success not eating back exercise calories

phoenixoncemore

Good, that's what I figured.

Fingers crossed it works this time, I've got my first holiday in 10 years coming up and I want to lose at least some of the lard before the bikini comes out of the wardrobe.

Thanks for the input, there's so much conflicting information on losing weight - it's nice to get other peoples opinions.

NovemberJune

My strategy is to eat around my BMR (see tools section), and exercise 6 days per week. So I usually eat about the same amount whether it's a rest day or a day I exercise a lot. The days I exercise about half an hour, it's like I'm eating all of my exercise calories. The days I exercise more, I'm only eating some of them back.

Basically, I eat when I'm hungry and try to make healthy choices. GL!

SHBoss1673

Just make sure you understand, guys. BMR is what your body needs simply to run it's basic life functions, not to be a concious, active (even sedentary) person. You need more than your BMR just to be awake and moving around (or even thinking, yes the brain burns a LOT of calories when you think).

BMR is not what someone without a lot of weight to lose should be shooting for, that's pretty low. It's all about reaching maintenance.

If you have a lot of fat, then your body will generally give you more energy from that fat for making up the difference between what you eat and what you burn in a day, your body ALWAYS wants to try to reach maintenance whether by just calories eaten, or eaten plus fat (and plus protein too if that's what it takes). if it CAN'T reach maintenance, that means your deficit is to large. That's not a problem in the short term because glycogen in the liver will make up the difference, but once that goes (you have about a 48 hour store of glycogen during normal daily activity, assuming no other incoming energy) your body will recognize the gap and start slowing down metabolic functions to reach that goal via hormone production. it will simultaneously attempt to use both fat and/or protein to make up the difference as well.

Scrivo83

As long as your net calorie intake per day, after exercise is attributed, is approx 500kcal below your maintenance level then you should be losing a healthy 1-2lbs per week.

So exercise calories should be eaten back.

For example if a persons maintenance calories are 2000, their target for healthy weight loss should be 1500kcal net.
This person on a non training day can therefore eat 1500kcal of food, however on a training day where 500kcal are burned through exercise 2000kcal of food should be consumed.

If this did not happen on exercise days an only 1500kcal of food were consumed the net calorie intake for the day is only 1000kcal which runs risk of metabolism lowering and muscle loss.

Hope that makes sense.

Dan

jmorrisof2

When i started my weightloss journey January 2011, I was eating 1300 cals a day, and burning about 400-800 cals a day doing a different types of excercises. And the weight dropped offf! As i actually stuck to it - and not ate 1 excercise calorie back!

But last couple of months, - i have been really naughty and eating about half of my excercise cals back, and the weight is comeing offf mega slow now :sad: I need to stop doing this! As i am only halfway to my weight goal - and its going to take me years and years if i keep on at this!

It different for everyone though - it might work for you if you eat some or all of your excercise calories back. Or it might not, only you will find that out by trying it out for a few weeks and seeing what works best.

Thank you so much for your post! I am gonna try this. I have been struggling the past 2 days because the scale says I gained 2 pounds. The thing is I have added more exercise this week so MFP says that I should be eating about 1900 calories. I have been eating back the 700 calories and I don't think it is working. I remember before when I was eating Jenny Craig food and going to Curves for 30 min a day. I started on the 1200 calories plan and then went up to 1500 since I was doing more exercise. It worked. So MFP has me confused and frustrated. Not gonna give up yet Thanks for the renewed motivation.

MaximalLife

swhitney2, Sweet_Potato, sittingduck76: All that means is that the calorie estimates being used are inaccurate. MFP can be VERY off for estimations of calorie burn. If you only eat 50% of your exercise calories you aren't saying 'I can't eat back everything I burned' you're saying 'I don't think that estimation of my calorie burn is accurate so I'll go with a lesser number'.

Same thing

^^^^^^^
THIS!
I know I had to tweak mine to find the zone.

ohpilot

I understand the theory behind it so I try to do it as much as I can. That being said, I lost my first 40lbs largely without the help of MFP, just calculating calories burned and taken in on my own and I never ate back my exercise calories. I followed a strict 1200-1300 cal a day diet.

Now, I try to eat back some of them. I find that I disagree with what MFP says I burned doing certain exercises (only I can know how intensely I worked out, they can't do everything for me!) so I'm hesitant to eat back everything they say I burned. Basically, I eat 1200 -1300 calories a day + half of my exercise cals and if I'm full by then, I stop eating. If I'm still hungry, I assume my body knows best and I'll eat a bit more.

This is what works for me, but I think that everyone is different and you just have to play around with it

gregthegroove

I dunno, everyone is different and we all have our opinions. My opinion is that I dont eat back my exercise calories ever. I realize there is a 2lb weight loss built in to the MFP plan. I however also started close to 400 lbs and am still at around 300 so, I naturally lose alot more than 2 lbs per week. Some people would like to lose more than 2lbs per week, this is why you need to assess what your goals are and alter your plan to fit that.

nixirain

All the information I have read about this topic is very gray. The only thing that made a little sense to me is that if you eat 1200 a day and excerise 5 times a week burning say 300-450 calories each day after awhile your body will get used to it. I say eat like you are willing to eat for the rest of your life and do the same with excerise. Ajust accordingly eat less, excerise more based on how your body works. if you dont, your body will get used to it or you wont be able to maintain this lifestyle. This isnt a race, or even a marathon, this is your life.

stormieweather

I dunno, everyone is different and we all have our opinions. My opinion is that I dont eat back my exercise calories ever. I realize there is a 2lb weight loss built in to the MFP plan. I however also started close to 400 lbs and am still at around 300 so, I naturally lose alot more than 2 lbs per week. Some people would like to lose more than 2lbs per week, this is why you need to assess what your goals are and alter your plan to fit that.

Actually, MFP deducts calories based on your desired goals. The deduction is as follows: If you say you want to lose 1/2 pound a week, MFP deducts 250 calories from your maintenance calories. If you say you want to lose 1 pound, MFP deducts 500 calories, and if you want to lose 2 pounds, MFP deducts 1000 calories from your calculated maintenance . In no case will you be given a goal of less than 1200 calories.

As you say however, very obese individuals can afford a greater deficit and are able to lose greater amounts than 2 pounds per week. It is still recommended to lose at a rate of 2 pounds a week or less, which helps skin tone. Too fast and you can end up with more sags and damage than a slower loss may have allowed. Another issue related to excessive weight loss in a short period of time is the problem of gallstones. http://www.annals.org/content/119/10/1029.abstract

Amalthia79

People gain weight by doing, or not doing, different things so it stands to reason that it can take different things to lose that weight. I have never eaten too much. I have had no problem staying UNDER my calories. My problem is eating ENOUGH each day. By doing that I am now 300lbs. Before finding this site I never had energy to do anything and would eat almost nothing but salads all the time. Now that I am trying to reach my calorie limit each day I have already, in just 3 weeks, had a major boost to my energy and my clothes are fitting much better.

My body was so used to saving all possible calories for the next time I starved it that I had to "teach" it that I wouldn't be doing that anymore. So now that I actually feed my body, everyday, I can not suddenly send it back to such a calorie deficit. MY BODY would go right back to holding on to everything and I would gain again. This is not the case for some people. But it is exactly what has happened to me personally. So if you are doing fine while not eating your exercise calories, then great! But it is not something that works for everyone.

hselby87

I was told to eat them back by my doctor. He said that if I lose too quickly, I can start losing muscle, which would include muscle in my heart and could do far more harm than a few less pounds lost per week. I would suggest speaking with your doctor too if you are concerned. We all want to be thinner, but the goal is to get thinner AND healthier.

hselby87

I would also add that I don't eat back all of my calories because I don't feel the number calculated is accurate. I try to stick to eating about 30-50% back. Good luck!

grronthehill

yes,

I too am beginning to realize that if I want to lose in any quick fashion. Then don't eat back your exercise calories. That can be rough going come around eight-thirty to nine o'clock in the evening.

The hungries begin their last assaults.

as far as losing muscle mass, yeah, but only if you go without food for longer than 4 hours. Feed those 'hungries' but not much and definately ( at least for me ) don't go into your exercise calories.

mwest11

I have never ate any of my calories back and ive lost 60lbs in four months. Obviously the more weight you lose the harder it is but I am still losing the average amount of weight (most importantly FAT) that should be lost each week which is 1-2lbs
I had never even heard of eating back your exercise calories until i joined this site. I work out everyday and can sometimes burn between 700-1500 calories depending...
I think if your like me and work out often then maybe up your calorie intake to around 1500 maybe. That seems to work perfectly for me. I think eating back your calories counteracts the whole point of doing exercise which is to bun fat, to eat the calories back you might as well not exercise that's how I see it!

You do realize by running high caloric deficits (by not eating your exercise calories back or a big portion of them) you are also sacrificing muscle (when the body gets large caloric deficits it will burn the fasted source of energy to replenish what you aren't giving it, so it will attack muscle and break it down) it is not all fat that you are burning up which is counterproductive and will actually start slowing down your metabolism..... You can get away with it for awhile if you have a large quantity of weight to come off but eventually your going to hit the plateau wall, not to mention the muscle loss on top of it all... Just food for thought.......

Question: I am not so sure about your statement that "when the body gets large caloric deficits it will burn the fasted source of energy to replenish what you aren't giving it, so it will attack muscle and break it down". I thought that muscle was the last thing your body targeted for energy metabolism? And that is during extreme starvation mode. Glucose is the fastest available energy source in your body, then fat, then protein. That is why marathon runners eat carbs during their race which takes minutes, not a steak which would take hours to break down. Can you elaborate? Thanks.

debilyn574

I'm confused. So I lost weight not eating back my exercise calories. It says my BMR is 1,355 - how accurate is that? If I was trying to lose 0.5lb/week do you subtract 250 calories from that number? If so, that goes below 1,200. MFP shows my daily goal of 1,440 - where does that number come from? If I burn 500 calories a day, am I correct in that I should be eating 1,940?

SHBoss1673

I'm confused. So I lost weight not eating back my exercise calories. It says my BMR is 1,355 - how accurate is that? If I was trying to lose 0.5lb/week do you subtract 250 calories from that number? If so, that goes below 1,200. MFP shows my daily goal of 1,440 - where does that number come from? If I burn 500 calories a day, am I correct in that I should be eating 1,940?

Please see my prior reply in this topic about BMR. BMR is NOT what you should base your deficit on.

funkycamper

I'm confused. So I lost weight not eating back my exercise calories. It says my BMR is 1,355 - how accurate is that? If I was trying to lose 0.5lb/week do you subtract 250 calories from that number? If so, that goes below 1,200. MFP shows my daily goal of 1,440 - where does that number come from? If I burn 500 calories a day, am I correct in that I should be eating 1,940?

Your BMR is your basal metabolic rate which is the number of calories your body is burning if you sleep 24 hours each day. Even being awake and using your brain will increase the calories burned. Do you sleep all day? Probably not.

The 1440 is your TDEE (total daily energy expenditure) less your calorie deficit (which is based on whether you want to lose 1/2, 1, 1.5 or 2# per week).

So, yes, theoretically, if you burn 500 extra calories via exercise, you should be eating that 500 calories back or you're creating too big of a deficit.

I say theoretically because any kind of mechanism that guesstimates your calories burned is only an estimate. As are BMR and TDEE. These are all based on formulas that are within the correct range but there will always be variance between different individuals. Because of that, I think it's perfect fine to only eat back 50-75% of your exercise calories.

deksgrl

I'm confused. So I lost weight not eating back my exercise calories. It says my BMR is 1,355 - how accurate is that? If I was trying to lose 0.5lb/week do you subtract 250 calories from that number? If so, that goes below 1,200. MFP shows my daily goal of 1,440 - where does that number come from? If I burn 500 calories a day, am I correct in that I should be eating 1,940?

BMR is what you need to survive, what they would feed you if you were in a coma, based on your height/weight/age/gender. They take that number and factor in daily activity, to get your Total Daily Energy Expenditure (TDEE). Or "maintenance calories", how much you need to maintain your current weight at your current activity levels. You need to create a calorie deficit off of that number, not BMR.

lindamac101

I have been eating back my exercise calories back, but now I am reconsidering doing this. i think what a previous writer wrote is correct regarding the amount of calories burned as MFP list is a rough guess. I have a bike computer on my rode that list calories burned. MFP say something like 560 calories for 1 hour of bike riding at 12-14 mph my computer says 300. I am supposed to eat 1200 calories a day, but I am going to now do my exercise as usual but just eat 1500 calories after exercise. I know that MFP is doing there best as far as trying to be accurate, but I am one of those if someone says eat those calories, i have no problem doing that (love to eat). So i will check back in a week and see if that makes a difference.