So I'm considering eating my exercise cals..

cvstokke

Okay so I've always been one of those 'don't east your exercise calories' people and was losing lots of weight. I'm stuck at 154 right now and getting very frustrated. I eat my 1200 calorie minimum and work out for at least and hour everyday. For the most part, I don't go over on any particular group (fats, carbs, sugars, sodium, etc.) but I am not losing like I want to. I'm CONSIDERING the possibility that I may need to start eating my exercise calories back (I'm going to be at 1,000 cal deficit for today for example). I don't think I want to eat back all of them, but something has got to give so I need your help -

It seems apparent to me that my metabolism has slowed down considerably so I can't all the sudden jump up to eating 2,200 calories and expect to lose either. Should I gradually start adding in exercise calories day by day/week by week? Any suggestions as to how to start eating them back gradually without completely blowing up (or without gaining any initial weight at all if possible)? Any of you follow a rule for what portion of your exercise calories you eat back?

Not to be mean, but please spare me the net calorie talk ("well MFP builds in a calorie deficit already") - I know all of that, I've just never been one who eats my exercise calories back (everyone's personal choice) and I'm trying to find a sort of compromise with my body. I'm training for a half-marathon and realizing I can't do things like run 7 miles and do 30DS while only on 1200.

Thanks and any help is really appreciated it - I can't tell you how frustrated I've been with my body this week (except, of course, I can, because many of you have been there so you're the only ones who 'get it')!

sharidiane

I added back 300 calories a day when I was at a stall, and the weight started coming off again. I also FELT better, physically. If 300 a day seems too high, try 250 a day and see how it goes.

Are you doing strength training?

bitterbrownie

if i were you, i would begin eating some of them. just a few here and there - don't try and reach a certain amount. just add in a little snack here and there such as a portion of fruit or maybe a low calorie cereal bar or whatever you want! monitor your weight and you can always knock a few back or eat some more. you're unlikely to go way out of control in a week.

it's great that you exercise so much! if you are going to eat some back then make sure it's with the right foods for the exercise such as protein and some carbs and fruit and veg. i think the exercise calories will help to boost your metabolism and work out the plateau. you can always change what you're doing so try eating a few of them and see what happens. hope this helps and good luck

icerose137

When I crossed into the 32 BMI zone, I stopped losing weight. I realized that I'd built enough muscle and was active enough that my fitness profile was now too low. It was sedentry. I am a stay at home mom, but I no longer am so weak and tired that I sit all day. I also have a lot more muscle to feed. Bumping up my fitness profile I gained 200 calories that way. I have been eating them as well as half or more of my excercise calories and I haven't gained anything. Haven't lost any pounds either yet, but I have lost inches. I'd say bump it up gradually. You'll know when you find your spot. I aim to eat between 1400-1600 calories a day to start with and eat more if I'm a lot more active.

Ironically enough when I first started I couldn't possibly eat all my calories on my allotment (1400) but now that I've really bumped up the strength training and that, my appetite has come roaring back without me gaining any weight and I've put on quite a bit of lean muscle too.

eliz_in_pink

bump

27strange

I would say its time to start eating back a portion of them. Don't necessarily eat them all back. But eat back half or so of your exercise calories. I also am headed down this same path I figure. I am eating 1200 a day and exercising about 50 minutes a day average. I think I will have to start eating back some of my exercise calories soon as well.

ironmoney

ok so my first thoughts are you need to eat enough to build lean muscle mass which in turn will help your metabolism. Because there is a percentage of weight loss that loses muscle as well and if your not eating enough to support muscle mass then your losing muscle mass which in turn is slowing down your metabolism. Also I found an article if you want to read up on plateus in weightloss. I think an easy way to look at it is there should only be a 500-1000 calorie deficiet at most each day. If not your starving your body and it will eat muscle/ protein in muscle to survive. Just my thoughts on it.
http://www.acefitness.org/fitfacts/fitfacts_display.aspx?itemid=2670&category=13

mike20603

I just posted my experiece in a similar situation. The sensible (IMO) option is to try to eat them back and see what happens. No one ever gained all their weight back eating exercise calories...try it for two weeks. If nothing else, you'll most likely bust through a plateau and change up your eating enough to keep from getting bored.

This quote says it all:

'I'm training for a half-marathon and realizing I can't do things like run 7 miles and do 30DS while only on 1200.'

Seems like you already know what to do.

EuroDriver

IMO if you want to loose more weight don't eat your cals back.. because its simple cals in vs cals out.. and if you are eating enough cals + excersice cals you will just pleatu and be stuck at your weight...

SeasideOasis

Either start eating back your workout calories, or start zig zagging your calories (1200 then 1600 then 1200 then 1600 etc) daily. Your body has gotten FAR too comfortable where you are eating. Plus, if you are working out that frequently, you need 1400+ calories a day just so you aren't always netting negative calories. Believe it or not, but more calories are better than less calories when your body gets to a certain point. If you have a significant amount of weight to lose, you can get away with the really small net calories for awhile, but once your body starts getting to the stage of lean, toned muscles, building more muscles, and more body shaping versus JUST weight loss, you need to eat.

Have you ever looked at how many calories athletes eat, for example when they are working out and training?

SeasideOasis

IMO if you want to loose more weight don't eat your cals back.. because its simple cals in vs cals out.. and if you are eating enough cals + excersice cals you will just pleatu and be stuck at your weight...

She is already stuck at her current weight, so she does have to make changes...Read her post...

chuisle

I agree with several of the posters. You know its not enough. You can't expect your body to do exceptional things on relatively little fuel. Why would you eat the same amount of calories for a day when you don't do anything physical and another when you run for over an hour? You risk injury and exhaustion by keeping your calories too low. I don't really believe in starvation mode and totally agree you need to do what's right for your body but ask yourself why it is that you think its optimal to never eat back any of your calories. There's a lot of middle ground between a strict 1200 a day and 1200+1000 exercise calories.

Also...how long have you been stuck?

Saelina

I just started, however I lost 4 lbs the first week then nothing. I just switched to upping the protein amount I take in each day without altering my calories. I swapped out one of my fruit snacks for nuts and ate an egg for breakfast instead fruit w/ yogurt. I gained a lb at first, but today I finally dropped. The past two days I've exceeded mfp's recommenations for protein. Evaluate the types of calories you are eating maybe?

goingnowhere

To avoid the starvation alarm to our brains that occurs when our metabolism slows down the burning of calories if we burn more calories than we eat:

The amount of calories we burn needs to stay within 300-500 calories of what we eat. According to the article I read. it doesn't even matter on what side of the column the difference falls as long as it's within 300-500 calories of each other. But I think that's just to stay healthy and avoid gaining weight.

I personally believe if I'm trying to LOSE weight, I need to burn 300-500 more calories than I eat, but I consistently eat at least 1200 calories. So.....I need to add 300-500 exercise calories to my day for a total of 1500-1800, then eat 1200 - 1300 calories. Hopefully this makes sense - I think it's a simpler concept than my explanation! Good luck!

fldillon

Our bodies are strange. There are lots of reasons that you could be hitting a sticking point. Believe it or not, your body will adjust to your caloric intake. If you have been eating 1200 calories steady for a period of time, your metabolism adjusts to keep your weight steady. The body doesn't like change and it will fight you.

Additionally, as someone else mentioned, your body develops muscle memory. If you are doing the same workout day in and day out, your muscles adapt to the movement and you get less benefit.

What typically works well when you hit one of these "sticking points" is to do a couple of things that sparks the weightloss again:

1) Trick your metabolism back into gear by using a low/high calorie diet for a few weeks. If you normally eat 1200 calories a day, cut a quarter of your calories off one day and add it to the next (900 day 1, 1500 day2, 900 day3, 1500 day4, ...). You will still eat the same number of calories over the course of 2 weeks but the up and down rollercoaster catches your metabolism off guard and sparks the weightloss.

2) Change up your workout or add a different type of exercise at a different time of the day. The best time to exercise is in the morning. If you aren't doing anything, try adding a brisk 20-30 minute walk/job BEFORE eating. If you are already doing morning cardio, try adding a brisk 20-30 minute walk an hour or two before you go to sleep. If you don't have the time to do either of these, try a different workout for a few weeks trying to hit muscles you don't normally hit.

Hope that helps!

EuroDriver

IMO if you want to loose more weight don't eat your cals back.. because its simple cals in vs cals out.. and if you are eating enough cals + excersice cals you will just pleatu and be stuck at your weight...

She is already stuck at her current weight, so she does have to make changes...Read her post...

sorry theres just so many of these threads i kinda skipped it lol but yes pleatus suck and what you can do is increase your cal intake (you gain a few lbs hopefully muscle) while excersising hard and then start dropping again by 200cals at a time and you will start to loose again... you wont break through a pleatu unless you increase the cals for about 2-4weeks.. increase just by 300-500 and see how your body reacts.

joi1407

I thought the allowance MFP gives you already creates the deficit needed to lose weight. Therefore you add to the calories you're allowed to eat by exercising?
Maybe that's where I'm going wrong as I've not lost any yet... but then it's only my third week and I had an "off" weekend.

Ilovedrinkingtea

I didn't realise that you were training for a half marathon.

I will tell you about eating back the exercise calories from my perspective, not to tell you what to do, just what worked for me.

Your story sounds a bit similar to mine. When my weight wasn't budging before, I couldn't understand why as I was always in the gym - sometimes 3 times a day and running for miles, and burning up calories until I was often -1,000 or -700 calories very regularly. People kept saying I ate a lot and I was overweight because I ate junk - but that wasn't the case. I couldn't understand why the weight wasn't shifting when I would exercise away pretty much everything I ate. I would come home after running 15 miles and eat beans on toast.

The turning point came when I made a post here on MFP a while back. I posted my struggle and asked people to comment on my food diary. A lot of the posters came back and said that I had an eating disorder and I was not eating enough in relation to my exercise. This came as a huge shock to me. It was literally like I'd been told suddenly that the earth was flat. I had to think about it for a bit, and then I realised that they were right. Nobody else I knew was the same size as me and going to the gym 3 times a day. There had to be something wrong. I started doing what MFP told me to do. I got a heart rate monitor so I could see exactly what I was burning off in the gym and not using the MFP settings for exercise. Since then I've lost half a stone after struggling for about five or six years or starving myself and torturing myself in the gym with little to eat.

I definitely think my metabolism had packed up. It wasn't until I started eating those cals back that I began to see a regular loss. I honestly feel fitter and stronger now. My running has also improved and last week I ran a 5km race and I was a minute and 23 seconds faster than the same race last year.

I honestly feel your frustration. It is so disheartening to feel you're really doing everything you can to lose wieght and it's just not happening.

xx

cvstokke

Alright, y'all have me convinced - I thinik what I'm going to try is eating around 1400 on days I do 'heavy' exercise and keeping it at 1200 on skip days (I don't normally have these but for example, I have a race Saturday so Friday will be rest) or days where all I do is strength training and a 2 mile run. I can up it from there, but since my metabolism is probably shot, I don't want to suddenly start eating too much and gain a ton.

Thanks so much for the constructive feedback (feedback on this plan is welcome too)! I really hope this works :-/

12by311

Alright, y'all have me convinced - I thinik what I'm going to try is eating around 1400 on days I do 'heavy' exercise and keeping it at 1200 on skip days (I don't normally have these but for example, I have a race Saturday so Friday will be rest) or days where all I do is strength training and a 2 mile run. I can up it from there, but since my metabolism is probably shot, I don't want to suddenly start eating too much and gain a ton.

Thanks so much for the constructive feedback (feedback on this plan is welcome too)! I really hope this works :-/

If you eat the right foods and have an HRM, even if you eat every single exercise calorie back, you aren't going to pack on pounds.

Here's some other things to think about....

1.) You may have a TEMPORARY gain. Do not freak out. Give it time.

2.) Your weight loss at this point may be excruciatingly slow. You only have 19 pounds to lose. I KNOW it's frustrating. Trust me - I know! Try not to get discouraged. Give it more time. Even if you are maintaining, that's better than gaining.

Ilovedrinkingtea

It IS TERRIFYING, trying to bring yourself round to the idea of eating back your exercise calories when for years you've been thinking things like "I eat too much, I've probably not burnt that off, I'm fat".

Baby steps, just try what you're comfortable with at first and try not to put yourself under too much pressure.

I found that when I started eating the calories back, I couldn't manage to do them all, I was afraid of eating so much, but then I did and the weight fell off more or less straight away, but some people on MFP say that they got a gain first and then losses started after 1-4 weeks xx