Should I Eat Back The Calories?

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  • asdowe13
    asdowe13 Posts: 1,951 Member
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    And a spinning class doesn't burn that much. Your HRM is probably incorrect. That is too much.

    She didn't say it was all from a spinning class, but even still it is possible to burn that many calories in a spin class.

    I don't do spin, but I ride my bike. Biking is probably the most efficient exercise in terms of it hardly burns anything. I have to ride 10 miles to match a 3 mile run. So, I doubt spinning in a 45 class plus a 30 minute walk is above 1,000 calories. But, whatever, I don't care. I'm just saying, she might be back saying it's not working, and I'd be looking at those burns as a reason.

    You don't! but you have probably been exercising longer than the OP and myself, when I first got back on to my bike i could easily burn 6-700 in 45 minutes. Now though i have that way down and yes I have to bike substantially more then running to burn more calories.

    Cardio makes the heart stronger.
  • amos127
    amos127 Posts: 4
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    And a spinning class doesn't burn that much. Your HRM is probably incorrect. That is too much.

    She didn't say it was all from a spinning class, but even still it is possible to burn that many calories in a spin class.

    I don't do spin, but I ride my bike. Biking is probably the most efficient exercise in terms of it hardly burns anything. I have to ride 10 miles to match a 3 mile run. So, I doubt spinning in a 45 class plus a 30 minute walk is above 1,000 calories. But, whatever, I don't care. I'm just saying, she might be back saying it's not working, and I'd be looking at those burns as a reason.

    You don't! but you have probably been exercising longer than the OP and myself, when I first got back on to my bike i could easily burn 6-700 in 45 minutes. Now though i have that way down and yes I have to bike substantially more then running to burn more calories.

    Cardio makes the heart stronger.

    Yeah, I was thinking about that too. Sometimes I forget what it's like to start.

    I'll take note of that. Thank you.
  • EmotionalEater84
    EmotionalEater84 Posts: 311 Member
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    I don't. When I actually logged my exercise I didn't like the amount of calories MFP said I burnt. I'm even skeptical of my HRM. If you are hungry over your cals (when set at sedentary) and have worked out just know you can eat more and still be fine!

    Personally, I am a big believer in listening to your body. If your tummy's growling you need to feed it ;)

    You'll find what works for you soon enough!! Best of luck :)
  • GBrady43068
    GBrady43068 Posts: 1,256 Member
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    I also have a sedentary lifestyle (cubicle/desk job).

    I have been losing 1-2 lbs a week since October.

    Since the MFP site tends to overstate your calorie burn, I eat back 2/3 of my calories. In other words, when I log exercise, I multiply the estimated burn MFP gives me by .666 and then enter that number manually as how much I burned:

    Example: MFP says I burn 999 calories doing Ironman Yo-Yoing for an hour. 999 * .666 = 666 calories.

    My answer is yes...eat the calories back. It fuels your workouts and then you aren't always hangry and hateful to those around you. :laugh:
  • chsa22
    chsa22 Posts: 33 Member
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    I look at the calories burned from exercise as "earning back calories". But I don't necessarily eat them all back. It all depends on my appetite. I have MFP set so that I lose .5lb per week. I know that is minimal amount of weight, but I've always been happy with my body, and I have about 10 lbs to lose total. I'd rather go slow to avoid feeling like I'm depriving myself. (I love food!)

    With that said, MFP takes into account the calories I burn just by being, then takes into account how much I want to lose per week, and I came out with 1560 calories per day to lose .5lb a week. When I work out, I tend to underestimate how many calories I burned so that I don't overdo it with eating. Today, I burned a little over 100 calories in my morning workout, so technically I can 'eat that back'. I may, I may not. If I do eat them back, it still leaves me at or a little below my target of 1560 calories for the day which means I *should* still lose .5lb per week.

    Generally, it is not a good idea to go below 1200 calories in a day. So if someone's allocated 1200 calories a day to lose a certain amount of lbs per week, and they burn any number of calories working out, they need to eat it back, or otherwise they will be below 1200 calories, which again, is not healthy, especially in the long run.
  • loubidy
    loubidy Posts: 440 Member
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    I don't believe you can burn that many calories. I honestly don't believe you can burn more than 10kcal a minute. Just my opinion though
  • eddiesmith1
    eddiesmith1 Posts: 1,550 Member
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    because I know the workout calories burned are inaccurate at best i will eat back a portion of them, some days all but usually 50-75% (with the exception of any map my fitness measurement which is out in left field telling me i burned 657 in less than half an hour of cycling uphill to work - not likely MMFapps i eat about 30% of the calculation)
    If you are getting a tone of exercise and not maintaining a reasonable caloric intake you are losing good lean muscle as well as the fat
  • marian4marian
    marian4marian Posts: 94 Member
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    a person i know (who has used this for 2 years and lost 41 lbs) says never eat back more than 25%.
  • EmotionalEater84
    EmotionalEater84 Posts: 311 Member
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    I don't. When I actually logged my exercise I didn't like the amount of calories MFP said I burnt. I'm even skeptical of my HRM. If you are hungry over your cals (when set at sedentary) and have worked out just know you can eat more and still be fine!

    Personally, I am a big believer in listening to your body. If your tummy's growling you need to feed it ;)

    You'll find what works for you soon enough!! Best of luck :)

    Don't do this.

    The membership of this site is filled with people that "listened to their bodies", whatever the hell that's supposed to mean. Your body lies to you. Listen to your brain, and follow the plan.

    This guy knows everything, listen to him.
  • asdowe13
    asdowe13 Posts: 1,951 Member
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    a person i know (who has used this for 2 years and lost 41 lbs) says never eat back more than 25%.

    Good for him, but a person (actually people) I know have lost over 100lb each in the past 3 years and they eat back 75-100%.

    Everyone is different!
  • captainheadkick
    captainheadkick Posts: 27 Member
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    I think this all depends on what stage you're at. Someone just starting a fitness routine and wanting rapid weight loss will be OK in working out and NOT eating back the calories. However, you'll plateau eventually. When that happens you'll need to eat more.

    There is no such thing as a one size fits all rule. As our bodies change we need to change what we put into them.

    Different goals, different methods. Body builders that want to grow muscle and flex a lot have very different needs than someone that simply wants to drop 25 pounds and doesn't care to be ripped.

    That's my opinion, for what it's worth.

    Interesting debate, and I'd love to hear arguments to the above. This is a learning process for me....
  • RGv2
    RGv2 Posts: 5,789 Member
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    I think this all depends on what stage you're at. Someone just starting a fitness routine and wanting rapid weight loss will be OK in working out and NOT eating back the calories. However, you'll plateau eventually. When that happens you'll need to eat more.

    There is no such thing as a one size fits all rule. As our bodies change we need to change what we put into them.

    Different goals, different methods. Body builders that want to grow muscle and flex a lot have very different needs than someone that simply wants to drop 25 pounds and doesn't care to be ripped.

    That's my opinion, for what it's worth.

    Interesting debate, and I'd love to hear arguments to the above. This is a learning process for me....

    You're right, someone with a lot of weight to lose may not need to eat them all back, but not at the sake for "rapid weight loss". Rapid weight loss usually comes with the sacrifice of LBM because the individuals deficit is too big.

    I don't even understand bringing up bodybuilders in this conversation.
  • gosustu
    gosustu Posts: 33 Member
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    I have left about 2k calories on the table over the last 2 days. I simply don't have the hunger to eat back what I am in deficit for. Scales seem to think I am doing OK but I don't see it being sustainable.
  • Tanisse
    Tanisse Posts: 37 Member
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    I agree with you. I tried eating back my calories that I burned from working out, and I did not lose any weight. Now when I workout I do not eat back my calories unless I burned so many calories that I am hungry. For example 1500 calories burning 1300 calories, I will eat more than my daily calorie budget. Each person is different and the way they lose is different.
  • captainheadkick
    captainheadkick Posts: 27 Member
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    I don't even understand bringing up bodybuilders in this conversation.

    I think I mean that people that are primarily concerned with bulking up and getting huge muscles have very different nutritional goals that people that just want to lose fat.

    It seems that the more people get wrapped up in this kind of stuff the more that they believe that their specific nutritional goals are right for everyone. You can see that in these forums and all over the place. It doesn't mean that they're wrong, but their "right" is not right for everyone.

    I didn't mean to knock body builders, so sorry to anyone if it came off that way.

    I think that you'd plateau in your weight loss before losing any significant lean body mass. That is, provided you get more than 1200 calories minimum after all exercise is taken into account. I think 1200 is the minimum for most people, but only for a short time. Maybe 4 weeks or so. I think I got a "C" in high school science, so my logic here must be sound.

    But yeah, everybody is different.
  • Holly_Roman_Empire
    Holly_Roman_Empire Posts: 4,440 Member
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    I think this all depends on what stage you're at. Someone just starting a fitness routine and wanting rapid weight loss will be OK in working out and NOT eating back the calories. However, you'll plateau eventually. When that happens you'll need to eat more.

    There is no such thing as a one size fits all rule. As our bodies change we need to change what we put into them.

    Different goals, different methods. Body builders that want to grow muscle and flex a lot have very different needs than someone that simply wants to drop 25 pounds and doesn't care to be ripped.

    That's my opinion, for what it's worth.

    Interesting debate, and I'd love to hear arguments to the above. This is a learning process for me....

    I don't understand bringing up bodybuilders in this discussion either.

    The reason you give for people plateauing is not accurate. If a person is truly in a caloric deficit, a short stall may happen, but not an extended long-term plateau.

    The most often cause for plateauing is inaccurate logging, whether it is intentional or not.

    For example, an obese person that maintains weight eating 3000 calories a day has a calorie goal of 1200. This person doesn't weigh or measure food and does a lot of quick add calories. Besides that, they are overestimating their calorie burns and eating all of them back. They are ACTUALLY eating around 2200 calories a day. This person is not eating their calorie goal, but they are still losing weight because it's less than their maintenance calories.

    Fast forward and this person has lost a significant amount of weight but hasn't lost in a couple of months. They are still not weighing their food, still quick adding calories, and overestimating burns, all under the assumption that they are still eating 1200 calories a day. It's not starvation mode. It's not being accurate.

    What happens is at a lower weight, there is less margin for error. A person only needing to lose 5 pounds can completely blow their calorie deficit if they go over their goal by 300 calories.
  • RGv2
    RGv2 Posts: 5,789 Member
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    I don't even understand bringing up bodybuilders in this conversation.

    I think I mean that people that are primarily concerned with bulking up and getting huge muscles have very different nutritional goals that people that just want to lose fat.

    It seems that the more people get wrapped up in this kind of stuff the more that they believe that their specific nutritional goals are right for everyone. You can see that in these forums and all over the place. It doesn't mean that they're wrong, but their "right" is not right for everyone.

    I didn't mean to knock body builders, so sorry to anyone if it came off that way.

    I think that you'd plateau in your weight loss before losing any significant lean body mass. That is, provided you get more than 1200 calories minimum after all exercise is taken into account. I think 1200 is the minimum for most people, but only for a short time. Maybe 4 weeks or so. I think I got a "C" in high school science, so my logic here must be sound.

    But yeah, everybody is different.

    Thinking you'd plateau before losing LBM would be incorrect. When the deficit is large LBM is can and will burned for fuel more than fat as it is easier to process. That's is how a person can lose large amounts of weight, but have very little change in BF%.

    An of course a someone who is bulking has different nutritional goals....they're eating in a surplus.
  • carliekitty
    carliekitty Posts: 303 Member
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    I eat back just about all of my exercise calories. I run as my cardio 6x a week. I would be starving to death if i didn't eat more and wouldn't be able to run that much and honestly i can't function with no running. I did however do some research on running and net calories burned. I use the calculation of .63x my weight then x that by the number of miles i run. That ='s my calories burned per run. It only differs from what mfp calculates my calorie burn is by about 100 calories. So i honestly think you could eat back every calorie mfp says you burn and still be ok =)

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