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Eating Exercise Cals Slowing Your Weight loss? Read This.

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Replies

  • jennylynn84
    jennylynn84 Posts: 659
    Thank you! I think that with the new year there are a lot of newbies (as well as old doubters). And with many (myself included) early stages of calories counting can induce some serious food fear! Undereating is no one's friend!
  • ♥Violette♥4Ever♥
    ♥Violette♥4Ever♥ Posts: 457 Member
    Excellent post and incredibly helpful. Thanks!
  • cmriverside
    cmriverside Posts: 34,458 Member
    bump
  • ladyhawk00
    ladyhawk00 Posts: 2,457 Member
    Just now finding this one. Always great info, AB! Thanks!
  • becca216
    becca216 Posts: 5
    Thanks for posting, this was very helpful!
  • cbirdso
    cbirdso Posts: 465 Member
    One thing I do wonder about is if everyone knows that the MFP exercise calories are high, why doesn't MFP lower them?
    [/quote]

    @Accountant_boi: Once again, great info explained well.

    @the community at large: For me personally, MFP accurately estimates not only my BMR, but my exercise calories, too. I don't know if it is because of my individual characteristics or if it is because MFP and I interpret my exercise effort and food quantities the same. I don't use a HRM because I matched my goals for nearly a year without it and it seems like too much work. Only within the last few weeks have I noticed that my weight loss has slowed, but then again, I am getting close to my goal. Maybe to tackle that last 10 to 20 pounds I will have to get a HRM.

    And yes, I eat back my exercise calories, down to the very last one.
  • jamie78
    jamie78 Posts: 514 Member
    bump
  • glike
    glike Posts: 17
    Wow! Thanks for this, Awesome job explaining, I needed it!....
  • Go_Lise
    Go_Lise Posts: 151
    bump!
  • ninpiggy
    ninpiggy Posts: 228 Member
    I hate math, so I need people in my life that enjoy calculating things. What a great and informative post. Thank you!
  • findingfinally
    findingfinally Posts: 15
    Bump!!

    Awesome post. Thanks for taking time to write it all out :-)
  • EbonyGemstoneHealth
    EbonyGemstoneHealth Posts: 249 Member
    BUMP!
  • FitPhysique
    FitPhysique Posts: 284 Member
    Thank you for taking the time to do this. This post is helpful to a lot of people. Have a wonderful weekend.
  • ladyhawk00
    ladyhawk00 Posts: 2,457 Member
    Bump
  • atomdraco
    atomdraco Posts: 1,083 Member
    bump
  • ladyhawk00
    ladyhawk00 Posts: 2,457 Member
    Bump
  • cmriverside
    cmriverside Posts: 34,458 Member
    Happy Friday the 13th


    thbump2.gif
  • ladyhawk00
    ladyhawk00 Posts: 2,457 Member
    :flowerforyou: Bump
  • Mindful_Trent
    Mindful_Trent Posts: 3,954 Member
    Bump! (Been awhile since I've self-bumped this post... ) :glasses:
  • ladyhawk00
    ladyhawk00 Posts: 2,457 Member
    Bump
  • Cait_Sidhe
    Cait_Sidhe Posts: 3,150 Member
    I am by no means a math person, so thank you for breaking this down in a way that I can understand.

    I was trying to eat back evey single one of the 600+ calories my cheap HRM told me I burned. I also fall into the very petite range. My weight loss completely stalled. I've revamped this a bit and for the past couple weeks have been eating 250 of my exercise calories back, max. I've started losing weight again.
  • VegGrrl
    VegGrrl Posts: 336 Member
    One other thing some folks might not take into acoount - you may be building muscle, so your scale number will hardly budge. Be sure to get a bodyfat measurement, then you'll know if this is the case.

    When I started lifting religiously, my weight loss practically stopped (2 lbs. in one month!?). BUT, my bodyfat % went down nearly 2% in one month, so I built muscle. I can certainly see it, and my measurements reflected it somewhat too (3 inches off waist, 1 inch off chest).

    Since my goal is to get my bodyfat % down first, and lose lbs. second, I'm just fine with small numbers on the scale...Slow and steady wins the race in my case!
  • Yori1
    Yori1 Posts: 142
    Bump for later.
  • LisaKyle11
    LisaKyle11 Posts: 662 Member
    bump!
  • carmenstop1
    carmenstop1 Posts: 210 Member
    Bump!!!!
  • mrb_9110
    mrb_9110 Posts: 189 Member
    Bump
  • ladyhawk00
    ladyhawk00 Posts: 2,457 Member
    Bump
  • ladyhawk00
    ladyhawk00 Posts: 2,457 Member
    Bump
  • wanttogetskinny
    wanttogetskinny Posts: 194
    Great post. I've never even thought about subtracting my 'regularly burned' cals from my exercise burns. Since I eat back exercise cals, this could very well explain my extremely slow/almost non-existant weight loss - I'm eating back even more calories than I'm ACTUALLY burning through exercise!

    I've now taken my normal daily caloric use and divided it up so that I know how many I typically burn per minute and can subtract these from whatever exercise I do, no matter how long the exercise is!
  • babygurl48
    babygurl48 Posts: 1,237 Member
    bump
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