calorie intake question

rmullins16

so I recently read previous posts that said in order to lose weight...you have to eat the calories you burn in a day or you go in starvation mode. I asked my fitness coach this today and she said "no no no...if you want to lose weight, you don't want to eat the calories you just burned. That's for maintaining weight."
everyone in the posts seemed so sure about this in response to a woman who was not losing and didn't know why.
Any thoughts or input?????

Atrocity108

Really, the body needs about 1200 calories a day. Before or after work out wont matter. Some days my total is 400, because I worked out that day. I still ate about 1200, but by the end, there was only 400 that I didnt burn off.

Of course, everyone's body is different, and there has to be some trial and error.

SugaryLynx

I lost my weight at 1650 net. So, I ate closer to 1900 every day. I started at 170 lbs.

The calorie amount given to you by mfp is built on what activity level you gave it (what you do in your typical day, not including exercise). This amount is already at a calorie deficit, so when you exercise, ideally you should eat back at least half your calories burned (if you use mfp burns they are over inflated).

In regards to "starvation mode". As it's commonly tossed about here is a myth. Your body will continue to lose weight, even at an overly aggressive deficit. But there's a catch. Being overly aggressive and losing too quickly can have its pitfalls. If you maintain an aggressive deficit over a great length you run the risk of losing not only fat but muscle (which can include vital organ), hair loss, brittle nails, and potentially metabolic damage of done for a very extended period. Adaptive thermogenesis does exist.

How aggressively you want to pursue your goal will be determined by how much you have to lose. Basically, the less weight you have to lose, the less aggressive you want to be, as with less fat, you're more likely to jeopardize muscle. Here is a good read, too

http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/1080242-a-guide-to-get-you-started-on-your-path-to-sexypants

hearthwood

Your fitness trainer is right. While we are all required to consume 1200 calories a day to keep our bodies from going into starvation mode, thereby shutting down our metabolic rate, there is nothing wrong with burning a few hundred of them once it's in the digestive track.

On a weight loss program eating back burned calories is very counter productive.

SugaryLynx

Your fitness trainer is right. While we are all required to consume 1200 calories a day to keep our bodies from going into starvation mode, thereby shutting down our metabolic rate, there is nothing wrong with burning a few hundred of them once it's in the digestive track.

On a weight loss program eating back burned calories is very counter productive.

I just want. ..a face palm gif for this

Their fitness trainer is either misunderstood or needs to be replaced.

Nothing shuts down your metabolism but death. It always runs. How efficiently it runs is not effected by one day of low calorie eating, sure but there's no need to under eat to lose weight either.

Eating back exercise is what mfp is based on. If you don't want to eat them back, find your TDEE -15% or so (ps, it's probably higher than 1200)

WalkingAlong

so I recently read previous posts that said in order to lose weight...you have to eat the calories you burn in a day or you go in starvation mode. I asked my fitness coach this today and she said "no no no...if you want to lose weight, you don't want to eat the calories you just burned. That's for maintaining weight."
everyone in the posts seemed so sure about this in response to a woman who was not losing and didn't know why.
Any thoughts or input?????

Your trainer is right. If you eat ALL the calories you burn in a day, you will maintain. MFP people say you should eat your EXERCISE calories back on top of your base MFP allowance, assuming that you already have all the deficit you want captured in that base allowance. That part is not necessarily true and it's also not true that you absolutely must 'eat back' even if your base amount does include your desired allowance. There is all kinds of measurement error going on and unless you lose more than 2 lbs/week regularly, you're fine eating your exercise calories back or not.

KarenJanine

so I recently read previous posts that said in order to lose weight...you have to eat the calories you burn in a day or you go in starvation mode. I asked my fitness coach this today and she said "no no no...if you want to lose weight, you don't want to eat the calories you just burned. That's for maintaining weight."
everyone in the posts seemed so sure about this in response to a woman who was not losing and didn't know why.
Any thoughts or input?????

You trainer is right in that if you ate all the calories you burned in a day you would be at maintenance. All the calories burned in a day is not just exercise calories.

Maintenance (aka TDEE) = BMR + NEAT + TEF + Exercise.

Where: BMR is basal metabolic rate, NEAT is non-exercise activity thermogenesis, TEF is thermic effect of feeding.

Online calculators like this: http://scoobysworkshop.com/calorie-calculator/ calculate an estimate of your TDEE.

To lose weight eat less than TDEE, to maintain eat at TDEE, to gain weight eat above TDEE.

amusedmonkey

Your trainer misunderstood your statement. She probably thought you meant eating everything you burn (including at rest, while you sleep, while you do mundane things etc..), in short the "calories out" part of the equation. She is right. If you eat back every single one of those calories you will maintain.

Now what people on MFP usually do is eat just the calories they earn from exercise back, or some of them, or none, depending on their preference, energy, hunger, amount of training, timing of training...etc.

Netting a low number of calories (if you are exercising a lot and not eating enough to fuel it) may accelerate muscle loss and may take a toll on your energy and hunger levels sabotaging your efforts. Higher physical activity needs higher amounts of protein, carbs and fat to repair damage, sustain energy for exercise performance and do all the things cells need to do during or after exercise. This may cause you to become "skinny fat" by the time you reach your maintenance weight.

If you are particularly heavy this is even more relevant. I can easily burn upwards of 1000 calories NET (excluding what I would have burned had I been resting for that time) by simply walking an incline, so if I consumed the "golden number" 1200 I could easily wipe off my entire day's eaten food in one hour leaving me running on empty. If that goes on for a while, my body will start cannibalizing muscle for energy and protein which is the last thing I want.