eat eat eat

Lexie28

I eat most of them back :flowerforyou:

MakingAChoice

I eat most or all of them back and I am down 34 lbs in 7 weeks.

wolfchild59

I not only eat back my exercise calories I sometimes eat more than what I earn. Doing so finally has me losing again after not losing for quite awhile.

missbeezy

Yes, I always eat them back and I always lose weight, every week. I've lost 7kg (15.4lb) in 8 weeks.

I think the thing that we need to recognise more, is the impacts that not eating enough food (starvation mode/nutritionally deprived) will affect the way in which your body releases AND REPLENTISHES fat stores.

If you eat insufficient calories, your metabolic rate slows down. Your body holds on to the fat (because it is worried that it will need that fat to survive in the future, because the body is not getting enough calories).

More importantly, when we stop our "diet" or restricted calorie intake, our bodies try to protect itself from future "starvation" and replenishes the fat stores at a great rate of knots. This means you will put on weight, FAST. And most of it will be stored as fat.

For years, I have been a yo-yo diet who lost weight (I would starve myself, exercise like crazy, and was very very hard work), and then put it all back on (plus more). I could never understand why the weight would come back so easily, even if I didn't eat "badly". But now I understand - it was because I had such a low calorie intake during my weight loss phase, that my body's only response afterwards, was to store every calorie consumed in my "normal" eating phase. Hence, the rapid weight gain.

I hope this helps. Good luck with your journey.











Wow that's the first time I actually understood all of that and I'm not confused. It help a lot thank you

missbeezy

Thanx everyone!

Linda4859

I look at it like this. To make a journey you fill the car up with petrol. You drive the car and reach your destination. Why would you replace all the petrol that you have used, when the car is just going to sit there overnight. when you know that tomorrow you have to fill the car up first thing in the morning. What happens to that petrol that sat in the car overnight.? you would need to remove it to get the new petrol in. So apply this to your exercise points what would be the point in eating the points earned when you will be doing nothing with them and you will be refuelling at breaksfast anyway.

Does this make sense?

hroderick

A word of caution about accuracy.
What if the actual calories are 20% higher than the nutrition label indicates? (They actually can be and often are)
What if the actual exercise calories are 100% higher than MFP estimates? (They are according to my HRM after subtracting my BMR)

I'm just saying if your base intake is 1440 instead of 1200 and your exercise is 150 instead of 300 and you eat 1740 instead of 1350, you may be in the weight maintenance zone instead of the weight loss zone.

baisleac

A word of caution about accuracy.
What if the actual calories are 20% higher than the nutrition label indicates? (They actually can be and often are)
What if the actual exercise calories are 100% higher than MFP estimates? (They are according to my HRM after subtracting my BMR)

I'm just saying if your base intake is 1440 instead of 1200 and your exercise is 150 instead of 300 and you eat 1740 instead of 1350, you may be in the weight maintenance zone instead of the weight loss zone.

Good point.

I, for one, would rather err on the side of fueling my body to maintenance levels rather forcing it in to survival mode. On the other hand, I'm losing weight much more steadily since I upped my calories above MFPs estimates.

Lizzy_Sunflower

Hey girl, I asked my nutritionist (part of a weight loss study I am in) this very question...here's what she said...

"That is a good question! We typically tell people to try to stick to 1500/day WITHOUT accounting for calories burned through exercise. This is because it is very difficult to know exactly how many calories you burn during exercise and most people tend to overeat when they add their exercise calories to their diet. That being said, I think you would probably not log your exercise there and stick to 1500 calories per day."

I am still gonna log my exercise, just to keep track. If my weight loss stalls I will re-evaluate my "net" calories...

For further reading I suggest:
http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/23912-links-in-mfp-you-want-to-read-again-and-again

specifically:
http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/8977-your-body-s-thoughts-on-calories

we are all different, and have to find our groove. You are doing great!!! Keep it up!

MooseWizard

This is because it is very difficult to know exactly how many calories you burn during exercise and most people tend to overeat when they add their exercise calories to their diet.

Very interesting that the reasons given are kind of secondary reasons--calculation errors and intake control, rather than actually stating that eating your burned calories itself is detrimental.

Lizzy_Sunflower

This is because it is very difficult to know exactly how many calories you burn during exercise and most people tend to overeat when they add their exercise calories to their diet.

Very interesting that the reasons given are kind of secondary reasons--calculation errors and intake control, rather than actually stating that eating your burned calories itself is detrimental.

I agree. But knowledge is half the battle, right? I do think everyone has to find the balance for their body. Just keeping an eye out for the signs of "starvation mode" and knowing that you have to mix it up to keep your body guessing...

ladyhawk00

Hey girl, I asked my nutritionist (part of a weight loss study I am in) this very question...here's what she said...

"That is a good question! We typically tell people to try to stick to 1500/day WITHOUT accounting for calories burned through exercise. This is because it is very difficult to know exactly how many calories you burn during exercise and most people tend to overeat when they add their exercise calories to their diet. That being said, I think you would probably not log your exercise there and stick to 1500 calories per day."

I am still gonna log my exercise, just to keep track. If my weight loss stalls I will re-evaluate my "net" calories...

This can be appropriate for some people I suppose, but I'd like to point something out.

Following this idea to its logical conclusion looks like this: Because exercise burns are just an estimate, rather than using a reasonable estimate, we should just assume that there was no exercise and not account for it in daily expenditure.

BMR is an estimate. Activity Level is an estimate. Intake is an estimate. Exercise burns are an estimate. So for that matter, why count calories, manage intake or account for exercise or other caloric burn at all, if the requirement is that every factor must be exact (which, of course, is impossible)?..... Sounds a bit like throwing the baby out with the bathwater, doesn't it?

Any calorie counting where you are attempting to account for calories in/calories out is a game of estimates. It's not intended to be an exact science where every single calorie is measured and accounted for - because that's physically impossible. What IS intended to is give reasonable estimates and allow for a general accounting that keeps you at a deficit for weight loss (if your goal is to lose weight.) Clearly, you want the best numbers you can get, so weighing/measuring food and using the most accurate exercise burns available to you is important - but stressing about whether everything is exact or not is an exercise in futility.

What I'm hoping is that the nutritionist is going off of how most counters/trainers work - in that they use "intended exercise" to create a deficit and keep the cal goal stable each day. MFP is different in that it creates a built in deficit, regardless of exercise. So you lose weight whether you exercise or not. They add calories in for purposeful exercise because that calorie expenditure is not included in the normal daily cal goal - this keeps the deficit stable - and therefore keeps the loss stable as well. Many trainers/docs/nutritionists are not aware of this difference in calculations and don't understand what people are asking when they ask if they should "eat exercise calories". Most who DO understand how MFP works recommend eating exercise cals to avoid having too large of a deficit.

Lizzy_Sunflower

What I'm hoping is that the nutritionist is going off of how most counters/trainers work - in that they use "intended exercise" to create a deficit and keep the cal goal stable each day. MFP is different in that it creates a built in deficit, regardless of exercise. So you lose weight whether you exercise or not. They add calories in for purposeful exercise because that calorie expenditure is not included in the normal daily cal goal - this keeps the deficit stable - and therefore keeps the loss stable as well. Many trainers/docs/nutritionists are not aware of this difference in calculations and don't understand what people are asking when they ask if they should "eat exercise calories". Most who DO understand how MFP works recommend eating exercise cals to avoid having too large of a deficit.

Thank you for pointing this out. I have given her a link to the site, but I will also continue this conversation with her using your points to make mine :drinker: