Eat calories back after exercising????

mrsamyhicks

I recently saw a couple of people mention to "eat the calories back that were burned" and now Im COMPLETELY confused and stressed almost to the point if tears because I feel I have been wrong all this time. Can someone please explain what this means.... Are we supposed to burn calories from exercising then eat to gain them back? I thought the point was to burn them and keep them off, not get them back. Totally lost please help!

kellyscomeback

Here are a few hundred thousand topics/posts on this subject:
https://www.google.com/search?hl=en&client=firefox-a&hs=PvL&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&q=+site:myfitnesspal.com+MFP+eating+back+calories

shovav91

MFP already gives you a very low number of calories to eat, and if you eat that number you will lose the desired amount of weight. When working out, you burn more, canceling out some food you ate. This causes you to be even lower in calories, which could be dangerous.

Mechel79

bump

Juliebean_1027

Yes, eat them. :drinker:

mrmanmeat

MFP already gives you a very low number of calories to eat, and if you eat that number you will lose the desired amount of weight. When working out, you burn more, canceling out some food you ate. This causes you to be even lower in calories, which could be dangerous.

Thank you.

kristilovescake

Here are a few hundred thousand topics/posts on this subject:
https://www.google.com/search?hl=en&client=firefox-a&hs=PvL&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&q=+site:myfitnesspal.com+MFP+eating+back+calories

Your best bet to understand is to use the "Search" above and read through the old threads. It's been discussed a lot, so you should be able to get the best answers by searching. Plus I think there's a "sticky" thread somewhere...

http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/23912-links-in-mfp-you-want-to-read-again-and-again
http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/10665-newbies-please-read-me-2nd-edition

shoshi68

Eat them back.

psych101

Heya darl,

There is no 'doing it wrong' so don't beat yourself up about it :flowerforyou:

as you get further into your journey you will learn new things and what works for you. Exercise calories are a hot topic around these parts so I'd suggest you do some reading for yourself.

Basically, MFP gives you a deficit needed to lose weight in your daily calorie allowance, doing exercise over and above this creates too big a deficit for your body to handle.

http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/23912-links-in-mfp-you-want-to-read-again-and-again

bjfmade

A great link in my signature.

tmtolbert

if mfp has you eating 1200 calories a day they have already built in a deficiency so that you will lose weight. i think they say you burn around 1800 calories a day just in every day stuff and to keep your heart beating, lungs breathing, etc. so you already have a deficiency built in with a 1200 calorie diet. however, if you work out that will create an even greater calorie deficiency which is not always good. your body would be getting an extremely low amount of calories daily and could go into "starvation mode" which means it will hold on to fat instead of burning it cause it won't know when the next meal is coming. also, it is hard to have a healthy diet at a very low calorie count. so the point is... even if you eat back ALL of your exercise calories that you have burned, you will still have enough of a deficiency to lose weight! don't stress! it is all a learning process! you have done the hard part of committing yourself to change... keep up the great work!

PlunderBunneh

My nutritionist recommends that I eat an additional 200 calories for every 30 minutes of hard working out that I do. My metabolism runs a bit slow (RMR 1480), but even without that, she thinks that MFP way overcredits the amount of calories burned for most activities. Having the set number of extra calories for time in the gym works out really great for me, I've been losing like a champ since I started doing that, and I don't feel like I overeat to hit a specific number. Also not super hungry at night, like I was before I started eating them back.

mrsamyhicks

Thank each and every one of you so much I was FREAKING out.... It makes a lot more sense now. I do find myself hungry quite a bit and I wondered why. Whew ok I can keep it going. :-)

martinh78

Eat them back HEALTHY though. Don't burn 600 cals and grab a big mac as a reward. I eat my exercise cals back as protein and slow release carbs as much as possible. ie chicken breast and sweet potato, that sort of thing (I also use protein and oat shakes, but my job is pretty active and I can't eat enough food during the working day to fuel both that and my workouts!)

wolfchild59

I'm going to jump in and say that it's different for everyone so there is never any one yes or no answer on anything having to do with dieting/weight loss.

I personally don't eat back my exercise calories because it doesn't work for me. I tried it for a while with negative results. At most, I eat back 1/4-1/3 of them.

After doing a lot of evaluations and dropping a lot of numbers into spreadsheets and doing lots of calculations to get averages on different things about the way I burn calories, I stopped eating back my exercise calories. After doing that, I started losing again.

One of the tools I use is a BodyMedia Fit and by not eating back my exercise calories I maintain an approximate 900-1000 calorie daily deficit. If I've had an unusually active day and I've burned more calories than normal and my deficit will end up over 1000, I'll eat back a couple hundred of my exercise calories. But overall, having my daily activity level here correct and following that amount of calories consumed keeps me at the proper deficit I want to be in right now for loss.

When I lose a little more weight and want to move to a smaller deficit, I'll very, very gradually increase my calories up to a level where my deficit is around 500-600 daily, which will mean eating back more of my exercise calories.

The main thing to take away from this is that everyone is different and you'll need to do what's right for you. Unfortunately that involves a fair amount of trial and error, so it can seem frustrating when you're in a trial stage and it's not working. But always give each trial a fair amount of time before decided if its working or not. This has been a long journey for me but I've finally realized that low carb doesn't work at all for me, my body could care less about sodium levels (though I try to keep it low just for long term health), cheat days absolutely dont work for me, I need to alternate running with cross training and strength, I can't jump up calorie levels quickly and I shouldn't be eating back my exercise calories. And it took some plateaus, some gaining, some tears, some injuries and lots of wanting to just give it all up before I found what is right for my body. So give something new a try, but also be willing to accept that it may not work for you and you'll have to go back to the drawing board. Good luck!