NOT eating back calories?

sasgal

thanks for the post

fit4mom

I don't lose if I eat over. I have to start out eating no more than 1000 on a regular basis to see a change. When I get to 120 I can up it to 1200. Otherwise all I do is gain. For quite a few on here eating lots works. It only ever made me gain, or not lose, even with exercise. In the past on plateaus I quit working out for a couple of day and it kickstarted the weightloss again. This doesn't work for everyone, but it's the only way I could lose all my weight post pregnancies. Many blessings and may you see results soon whatever you choose.:flowerforyou:

fallenangelloves

I usually eat mine back and have now for 11 months... I'm losing just fine. I just found I needed to shake up my workouts a little and not just do the same thing every day. I also measure myself. Usually when I don't see a loss for awhile it's after I changed up my strength training and I've started noticing more muscle definition.

Before you deny yourself food and make this experience not enjoyable, you might want to keep track of your measurements first!

LJGmom

Hi - if I eat back my exercise calories I don't loose weight - it's as simple as that. We are all different. Ideally, it would be a simple solution of calories in / calories out, but you have to allow for the fact that the calories on the food and the exercise logs are not always 100% accurate, but more importantly, each persons metabolic rate is different.
I don't work out as often as you, but I do run about 4 times per week. Also during the ski season, I ski downhill for up to 5 hours per day 5 or 6 days per week and I ski cross country several mornings per week.
I have an underactive thyroid - and despite the exercise and being outdoors all day in freezing temperatures, my metabolic rate stays low ( I know as I have all my TSH checked with regular blood work and they hardly vary from summer to winter even though in winter I am much more active.)
for me to loose weight I really need to be taking only 1000 cals per day and exercising ( please note I am not advocating eating only 1000 cals per day - I am saying it is the only way personally I loose weight).
the problem for me is that I cannot stick to that for long as I get soooo tired which is a side effect of the thyroid thing - exacerbated






by not enough calories. So I eat a little more if I feel I really need to. Weight loss for me will probably be very slow, but - I will get


there!


Ask your dr to add t3 to your current medication. I am finally losing on it. It was a hard adjustment and I felt weird at first, but I feel great now.

PlunderBunneh

Every person is different. I don't always eat back, but I do aim for the guidelines set for me by my nutritionist. For every 30 minutes of heavy working out, allow an additional 200 calories. I have a slow resting metabolic rate, so my normal is set to 1300. On a normal day, I eat between 1300 and 1600, with workouts ranging from 30 minutes to 70 minutes.
I try not to eat to hit a certain calorie goal, but if I'm over I will avoid eating more, although I find I don't usually want to. My body needs fuel. If I don't feed it, my workout is quite challenging the next day. Same goes if I overfeed it with crappy food.
Good luck!!

paniologal

Sometimes I eat negative net calories... I've lost lots of weight. If I ate back my calories, I would be huge.

fit4mom

Sometimes I eat negative net calories... I've lost lots of weight. If I ate back my calories, I would be huge.

You and me both. If we could give our extra calories away we could single handedly cure hunger. (Cure:blushing: as if it's a disease. LOL)

thankyou4thevenom

I've tried the whole "eat back burned calories" thing. I've been working out 5days a week for 4 weeks with no results. Actually I've gained. So today I ate what I wanted. I ended up eating about 1250 calories. But after exercise I only netted about half that. Now that it's bedtime I'm wondering how much damage I've done not eating enough calories.

Who's exercise calories are you eating? MFP's exercise calories are always way off for me. They always tell me I burn about 3x as much as I do.

asyouseefit

I've tried the whole "eat back burned calories" thing. I've been working out 5days a week for 4 weeks with no results. Actually I've gained. So today I ate what I wanted. I ended up eating about 1250 calories. But after exercise I only netted about half that. Now that it's bedtime I'm wondering how much damage I've done not eating enough calories.

Who's exercise calories are you eating? MFP's exercise calories are always way off for me. They always tell me I burn about 3x as much as I do.

This. A lot of people here overestimate their exercise caloric burn. There's no wonder eating all of these calories back doesnt work for them!

aussie_nic_getting_fit

if i eat back my exercise calories, I also gain weight, i think ever persons body is different and we need to trial heaps of weightloss strategies to find what works as indivuals

em9371

ScrewyChars-5488491

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!