tone up after I've lost this last 9 pounds or so. I'm within striking distance of size 6, I can almost taste it!

lauren3101

This thread, as I have said countless times before, was aimed at people that, for example, eat 1200 calories, log 600 calories of exercise, then don't eat them back, then 6 months down the line moan about why they can't lose weight.

That certainly isn't what you said in the very first post, was it? In fact, it implied that anyone using this website should only be using MFP's methodology. Why else would we be here.

Please could someone explain to me why you would join a website designed to help you lose weight, with many, many successful members, and trust this website to give you your daily calorie amounts, your macro targets, and to provide the nutritional information for thousands of different foods, yet when it tells you to eat your exercise calories back, said website is obviously out to sabotage your weight loss?

I think that's just the way you interpreted it. The question was regarding exercise calories, I never once said everyone had to do it the MFP way.

_Zardoz_

This thread, as I have said countless times before, was aimed at people that, for example, eat 1200 calories, log 600 calories of exercise, then don't eat them back, then 6 months down the line moan about why they can't lose weight.

That certainly isn't what you said in the very first post, was it? In fact, it implied that anyone using this website should only be using MFP's methodology. Why else would we be here.

Please could someone explain to me why you would join a website designed to help you lose weight, with many, many successful members, and trust this website to give you your daily calorie amounts, your macro targets, and to provide the nutritional information for thousands of different foods, yet when it tells you to eat your exercise calories back, said website is obviously out to sabotage your weight loss?

I think that's just the way you interpreted it. The question was regarding exercise calories, I never once said everyone had to do it the MFP way.

No it's the way you wrote it and your whole attitude on this thread. I love the way the trying to make it everyone else's problem when it's obvious is yours. You can't seem to accept that different things may work for other people and you may not have all the answers.

leebesstoad

This thread, as I have said countless times before, was aimed at people that, for example, eat 1200 calories, log 600 calories of exercise, then don't eat them back, then 6 months down the line moan about why they can't lose weight.

That certainly isn't what you said in the very first post, was it? In fact, it implied that anyone using this website should only be using MFP's methodology. Why else would we be here.

Please could someone explain to me why you would join a website designed to help you lose weight, with many, many successful members, and trust this website to give you your daily calorie amounts, your macro targets, and to provide the nutritional information for thousands of different foods, yet when it tells you to eat your exercise calories back, said website is obviously out to sabotage your weight loss?

I think that's just the way you interpreted it. The question was regarding exercise calories, I never once said everyone had to do it the MFP way.

No it's the way you wrote it and your whole attitude on this thread. I love the way the trying to make it everyone else's problem when it's obvious is yours. You can't seem to accept that different things may work for other people and you may not have all the answers.

^^^ THIS.

Condescension, thy name is lauren3101. Along with arrogance and hubris.

joyfuljoy65

I don't eat my exercise calories back for a very specific reason. I don't count every pat of butter, every teaspoon of sugar, every tablespoon of oil (etc, etc) in my daily calorie count. However, I know they have calories and they do add up. Therefore, the two hundred calories I burned from exercise is about cancelled out by the two hundred calories of oil and other miscellaneous food items I eat a day. This is what works for me. I hope that helps explain it to you.

this - I don't actually put down much exercise - and my calories are worked out on sedentary with zero workouts. So if I have to estimate something - which we all have to do, especially if eating out, I know that overall my net calories will probably be slightly less than goal. This has worked well for me.

But I do agree that not considering exercise calories can be detrimental if you regularly eat 1200 and burn off 1500 in exercise - a negative net amount is not good for the metabolism.