Working Out and Eating Back Calories

LoseItJourney

I know a lot of people eat back their workout calories.
But I don't always do it, I feel theres no point because then your just eating the calories you burned, making the work out pointless.

What are your veiws on this ? Do you eat them back? why or why not?



Feel free to add me!

Kellynh

That is one thing I hate about MFP is that they add your burned calories to your total, like you are to eat them. I totally disagree!!!! My own stupid goal is to once a week burn the whole 1200 cals I ate. (i have yet to do so,lol) but in the back of my mind I keep trying. It takes what like 3500 burned cals for one lb or something like that, if you take it all back in how is that loosing? It doesn't make any sence to me. That's just my thoughts,lol

ashnm88

I never eat my exercise calories back, I feel it makes my workout pointless. I'm never that hungry any ways.

amycarol59

Some times I do and sometimes not it all depends on how much I have burned. You calorie count on MFP already includes your deficit of calories you need for the weigh per week you want to lose. If you are eating 1300 cal a day to lose 2 lbs a week and work out and burn 400 cal you put your total calories for the day at 900 if you do not eat those calories back you metabolism will decrease. My Dr. says whatever your calorie goal dont let your calories -workout calories burned be under 1200women or 1500 for men else you will make you metabolism slow and not lose like you should. Hope this helps it is hard to eat all those calories you just burned I totally agree.

stevwil41

I didn't eat mine back at first but now I do most of the time. I'm not fanaticish about it. MFP has a calorie deficit built in so if for example, you put your info in and choose that you want to lose 1 lb a week then your calorie goal would reflect about a 3500 calorie per week deficit. The exercise calories are just a bonus that allows you to eat a little more and improves your overall health.

p0stdramatic

Gah. MFP already has your deficit worked in for you. If you aren't eating any of your exercise calories back.... you know what? Nevermind.

mashanda

It depends on what you are trying to do. My current trainer does say eat my workout calories but he did say that I should be at a higher calorie intake. I am supposed to eat every three hours and protein with every meal. This is supposed to help me build muscle. He said I can loose weight by eating a lot less calories and just running or doing lots of cardio but it I want to build muscle then eating more and more often is the way to go. Just do some research on it...also you know your body! so do what works for you

BeautyFromPain

look. i am sick of people posting these topics. bottom line is. you burn calories, you eat calories. while eating at a calorie defecit AND exercising it is potentially dangerous to not eat back exercise calories but SURE DEPRIVE YOUR BODY THEN. dont complain when you faint.

and this is why i love you!

PBJunky

Topic of yesterday, with my same reply below

http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/383760-why-don-t-people-eat-their-exercise-calories

Most people don't understand how their calories are calculated and how they should be managing it, thus asking these types of question whether they should be eating their exercise calories back or not.

Here is the truth,

Lets use the formula that MFP use to calculate your calories

Mifflin-St Jeo (Quite inaccurate compared to Katch McArdle)
MEN: BMR = [9.99 x weight (kg)] + [6.25 x height (cm)] - [4.92 x age (years)] + 5
WOMEN: BMR = [9.99 x weight (kg)] + [6.25 x height (cm)] - [4.92 x age (years)] -161

For the sake of this post lets just fill in the blanks with test data

Weight = 80kgs
Height = 180cm
Age = 20

Men: BMR = [9.99 x 80] + [6.25 x 174] - [4.92 x 20] + 5
= 799.2 + 1087.5 - 98.4 + 5
= 1793.3

Great now we have our BMR

Normally you would multiply your BMR with your activity level as to compensate for the extra food you need for energy etc. MFP doesn't do this, instead they expect you to eat back your exercise calories which comes down to the same thing but probably a bit more accurate ...since you know what extra calories you burned and should be compensating for.

1.2 =Sedentary (Little or no exercise + desk job)
1.3-1.4 = Lightly Active (Little daily activity & light exercise 1-3 days a week)
1.5-1.6 = Moderately Active (Moderately active daily life & Moderate exercise 3-5 days a week)
1.7-1.8 = Very Active (Physically demanding lifestyle & Hard exercise or sports 6-7 days a week)
1.9-2.0 = Extremely Active (Hard daily exercise or sports and physical job)

Now since you have your BMR you need to decide whether you want to lose weight or gain weight...

1lb of fat = 3500 Calories

As always it is best to lose fat slow and steady to preserve as much muscle mass as possible so preferably you want to lose 1/2 lbs a week which equates to a deficit of 3500/7000 calories a week...doing if faster will only result in a sack of bones with hanging skin.

So lets say you want to lose 1lb a week then you now you should have a deficit of 3500 calories weekly, which makes a deficit of 500 calories a day. Take that BMR we had earlier and simply subtract the deficit of 500 and that should be your daily calorie intake.

Daily Calorie Intake = BMR - 500
= 1793.3 - 500
= 1293.3

So using MFP it is best to eat back your exercise calories or you will be losing more than just fat...precious muscle

Ahluvly

Hello,

I hope the following helps.

We need a consistent daily number of calories to carry us through our day. When we work out, we will need to eat those back in order to maintain that expected level of fuel for the body. When you do exercise, and build muscle your body then starts working more effectively to burn fat.

E.g. Say for your stats, you should be eating 2200 calories a day to maintain your weight but you decide to reduce this to 1700 then you are in a deficit straight away of 500 calories. People will argue whether dropping 500 cals a day is good or bad, and others will say you're better off reducing your daily maintenace calories by up to 20% in order to successfully lose weight steadily, but that's by the by. However, if you do do the above, by then working out, and eating your calories back from what you've burnt off you will still lose.

What you don't want to happen is for you to lose too fast as you will lose muscle (not just body fat) and you definitely don't want that!

I hope that makes sense?! There are plenty of people on here who have professions and experience in training and nutrition, and I'm sure they will comment too to help you with your question!

Good luck with your journey flower!

kikiallain

Please listen too all these people and be honest with what you log and EAT BACK YOUR WORKOUT CALORIES!!!

BeautyFromPain

I know a lot of people eat back their workout calories.
But I don't always do it, I feel theres no point because then your just eating the calories you burned, making the work out pointless.

What are your veiws on this ? Do you eat them back? why or why not?



Feel free to add me!

I gotta fuel my body!

How does this make the workout pointless? I workout instead of taking any depression or anxiety meds anymore and am happier than ever. Exercise gives me energy, and wakes me up. You can be skinny fat if you'd like but I need to FEED my MUSCLES! I would rather gain muscle and lose fat and make my body composition look better, oh yeah - whilst enjoying it! I would rather not starve. I did not used to eat them when I was classed as Obese number 2 but now I am only overweight I starve if I don't eat back those calories!

SergeantSunshine_reused

look. i am sick of people posting these topics. bottom line is. you burn calories, you eat calories. while eating at a calorie defecit AND exercising it is potentially dangerous to not eat back exercise calories but SURE DEPRIVE YOUR BODY THEN. dont complain when you faint.

You win

There are other reasons to exercise besides weight loss. Your cardiovascular health, strength and endurance gains, body composition for example.

If you don't eat them back you have a higher chance of burning muscle for fuel. This slows your metabolism, making the weight harder too keep off. It also changes body composition. Ever heard of skinnyfat? Yea not attractive at all.Lose the muscle and that's what is going to happen.

So if all you care about is the number on the scale then don't eat them. You will lose faster. Someone who is eating them back will look much much better at their goal weight tho.

smh

psuLemon

Here is what i love about the post, all the people who dont eat back exercise calories have no scientific proof to why they do not eat them. The ones that do have legitiment reasons and proof why its important to why you should.

meerkat70

How can exercise be 'pointless'?

I eat back some. I workout a fair bit, so I don't eat them all, because I'd be eating all day, but I certainly eat a few hundred into my exercise calories most days. I lose 3lb a week on average, so it's clearly not doing my weight loss any harm.

If it's really hard to get heads round the concept of eating them back, maybe this calculator will help.

http://www.health-calc.com/diet/energy-expenditure-advanced

My BMR on here is 2152. My energy expenditure is 4689. Now if I 'just' eat the calories that MFP suggests for a lightly active woman of my weight and age, I'd have a deficit of 3100 calories. That's far more than is sane for anyone to have as a deficit.

I don't understand why people are so resistant to the idea of eating back at least *some* of the exercise calories. This is surely just common sense? And there's no virtue in being unecessarily hungry, and no weightloss advantage that I've observed in those who steadfastly refuse to feed their exercise.

BeautyFromPain

look. i am sick of people posting these topics. bottom line is. you burn calories, you eat calories. while eating at a calorie defecit AND exercising it is potentially dangerous to not eat back exercise calories but SURE DEPRIVE YOUR BODY THEN. dont complain when you faint.

You win

There are other reasons to exercise besides weight loss. Your cardiovascular health, strength and endurance gains, body composition for example.

If you don't eat them back you have a higher chance of burning muscle for fuel. This slows your metabolism, making the weight harder too keep off. It also changes body composition. Ever heard of skinnyfat? Yea not attractive at all.Lose the muscle and that's what is going to happen.

So if all you care about is the number on the scale then don't eat them. You will lose faster. Someone who is eating them back will look much much better at their goal weight tho.

smh

EXACTLY!

SergeantSunshine_reused

That is one thing I hate about MFP is that they add your burned calories to your total, like you are to eat them. I totally disagree!!!! My own stupid goal is to once a week burn the whole 1200 cals I ate. (i have yet to do so,lol) but in the back of my mind I keep trying. It takes what like 3500 burned cals for one lb or something like that, if you take it all back in how is that loosing? It doesn't make any sence to me. That's just my thoughts,lol

You are trying to burn off all 1200 calories you ate in one day? You are so doing it wrong lol

docHelen

eat them you've earnt them.
you exercise to improve your fitness, tone etc. MFP has already calculated a deficit to loose weight.
Eat and enjoy

dad106

look. i am sick of people posting these topics. bottom line is. you burn calories, you eat calories. while eating at a calorie defecit AND exercising it is potentially dangerous to not eat back exercise calories but SURE DEPRIVE YOUR BODY THEN. dont complain when you faint.

What she said.. and then some!!

If you were dieting/exercising and not counting calories, you would be eating them back anyway without knowing it because I highly doubt all of us eat three square meals, plus snacks and then exercise... Life just doesn't work out that way. Now that we are more aware though and can see our calorie goals, for some odd reason all logic goes out the window and we stop eating even though we should..

Biggipooh

If anybody feels sick about people, who asked the same question again and again, just don't answer it. Otherwise answer in an informative way. The people, who asked that question, might have never read the other treads or just joined MFP.

SergeantSunshine_reused

If anybody feels sick about people, who asked the same question again and again, just don't answer it. Otherwise answer in an informative way. The people, who asked that question, might have never read the other treads or just joined MFP.

She said she knew.
And there is a perfectly good search button if not.

Biggipooh

Isn't that Nr. 4 of the forum rules?

If you can't say something nice, don't say anything at all.

SergeantSunshine_reused

Isn't that Nr. 4 of the forum rules?

If you can't say something nice, don't say anything at all.

Lol no that must be something your parents told you.

If you can't say anything useful why bother to comment is more of a rule to go by here. And I gave a useful comment

dad106

Isn't that Nr. 4 of the forum rules?

If you can't say something nice, don't say anything at all.

I did see that part at the end of the forum rules, but honestly the fact that you know that and expect others to follow it is kinda sad.

Just because you can't handle the truth or rude people, doesn't mean others can't. Plus, I suggest you follow your own advice and don't read threads that have posts that offend you.. No one says you have to reply/read them either.

Saffa_NZ

Isn't that Nr. 4 of the forum rules?

If you can't say something nice, don't say anything at all.

You are breaking your own rules, GTFO

LorinaLynn

That is one thing I hate about MFP is that they add your burned calories to your total, like you are to eat them. I totally disagree!!!! My own stupid goal is to once a week burn the whole 1200 cals I ate. (i have yet to do so,lol) but in the back of my mind I keep trying. It takes what like 3500 burned cals for one lb or something like that, if you take it all back in how is that loosing? It doesn't make any sence to me. That's just my thoughts,lol

You're burning off more than the 1200 calories you even if you lie in bed all day doing nothing. Your body is constantly burning calories. Under "tools" look up your BMR. That's the amount of calories your body burns every day just staying alive. As soon as you get out of bed, you burn more than that.

Go to your "goals" page. On the right side, you'll see calories burned from normal activities. That's how many you burn daily before exercise. Your calorie goal is based off that number. If you want to lose one pound a week, you need to eat 500 calories less than that number. But when you exercise, the number of calories you've burned is higher, so if you don't eat the earned calories, you'll end up with a larger deficit.

If you have too much of a deficit, it will interfere with your weight loss. It ISN'T just a matter of losing more weight when you eat less calories. If you eat too few, your body won't function properly. I lost more eating 1400-1500 calories, plus exercise calories, than I did at 1200 or when I foolishly tried 800 years ago. Given the choice between eating a little and having mediocre results and eating twice as much and having satisfying results... guess which I chose?!

Edited to add: The time and calories you spend exercising isn't wasted if you eat those calories. It's contributing to your overall health and fitness. It's helping you retain lean muscle mass. It makes you feel great. And it lets you eat more. :laugh:

psuLemon

There are three main variables in weight loss that are crutical; lean body mass (LBM), basal metabolic rate (BMR) and total daily energy expended (TDEE) [see shapefit.com link for further detail]. 1. LBM is the mass of a body minus the lipids (body fat); essentially, the weight from organs, muscle, bones and tissue. 2. BMR is the minimum calorific requirement needed to sustain life in a resting individual. It can be looked at as being the amount of energy (measured in calories) expended by the body to remain in bed asleep all day. 3. TDEE TDEE is the total number of calories that your body expends in 24 hours, including all activities. TDEE is also known as your "maintenance level".

Note: BMR is also known as your metabolism (see mayo clinic link)


With that out o the way we can move on. There are several methods to understand weight loss but what I have seen to be the most effective on me and every person I have worked with so far is utlizing the Katch McArdle formula. This incorporates your metabolism (BMR) which is derived from your Lean Body Mass and your overall caloric expenditures to create an overall deficit for weight loss. See below formula (see link 3)

Lean Body Mass

LBM = Weight - (Weight * body fat %)

The formula is as follows:
BMR = 370 + (9.79759519 X Lean Mass in pounds)

TDEE is calculated by multiplying your BMR by your activity multiplier from the list below:

Sedentary = BMR X 1.2 (little or no exercise, desk job)
Lightly active = BMR X 1.375 (light exercise/sports 1-3 days/wk)
Mod. active = BMR X 1.55 (moderate exercise/sports 3-5 days/wk)
Very active = BMR X 1.725 (hard exercise/sports 6-7 days/wk)
Extr. active = BMR X 1.9 (hard daily exercise/sports & physical job or 2X day training, i.e marathon, contest etc.)


Example me

Weight: 195
Body Fat: 11%
TDEE (I do p90x): 1.725
Deficit: 250

LBM = 195 - (195*.11) = 173.6
BMR = 370 + (9.79759519 X 173.6) = 2070.4
TDEE = 2070.4 * 1.725 = 3209.1
Caloric needs = 2959.1

Ok, so what this means is my metabolism burns 2070.4 calories if I did nothing but sleep for 24 hour. Based on my lifestyle (sedentary job but workout 6 days a week) I am considered very active so between my metaboism and activity I burn 3209 calories (aka, the calories I woudl need to eat to maintain my metabolism). So if I want to lose weight, then i need the deficit which is my caloric needs.



So lets talk metabolism and body fat. So we know that your BMR is your metabolism. And we know your BMR is affected by lean body mass, which means, that the higher your LBM, the higher your metabolism, the higher your caloric needs. This means, that BMR is one of most important factors in weight loss (because lets face it, you can lose weight without exercise, but you can adversely affect your metabolism by doing so). What I mean by this, there is only one real way to maintain a metabolism during weight loss and that is increasing lean body mass. Essentially, for every one pound of fat burned is a pound of lbm increase.

Example me again'

Start
Weight - 210
Body fat - 18%

LBM = 210 - (210 *.18) = 172.2
BMR = 370 + (9.79759519 X 172.2) = 2057.1

Current

Weight - 195
Body Fat - 11%
LBM = 195 - (195 * .11) =173.6
BMR = 370 + (9.79759519 X 172.2) = 2070.4


So the question is, what does this mean with my weight loss? What do large deficit do to weight loss? Well to understand this, you have to understand how to build muscle. Essentially, to build muscle, you need a combination of eating enough protein (about 1 g per lbm in your body). So my example above, I would need 173.6 g of protein to gain/maintain muscle (see link 4). I will note I have seen as low as .5 - 1 g to do this. So if I need 173.6 g of protein and 1g of protein = 4 calories (that means that 694.2 calories are from protein alone). So lets take a woman who is 175 & 37% body fat (this info comes from teh 5th link, real people on this board). This person has 110 lbs of lean body mass which means her protein needs to grow/maintain lbm = 444 calories from protein. That is over 1/4 of the calories a person that eats 1200 would have. That doesn't account for carbs which is 4 calories per gram and 9 caloriers per gram of fat. And btw, these are all net calories. When you expend energy, you expend calories because calories are what create energy. So if you eat 40/40/20 (carbs/protein/fat), you would need to eat 480/480/243 to get your 1200 calories. So if we can the woman above, her BMR is 1450 calories. if she does nothing her TDEE is 1740 which means with a 1 lb per week lose than 1240 calories is ok. Once you start to increase your TDEE, you need to increase your caloric needs because your body needs more food to fuel. So lets say you don't. You go to the gym and workout for an hour (zumba ) and you burn 600 calories. That means your net calories is 640 for the day. There are two main sources your body pulls energy from. First it's from yoru fat cells (food stores) and second is from the ammino acids in protein. So if you are only netting 640 calories, where do you think it's getting energy from? Thats right both fat stores and muscle (aka, the ammino acid stores). Essentially, it's the equivalent of eating 60 g of protein, 60 g of carb and 14 g of fat. So how can you maintain muscle mass with that? Well you can't.


This is very apparent in people on HCG where you only eat 500 calories. Example 6 below, fivefatcats (her results).

March 2010 - weight 182, lean weight 131.4 - fat weight 50.6, body fat 27.8 %
Sept 2010 - weight 167, lean weight 124 - fat weight 43, body fat 25.5
Oct 2010 . . . . .weight 154 . lean weight 116 , fat weight 38 . body fat 24.6.

At first, you are like wow, she lost 28 lbs and 3.2% body fat. Then you take a very close look at it, in reality, she lost 28 lbs, 15.6 of which was from muscle. That means over 50% of the weight lost was from muscle. What happens when you lose muscle? That is right, you slow your metabolism, which means you have to eat less food to keep losing weight. Huge muscle loss was obtained by little calories. So this is why when you eat little calories and exercise, you lose a lot of muscle which hurts you in the long run because that is what kills your metabolism. So how to you change that, you eat your calories, you eat quality foods and you lift weights!!!




http://www.shapefit.com/basal-metabolic-rate.html

http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/metabolism/WT00006

http://www.cordianet.com/calculator.htm

http://stronglifts.com/how-to-build-muscle-mass-guide/

http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/282320-caloric-intake-body-fat

http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/356410-hcg-diet?page=3


I could do more, but I won't because I am tired and it's bed time. So now that I dropped some knowledge on everyone's arses feel free to rebutal or ask questions. We are all here to learn and the only way to do so is by challenging each other. I will say, if you are gonna comment, you better back it up because it wouldn't be the first time I have laid the intraweb smack down on someone, lol, jk.

Lemon

JennC831

At first I didn't understand how eating back your calories would help in my wegiht loss journey and that's because I was looking at it wrong..

Say your daily calorie intake is 1200 calories... At the END of the day your "NET" calories need to say 1200... Never go under 1200... My daily calorie intake is 1370 (set up to lose 1.5lbs) so typically I eat around 1551 - 1800 calories through out the day from breakfast, mid morning snack, lunch, & then a mid day snack depending on how hard I want to workout later on... When I workout I aim to burn between 400-500 if I've only ate around 1500 calories or I'll aim to burn 600-800 if I ate around 1800...

For example, If I ate 1551 calories one day then I'll aim to burn 500 calories from working out which will make my net 1051.. This then gives me 319 cals remaining to eat after my workout.. Whether its a protein packed smoothie or meal depends on how hungry I am... I aslo don't feel overwhelmed that that I'll have to eat a bunch of calories at the end of the day or before I go to bed...

I definietly don't feel like I'm starving at the end of the day... I've only been doing it this week and I've lost .06lbs....

Hope this helps....

kikiallain

Great explanation psulemon!! Hope people read this and adapt their weight loss methods!! Cause in the long term this is the BEST and most EFFICIENT way of loosing weight!!

DeniseSLP

I really try not to eat mine back because I want to get use to eating 1300 – 1500 calories and being comfortable with it. If I eat my workout calories, then on the day I don’t do cardio, I will still want more calories (especially since I have more time as I am not occupied for an hour getting ready and doing my workout.)

psuLemon

I really try not to eat mine back because I want to get use to eating 1300 – 1500 calories and being comfortable with it. If I eat my workout calories, then on the day I don’t do cardio, I will still want more calories (especially since I have more time as I am not occupied for an hour getting ready and doing my workout.)

why would you want to get your body used to under eating? You destroy your metabolism like that. Heck, regardless of the workout I do, I eat 2600 calories each day (even on my rest days). I utilize the Katch McArdle formula to determine my daily caloric needs which factors a weeks worth of exercise into the formula. If you haven't yet read what I wrote above, i woudl suggest you start there. If there is more confusion, I can expand more.