My (hopefully interesting) experience with Exercise Calories

mike20603

Summary for those who don’t read long posts:

a. When I was 85 pounds overweight, I never ate back exercise calories (worked great)
b. When I was 25 pounds overweight, I got weaker and lost some muscle (still lost weight)
c. Now at 10 pounds overweight, I eat them all back, feel great, and am still losing (although slower)

So, everyone’s right. Don’t them back! Eat them back! Eat some back! It’s all good advice…for me; the effectiveness of each approach was determined by where I was in the process.

Long Version

I see a lot of posts, replies, and comments regarding exercise calories here; and I (think) I feel like many of you who roll their eyes and say, “here we go again with the exercise calorie debate…”

Well, I thought I would share MY experience for those who like to read posts to find nuggets of insight to their weight loss and fitness experience (as I have) from what others have actually been through, on the hope that it may be something they can learn from.

This is the part of my post where I say I am not a medical doctor (I’m actually a federal government employee who works in the cyber security field), and that your mileage may vary.

I was 265ish around Halloween last year (2010), and decided it was time for me get busy living instead of trying to fork and knife myself to death at 42. I am about 5’ 5’, so my BMI was around 40ish…not too good. I quit having 3500 calorie lunches with 3 cokes and wound up around 225 by January 1st. In January, February, and March I started to really watch my intake and got on my elliptical a few times…I dropped about 10 pounds per month.

In April, I started logging calories and exercise religiously, and working out every day. I never ate my calories back because overeating was the reason I got so heavy to begin with. I just couldn’t see the logic in eating calories I’d burned up…I was still trying to lose weight, and it was working just fine. I figured I’d eat them back once I was on maintain mode (and secretly I’d hoped I wouldn’t have to work out so damned much once I reached my goal, so less to eat back).

Well, a funny thing happened on the way to maintenance…plateaus, woozy days, some workout fatigue, and even a short summer cold. My honest opinion is that I was not eating enough. This seems so weird for me to say…I’m not sure anyone I know would ever associate me with not eating enough. However, what worked for me for 6 or 7 months was no longer working for me. I felt like I was breaking down. On top of all that…my scale stopped moving for the first significant time in 7 months.

I am guessing I am not the only one here who tried to bust a plateau by eating less…it totally backfired. I felt like crap, my post-workout fatigue made me question a lot of things (Am I too old for this? Do I have some injury or illness I can’t readily identify? ) and I still had 20 pounds before I hit a healthy BMI. I actually thought that if this is how I’m going to feel at a healthy BMI, I’m not sure I want to get there.

So…I started eating back some calories…some fat, some protein, even (YIKES!) some carbs. I started losing again, and even better…I feel completely better. The whole reason I’m writing this is to try to express how much better I feel than I did a month ago. Now I work hard to fill in the gaps I had previously created for myself (500 calories+ per day in some cases) with healthy and beneficial foods. It’s changed the recent course of my fitness experience and renewed my hope that I can reach a healthy BMI and still feel healthy.

In summary:

Don’t eat them if you still have a bunch of fat to lose…the muscle loss won’t be that significant. The closer you get to a healthy BMI, the more important it will be to replenish your body if you are doing a lot of exercise.

Thanks for reading.

Section for those who want the numbers/methods/etc:

85ish pounds lost. 245 to 160 in 9 months.
First 3 months; cut the junk food and seconds, try to move around.
Second three months; cut portions and exercise more.
Last three months; count every calorie, follow MFB guidelines for fat/protein/carbs, eat cleaner, exercise a lot.

I do 500 calories of cardio six times a week (elliptical or running), and situps/pushups three times a week. My MFP is set to 2 lbs/week, and seemed to be going at about that rate until recently…now around 1/week.

My diet steers mostly clear of processed sugar and processed carbs…not a lot of chips/white bread/candy/cookies. I eat a lot of tuna/salmon/yogurt/almonds/salads for breakfast and lunch…with a normal dinner every night with my wife and kids. I drink a ton of water.

Cdcaldwe

Good post.

Kelly_Wilson1990

Great post!!

bluemist248

Excellent post, the best on this topic I've seen yet! Well done for all your hard work and well done for summarising and explaining yourself so well (many fail at this and spark off very heated arguments because of it). It makes a lot of sense to me so I'm trying this out myself

melsinct

Great post. I think a lot of people on MFP fail to realize what one should do at 50 pounds overweight will be drastically different than what one should do when 10 pounds overweight. For me, the whole game changed when I came to within 15 pounds of goal and had to up my calories. It is like suddenly I had a different body, responding differently to everything I did.

vbennett7

Wonderful progress! Thank you for your post!

EuroDriver

Didn't read the whole thing (too long sorry lol) but from what i read i agree... when im bulking or maintaining i eat my excersise calories+a lil more... when cutting i don't eat excersise calories back...

also every single human body is different some with fast matabolism can eat the cals back and still loose others will actuly gain weight so you just have to experiment..

27strange

Great chronological post of your success and trials with exercise calories! I agree that what works for one person doesn't work for all. There is a lot of good advice out there about exercise calories eating them back, not eating them back, etc but it comes down to what is working for the individual in the moment. You had success not eating them when you were the biggest with the most to lose, now that you are in reaching distance of your goal you need to eat those calories. It makes perfect sense. Its logical. Great job on your success!!!!!!

jennywrens

Great advice! My stance on the great 'eating back exercise calories' has always been 'I dont eat them back, but I am aware that this might be something I need to play about with as the weeks / months roll on'

Listen to what your body is telling you - its a clever tool!

mike20603

I think a lot of people on MFP fail to realize what one should do at 50 pounds overweight will be drastically different than what one should do when 10 pounds overweight. For me, the whole game changed when I came to within 15 pounds of goal and had to up my calories. It is like suddenly I had a different body, responding differently to everything I did.

OK...I was trying say this (as well), and you did so for me perfectly. Thank you.

pooksMS

Thanks for this post and very well written!

bmmadden

Funny you wrote that because that is exactly what I was planning to do because right now the minimum 1200-1300 calories is working for me without eating the exercise calories and I do exercise for about 45min-1 hr but I still have about 70 more lbs and Im still seeing good numbers coming off the scale and my plan was that when I start to plateau at a smaller weight I was going to start eating more exercise calories so thanks for the advice/information

michelleion

Fabulous post - well said, and experienced!

KotyTyler

Absolutely love your post!!

stormieweather

Good post and congratulations on your weight loss! You've done wonderfully :flowerforyou:

vlc1979

Great info!

westcoastSW

Great post! Hoping others will read it and consider your points

mamamia29

Thanks, im at the point where i need to eat my exercise calories and yes it is working!
Well said & well done on ur loss : )

yanicka

Wonderfull love it!!!

BerryH

I'd keel over if I didn't eat my exercise calories! Great informative post.

zoombie_bear

thanks for your input on this, great journey for you:drinker:

amsparky

Congrats on your success and thanks for breaking it down so nicely!

Getting_Fit_4_Life

Great post.

VeganGal84

excellent post! :drinker: Cheers to eating back those exercise calories!

I am close to goal and at a healthy BMI, and I cannot imagine not eating them, but perhaps I would have been fine not eating them when I weighed 220. I'm not sure, since I only recently found MFP!

Ilovedrinkingtea

AMAZING post, well done, you've said many of the things I wanted to say on here!!! xx

kynichol21

Bump!! Great advice.

wonrob

I've been waiting for this post! Awesome


But exercise cals never really mattered for me because my burn isn't that huge and my intake really depends on what we have at home.

sahalcomb

I've been a off & on dieter most of my adult life. I'm new to MFP this month so the "eat your exercise calories" was strange to me (first time I'd ever thought about it). Eating in excess is what got me to the point I'm at now...again!!! I lost a lot of weight many years ago and can totally relate to your post. I needed less calories to lose, but more to support my new lifestyle when I lost it! Back at it again... at my heaviest I can't wrap my brain around eating, just to be eating. But WHEN I lose the weight, my body will NEED the extra calories because of increased metabolism, increased exercise, etc. Great post & great success! Congrats!

xoticlady

Thanks for posting this Mike! I did a search for exercise calories and am glad I found your posting first. I haven't had a great deal to lose and am exercising rigorously, but I found the concept of eating that back on just proposertous! Why would someone want to eat back on what they spent all that time working on?!?! But I took it on blind faith about 2 weeks ago..I figured there must be a logical reason why they have this in the software program. I've started to finally see real results.

Now don't get me wrong...I have been seeing tremendous results in my body from the routine exercise, particularly the weight training. Why just today I was sitting at my desk unconsciously rubbing my arm and I was like "Holy cow I can feel real muscles back there!!!!" That was on top of this mornings pleasant surprise of FINALLY getting under a certain weight that I've been struggling with for many months now (since I joined MFP).

I post this to say that - for those of us near goal - it does work! Follow the plan! But be sure to make good, healthy choices in what you eat to put it back on. I'm a very happy camper!

mandeiko

Good to know Thanks for sharing!

Elleinnz

Great post - just started eating back my calories as I was seeing a slowdown in my weekly loss...... after 2 weeks the results looks pretty positive - I promissed I would give myself two weeks regardless of up or down....

I am going to keep eating them for sure :-)