How mfp works

Newfiedan

This post is for those whom seem to misunderstand how mfp works and need a reminder on it and the finer points of making it work for you.

1) When you joined and put in all your info mfp gave you a daily goal for calories. That goal already has the deficit needed to shed that weight built in right off the crack of the bat with no exercise built in, period end of story. For those whom do not know here is the breakdown on daily deficits based on mfp's goals. The daily deficit is what you need to shed the fat.
1/2 lb loss a week = 250 cal deficit/day BUILT IN.
1 lb/wk loss = 500/day
1.5 lb/wk loss =750/day
2 lb/wk loss - 1000/day.

2) Eating back the exercise calories:
Yes you eat them back unless you want to exceed the goal set forth by mfp every day, IF YOU LOG ACCURATELY EVERY DAY! This is the part that sooooo many seem to have trouble wrapping their heads around. If you log every day and log accurately for food intake and what you burn during exercise via a hrm (get a good one) then it will work without fail. It has done so for me and nearly every single person whom has befriended me on mfp.So lets give an example here:
Person X eats 1200 cals a day, works out and burns 300 cals a day leaving them with 900 net cals, refuses to eat back those exercise cals. They are dipping below starvation mode, give them 2 or 3 days like this and fat loss will stop dead in its tracks and the body will start to consume muscle for survival. So when mfp says eat those calories then that means eat them for a reason, you are not working out for nothing. Your working out to raise your BMR not to shed more fat, let the body shed the fat for you while you enjoy your meal and recover from your workout.

3) Having trouble eating what mfp says you should for caloric intake? You are not alone, many of us do or did not eat enough for fat loss, do not be alarmed. Eating right/more does work I am living proof of that and no I am not trying to sell you something or a fat loss program. I am trying to get you to understand that healthy fat loss is totally achievable without starving the body and it can be done in a way that makes you happy and full of energy. So society/tv/commercials and all those other crack heads/snake oil salesman have it wrong, starving yourself to lose fat is not the answer end of story.

4) Get used to the idea that there are going to be the naysayers out there saying that their "diet" is the best. What else is new, any diet that restricts good healthy foods like fruits, good fats, and healthy carbs is just that it is a diet, not a lifestyle change that will serve you better in the long run. We need to find what works for us and if you trust mfp, log accurately and religiously then it will work for you.

5) Why 1200/day as the minimum? Well this part is debated hotly around here, the reasoning behind that is that it is pretty hard to get the proper nutrition into your body on this low of an intake, so that is why they enforce it so strongly on the site. It is not an arbitrary number they pulled out of thin air, it has been proven several times over that 1200 or less a day is not advisable. Yes you can function on less but do you really want to be walking around starving the body and depleting muscle?

6) Starvation mode what is it? Well simply put starvation mode is not starving yourself from a hunger standpoint. The starvation mode they speak of is when the body is not being fed what it needs so in turn it will slow down the metabolic rate and effectively shut down fat loss. It happens daily on here and the number 1 reason for plateaus as ppl call them on here is that they are simply not eating enough. You can not expect to train like an olympian and eat like a mouse and expect fat loss, it is simple physics. The body need X amount of fuel to run, and X+more for effective fat loss, it is figuring out what amounts work for you to make fat loss a real thing.

So I hope this helps to clear up some misconceptions out there and if you have a question feel free to ask, I will do my best to answer it.

alliecore

Well said! :drinker:

RadicalCharlie

I return.

Do you think that if you work out constantly and 'eat like a mouse' for long term that you really wouldn't lose any fat?

Newfiedan

that is a no brainer, the answer is yes, you will stop losing fat I can 100% guarantee that. You see it here on mfp every single day, working out like mad, have not lost a single pound and eating only 1200 calories a day, if i had a dime for every one of those posts I would be rich.

ShellyMacchi

*S* exactly how it's been working for me!

oh at first i had a hard time eating my full 1200, and i was losing slowly.. but once i got my body used to being fed in a healthy way, and as close to my full 1200 net per day, i started losing way more successfully. (ie, more consistently AND larger weekly losses)

Trust the system.. it DOES work

MyNameIsNotBob

I return.

Do you think that if you work out constantly and 'eat like a mouse' for long term that you really wouldn't lose any fat?

Oh, you'll lose fat, all right. And muscle, too. And then your body starts to eat your organs: liver & kidney, brain & heart... yikes.

Newfiedan

shelly is one of those ppl who befriended me and found a better path, she is dead on the money.

RadicalCharlie

Okay, but how long were they doing that? A day? Two days?
You're saying if I ran 10 miles everyday for 6 months and ate only 1000 calories a day, I wouldn't lose any weight, Newfiedan?

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/2016490?dopt=Abstract

CorinthiaB

Thanks.

Newfiedan

I firmly stand by my convictions that you will not shed any fat by doing that, what you will do is slow down your metabolic rate and consume muscle. Fat is the last thing the body turns to for energy. In order here is what the body consumes. Carbs, protein, fat. it will consume your muscles before it burns the fat if it is done in an unhealthy manner. I do not think you are ready to wrap your head around my message spacecoconaut and that is fine, in time you will come around and learn the right path.

RadicalCharlie

Your body resorts to fat before resorting to muscles.

Also, if you were to do a VLCD and lose 3 lbs a week in the beginning, your metabolism would only slow down to make you lose 2 1/2 to 2 1/4 lbs a week. It would not come to a complete halt.

How about we test this for sure? I'll be the dummy and log my weight while on a restricted diet and while doing an intense exercise routine daily.

Elzecat

Okay, but how long were they doing that? A day? Two days?
You're saying if I ran 10 miles everyday for 6 months and ate only 1000 calories a day, I wouldn't lose any weight, Newfiedan?

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/2016490?dopt=Abstract

I'm seriously trying to figure out how anyone would possibly have enough energy to run 10 miles a day if they're eating less than 1000 calories a day....seriously. I have met a number of serious runners in the past few months (both on MFP and "in real life") and all of them advocate eating to fuel your runs.

:huh:

RadicalCharlie

Exercising is more about willpower over stamina.

Newfiedan

Be my guest, I was about to issue you such a challenge, to go on a vlcd and log everything accurately. I know what I preach works as I have done it myself and continue to do so for many on here by getting them off plateaus and eating better. You have much to learn about how real fat loss works and you are sorely uneducated about proper fat loss, so I absolutely will be in for this. Do it your way for 3 weeks to get some consistent results via not just the scale but by measurements as well so we get a bodyfat analysis. Then give it 3 weeks via my way and see the difference.

therobinator

You're saying if I ran 10 miles everyday for 6 months and ate only 1000 calories a day, I wouldn't lose any weight, Newfiedan?

He said you wouldn't lose any FAT.....not that you woudln't lose any WEIGHT (i.e. muscle weight).

RadicalCharlie

Alright, Newfiedan!

I will do this for 3 weeks. Maybe you're right, I really don't know but I'm the type to learn things the hard way, so I guess we'll see.

I might actually vlog this if I can figure out how to edit my videos and such.

Newfiedan

the problem with the results robinator is that for this to be a valid experiment there would need to be an impartial third party doing said analysis, which in this case would be rather difficult to do.

therobinator

Your body resorts to fat before resorting to muscles.

Yes, when you are eating enough calories.

How about we test this for sure? I'll be the dummy and log my weight while on a restricted diet and while doing an intense exercise routine daily.

No one will truly endorse this except to prove you wrong.

Exercising is more about willpower over stamina.

Not if you want to exercise effectively. You'll see.

Space Coconaut -- I think you need to get your head out of....well, space.

Please listen to these folks here who have learned the hard way, and are trying to save you the time and trouble of having to do the same thing yourself. This is a very helpful and cordial community here at MFP, and no one (who has a clue what they are talking about) would advocate that you do anything that isn't 100% good for you.

/therobinator steps off soapbox

menchi

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Starvation_mode

Nice short read on starvation mode, but I'm a chemist and chemical names/processes make me smile. Here's the important bits in regular English.

0-12hrs after you stop eating, your body finishes off the glucose store from food you recently ate
2-3 days into fasting, you body burns stored fat for energy (so SpaceCoconaut is right on the short term)
after 2-3days, the fat isn't good enough b/c your brain is starved for glucose and eventually start breaking down the protein in muscle so that it can have glucose (so Newfiedan is right that you won't be shedding fat in the long run)

So yeah you could eat like a mouse and lose weight, but you are throwing out the good stuff with the bad. Y'know, baby & bath water. And yes, I realize I;m describing full fasting above, but starvation mode with not enough calories will be similar but more gradual.

:happy: The best way I can explain and motivate why anyone would eat back exercise calories is this:
Exercise is NOT meant to directly make you lose weight, your calorie deficit does that (HOME tab, click Goals, deficit # is in red on right side). Exercise is help you build muscle (toned or bulk, depends on how you workout) which **increases your metabolism** which helps you burn more calories EVEN when you aren't working out. In order to build those muscles, you got to feed your body.

therobinator

the problem with the results robinator is that for this to be a valid experiment there would need to be an impartial third party doing said analysis, which in this case would be rather difficult to do.

We still know it to be true, though.

Newfiedan

Alright, Newfiedan!

I will do this for 3 weeks. Maybe you're right, I really don't know but I'm the type to learn things the hard way, so I guess we'll see.

I might actually vlog this if I can figure out how to edit my videos and such.

for this to be a valid experiment with real results there needs to be a bodyfat analysis using caliper methods by someone who knows how to do it right. I am currently at 16.65% bodyfat from my last caliper measurements, and I drop that % every week I shed weight while I retain 99% of my muscle mass. So if you really want to do this we need real numbers to work from not just a scale number.