Eating back workouts?

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steve_in_ny
steve_in_ny Posts: 6 Member
in Fitness and Exercise
At the risk of re-opening a topic that exists all over these forums....

I've seen tons of threads where there are essentailly two sides, "yes, eat back your workouts" and "no, don't eat back your workouts". What I haven't seen is a good explanation to either side and the impact of either approach.

Is there a place that someone can point me that explains why it is important to "eat back your workouts" and what the impact is if you don't?

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FWIW, I lost ~90 lbs over the last 9 months simply "eating better" and excercising daily before discovering MFP. "eating better" basically comprised of forgoing buffets, fast food and generally eating 1/2 of what I usually did before. Daily working out is generally 42-45 minutes on a tradmill or eliptical. (I'm deeply distrustful of the "calorie burns" that the machines report, so I just consider them to be zero, rather than the numbers they report, even though I plug them into MFP un-editted.) Based on this, I am inclined to keep doing what I've been doing (and has been working) but there are so many folks that are deeply passionate about "eating back workouts" that I am wonding if I am causing some kind of harm or making slower progress than possible. Now that I've discovered MFP, I generally eat around the 1850 goal it gave me which is fairly representative of the last 9 months.

TIA

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  • FrnkLft
    FrnkLft Posts: 1,821 Member
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    I don't have a source for you, but I'll hit you with some common sense. I gain and loose weight deliberately as part of my training and physique goals. I have to gain weight to build muscle, then cut the fat to show the muscle.

    There is a pretty substantial difference in my strength levels and my ability to perform when I'm cutting vs. bulking. Too many people on this site see exercise as a means of loosing weight, while neglecting the fact that our bodies need fuel to complete the workouts, and that not eating back their calories could be harmful.

    I mean, no athlete would ever consider "not eating back" their calories just because of weight loss. They would call you an idiot because it would hurt their performance and open them up to injury. Why is anyone else so different?

    Only the average joe/jane who is trying to loose weight thinks this way, and it's not healthy for the inexperienced, and likely to drive you into the ground.

    And for those that still don't care, it expands your deficit, possibly to the point where you will stall or start to gain weight as your body goes into starvation mode. Why not just eat them back, enjoy the process a little more, and give yourself some fuel so you can get some good work in at the gym without killing yourself?

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