Eating back calories counterproductive to weight loss

shariann3

Some days I HAVE to exercise in order to eat more because I am hungry! Like today for example, I only have 421 calories left for the day, so I will workout to eat a snack and dinner and still be within my allotted calories for the day. This is whats so great about MFP! Some days I am not as "hungry", regardless of whether or not I worked out, I think it's mostly listening to your body.

taldie01

Am I the only one who gets hungry after excercise?

Cmccracken1

i think the disbelief part comes from that when people dont watch and log what they eat they have no idea what they are taking in in a day...
example. never tracked my food before this Sunday went to breakfast had something that i normally would have gotten before mfp and used to be i'd go home have some lunch and dinner.. breakfast alone was 1700 calories. that means on a normal day i probably would have taken in upwards of 3000 calories i would never have guessed that it was that much in one day.. So when i started tracking, i am eating better low calorie items so i really eat more and with exercise the idea that i could have even more than that is foreign,,, does that make sense...
but yes totally agree that you can sometime eat back your exercise calories and if you plateau you should for at least a week and it will shock your metabolism back into moving.

hpsnickers1

Am I the only one who gets hungry after excercise?

I get STARVED after exercise but it is usually very close to dinner time anyway.

Sheila62

I always eat most of my exercise calories and have found it to be very successful for me, I have been losing a steady pound each week for the past 8 weeks except for 1 week when I didnt lose any but the following week lost 4!

FearAnLoathing

Here we go again. If you are at 1200 calorie goal and you burn 500 during exercise that will put you at 700 calories. 1200 is the baseline number for Starvation Mode. If you go under that number for too long then your body will start to adapt to the number by stopping the fat burning process for fear of famine (My 'comatose' BMR is 1188 and I'm pretty little so 1200 is a good number). Your weight loss will slow down and you can possible start gaining. I am proof of that. I gained 20 pounds in less than a year by "not eating". You eat the 500 calories to get you back up to your daily goal. You want your NET calories to stay above 1200. This is why MFP will not go below a 1200 daily goal.

Please check out the links in my signature especially the "frantic about adhering to calorie...".

Heck I upped my goal from 1250 to 1480 2 weeks ago and have dropped another 1 1/2 pounds.

myhmmm my net has been under 1200 for almost a year,im fine

crazymama2two

Hmm after my nine mile run today I think I need to eat some of the extra calories.

frik, nine miles??! rock on!

lloydrt

I normally stay away from this one question, but..........I did read that the following applies to each and everyone of us.....

if your are MORBIDLY OBESE, OR OBESE.........No, dont eat any of your exercise calories back

if you are OVERWEIGHT, .....................................Eat only half of your exercise calories back

if you are NORMAL, ............. Eat all of your exercise calories back

again, I only read this, so I guess its hear say.............I usually ate about half for the last year ,and it paid off...........best of luck

♥Violette♥4Ever♥

Right, but that doesn't take into account that you already have a deficit set automatically by MFP.

Very, very simply:

I need to eat 2000 calories/day to maintain my weight. I need to eat 1500/day to lose weight.

WITHOUT MFP, if I exercise 500 calories away, then eat 500 calories, I don't lose any weight.

WITH MFP, they only GIVE me 1500 calories/day to eat. So if I eat 1500 calories, then exercise 500 away, I can still eat back those 500 calories and still lose 1lb/week.

I don't know why this is so hard for people to understand.

I have a question to add to this....

I work out after work at night. I usually go to the gym around 8 or 8:30 and work work for approximately 90 minutes and burn anywhere from 1200 to 1500. By the time go to the gym i'm over on my cals somewhere between 250 and 350. There is no way I can eat the extra calories at 10:30 at night right before I go to bed. I don't want to eat an extra 1200 calories before I go to the gym in case something happens and I only burn...lets say....500 calories. What should I do in this case?

kimmerroze

Right, but that doesn't take into account that you already have a deficit set automatically by MFP.

Very, very simply:

I need to eat 2000 calories/day to maintain my weight. I need to eat 1500/day to lose weight.

WITHOUT MFP, if I exercise 500 calories away, then eat 500 calories, I don't lose any weight.

WITH MFP, they only GIVE me 1500 calories/day to eat. So if I eat 1500 calories, then exercise 500 away, I can still eat back those 500 calories and still lose 1lb/week.

I don't know why this is so hard for people to understand.

AMEN! this is so true. Do what you wish, but by starving yourself, you will lose weight, Muscle weight, not FAT WEIGHT. I have a hard time understanding why people don't understand this as well.

hpsnickers1

I normally stay away from this one question, but..........I did read that the following applies to each and everyone of us.....

if your are MORBIDLY OBESE, OR OBESE.........No, dont eat any of your exercise calories back

if you are OVERWEIGHT, .....................................Eat only half of your exercise calories back

if you are NORMAL, ............. Eat all of your exercise calories back

again, I only read this, so I guess its hear say.............I usually ate about half for the last year ,and it paid off...........best of luck

This can be true. It applies more to the smaller people than the obese. So the obese could probably get away with going under 1200 for quite a while. I'm small and have a small maintenance calorie number so I have to make sure I do try and eat up to 1200

FearAnLoathing

Right, but that doesn't take into account that you already have a deficit set automatically by MFP.

Very, very simply:

I need to eat 2000 calories/day to maintain my weight. I need to eat 1500/day to lose weight.

WITHOUT MFP, if I exercise 500 calories away, then eat 500 calories, I don't lose any weight.

WITH MFP, they only GIVE me 1500 calories/day to eat. So if I eat 1500 calories, then exercise 500 away, I can still eat back those 500 calories and still lose 1lb/week.

I don't know why this is so hard for people to understand.

I have a question to add to this....

I work out after work at night. I usually go to the gym around 8 or 8:30 and work work for approximately 90 minutes and burn anywhere from 1200 to 1500. By the time go to the gym i'm over on my cals somewhere between 250 and 350. There is no way I can eat the extra calories at 10:30 at night right before I go to bed. I don't want to eat an extra 1200 calories before I go to the gym in case something happens and I only burn...lets say....500 calories. What should I do in this case?

most people would tell you to try and guess what your calorie burn is going to be in the evening and try to eat it through out the day

Rworthy

I agree!!! finally someone who agrees!!!

Wait, do you agree you SHOULDN'T eat them back or you should eat half back?

hpsnickers1

Right, but that doesn't take into account that you already have a deficit set automatically by MFP.

Very, very simply:

I need to eat 2000 calories/day to maintain my weight. I need to eat 1500/day to lose weight.

WITHOUT MFP, if I exercise 500 calories away, then eat 500 calories, I don't lose any weight.

WITH MFP, they only GIVE me 1500 calories/day to eat. So if I eat 1500 calories, then exercise 500 away, I can still eat back those 500 calories and still lose 1lb/week.

I don't know why this is so hard for people to understand.

AMEN! this is so true. Do what you wish, but by starving yourself, you will lose weight, Muscle weight, not FAT WEIGHT. I have a hard time understanding why people don't understand this as well.

Also true. (Adaptive thermalgenesis). Your body will stop burning fat, store what you eat and dig into your lean muscle mass for fuel.

kimmerroze

Right, but that doesn't take into account that you already have a deficit set automatically by MFP.

Very, very simply:

I need to eat 2000 calories/day to maintain my weight. I need to eat 1500/day to lose weight.

WITHOUT MFP, if I exercise 500 calories away, then eat 500 calories, I don't lose any weight.

WITH MFP, they only GIVE me 1500 calories/day to eat. So if I eat 1500 calories, then exercise 500 away, I can still eat back those 500 calories and still lose 1lb/week.

I don't know why this is so hard for people to understand.

I have a question to add to this....

I work out after work at night. I usually go to the gym around 8 or 8:30 and work work for approximately 90 minutes and burn anywhere from 1200 to 1500. By the time go to the gym i'm over on my cals somewhere between 250 and 350. There is no way I can eat the extra calories at 10:30 at night right before I go to bed. I don't want to eat an extra 1200 calories before I go to the gym in case something happens and I only burn...lets say....500 calories. What should I do in this case?

In this case you shouldn't do as high intensity of a work out. BUT if you plan on doing this much exercising, plan your meals out in the morning so that you eat that many calories through out the day so you don't have such a deficit at the end of the day. I log my work out calories at the begining of the day too. It forces me to make sure I get to the gym. If I find that I am full, then I don't work out as much (and by work out I mean calorie burn as much So Iw ill lift more weights), If I find that I am hungry I try to burn more calories.

Mindful_Trent

I have a question to add to this....

I work out after work at night. I usually go to the gym around 8 or 8:30 and work work for approximately 90 minutes and burn anywhere from 1200 to 1500. By the time go to the gym i'm over on my cals somewhere between 250 and 350. There is no way I can eat the extra calories at 10:30 at night right before I go to bed. I don't want to eat an extra 1200 calories before I go to the gym in case something happens and I only burn...lets say....500 calories. What should I do in this case?

If I were you I would make an effort at working more calories into your day before working out - not necessarily all of them (since you don't always know what workout you'll be doing ahead of time), but some. You could also eat a larger breakfast the next day (your calorie balance doesn't "reset" at midnight - if you burned a ton the night before, a large breakfast is reasonable if you had an extra large deficit the prior day due to the exercise), though that would make your food diary look "off" that day since the exercise was logged the day before.

Anyways - spreading the calories out and eating a bigger breakfast/lunch/dinner on the days you know you'll be exercising is the easiest way to get to a healthy number of calories. Try eating maybe 500 extra during the day, and then if you need to eat some more after working out because you burned a lot, do that too. I personally will eat a large snack right after working out (also at night). The whole not eating at night thing is a myth - as long as it doesn't cause you digestive discomfort, go for it! (I'd stay away from really heavy foods...)

mhoch

Right, but that doesn't take into account that you already have a deficit set automatically by MFP.

Very, very simply:

I need to eat 2000 calories/day to maintain my weight. I need to eat 1500/day to lose weight.

WITHOUT MFP, if I exercise 500 calories away, then eat 500 calories, I don't lose any weight.

WITH MFP, they only GIVE me 1500 calories/day to eat. So if I eat 1500 calories, then exercise 500 away, I can still eat back those 500 calories and still lose 1lb/week.

I don't know why this is so hard for people to understand.

Totally... thats how I feel. I dont know why its hard to understand that MFP already starts you at a deficit. I think if they made it more clear when you are setting up your account it might be easier for people to understand. Like after you fill in your info, it will be a page you read before logging in for the first time. Might be helpful?

Rworthy

this is equally interesting *S*

http://www.edmontonsun.com/life/columnists/cary_castagna/2011/02/25/17405911.html

This is a good editorial on the perils of weight loss, but it doesn't answer our question specifically. I believe Virgin inferred through the piece that she doesn't eat extra calories on the days she works out, regardless of how intense her workouts are. But she is in favor of four meals throughout the day, or eating every 4-6 hours.

Rworthy

Right, but that doesn't take into account that you already have a deficit set automatically by MFP.

Very, very simply:

I need to eat 2000 calories/day to maintain my weight. I need to eat 1500/day to lose weight.

WITHOUT MFP, if I exercise 500 calories away, then eat 500 calories, I don't lose any weight.

WITH MFP, they only GIVE me 1500 calories/day to eat. So if I eat 1500 calories, then exercise 500 away, I can still eat back those 500 calories and still lose 1lb/week.

I don't know why this is so hard for people to understand.

You're right about the deficit, it's in there at 500 calories per day. My deficit is 1000-1200 per day depending on my workout that day. I feel that because the 500 deficit is so low, over the course of a week you could easily overestimate your calories expended, and end up eating into your deficit, lowering your 1 pound per week weight loss to decimal points you won't even notice. Over time your body gets used to eating more, and is used to your exercise that it just gets comfortable, therefore not losing any more weight. This is what happened to me after 6 months, and for the past 2-3 months. One week of not eating my calories back and I'm seeing some real results - in pounds gone and inches lost. That is all...

Rworthy

Here we go again. If you are at 1200 calorie goal and you burn 500 during exercise that will put you at 700 calories. 1200 is the baseline number for Starvation Mode. If you go under that number for too long then your body will start to adapt to the number by stopping the fat burning process for fear of famine (My 'comatose' BMR is 1188 and I'm pretty little so 1200 is a good number). Your weight loss will slow down and you can possible start gaining. I am proof of that. I gained 20 pounds in less than a year by "not eating". You eat the 500 calories to get you back up to your daily goal. You want your NET calories to stay above 1200. This is why MFP will not go below a 1200 daily goal.

Please check out the links in my signature especially the "frantic about adhering to calorie...".

Heck I upped my goal from 1250 to 1480 2 weeks ago and have dropped another 1 1/2 pounds.

Oh I don't mean too sound mean. This is the one biggest ongoing issue on this site. Some days I am under 1200. I just don't stay under for more than 2 days.

I get what you're saying, but have you read or heard about HCG diet? It overlaps somewhat on this principle stating you're not devoid of calories just because you haven't eaten 1600 calories today....when you exercise, the point is to burn fat. If there are no food calories to burn if the body needs fuel, it will burn the fat. Isn't this the whole entire point of weight loss?