Who does not eat back exercise calories???

Enforcer25

I don' really plan this either way, if I eat them back I don't worry about it, most days I don't, but sometimes I do. I'm pretty standard on what I eat, so I know what I'll have left over every day.

brit49

my mother's brother's cousins' ex-wife's brother in law does not

:laugh:

Funny! Sometimes I do most times I don't, I really don't have alot of lbs to lose. What works for me at my age and health is not too much carbs everyday sometimes I do eat bread , rice If I work out alot I will eat more, because I'm usually hungry

elsa11170

I'm so paranoid that my body will go into starvation mode I normally eat back my calories. When I first got on MFP I lost the weight fast, this time around it's going a little slower.

HMonsterX

I just cant imagine eating back all those calories i burned! Like today for example, i burned 1,943 calories. Am i really supposed to eat that much in the next few hours?! Sod that! :P

albayin

I just cant imagine eating back all those calories i burned! Like today for example, i burned 1,943 calories. Am i really supposed to eat that much in the next few hours?! Sod that! :P

Curious, what did you do in order to burn that many? I walked everyday for 1.5 hours, I mean fast walk, I only burned something around 200, or 3, maybe.

h3h8m3

I just cant imagine eating back all those calories i burned! Like today for example, i burned 1,943 calories. Am i really supposed to eat that much in the next few hours?! Sod that! :P

Curious, what did you do in order to burn that many? I walked everyday for 1.5 hours, I mean fast walk, I only burned something around 200, or 3, maybe.

I don't know what he did, but I will burn around 2000 calories when I do a long bike ride. Alternatively, if I do a long distance run I can get somewhere in that same ballpark.

SoCalSwimmerDude

She will probably say no, as she may not be aware that MFP sets you up with a caloric deficit to begin with. Most likely she will base your caloric intake on TDEE, which should be a higher amount than your 1600.

As an example say MFP gives you 1450 calories to lose 1 lb/week, and you plan on exercising 5x/week for an average of 400 cals per workout. well MFP will tell you to eat 1450 on the days you don't workout and 1850 on the days you do whereas a "professional" may tell you to eat 1750 everyday regardless if you workout.

So for the week MFP will have you eat 12,150 (1450*2+1850*5) whereas doing it the other way will have you eat 12,250 (1850*7) almost the same number of cals for the week. The issue in not following MFP is if you don't workout the full 5 days or burn more or less than planned. If that is the case you may lose more or less than your goal, whereas MFP will have you lose your goal amount regardless how much you actually workout.

What many MFP do is take the low 1450 and not eat back exercise calories which is wrong, if you are not eating them back then your daily activity level should reflect the higher burn with would be covered in the 1750/day above.

You could explain this until your fingers are about to fall off, but people aren't listening (unfortunately).

I don't care if someone eats their cals back or not, but what bothers me is that they don't understand that they are ALREADY on a deficit if using MFP. Further, its probably important for a nutritionist to see exactly how MFP works prior to making a recommendation one way or the other.

Try this on for size: YOU COULD EAT ALL OF YOUR EXERCISE CALS BACK AND STILL BE UNDER WHAT YOUR MAINTENANCE CALORIES ARE!! Eh, I'm either preaching to the choir or yelling at a 1st grader... some will listen and others won't... to each his or her own. Just get to your goals and see what works for you LONG term.

FearAnLoathing

I dont I usally eat 1200 to 1300 before exercise.I got to the gym 5 days a week for 60 to 90 minutes.Ive always lost weight just fine and feel great.Im not trying not to eat them,and I do go into them during social situations but other than that no not really to be honest

albayin

You could explain this until your fingers are about to fall off, but people aren't listening (unfortunately).

I don't care if someone eats their cals back or not, but what bothers me is that they don't understand that they are ALREADY on a deficit if using MFP. Further, its probably important for a nutritionist to see exactly how MFP works prior to making a recommendation one way or the other.

Try this on for size: YOU COULD EAT ALL OF YOUR EXERCISE CALS BACK AND STILL BE UNDER WHAT YOUR MAINTENANCE CALORIES ARE!! Eh, I'm either preaching to the choir or yelling at a 1st grader... some will listen and others won't... to each his or her own. Just get to your goals and see what works for you LONG term.

What actually bothers me is that how one number fits all? How would MFP know how my metabolism works and gives out the number that will work for me?

I think I will try both ways, just like some fellows have suggested and with trial and error hopefully I can finally find the sweet spot.

RunRideRay

We need an MFP survey monkey thing.... who's keeping the stats???

NO for me, and I've been doing this long enough to know that's what works for me when trying to reduce fat.

OK.....everyone want a little secret?????

1lb of body fat = 3500 calories

When trying to reduce fat, I target about 1.5 lbs per week, which is ~700 calorie deficit per day, which I generally try to use from my exercise calories. Now.... it's not that easy, because there are all kinds of metabolism and other influences on that. Some have hinted about this on posts, but in all the pages I did not see any reference to leveling blood sugar levels. To me, that is the true secret. If you can stabilize the blood suger (glucose level) then the body can more easily work on going to fat stores for energy, and not what is readily available in the blood stream. This takes some effort to dial-in, but once you do you can burn energy from fat without any big hunger, have enough energy, and see real reductions each week.

The best part about it...... fat cells don't stand a chance!

HMonsterX

I just cant imagine eating back all those calories i burned! Like today for example, i burned 1,943 calories. Am i really supposed to eat that much in the next few hours?! Sod that! :P

Curious, what did you do in order to burn that many? I walked everyday for 1.5 hours, I mean fast walk, I only burned something around 200, or 3, maybe.

63 mins of DDR - 881
2 hours of competitive badminton - 1062

RunRideRay

I completely stopped using MFP for tracking cals.... just don't trust it [but love MFP]

No judgement needed on me, but offer what I do.

I set a ~2000 cal threshold as maintenance cals, what keeps me alive.

I decide to add supplemental energy to support workouts, and it's an energy in, energy out equation. If I am going for a 3 hour bike ride, better have a couple bananas, some gels, and a protein shake afterward, all timed to when I need the energy to support the workout. It's like running the car on a 1/4 tank of gas, and fill it up as I need it.

pammyedmunds

I generally don't eat my exercise calories back the majority of the time. However it depends on how active I am. If I know I am going to be doing double/triple workouts I will increase my calorie consumption to 1800 calories vs the MFP 1660 Calories Goal. I don't see a difference if with my calorie range when it comes to loosing weight. If I go over 200 calories I would probably gain. But I also drink more thean 15 cups of water a day..so it evens itself out.

SoCalSwimmerDude

You could explain this until your fingers are about to fall off, but people aren't listening (unfortunately).

I don't care if someone eats their cals back or not, but what bothers me is that they don't understand that they are ALREADY on a deficit if using MFP. Further, its probably important for a nutritionist to see exactly how MFP works prior to making a recommendation one way or the other.

Try this on for size: YOU COULD EAT ALL OF YOUR EXERCISE CALS BACK AND STILL BE UNDER WHAT YOUR MAINTENANCE CALORIES ARE!! Eh, I'm either preaching to the choir or yelling at a 1st grader... some will listen and others won't... to each his or her own. Just get to your goals and see what works for you LONG term.

What actually bothers me is that how one number fits all? How would MFP know how my metabolism works and gives out the number that will work for me?

I think I will try both ways, just like some fellows have suggested and with trial and error hopefully I can finally find the sweet spot.

Yup, I don't disagree at all. I guess I've been lucky, because I've stuck to what MFP tells me and its worked like a well oiled machine. However, now that I'm in a 'adding muscle' phase, I am currently trying to figure it all out all over again. I don't mind what people do, I just wish everyone knew exactly how the site was designed in order to get those results.

4himalone

bump

i want to read all these responses! LOVE this topic!

duckpond11

I have been struggling for a couple months to find my "sweet spot" for calorie intake. I started with my goal target set at 1200. I felt horrible and didn't lose any weight, probably because I was constantly over eating at night because I'd been starving myself all day. Then I tried 1200 with eating exercise calories. Nothing changed. Then I changed my target to 1500 manually and didn't really eat my exercise cals. Still nothing. Then I decided to stop worrying about how many calories I ate and just try to eat clean and reasonable portions and see what happens. I just completed week 1 of this experiment, and I logged all my calories. I averaged 1955 calories - I worked out 5 times, each time approximately 200-400 calories burnt. I lost 1.5 pounds. I didn't stress if MFP didn't tell me I was "under my calorie goal" and I felt a lot happier. I didn't worry about eating all my exercise cals on every day, and on some days I ate them and more. Honestly -- I didn't really feel like I was on a "diet" per se, which was awesome. I think it's a bit easy to get obsessive over the MFP numbers, but you should just play around and see what works.

walkdmc

It depends on how I feel. I usually don't do a final activity count until the evening and by that time, I've finished eating. (I have a rough estimate in my head during the day but plug in my GWF at night for an accurate count). I really do what I feel is right. If I'm ravenously hungry, I eat and it usually turns out that I'm eating exercise calories. Sometimes I feel satisfied with my daily 1400 and leave it at that.

I don't spend most of my day hungry nor do I go to bed hungry.

Can there be a middle ground on this topic? Because if there's a middle ground, I think I'm practicing it.

psuLemon

You could explain this until your fingers are about to fall off, but people aren't listening (unfortunately).

I don't care if someone eats their cals back or not, but what bothers me is that they don't understand that they are ALREADY on a deficit if using MFP. Further, its probably important for a nutritionist to see exactly how MFP works prior to making a recommendation one way or the other.

Try this on for size: YOU COULD EAT ALL OF YOUR EXERCISE CALS BACK AND STILL BE UNDER WHAT YOUR MAINTENANCE CALORIES ARE!! Eh, I'm either preaching to the choir or yelling at a 1st grader... some will listen and others won't... to each his or her own. Just get to your goals and see what works for you LONG term.

What actually bothers me is that how one number fits all? How would MFP know how my metabolism works and gives out the number that will work for me?

I think I will try both ways, just like some fellows have suggested and with trial and error hopefully I can finally find the sweet spot.

One size doesn't fit all, but math generally doesn't lie. Have you ever look around this forum (and please dont' take this as sacastic) about how many plateau or I don't understand why I am not losing weight threads there are? Do you know what ever single one has in common? You guessed it, they all involve not eating enough. There are simple mathematical equations that determine caloric needs (Katch McArdle & Benedict Harris). Both will tell you results similar to each other. The biggest problem is people don't educate themselves and read threads like this and don't realize what they are doing. Sure you can lose weight by not eating your exercise calories, but a lot of that weight will be muscle. And what happens when your muscle decreases? thats right, you have a slower metabolism, a weaker immune system, less insulin control and so forth. I ask you though, why would you want to only eat 1200 calories when you can eat 2200 calories and still lose weight? Why deprive your system of nutrients and fuel?

I can also tell you from person experience I am working with 7 or 8 people to help them understand basal metabolic rates and total daily energy expended and the first thing I did was jack up their calories (some as high as an extra 800) Within a week, i go a message from each one saying the same thing, I am losing weight again and eating more..


Remember, opinions differ but math is math. And like a previous poster said, your body is more forgiving when you have a lot to lose but when you have 20 lbs to go and barely any muscle to help, it makes that last 20 even harder. And if you don't believe it, feel free to private message me, I can work with you and I bet I can increase your caloric intake and you will still lose. There are two sayings I live by, muscle burns fat and food is fuel.

messyinthekitchen

I don't eat back my exercise calories. I have lost 20 pounds in about 5 weeks. I feel great, Fill of energy. If that ever changes however, I will start eating my exercise calories.

c2sky

I did, but then I decided I had too much fluctuation in calories. Because I teach classes, I get anywehre from 1 hour to 4 hours of exercise a day. So I hired a dietician. Now, upon her recommendation, I just stay at a calorie range of 1800-2000 calories,every day, except on the days I don't work out at all, like Sunday. Then I eat about 1600 on those days. It seems to be working a lot better to be consistent, but you might want to hire a dietician. You should be able to for $40-$60. In my opinion, well worth it.