"It's too hard to eat exercise calories back"

Eve1972

I am one of those people that you find so irritating in this post.

I'll explain to you why I have trouble getting all my workout calories in.

1. I no longer eat the way I used to and no longer find that eating copious amount of food is easy for me. If I overeat, even with calories to spare, I feel bloated and tired.
2. I easily burn 600-1000 calories per workout 6 days a week and I do not eat pasta, potatoes, breads, nor do I eat any processed junk foods. Eating 600 calories in quality healthy foods requires a lot of volume for me that I am not interested in.
3. I have tons of energy and feel amazing without eating my exercise calories back. I do not get hungry nor do I feel lethargic.
4. I am maintaining a 2lb per week loss and have been for two straight months without eating them back in full.

I hope that makes sense to you now...

YES! All of this, but especially #2. I'm certainly not going to eat when I'm not hungry just to eat back my exercise cals.

Amen! We all do what works for us.

Ley2ndtry

see now i find it difficult at the moment because i was fat from eating rubbish whilst pregnant not from eating tonnes of healthy stuff, wheni stopped being pregnant and eating crap i maintained, not gained, now i'm eating only healthy stuff i'm loosing.

i've got a goal of 1500cals and sometimes burn 900cals up until last week my goal cals were only 1200 (just started p90x) which was a comfortable amount for me, its hard to find another 1200 HEALTHY cals to eat per day yeah i could make up the numbers with some chocolate, crisps and cake but thats not the point is it?

BerryH

MFP works so well for me that I'm much more in tune with my body. If I burn X amount, I'm hungry for almost exactly that amount!

Delicate

I cant eat back all or most my burnt calories unless i resort to junk food, which I refuse to do (its not uncommon for me to burn 1500-2100 cal in the gym in one day a few times a week, there is not a chance in hell i am going to be physically able to eat 3000 cals of healthy food).

I also cannot eat the same amount of volume of food I used to eat because i listen to my stomach (finish eating before it is full rather than before when i couldnt feel the signal it was full).

People are better doing what works for them.

Fattack

True dat.

I've had days where I'm just not hungry, but most of the time I have to hold myself back from eating my young. I don't think they are in the database anyways.

AMEN! That said, if I were one of the people on this site that do simply amazing workouts (like running marathons, or burning over 1000calories reguarly) I would find it quite difficult to eat my calories back without resorting to unhealthy foods. I generally try to eat clean, but if I've burnt a lot of calories I'll eat a chocolate bar - not to directly aim to eat my calories back, but because I want one - and it's a *safe* time to eat it when I have the calories spare and am not comprimising good nutrition (because I've already eating 1600 calories or whatever of healthy, nutritious food, rather than 900 cals of it or whatever).

I also find it interesting when people say that healthy foods aren't particulary high in calories. Yes, most aren't, but there are quite a few higher calorie *healthy* foods out there - healthy oils, certain fruits / carbs, nuts, avocados... that you don't need to *gorge* on to get your calories up.

Fattack

There will always be fat people on a diet site claiming to not know how to eat enough food. I just ignore them at this point.

As this is the internet, and a very large community, I expect at least a handful of people to post here to disprove this point but - I find that mostly, the people who claim they can't meet their 1200 goal in threads etc., are generally the people with the most to lose, which is why I generally call bull on the "I can't eat 1200 calories!" theory. They're obviously, on the whole, new to dieting, so maybe it's a psychological (if I eat less I'll be thinner / lose it faster / if I say I eat less it makes me thinner?). My MFPs, especially the lighter ones, rarely are shy of the 1200 mark!

_Aimée_

Eating peanut butter off the spoon is a habit which made me fat in the first place. Its full of sugar and fat and not a healthy habit for me personally to return too just to eat back my calories.
Yesterday I only ate 880 cals and my daily target after my exercise was 1900. I had 3 meals and a couple of snacks. Its hot as hell here, well for the UK anyway, and I just don't feel like eating much. Just a banana for breakfast, a light lunch and a reasonably sized dinner, and a small bit of candy and a kiwi as a snack.. I didn't go hungry, I was full pretty much the whole day.. and by the evening time I had over 1000cals to eat. I wasn't even going to attempt to eat more food, all I wanted to do was to drink water and lay on my bed in the nuddie in front of a fan! Eating more would have made me feel sick.

Sometimes, for some people, it is hard to eat back the calories they have burnt off, it is difficult to ignore your body signals which are clearly saying 'full..satisfied..no more'.

whiskey9890

i struggle to eat back my exercise cals, i don't know how long i am going to exercise for at any given time until i've done it so planning those cals isn't feasible to me. i gained my weight through poor choices and lack of exercise not regularly over eating, so making healthy food choices has become important to me i eat three meals a day and have snacks, which normally takes me to my goal or slightly over, add exercise to the equation and i've got extra cals to burn, i do try and eat them back, but i don't want to revert back to unhealthy choices just to use these extras. and yes there are healthy foods i could snack on but not that i would enjoy or could afford (poorly dog costing us more a month than to feed 2 of us for a month)

dad106

I gained my weight through poor eating and eating too much at one time. Even before I came to the website and started logging everything,I don't think that I ate back my exercise calories. I always viewed exercise as burning off what I ate.. not an excuse to eat more or to eat junk.

Now that I'm planning my meals, I plan to eat enough that I get to my goal(give or take a hundred calories) and then exercise. That way I'm eating my goal and my net for the most part never dips below 1000. So far that has worked for me and I have been losing weight steadily. When I try to eat my exercise calories, all I do is maintain my weight.

graysmom2005

Okay, I am sick of seeing these stupid generalizations. I got fat because of severe depression, inactivity and WHAT I ate. Not so much the volume of what I ate. SO, now that I'm eating healthy foods and not just giving up and getting takeout or whatever, I am full every meal with the same amount of food, but not taking in a bunch of empty calories!
I can completely see where people would have trouble eating exercise calories back if they were already full from healthy foods. Yeah, you could just chow down on a candy bar or something or slather stuff with butter, but some of us on here are trying to not just lose weight but also eat healthier in general. So, just because you have the exercise calories for that ice cream or candy bar or sugar-filled soda doesn't mean that's what you should be using those calories on. Don't get me wrong, I love sweets and buttery food, but cutting way back and getting rid of those cravings is part of what I'm trying to do. Not to mention sometimes it's late at night and you've been saving calories all day for dinner or something, then you end up eating less than you expected at dinner and need to chow down before you sleep so you don't net under 1200.

Simply put, people and situations are different, so stop making assumptions!!!

This! I burn between 500-1000 calories a day and my calories are at 1542, so add a THOUSAND calories on there like yesterday and I have to eat around 2500 calories. Could I eat some Pad Thai and ice cream to do that? Sure! But I won't lose weight. Sodium and sugar would kill me. So filling myself up with healthy food...much of which fills you up like apples, veggies, grilled chicken etc is TOUGH. :-)

getfitdiva

Most of the time I never have this problem and have to earn my dinner. The only times are when I have a 1000 calorie burn day.

lausa22

I simply don't WANT to earn my exercise calories back. I don't get hungry after I burn 500 calories, nor do I think 'Yay, I can go have cake!' To me, that's not how a diet works. Just because you've exercised doesn't mean you can stuff your face, you've still got to eat the way you normally would on a diet.
Also, if I burned 1000 calories, I wouldn't want to eat 1000 calories back, it's just too much.

fozziewaca

...

LMAO!! Perfect comment!

FearAnLoathing

Really people need to just worry about themselves insted of acting like they are a f*cking expert in everything

HeyLisa

I like this thread and actually understand both sides. Sometimes i'm not that hungry (which boggles my mind as a small meal like I enjoy now used to just "wake the beast").

That being said.. I do an average of net calories each week. I read about the zig/zag of ups and down calorie days and how it keeps your metabolism working and I liked the idea so I tried it 1) BECAUSE ITS WORKING FOR ME 2) because it fits my lifestyle and I believe this time I can live this way of life instead of just dieting ..

So.. when i'm not that hungry I choose to save my calories for a weekend or a night out to dinner or or or.. as long as I average each week a daily net of 1400 (which is my set point) I am totally happy with MFP.

Ninerz113

I think it's a ridiculous assumption that everyone who uses this site is here because they are overweight and want to lose weight. I find it really annoying when people make generalizations. The site is called My FITNESS Pal. I'm not saying I'm perfect, but when you go on long runs or bikes and easily burn 1000+ calories, those can be difficult to eat back with healthier foods. Try to eat over 1000 calories of just veggies and see how you feel. For me, the point of exercise is to feel good, not so I can eat a giant piece of cake (although of course I'm guilty of that sometimes too). Is it easy to eat back 1000 calories if you go out to eat at Olive Garden or some other unhealthy restuarant? Yes. Is that the most healthy decision? No.

keiraev

I love having the extra calories- I don't always feel hungry enough to eat every single one back but last night for example, I had 1300 cals left for eveing after exercising.

I had a huge portion homemade chilli with sweet potato and guacamole, with a massive salad in olive oil dressing- then I had a healthy dessert followed by two squares of chocolate. I didn't eat 1300 cals but it was at least 1000, I enjoyed every mouthful and what I did eat wasn't what I would call unhealthy food. I also have a couple more snacks during the day if I know I am going to exercise in the evening. I mean, even having a few pieces of fruit can add an extra 200 cals to your day - I know this because when I am trying to stick to my calorie goal WITHOUT exercise I can't even indulge in that or I will go over!

msmandyjo

Honestly, I in the past few weeks, I have found myself being fully satisfied, but short of my calories, even on some days I didn't exercise. It has me wondering how I got fat in the first place. But, one thing that I think makes the biggest difference, is I'm drinking water.
At least a 1/2 gallon, to a full gallon a day. I NEVER drank plain water, only sweet tea and sodas. So, the difference might have been in my liquid calories, or maybe it's that the water fills me up so I don't need as much food. Maybe a mixture. I don't know.

All i really do know, is somedays, yes it seems hard to eat all my calories, and yes, I am a fatty. is it hard to chew and eat mindlessly? No, no it's not. But the thing is, that's what got me to this point, at least I think it is. So, even if I'm wavering around 800-1000 calories for the day, if I don't have a hankering for something in particular, It will be hard to find something to fill that void that won't make me feel guilty for eating it, since I wasn't hungry, or wasn't craving it. I'd rather be low some days than stuff my face for the purpose of stuffing my face.

But, I do still have those days where I want to eat, eat, and eat, and well, those days are hard too, I try to be good, but i also try to figure out exactly what the craving is for, and eat just that instead of cleaning the pantry. I'll throw in an extra workout to justify feeding the cravings, and sometimes the workout equals more than the snack, and then look where we're at!!

myofibril

so why do some people always act like it's SO difficult to eat 1200 calories? I mean really? This is a diet--- it's hard to eat that little.

Because calorie level is not a direct indicator of the satiety or volume of food eaten. A diet filled with healthy, fresh produce will be more satisfying and contain a much higher volume of food than a diet consisting of junk.

Lets take a look at the typical person who comes here looking to diet down. I will bet that one of the first things they do will be to reduce carbs or more specifically refined, simple sugars. They replace them with complex carbs / fibrous carbs, including fruit and veg. They will also increase protein levels and sometimes good fat levels. Their food has a much higher level of nutrient density (more nutrients for less amount of calorie cost) as a result.

Protein and fat have higher satiety levels. Fibrous carbs also keep people fuller for longer (due in part to the fibre content) and you can eat much more of them and stay in deficit than refined / processed foods. Ironically then volume of food goes up but calorie levels go down.

Now. lets look at glycogen levels. On a low calorie diet, especially coupled with exercise, glycogen levels will be generally low for a lot of the time. When glycogen stores eventually get depleted the body starts using fat and muscle for energy producing ketones which suppress appetite.

On the flip side most people will start eating more fruit when they snack which obviously contains fructose. Fructose is the preferred source for topping up liver glycogen when it runs low. Once liver glycogen stores are topped up it sends a "full" signal to the brain giving a "stop eating" signal. So you have double whammy going on.

I haven't even spoken about the psychological aspects. However, it's not surprising that some people have difficulty eating their calorie allotment. It's perfectly understandable.

brneydgrlie

There will always be fat people on a diet site claiming to not know how to eat enough food. I just ignore them at this point.

For alot of people, it's really an issue of education. Once a person learns that all calories are not equal, and they have stopped eating crappy, fat and sugar laden, processed foods, they find it is difficult to adjust. It can be a little overwhelming. Eating 200-300 calories of (for example) french fries is very easy. Eating 200-300 calories of vegetables, like say spinach, is a heck of alot of spinach! Most people eventually learn to walk the fine line between the two, though, and then eating your calories becomes much less of an issue.

brneydgrlie

Well, some people might be like me who ate too LITTLE before. I was constantly under eating and that's why I gained weight, because my body was holding onto everything that went into my mouth! So for people like me, it was hard adjusting to eating 1200 or more calories per day. I literally had to stretch my stomach out a bit.

And you actually lost weight by eating more than you did before? I find that so hard to understand... I mean, thermodynamics and that, if you don't get enough energy, your body HAS to use your fat stores. How can you get fat by undereating?

Candi - do an MFP search on "starvation mode" and you will see discussions about it. Basically, your body has a defense mechanism that if it is not getting enough nutrients, your metabolism actually slows down in your body's attempt to become more efficient and expend less energy to survive.

ladybg81

lol......I've wondered about this myself when I read it. One thing I can add though is that I cleaned out my cabinets and refrigerator and replaced EVERYTHING with healthier food so for me it is a little hard on big calorie burn gym days to eat 2200 calories since most of my food is low-calorie, but I get ur done... :laugh: :laugh: :flowerforyou:

That is my issue sometimes. I eat healthy and it takes A LOT of healthy food to equal the right amount of calories. But, I still push through and just drink whole milk instead of skim or something like that. I can say that it is getting easier to eat all of my calories and that kind of scares me!! :bigsmile:

candistyx

Well, some people might be like me who ate too LITTLE before. I was constantly under eating and that's why I gained weight, because my body was holding onto everything that went into my mouth! So for people like me, it was hard adjusting to eating 1200 or more calories per day. I literally had to stretch my stomach out a bit.

And you actually lost weight by eating more than you did before? I find that so hard to understand... I mean, thermodynamics and that, if you don't get enough energy, your body HAS to use your fat stores. How can you get fat by undereating?

Candi - do an MFP search on "starvation mode" and you will see discussions about it. Basically, your body has a defense mechanism that if it is not getting enough nutrients, your metabolism actually slows down in your body's attempt to become more efficient and expend less energy to survive.

Metabolism slowing is one thing. Metabolism slowing to the point of adding more fat while in a calorie deficit doesn't make sense to me. How slow does a metabolism have to go to be burning less than 1000 calories a day :S

xreinvention

I'm one of those people that irritate you complaining about it.
When I use to eat "more" as you put it... Yes, I did eat more calories. I was eating McDonalds, Arby's, Taco Bell, Fast foods! Each one of those meals is probably 1000 calories alone. Now one of my meals is 300 - 500 calories. Plus I'm burning 400 - 600 calories from a workout? That leaves me with 720 calories left to eat most nights! That's a lot to eat back after I've already had 3 full meals and 2 snacks. The quantity of food I'm eating hasn't increased or decreased (most days) but the amount of calories in them has.

ATT949

Beg to differ but it ain't that easy for me.

I've been on a low calorie diet since December and really gotten into the habit of not eating much. At one point, I put the 23 almonds back in the bag 'cause I didn't want the 100 or so calories.

Now that I'm getting toward my goal and training for a half marathon, I need to increase my calories and my carbs. That means I have to change my dietary habits that I've followed for almost 7 months. It's a significant change for me. Sure, I'll do it but "sit there, don't eat that" is now a habit and I've got to change that habit.

ilookthetype

i have no junk food in my house. I'm lactose and gluten intolerant so I don't have dairy or bread in my house. I'm sensitive to soy so that cuts out a lot of processed food. When I do a good day at the gym I have to eat back a lot of my exercise calories. When what is in the fridge/freezer is fish, chicken, fruit, veggies and eggs it can be hard. Especially if you work out at night. I tend to eat a 'big' lunch, it's a salad with lots of stuff on it (chicken, fruit,veggies, eggs...) but I usually can only eat half and then I've got to eat a couple hundred calories when I get back from a two hour run at 9? I can't do it. But i'm not going to eat high calorie foods just to do that. I don't want that food in my house and most of it makes me sick...what is a girl to do? Run/exercise less? I eat when I'm hungry. I never go to bed hungry and I always wake up hungry.

People are different.

Some of us "got fat" for reasons other than eating too much. I had Celiac's disease. Which prevented my body from digesting and absorbing nutrients properly, so it held on to everything I hate because it wasn't getting anything from my meals at the time of eating. My body was in starvation mode while I was eating a normal amount of food. Now that I've been diagnosed and my body can absorb and use nutrients properly I'm less hungry and I'm losing weight, but I'd suggest that people keep in mind people gain weight for all kinds of reasons.

Sidonas

ILookthetype stated my perspective on this pretty clearly. I am one of those who has a hard time eating 1200 calories per day and an even harder time eating calories I exercise away. Prior to having my son I didn't eat enough. I was on migraine medication that suppresses appetite and literally had reminders on my phone for eating. After my son, I swapped migraine headaches for fibromyalgia, which put me on a medication that can cause water retention and weight gain.

I was always too skinny before and now I am too fat. Being too skinny first did not help, since it meant my body was in "starvation mode" and would hang onto excess calories as much as possible. I have been working my way up to eating 1200 calories per day. I get to make time to eat, eat five or six meals a day, and I look more closely at the sugar and sodium content of my food than I do at the calorie number. I can (and will, dangit) succeed, but it takes just as much time to learn to eat more as it does to learn to eat less. Either way, both the habits and the size of the stomach have to adjust.

i have no junk food in my house. I'm lactose and gluten intolerant so I don't have dairy or bread in my house. I'm sensitive to soy so that cuts out a lot of processed food. When I do a good day at the gym I have to eat back a lot of my exercise calories. When what is in the fridge/freezer is fish, chicken, fruit, veggies and eggs it can be hard. Especially if you work out at night. I tend to eat a 'big' lunch, it's a salad with lots of stuff on it (chicken, fruit,veggies, eggs...) but I usually can only eat half and then I've got to eat a couple hundred calories when I get back from a two hour run at 9? I can't do it. But i'm not going to eat high calorie foods just to do that. I don't want that food in my house and most of it makes me sick...what is a girl to do? Run/exercise less? I eat when I'm hungry. I never go to bed hungry and I always wake up hungry.

People are different.

Some of us "got fat" for reasons other than eating too much. I had Celiac's disease. Which prevented my body from digesting and absorbing nutrients properly, so it held on to everything I hate because it wasn't getting anything from my meals at the time of eating. My body was in starvation mode while I was eating a normal amount of food. Now that I've been diagnosed and my body can absorb and use nutrients properly I'm less hungry and I'm losing weight, but I'd suggest that people keep in mind people gain weight for all kinds of reasons.

MomofTeens

My biggest problem with eating back exercise calories is that I may not get around to exercising until late evening. Then when I'm done, I'm never hungry. I try to plan ahead, but some days I just don't know if I'm going to have time to get in that exercise or not or for how long.
However, its still working out ok.

taletreader

YES!!! I KNOW! put some butter on your food that's about 100 calories easy or drink some juice!! I absolutely do not understand how people say they cannot eat X amount of food when a few months ago they were eating X + 1000!

In many cases it may just be psychological, and in some cases it may be a warning signal that someone's really overestimating exercise calories. I've read a lot of time complaints that it's hard to eat back an extra and unplanned-for 1500, 1800 or 2000 calories after an evening gym session. I'll WELL believe that it is if you aren't exceptionally hungry. Even more so as many forms of exercise can cut appetite. But I much doubt that they SHOULD be eating back that many. With moderate exercise for weight loss I've never eaten back more than 500 calories (from a base of 1450 or so, that is, I also never went down to extremes like 1000-1200).

I am having a slightly different issue right now related to that. I've decided to move to maintenance temporarily and a little prematurely (I feel good with my body but wanted to lose another 10 pounds or so -- BMI right now is 26, down from 38). The reason is that it looks like I need some surgery within the next 4-6 weeks, unexpectedly, and think I should just level off the weight loss before that. But it's hard to do it in a controlled way: even though it should be easy to add another 300 or so calories daily, I find the calorie counts of the last 6 months easier to manage. The extra calories likely come from holding myself back less when having lunch outside the house, and these are guesswork anyway. So... once you stop clamping down quite so hard, doing it right has some extra challenges. Small ones, granted, but real ones.

LorinaLynn

I can understand someone not wanting to eat their calories back. I don't personally agree with it, because I know what's worked for me, and eating less certainly didn't equate to losing more or faster, or feeling good about it. But I understand it can be a psychological barrier.

I can understand that there's sometimes days when you can't eat them all back. With dinner planned, I'll have about 700 left over for today, because I was out shopping right after breakfast and got home late for lunch and just had a Lean Pocket for something quick and easy. Dinner will be delicious and very nutritious, but I probably won't have it until about 8pm or so, whenever my husband gets home. Won't exactly feel like a nighttime snack after.

But I really can't understand how people can consistently be way under, and not eat their exercise calories, and burn a lot through exercise, without burning out. Bravo to you if it works for you, but I know it wouldn't work for me, and I get concerned that it won't work long term for others. This is the only time I've ever stuck with a weight loss plan, because it's the only time I've eaten enough to not get burned out.