eating your exercise calories back ?

Melissaol

My husband just doesn't understand that I eat so much. He says thats why im not lossing anymore.
I thinking Im starting think that way also. Can anyone help me understand this please. Im starting to get tired of not lossing..

jenhenning219

when it comes to eating the calories back, i only eat some back not all, i guess it is a personal preference but i know for me i feel hungry after i exercise so i eat some

Kirsty_UK

MFP is set up so that you have a calorie deficit already, without exercise. So if you exercise, you should eat back your calories burnt so that you have the recommended deficit for steady weight loss.

HOWEVER, that does assume that
a) your calorie burn is honest and accurate
b) your food logging is honest and accurate
c) you have mfp set to the right activity level for you (sedentary, lightly active etc)

Personally, I do eat back my exercise cals, but not all of them. Usually around 2/3rds.

dls06

http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/10589-for-those-confused-or-questioning-eating-your-exercise-calo

Sounds more like you need to change up your routine.

kristatmcbride

I look at exercise as a bonus way to lose more weight. I may eat a little more protein after because it does make me hungry, but if you use it as an excuse to eat more, you are at a stalemate.

fjrandol

The numbers off of your diary look pretty good to me, so it seems that you should be losing. Have you tried looking at your inches lost instead of just the scale? Maybe your loss might be better reflected there. Otherwise, I'd say to keep mixing up your workouts, or simply raise the intensity at which you are currently using the elliptical, treadmill, etc.

Melissaol

i just started this week to do the ellipitcal . I choice the cross country setting. it goes from level 2,8,12,14,8,12,2,and back and forth for an hour. so we will see if this helps. Im hoping it does.

The gym that I go to does have any classes that I can do, so Im limited on things.

Crystal_Pistol

A tip- you can do your own HIIT workouts using literally anything. I use different cardio machines, start on level one, and manually vary intensity to raise and lower my heart rate at intervals. If you have a smart phone, Workout Trainer is a good app. You can alternate jumping rope and marching in place, virtually anything that gets the high-low going.

Good luck!

Melissaol

My routine that i just started this week is.
Monday ,cross country setting on the ellipitcal, 60 minutes

Tuesday the same

Wednesday up at 5:30am do a 30 minute home workout. then in the even I go up to the gym for 1 1/2 workout.

Thrusday up at 5am and do the treadmill 4.0 walk/ run.

Friday cross country setting on the elipitcal for an hour.

Saturday and sunday go to the gym and do the same , but just later in the day.

Kirsty_UK

Sounds like you've recently changed up your routine which is a good thing. I'd give it time and see if that does the trick.

jacksonpt

To lose weight you need to be in a healthy caloric deficit. There are 2 ways to accomplish that

1) set your daily caloric intake at a deficit
This is what most people do, and is how MFP is designed to work. You figure out your daily caloric need (BMR), then set your calorie goal lower than that. For example.. if your BMR is 1800, you would set your daily calorie goal to 1400. That puts you in a caloric deficit and you will start to lose weight*. When you exercise you burn additional calories. These burned calories are not accounted for in your BMR or the calorie goal you set based on your BMR. So exercising increases that caloric deficit. The thing to watch here is how big that deficit gets. Every body responds differently, but the larger the deficit the worse it is for your body (the assumption is that the larger the deficit gets the harder it is to properly fuel your body). And this is why people recommend eating back exercise calories.

2) use exercise to create the deficit
With this method you set your daily caloric intake to equal your BRM. Then you exercise and burn calories. Those burned calories are not accounted for when you set your daily goal equal to your BMR, and thus you end up in a deficit. The size of that deficit is dependent on your workouts. You burn 75cals walking the dog and your deficit is 75 cals. You burn 500 cals running and the deficit is 500.

Make sense?


* this is greatly oversimplified and makes a lot of assumptions, but is good enough for this conversation

tbrooke2000

HOWEVER, that does assume that
a) your calorie burn is honest and accurate
b) your food logging is honest and accurate
c) you have mfp set to the right activity level for you (sedentary, lightly active etc)

Personally, I do eat back my exercise cals, but not all of them. Usually around 2/3rds.

I agree with this... some of the "calories burned" on here is not accurate or on machines... I bought a Polar Heart Rate Monitor so that I would know exactly how many calories that I burn during workouts... I also don't count "cleaning, etc" like some do... If I put in "hiking for 2 hours" it says I burned 800 calories, but that wasn't accurate... I actually only burned 550 and that 250 calories does add up over time...

Good luck girl! I also don't eat all of mine back...

sylverkat

I ate mine back this week, but I am on 1200, so eating back to 1200. Once I go up to 1400 in a few weeks....i won't eat them back.
So far lost 1.4 lbs!

Melissaol

My bmi says it is : 1400. .so I set my calorie at 1200...
I usually burn 500 calories.
I go in the morning to work out. I try not to eat them all. I try to leave 200 or less. Is that bad...

jacksonpt

Your BMR is 1400, you net ~1000, is that right?

And your husband thinks you eat A LOT???? Seriously? 1000 cals is pretty low, but if you feel good and are getting a decent amount of fat/carbs/protein then I wouldn't worry too much about it.

As for not losing anymore, you need to find the sweet spot where you body is happiest, that is, where you are losing but still feel good/have energy and are healthy. I'd try eating a bit more for a month or so and see how your body responds. And you do need to give your body time to adjust... making a change for a week or two isn't long enough to see what's REALLY going on with your body.

Crystal_Pistol

I net 1600 cals MINIMUM everyday LOL.

jschuett12

If you are eating under 1200 calories net, your body may have went into 'starvation' mode. This happened to me before I started MFP and wearing a banded heart rate monitor- now I know what I burn and need to eat back so not to drop below the 1200. Do I eat them all back everyday? Nope but I try to be within 100 or so and if I spluge on something later in the week, those calories are there to cover it. It took me awhile to understand and accept the whole idea of eating the calories i burned off but after seeing the pounds start to drop again AND the energy I was lacking, return. I am a believer. Good luck!

escloflowneCHANGED

I have MFP set up at 1600 calories and I go to the gym after dinner. I calculate how many calories I need to burn to get my net to 1200 calories and only burn that amount.

Example:
After dinner I had total calories of 1580, I then went to the gym and burned 400 and stopped at that point which meant my net for the day would be 1180 calories.

I lost 4 lbs this week doing it this way compared to last week where I ate the same amount and burned 500-1000 calories a day. I lost 0lbs that week!

Melissaol

I try to get my net up to 1200. But sometimes im just not hungry. So I really do have a hard time eating when im not hungry.
I really do want to do it the right and healthy way.

jeshutt

Several articles I've read over the last couple of years have suggested that, while exercise can be of great help in maintaining weight, it's not actually much use for losing weight.
This has certainly been my experience.

jacksonpt

I try to get my net up to 1200. But sometimes im just not hungry. So I really do have a hard time eating when im not hungry.
I really do want to do it the right and healthy way.

Try eating foods that are more calorie dense. Nuts/legumes are a good example. You'll get more calories in the same volume of food, so you shouldn't end up feeling like you're stuffing yourself.