NOT eating back calories?

em9371

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lipglossjunky73

I believe strongly in NOT eating back your calories. And this is why: I think we overestimate the calories we burn, and underestimate the calories we consume. The data on here is helpful, but not faultless. Some people intend to eat back calories and I think that is setting up for failure. I'm not saying we can't go over the daily calories slightly if we ran for an hour, but to say, well, I burnt 500 calories doing that, so I get to eat them back is counterproductive. Having an extra handful of nuts, or avocado in your salad because you ran and need it is a different story. You may eat more than the allotted calories if you di not run, but not all of them. I work too hard for the burn to eat it back. I have seen people's food journals say they could eat 3500 calories that day because of their workouts. That's insane. Unless you are running a marathon, you don't need all of those calories!

AZTrailRunner

I believe strongly in NOT eating back your calories. And this is why: I think we overestimate the calories we burn, and underestimate the calories we consume. The data on here is helpful, but not faultless. Some people intend to eat back calories and I think that is setting up for failure. I'm not saying we can't go over the daily calories slightly if we ran for an hour, but to say, well, I burnt 500 calories doing that, so I get to eat them back is counterproductive. Having an extra handful of nuts, or avocado in your salad because you ran and need it is a different story. You may eat more than the allotted calories if you di not run, but not all of them. I work too hard for the burn to eat it back. I have seen people's food journals say they could eat 3500 calories that day because of their workouts. That's insane. Unless you are running a marathon, you don't need all of those calories!

How do you know we "overestimate burn" and "underestimate food calories"? Why can't it be the opposite? Where is your science?

I burn 1500+/- calories everyday I workout. If I opt to NOT eat them back, then my net for the day is only a few hundred calories. That is not nearly enough fuel to replenish spent muscles, provide enough energy for basic bodily functions, and repair minute muscle damage from your workout.

I don't think you can say to "eat them back" when you burn a ton of calories, and NOT eat them back when you only burn a few. That's dumb. (Re)Fuel your body for your workouts and let your daily calorie allowance be your path to weight loss.

Megan2Project

How do you know we "overestimate burn" and "underestimate food calories"? Why can't it be the opposite? Where is your science?

I burn 1500+/- calories everyday I workout. If I opt to NOT eat them back, then my net for the day is only a few hundred calories. That is not nearly enough fuel to replenish spent muscles, provide enough energy for basic bodily functions, and repair minute muscle damage from your workout.

I don't think you can say to "eat them back" when you burn a ton of calories, and NOT eat them back when you only burn a few. That's dumb. (Re)Fuel your body for your workouts and let your daily calorie allowance be your path to weight loss.

Just to throw it out there, before I got my HRM MFP estimated I burned over 900 cals everytime I did my Turbo Jam DVD. Now when I wear my Polar FT4, it tells me I burned 455... If I had eated back those calories I would have been way over!

lexiwho

I eat back my exercise calories and I'm consistently losing weight. Your body needs fuel to run and if you keep denying it that fuel over a long period of time, it's going to change how it works. I lost 80 pounds in the past by following a calorie restricted diet with exercise and I hit a major wall. My body would not move under the 200 mark no matter what I did, I upped my exercise rate, lowered my calories, basically everything but eating more.

As expected, I became frustrated and gave up because I wasn't seeing progress. Here I am 2 years later losing weight at a nice steady pace without feeling deprived or hungry, ever. Previously, I lost the 80 pounds over a period of 8 months, it dropped off of me faster than I could eat a Snickers. Now, it's probably been around 8 - 10 months with losing, and I've only lost 46 pounds but I'm okay with that. I feel so much better than I did back then because I'm never feeling deprived.

I've noticed a lot of the people who say they don't eat their exercise calories back are in the beginning of their journey. When I was in the beginning here, before I sought knowledge, I did the same thing and was losing. After reading the many knowledgeable posts here about why you should eat calories back, I began eating them.

Surprise surprise, I didn't lose weight for the first month or two but then weight began shedding off of me. I asked about it and people said it's because your body is adjusting to the new calorie intake. Previously, my body was shedding weight because it was forced to use up resources for fuel since I wasn't providing it enough. Once I started eating the right amount of food, it kept a hold of it because it thought it would need it due to past conditioning. My body slowly learned that I was going to keep feeding it and began losing again.

I think a lot of people get 2 weeks in of eating exercise calories, see no weight lost and go back to not eating them without giving their body time to adjust. As long as you get more calories burned than you eat, you will lose weight unless you have a medical condition that prevents it.

AZTrailRunner

How do you know we "overestimate burn" and "underestimate food calories"? Why can't it be the opposite? Where is your science?

I burn 1500+/- calories everyday I workout. If I opt to NOT eat them back, then my net for the day is only a few hundred calories. That is not nearly enough fuel to replenish spent muscles, provide enough energy for basic bodily functions, and repair minute muscle damage from your workout.

I don't think you can say to "eat them back" when you burn a ton of calories, and NOT eat them back when you only burn a few. That's dumb. (Re)Fuel your body for your workouts and let your daily calorie allowance be your path to weight loss.

Just to throw it out there, before I got my HRM MFP estimated I burned over 900 cals everytime I did my Turbo Jam DVD. Now when I wear my Polar FT4, it tells me I burned 455... If I had eated back those calories I would have been way over!

Of course! Because you weren't using the proper tool to begin with. That doesn't change the overall debate in my opinion.

lexiwho

Of course! Because you weren't using the proper tool to begin with. That doesn't change the overall debate in my opinion.

My thoughts exactly!