Running and Weight Loss TRUTHS?

minorlight

If your daily goal was 1200 calories a day and you were running for 2+ hours a few times a week, I would say yes, eat back your exercise calories.

1600 calories is a reasonable goal, and I think an activity such as couch to 5K isn't a huge calorie burn. If it were me, I would not eat back my exercise calories. I find it's easy to over estimate how much you've burned, since it's difficult to judge intensity, especially in an activity where you are varying intensity (walking and running). For me, I would look at those work outs as a little boost to my weight loss efforts.

Once you complete the program, if you continue with running, and you start running longer and at a higher intensity, then you should start looking at eating some of your exercise calories. But for me I find there is a fine balance between eating enough, and eating too much.

From personal experience I found when I first started running and watching my eating (I did Weight Watchers initially) that I lost weight fairly easily. I think because running was new to my body. That's not to say I didn't have weeks where I stayed the same or even gained. When you are breaking down muscles you will retain water afterward. Do not get discouraged.

I think I am now at a point where my body has become very efficient at running (mainly because I run slow and long). I have to be really careful with not eating too much, or I won't lose.

This is just my own personal experience.

Keep up the good work! I'll warn you, running is addictive.

This is exactly the information I was looking for. THANK YOU.

ElliottTN

MFP will go by the guidelines of your targeted net loss for that week via caloric intake. If you are targeting 1lb a week weight loss and it has you setup to eat 1600 cals a day to accomplish that AND you work out then it will up your calories to you are still at only a 1lb a week weight loss. (basically will add calories in so you are not losing more than 1lb a week according to their formula.

At the end of the day though their formula for weight loss can only be as accurate as a guesstimate can be. For some and most, it will be wildly off in either direction. Different factors for each individual person can lead to inaccuracies in their formula. That is why whenever you see a legit weight loss study they usually try to first determine a persons basic caloric maintenance (intake to remain the exact weight they currently are at) with things like a controlled liquid diet for a given amount of time.

MFP caloric recommendations are just that, recommendations. You really need some time to really ACCURATELY record your caloric intake and daily caloric burns to see how you body handles different caloric intake.

As for running and weight loss. Running can net a huge caloric burn but that doesn't necessarily net a caloric deficit. If you run 5 miles and burn 600 calories during the run then turn around and eat 600 cals of extra food that day then it is basically a wash as far as just pure weight loss is concerned. Many runners, including myself, have actually gained weight when training for a marathon and nope, it wasn't muscle or water retention....good ole belly fat....drinking heavily after running long distances is fun.

Good luck to ya.

margelizard

My understanding is that, generally, for me to maintain my current weight I would need to eat 1,500 calories per day.

However, myfitnesspal has my calorie intake set at 1,200 calories, because I want to lose weight.

In order to burn 1lb of fat, it takes around 3,500 calories (this is a hot debate, but I'm using it to highlight the general idea behind MFP)

So, by eating 1,200 calories per day, I'm already cutting out 300 calories. That's 2,100 (300 x 7) calories per week that I am not ingesting.

In addition to this, I workout, say, 4 times a week. Assume my workout burn is 350 calories per workout. That's 1,400 calories burned in a week.

2,100 (calories saved from reducing food intake)
+
1,400 (calories burned during exercise)

---

3,500 calories

Assuming these numbers are accurate (and it's pretty much impossible to be 100% accurate), then THEORETICALLY you would lose 1 lb in that week.

So, when you take a walk later in the day and get your 150 extra calories, that gives you 150 calories to eat, because MFP is set up so that the 300 calorie per day deficit is already built into your program.

There's debate over whether you should eat back those 150 calories or not. For myself, I generally eat about half of my exercise calories back in food, but you'll find what works for you. Personally, when I didn't eat them back, I found my loss floundering. This improve significantly when I started to eat the calories back after exercising.

Really, it's a lot of trial and error and working out what your body wants. Everyone is different and there's no fixed formula for success. Running and walking have worked for me, along with a calorie reduced diet, so it is possible. Just keep going and find what works for you (and most importantly, don't lose heart if the weight doesn't shift immediately, just give it time)

ILiftHeavyAcrylics

So for the sake of argument let's say my calorie goal is 1500. That's 500 calories less than I need to maintain my weight. So if I run and burn off 300 then my deficit is now 800, which is too much. I'd eat that 300 back to keep my deficit the same. Make sense? For me MFP's exercise calories are always spot on. Others find them to be high so they only eat back half. I'd give it a couple of weeks though before you change anything.

Perfectly valid point, especially about not changing anything just yet. Glad to know that I'm not shooting myself in the foot - necessarily - by "eating back" some or all of my calories. I will keep an eye on it, and if I'm still not seeing the loss I want, I will try eating back none or at least less!

Part of the issue, too, is accurate numbers. I went with "sedentary" on my profile, but honestly it's somewhere between "sedentary" and "lightly active." I figured guessing low would be smart, and any extra exercise during the day would simply be a bonus... but isn't that a bit of a slippery slope? Maybe it doesn't matter because, like you pointed out, two weeks isn't a good comparison point for anything!

Ahh. Perspective. Such a relief.

:flowerforyou:

It takes tweaking to get everything set up sometimes. As long as you have the patience to tweak, and to know when not to, you'll be fine.

This whole process is based on estimates, so you should always be willing to adjust based on your actual results. I always give myself 4 weeks before I change anything. There have been times when I was convinced I was gaining weight, only to wait it out and realize I hadn't gained at all. I just had some freak fluid retention that went away on its own.

STrooper

It is not surprising. You might want to take a set of body measurements now as well. You might not see much weight loss, but may see inches lost. I went through a whole year of that.

I have also found that after a particualrly long or stressful step-up in my running level (even though I might have a huge calorie deficit), my weight goes up instead of down (at least in the short-term). The hypothesis is that part of the body's recoveriy mechanism is to increase water in the muscle tissue to "repair" the stressed or damaged tissue.

It makes sense and has shown a consistent pattern after running a race or a long, hard run. My weight has swung by as much as 8 pounds in the week immediately following a half or full marathon and then dropped all of that weight in the following week.

Keep at it and don't let your defici get too large. Success comes from the long haul, not the short one.

bcattoes

My advice would be to hold out and be patient.

I started a new exercise regime a while ago and I gained 2 pounds until my body got settled into things.

The golden rule is that if you are eating at a deficit - you WILL lose weight. It just doesn't always happen immediately and especially if you are making quite a few changes to your body through diet/exercise.

Stick with it. Don't weigh in too often, even when I was losing weight I wouldn't bother stepping on the scales more than once a fortnight. Take measurements and relish the achievement of doing the C25K - that in itself is something to be proud of.

This ^^

New exercise often = new temporary water weight. Give your body time to adjust.

If you are new exercise (were sendentary before) you may also gain some muscle, which is heavier than fat.

Running burns calories which means increases your calories out in the calories out > calories in equation needed for fat loss. It absolutely can help with weight loss.

If you entered your activity level as sedentary, then you should log the workouts and eat at least part of those back. (many people like to only eat a percentage to account for over estimation of the burn) If you figured the exercise into your activity level, then you should not eat those calories back.

minorlight

My understanding is that, generally, for me to maintain my current weight I would need to eat 1,500 calories per day.

However, myfitnesspal has my calorie intake set at 1,200 calories, because I want to lose weight.

In order to burn 1lb of fat, it takes around 3,500 calories (this is a hot debate, but I'm using it to highlight the general idea behind MFP)

So, by eating 1,200 calories per day, I'm already cutting out 300 calories. That's 2,100 (300 x 7) calories per week that I am not ingesting.

In addition to this, I workout, say, 4 times a week. Assume my workout burn is 350 calories per workout. That's 1,400 calories burned in a week.

2,100 (calories saved from reducing food intake)
+
1,400 (calories burned during exercise)

---

3,500 calories

Assuming these numbers are accurate (and it's pretty much impossible to be 100% accurate), then THEORETICALLY you would lose 1 lb in that week.

So, when you take a walk later in the day and get your 150 extra calories, that gives you 150 calories to eat, because MFP is set up so that the 300 calorie per day deficit is already built into your program.

There's debate over whether you should eat back those 150 calories or not. For myself, I generally eat about half of my exercise calories back in food, but you'll find what works for you. Personally, when I didn't eat them back, I found my loss floundering. This improve significantly when I started to eat the calories back after exercising.

Really, it's a lot of trial and error and working out what your body wants. Everyone is different and there's no fixed formula for success. Running and walking have worked for me, along with a calorie reduced diet, so it is possible. Just keep going and find what works for you (and most importantly, don't lose heart if the weight doesn't shift immediately, just give it time)

Math! Yay! Thank you! This makes complete sense. I also appreciate the reminder that this is all an educated guess. It's easy to put all of your ducks into one basket, but the truth is, whatever the scale says, I'm healthier than I was two weeks ago. Pretty sure something will fall off eventually! Thanks.

minorlight

It is not surprising. You might want to take a set of body measurements now as well. You might not see much weight loss, but may see inches lost. I went through a whole year of that.

I have also found that after a particualrly long or stressful step-up in my running level (even though I might have a huge calorie deficit), my weight goes up instead of down (at least in the short-term). The hypothesis is that part of the body's recoveriy mechanism is to increase water in the muscle tissue to "repair" the stressed or damaged tissue.

It makes sense and has shown a consistent pattern after running a race or a long, hard run. My weight has swung by as much as 8 pounds in the week immediately following a half or full marathon and then dropped all of that weight in the following week.

Keep at it and don't let your defici get too large. Success comes from the long haul, not the short one.

Excellent advice... thank you. I have NOT taken measurements but I will do so today since you mentioned it. I'm OK with progress - any progress - as long as things don't stay the same. But like you said, it's a long-term success. How often do you measure? Is it a weekly thing like a weigh in?

emmaxbon

All great advice! I started running for weight loss as there is only so much walking you can do to get a decent calorie burn. I also did c25k and while I don't think it made much difference in at first, once I was running a decent distance time it definitely helped with the pounds coming off.

Even better, now I run because I love it and the weight loss is a bonus

Keep at it, it'll happen.