Are you supposed to eat the extra calories given to you from

aarynisabee

I am pretty confused when it comes to my calorie goal, and the extra calories given to me once I've exercised. I have been a faithful MFP member for a few months now, but I'm kind of at a weight loss stand still. I'm trying to think of things that I may be doing wrong on accident. Can someone explain to me if you are supposed to eat those extra calories, or you're supposed to only eat to your goal and leave the burned calories alone. I have been trying to stay within my goal even when I exercise, i haven't been eating the extra calories... is this bad? is this good? i don't know. HELLPPPP!

sizehealthy

I would usually recommend eating them, but if you're at a plateau maybe not eat them for a week and see what happens? Or you could look into calorie cycling which I hear works really well when someone's plateauing! Best of luck!!!

SarahofTwins

Personally I stay around 1200-1500 calories...I start zig zagging when I feel like my weight is going slow. Usually I dont eat all of my excercise calories back, I just have them there in case I eat something extra by the end of the day. It really depends how your body is responding on whether it feels hungry or not. I make sure to drink my water or snack on some stuff like fruits.

mangos4music

i have always heard that to lose weight you have to burn more than you eat so i dunno. i dont eat all of mine back, only a lil bit of them

meggonkgonk

The way MFP is designed you are supposed to eat them.

MFP is created so you lose without exercising (so you run a calorie deficit no matter what) but this means that to lose healthily, you are meant to eat most of these (enough so your net number is 1200 at the end of the day) when you do extra working out/activity.

mangos4music

Personally I stay around 1200-1500 calories...I start zig zagging when I feel like my weight is going slow. Usually I dont eat all of my excercise calories back, I just have them there in case I eat something extra by the end of the day. It really depends how your body is responding on whether it feels hungry or not. I make sure to drink my water or snack on some stuff like fruits.

i agree with that. if your hungry and you have the calories, eat a lil snack

Rose91851

What is calorie cycling?

melaniecheeks

It's not as simple as that, given that our bodies are not robots.

A lot depends on your current stats - what weight and height are you? What's you current diet and exercise plan?

baisleac

Your NET calories (on your home page) should be as close to the daily goal MFP set for you as possible.

Your REMAINING calories (on your homepage and food diary page) should be as close to zero as possible.

MFP builds in a deficit for you based on the information you gave it: height, weight, lifestyle, goal weight loss, etc.. All you need to do is follow the calorie goals it gives you.

anglo1369

Hey! I was confused by that at first also! But then I ate 300 calories less (not on purpose) than what my daily remaining calories allowed, and a notice came up that said I needed to eat more or my body would put itself into starvation mode cause my metabolism would slow down! So, yes, we are supposed to eat the extra calories!
On a side note, you mentioned you were at a plateau, I was watching The Doctors the other day and a woman was on with the same concern. They asked if she was doing any strength training and she said "no" cause she didn't want to bulk up. They told her that strength training will help her lose the last 10-15lbs because for every lb of muscle you build, that muscle will burn a couple hundred calories.
Hope this helps! Good luck!

ssc0303

I usually eat about half of them back. Your net calories should at least be 1200. A few months ago I was still getting into the swing of things and I wasn't eating my calories back at all. My net calories would be 50 sometimes...needless to say I wasn't losing weight as quickly as I thought I should have been.

PJS323

I never eat my exercise calories back. I eat anywhere between 1250-1550 calories a day. Regardless of the amount of exercise I do. I usually burn between 1000-1650 calories per day through exercise. You have to burn 3500 calories to lose 1 pound of fat, so how does eating your calories back equal weight loss? The more you workout, and the more muscle you build, the more you can eat. That is due to your resting caloric burn will rise with the weight lost, and muscle built. I have lost 21lbs in the last 5 1/2 weeks, and I feel that if I ate my exercise calories back, I wouldn't have been this successful. If you have any questions, feel free to ask.

absolament

Yes. You are supposed to eat the extra calories given to you from MFP. I think it's mentioned in the post for new members.


I do my best to eat close to the extra calories given to me:

While I was losing weight I tried to stay within 100 more or less of my targeted goal after including excercise calories.

Now that I'm in maintenance mode I try to stay within 200 less or 100 more than my targeted goal after including exercise caloires.

I've managed to lose 1.5 pounds since starting maintenance mode 3 weeks ago. (I should add that maintenance mode put my net calories from 1350 to 1500).

gstolzenburg24

...

Faye_Anderson

Why would you ever eat back your excersize calories?! To lose weight you have to burn more calories during the day than you consume period. If you're caloric goal is 1500 daily, you burn 1000 calories exercising throughout the day ( for all of you that freak out and say that's impossible,, try HIIT for an hour, or doing more than a 30 minute 2 mph walk) and you have a bmr of 2300 for example, MFP will tell you to eat an additional 2000 calories after entering the 1000. If you eat them back you have now consumed a total of 3500 calories and are now at a surplus and again gaining weight. CONGRATS!!!. As long as you average a TOTAL of 1200 FOR THE DAY you're net can be -650! As long as you eat 5-6 small and HEALTHY meals a day to keep your metabolism up. You would be fine eating 5000 calories a day as long as you burned more, you will still lose weight.

There's so much wrong in this post I wouldn't know where to start

Aaron_K123

I am pretty confused when it comes to my calorie goal, and the extra calories given to me once I've exercised. I have been a faithful MFP member for a few months now, but I'm kind of at a weight loss stand still. I'm trying to think of things that I may be doing wrong on accident. Can someone explain to me if you are supposed to eat those extra calories, or you're supposed to only eat to your goal and leave the burned calories alone. I have been trying to stay within my goal even when I exercise, i haven't been eating the extra calories... is this bad? is this good? i don't know. HELLPPPP!

MFP's system intends that you eat your exercise calories back to maintain your deficit. That said, it is REALLY easy and common for people to vastly overestimate the amount of calories they burn in a workout. As such many people here seem to be in the habit of eating back 50% of what they think they have burned just to compensate for that.

You should eat at least 50% back though, it is a bad idea to take what is likely already a large caloric deficit and make it even larger by putting strain on your body via exercise.

Niecytwentyfive

Yep, eat those calories back to balance your number to your daily goal. I burn up a lot of calories, too. I eat them back so that I am not too far under my caloric goal. A good way to get them back is with a good protein low or no sugar shake. :flowerforyou:

randomusername5

I exercise solely because I can eat those calories back! Mmmm.

Aaron_K123

I never eat my exercise calories back. I eat anywhere between 1250-1550 calories a day. Regardless of the amount of exercise I do. I usually burn between 1000-1650 calories per day through exercise. You have to burn 3500 calories to lose 1 pound of fat, so how does eating your calories back equal weight loss? The more you workout, and the more muscle you build, the more you can eat. That is due to your resting caloric burn will rise with the weight lost, and muscle built. I have lost 21lbs in the last 5 1/2 weeks, and I feel that if I ate my exercise calories back, I wouldn't have been this successful. If you have any questions, feel free to ask.

Wow. Yeah OP do NOT listen to this person. Person who posted this, you are seriously doing it wrong...yes of course you are supposed to eat back your exercise calories to maintain a stable and HEALTHY deficit. The goal of exercise is improved fitness not making your deficit huge. If you view the purpose of exercise to be faster weight loss you are setting yourself up for muscle loss, poor fitness and damage to your body. The scale may be going down real fast for you but you will be losing muscle and bone density along with the fat.

In the end ask yourself, is the point to weigh less or is the point to be healthier.

nutmegoreo

NM

Aaron_K123

AH crap, ancient post...fooled again.

heybales

Fooled me too!

ugh.

Edit.
Aaron - at least the person's post we commented on has lost a whole additional 1 lb since 2010 doing it her way.

So anyone seeing her comment will hopefully check her profile and see how bad the advice was.

gstolzenburg24

Why doesn't it tell me to eat them back??? As long as I'm over 1200 for the day it says nothing. Even if it's a negative number for net. If I eat less than 1200 for the day then it says to eat a minimum of 1200. That's the only time it ever says anything. Why does this happen????

heybales

Why doesn't it tell me to eat them back??? As long as I'm over 1200 for the day it says nothing. Even if it's a negative number for net. If I eat less than 1200 for the day then it says to eat a minimum of 1200. That's the only time it ever says anything. Why does this happen????

You log your exercise?

Your eating goal go up?

There ya go.

Edit - did you manually put in the minimum goal for a sedentary woman with no exercise purely for nutritional needs - or did MFP assign you 1200?

gstolzenburg24

I always submit my exercise. I have just noticed no matter what the calories remaining, or net says, as long as the calories eaten is over 1200 it never says anything to me about it. I'm just confused sorry.

heybales

I always submit my exercise. I have just noticed no matter what the calories remaining, or net says, as long as the calories eaten is over 1200 it never says anything to me about it. I'm just confused sorry.

It doesn't tell you as in out right.

You are blindly eating the 1200 on non-exercise days because it says it right there as your eating goal - right?

It's assuming you'll blindly follow the 1500 calorie eating goal if you logged 300 calorie burn in exercise.

And except for how in the world a guy got 1200, if you follow the program method the way it is, it usually works well. Except people can shoot themselves in the metabolism by selecting a very foolish weight loss goal amount, which almost naturally is going to be faster is better in their minds.

carolynruthdav

If I don't eat mine back I don't lose. I eat between 1400 to 1700 a day and have lost 14 pounds since starting back about eight weeks ago. I usually work out 5 days a week and then on weekends I may or may not bike. I'm not as strict on weekends either but as long as I'm losing and getting in shape I'm happy:)

joepage612

You are meant to eat the exercise calories back but one thing i've noticed is that MFP says the amount of exercise I do depletes more calories than it should, in some cases. For example, the computer built into my elliptical trainer will say ive burned 150 calories and MFP will take my info and say ive burned 300. Make sure you know how many calories your activity has burned and do not trust the default that is given by MFP when entering the activity name/duration.

Mariachicat

I eat about a third to half of my exercise calories back.