You Really Should Eat Your Exercise Cals Back!

amyy902

trust me when i say its way more than possible for that to happen i know from personal experience, working out 7 days a week and eating little more than 200 cals as an average for a few years got me into a reallllll state. buttttttt its not healthy SO NO ONE DO IT EVER EVER EVER!!!!

stick to your daily goal and partake in exercise on a realistic scale (3 - 5 tims a week), and you'lll all be fine and great!!!

GTI_Girl

food rocks...why on earth would anyone deprive themselves of it?! I always told people... I don't eat because I am hungry...I eat cause I love the way food tastes!!! lol Which made my new lifestyle change hard...but I just replaced all the naughty things I love to eat, with healthy things I love to eat.

LorinaLynn

**gasp**
at the risk of looking really stupid... we get to eat our exercise calories back?
omg... i love you....

Yep. MFP is a generally very untrusting website, so it doesn't factor what you say you'll burn exercising into your calorie goal unless and until you do it.

MB_Positif

I had stalled at 42 pounds lost for a while and most of that time I was eating about 1350 calories per day, plus eating back exercise calories. For most of the year I have been here, I had worked out only 2 or 3 times per week b/c of a hectic schedule. A few months back I decided to up my calories with no change in exercise. No changes. Lost my job, started working out a lot more and eating the exercise calories. No changes. Upped my calories again and continue to eat my exercise calories. Lost 3 pounds between last week and this week. Eat, people, eat!

ironanimal

This thead is full of win. Listen, it's very simple.

Your daily goal has the defecit figured in. You do not need, nor should you create additional defecit by not eating your daily goal.
Your daily goal has the defecit figured in. You do not need, nor should you create additional defecit by not eating your daily goal.
Your daily goal has the defecit figured in. You do not need, nor should you create additional defecit by not eating your daily goal.
Your daily goal has the defecit figured in. You do not need, nor should you create additional defecit by not eating your daily goal.

malliexo

I face the same problem not eating enough calories. I work out 30-60 min five days a week then play with my kids too. I've noticed I'm under intake by like 5-6 hundred calories and I'm suppose to consume 1400 a day. How are we suppose to eat more of healthy foods when I eat not being hungry to begin with?

There are plenty of healthy foods that are pretty high in calories and can help you reach your goal. Peanut butter, nuts, protein shakes, etc.

Cottage cheese and beans are another way to reach you daily minimum.

YummyTpn

I agree! I also think our culture in general sees abstaining from food as a strength. There is still so much stigma attached to eating, enjoying eating, and especially doing those two things with "forbidden" foods! My ex-husband thinks he's The Bomb because he eats once a day, if that. I think he's just ignorant! He thinks he's srtong for resisting but all he's doing is denying his body of needed nutrition. He also barely drinks water. It drove me NUTS!

ninakir88

i agree with you op, and obviously it worked for you! Looking good!

passagestamper

I like your post but I have issues. I am eating 1200-1300 cal/day. my goal is 1300 and I'm told not to go under 1200. It was set at 1300 cal for me to lose 2lbs a week. I am working out for at least 60 min/day 6 days a week. I usually get alot more than 60 though. I am not seeing weight loss. Very frustrated! Didn't want to eat the cal from exercise as I thought that would keep the weight loss low. Not seeing any weight loss is very frustrating. I am 5'4" and 254lbs.

ahealthy4u

Everyone is different and everyone has to do what works for them. What I do may not be right for someone else. The last few days I have been seeing what my goals are before I factor in my exercise. I set my goals up to the guidelines that I was told to use so that is what I am doing. But everyone is different others shouldn’t judge. If someone asks me what I am doing I will tell them but just like everything if you don’t stick with it; it isn’t going to work.

YummyTpn

If i ate all my exercise calories back every day, I'd probably explode. I work out about 30-45 minutes (fitting it in throughout the day). I already get 1400 calories per day, and if I were to add in another 300-500, I'd be too full. So I usually leave about 300 or more calories on the table, but I am losing and am not worried about it. I rarely go under 1200 total per day so I'm not worried about it.

I personally don't feel that people should have to eat all them back, but if they want to they can. As long as you get a protien/complex carb in after your workout, you are good.

I will follow what u have done lol u have great loss and are an insperation to me! I honeslty have a hard tme getting to 1200 a day with 4 kids i have to plan it to eat it if i dont i forget to eat ( yea go figure how does a large woman forget to eat lol ) i do my best but i can only hit my net is if i eat junk or eat all day long lol

I completely know what you mean!! If I don't plan out my day completely, I do forget to eat. When I forget, I don't lose weight so I am careful to get some nutrition. Quite honestly, even if you only ate 1200 calories worth of Goldfish Crackers and Fruit Snacks you will still lose weight as long as you have a calorie defecit.

I'm sorry, but I so disagree with that last statement!
If I eat my calories in sugar and fat, and not in anything nutritious, there's NO WAY I am going to lose weight. It's not just about the calories you eat, but what kind of calories you eat. I am speaking from repeated personal experience, THIS DOES NOT WORK!!

thepetiterunner

I think it really depends on the person. For me, when I first started my weight loss journey, I ate at about 1200 calories a day and exercised and burned off a lot of calories that I didn't eat back. I would routinely maintain a deficeit of about 500 cals/day, averaging about a 1 lb/week weight loss. I never starved myself and if I was hungry, I ate. I would make better choices about my meals though. This is how I lost about 30 lbs.

I'm not unhealthy, I eat plenty, I work out regularly. I'm active and I weight train. This is how I have lost weight and how I maintain my weight loss. I wasn't using MFP back then, just a food journal, but it was the same idea. I currently don't eat back EVERY single calorie I burn off, some days I born off 700 cals after 4 pm. There's no way I'm eating that plus what MFP has already allotted me that night. I'm just not that hungry, so I don't.

Having said that, I have also adjusted my MFP to the "Olivia Method" (before anyone starts jumping all over my food diary and stating that I'm insanely below levels or what not) so I could see my overall deficiet which the usual 1200 MFP doesn't really show.

EDIT:
Also, I remember reading a SELF article featuring Jessica Alba and she talked about how her "get back to fit post-pregnancy" plan involved eating 1200 calories and exercising daily to maintain a deficiet.

I'm just saying there's no set rule that applies to everyone. You need to see how you do and change as you need to.

tiffany1185

Well said . Im so happy that you mentioned this . I think in a way its an obsessive topic and it can sometimes get out of hand. We have to live life as well and enjoy it. There are too many young people with eating discorders and in most cases I find its because of negative comments and becoming over obsessed with a particular body image.If I want to eat out I do I just work out harder after.

Deedsie

I really like nuts! They are yummy and heatlhy fat too. And you don't have to stuff yourself if you aren't hungry. 1 oz of cashews is about 160 calories. I have noticed that the zig zagging works for me. I try to aim for 80/20 ratios. 80% of the time I eat healthy, organic, clean foods and 20% of the time I eat more processed fatty foods. I actually normally have a big loss a day or two after a fatty day.

I can't exercise on 1200 calories a day. Literally cannot. The last time I tried I passed out. NOT COOL! If I am exercising I am eating those calories and probably a few more cause muscle needs energy to grow.

Armygirl67

MFP sets your calorie goal so that you will lose weight even if you don't exercise. There is a certain amount of calories that your body burns on a daily basis just keeping you alive and functioning, MFP calculates an estimate of that amount of daily calories when you program in your height/weight/age/gender. Then when you tell MFP that you want to lose weight, it subtracts a particular amount of calories from that maintenance amount that it estimated, then if gives you your daily calorie goal based off of those calculations. Since MFP has already done the work of creating a calorie deficit for you, all you have to do is eat those calories every day and you will lose weight. If you exercise, that makes the deficit even larger - some people feel that's a good thing b/c they want to lose weight as fast as possible, however some people feel it's best to stick to the rate that they set on MFP (losing weight *too fast* can be a bad thing) so they eat back those exercise calories that they earned to keep the rate steady and not too fast.

Just for an example, I'm 5'4" and 129 lbs, MFP calculates my 'maintenance' calories to be around 1620 (my profile is set to 'sedentary' - if you choose a higher activity level, you get more calories) - so if I just ate 1620 calories per day and didn't do any extra exercise, I would theoretically maintain my current weight. However, I told MFP that I want to lose about 1/2 lb per week, so it subtracted 250 calories off of my daily maintenance amount and gave me a daily calorie goal of 1370. 1 lb of fat is 3500 calories, so by eating 250 calories per day less than my maintenance amount, I am burning off 1750 calories per week which equals to about 1/2 lb per week weightloss. I'm very close to my goal weight and don't want to lose weight too fast at this stage, so when I workout I log those exercise calories and eat them back. So if I burn 500 calories in my workout one day, instead of only eating 1370 I eat close to 1870. Since I burned those 500 calories through exercise, my *net* calories are still at about 1370, and I still lose weight at about the rate I requested.
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Bump !

slayerdan

I have done it since may 12th of 2011 VERY successfully. My normal days are not scheduled more than 1400 calories, and many days I do not hit 1000...pre workout.

I mean no offense at all, but please dont come across as an expert about this when those rules dont apply to everyone. I did an MD consult and 2 dietitians and a trainer....ALL were of the same mindset....if I can do it and am not tired and continue to show gains, then whatever I eat is enough.

This might apply to someone 20 lbs overweight, but if more than 100--it is worse to carry the weight vs being stringent for a year to achieve goals.

I exercise 6 days a week. I have had my years of abuse, time to fix it.
And I eat just fine and am not hungry 95% of the time.I do not cut out food either or buy low fat or cheap nasty lean cuisines.....portion control and spacing meals out for my day works just fine.

There is no hard and fast rule for everyone.....
D

rmsrws

As for working out, I make the time it is one of my top priorities!

I choose to do it before work, that way nothing can interfere with my time for me!

It all depends on how bad you want something, and how much discipline and dedication you are willing to put fourth.

Eating back excercise calories works for some and others it don't. You need to find out what works for you. We all have different metabolisims and burn at different rates.

Sister_Someone

I calculated my BMR and customized my daily goal to that number. I eat my BMR and generally don't eat the exercise calories back, unless I engage in something highly physical after having already worked out that day.

_Kitten_Kate

i had major issues with not being able able to lose weight because i wasn't eating enough calories or exercising,im struggling to make it to 1200 let alone wat im burning but ive sill lost 1st since new yrs ,wat i dont understand is isnt the deficit wat causes weight if you eat all you burn wouldnt you just be maintaining?

MFP sets your calorie goal so that you will lose weight even if you don't exercise. There is a certain amount of calories that your body burns on a daily basis just keeping you alive and functioning, MFP calculates an estimate of that amount of daily calories when you program in your height/weight/age/gender. Then when you tell MFP that you want to lose weight, it subtracts a particular amount of calories from that maintenance amount that it estimated, then if gives you your daily calorie goal based off of those calculations. Since MFP has already done the work of creating a calorie deficit for you, all you have to do is eat those calories every day and you will lose weight. If you exercise, that makes the deficit even larger - some people feel that's a good thing b/c they want to lose weight as fast as possible, however some people feel it's best to stick to the rate that they set on MFP (losing weight *too fast* can be a bad thing) so they eat back those exercise calories that they earned to keep the rate steady and not too fast.

Just for an example, I'm 5'4" and 129 lbs, MFP calculates my 'maintenance' calories to be around 1620 (my profile is set to 'sedentary' - if you choose a higher activity level, you get more calories) - so if I just ate 1620 calories per day and didn't do any extra exercise, I would theoretically maintain my current weight. However, I told MFP that I want to lose about 1/2 lb per week, so it subtracted 250 calories off of my daily maintenance amount and gave me a daily calorie goal of 1370. 1 lb of fat is 3500 calories, so by eating 250 calories per day less than my maintenance amount, I am burning off 1750 calories per week which equals to about 1/2 lb per week weightloss. I'm very close to my goal weight and don't want to lose weight too fast at this stage, so when I workout I log those exercise calories and eat them back. So if I burn 500 calories in my workout one day, instead of only eating 1370 I eat close to 1870. Since I burned those 500 calories through exercise, my *net* calories are still at about 1370, and I still lose weight at about the rate I requested.

I feel like that is all theoretical... and hugely estimated. I am 5'10 248-9lbs. I also have my cals @1370 per mfp. I have sedentary set as well but still attempt to work out 3x a week for 30-60 mins. Mine is set to loose 2lbs per week. And I am lucky if in reality that I drop one. For the past 2 weeks I have gone up and down the same 1-2lbs. I net between 870-1370 avg a day. I have gone over on some days. I have been under on some. Sometimes I eat the exercise cals... sometimes I don't.
It IS different for everyone. I so wish it were black and white... but it isn't.

poulingail

I like your post but I have issues. I am eating 1200-1300 cal/day. my goal is 1300 and I'm told not to go under 1200. It was set at 1300 cal for me to lose 2lbs a week. I am working out for at least 60 min/day 6 days a week. I usually get alot more than 60 though. I am not seeing weight loss. Very frustrated! Didn't want to eat the cal from exercise as I thought that would keep the weight loss low. Not seeing any weight loss is very frustrating. I am 5'4" and 254lbs.

I'm having trouble understanding this. Are you saying your goal is 1300 and then you work out for at least 60 minutes. What is your calorie burn on that exercise? I think you may in fact be proving the point about eating your exercise calories. I have never seen it illustrated this well before.
Your body thinks it should maintain on minimal intake under stressful conditions.

lindamac101

I have found that MFP is a little off on calories burned for some of there exercises. I was eating back all my exercise calories and not losing. I know that when I ride my bike for an hour at 12-14 mph I am not burning 568 calories I think this is just a baseline. There is no way that every person can burn the same amount of calories so I kind of tweak my exercise calories. i have a bike computer on my bike and it says I burned approximate 300 calories. So by doing this I am now losing weight. I am considering getting a HRM to ge the exact about but dont want to get to crazy about it.:laugh:

flyinghubby

Good for you, I only hope I can do as well as you have!

em9371

This thead is full of win. Listen, it's very simple.

Your daily goal has the defecit figured in. You do not need, nor should you create additional defecit by not eating your daily goal.
Your daily goal has the defecit figured in. You do not need, nor should you create additional defecit by not eating your daily goal.
Your daily goal has the defecit figured in. You do not need, nor should you create additional defecit by not eating your daily goal.
Your daily goal has the defecit figured in. You do not need, nor should you create additional defecit by not eating your daily goal.

haha i like this, it really is that simple! I dont get people who say they cant manage to eat 1200 cals, no offense but they would have eaten way more than 1200 cals to get fat and have to come on here to lose weight lol

i agree with the OP, eating low 'might' get your weight down quicker, but it will also affect your metabolism and theres no way i want to be eating 1200 cals forever!!

i was on 1740 total / around 1340 net after exercise, which was MFP recommendation to lose 2lb/week. i thought that was quite high compared to others on here, im never hungry, and eat loads, including'bad' things sometimes! Due to an injury im unable to exercise AT ALL, ive continued on the same cals and gained 0.8 first week, which i expected as my body adjusts to not exercising, this week I have already lost 1lb in 3 days, when technically this cal level should only lose me 1lb in a week!!! When I can exercise again i think i will be eating more as it seems to work better

CMmrsfloyd

i had major issues with not being able able to lose weight because i wasn't eating enough calories or exercising,im struggling to make it to 1200 let alone wat im burning but ive sill lost 1st since new yrs ,wat i dont understand is isnt the deficit wat causes weight if you eat all you burn wouldnt you just be maintaining?

MFP sets your calorie goal so that you will lose weight even if you don't exercise. There is a certain amount of calories that your body burns on a daily basis just keeping you alive and functioning, MFP calculates an estimate of that amount of daily calories when you program in your height/weight/age/gender. Then when you tell MFP that you want to lose weight, it subtracts a particular amount of calories from that maintenance amount that it estimated, then if gives you your daily calorie goal based off of those calculations. Since MFP has already done the work of creating a calorie deficit for you, all you have to do is eat those calories every day and you will lose weight. If you exercise, that makes the deficit even larger - some people feel that's a good thing b/c they want to lose weight as fast as possible, however some people feel it's best to stick to the rate that they set on MFP (losing weight *too fast* can be a bad thing) so they eat back those exercise calories that they earned to keep the rate steady and not too fast.

Just for an example, I'm 5'4" and 129 lbs, MFP calculates my 'maintenance' calories to be around 1620 (my profile is set to 'sedentary' - if you choose a higher activity level, you get more calories) - so if I just ate 1620 calories per day and didn't do any extra exercise, I would theoretically maintain my current weight. However, I told MFP that I want to lose about 1/2 lb per week, so it subtracted 250 calories off of my daily maintenance amount and gave me a daily calorie goal of 1370. 1 lb of fat is 3500 calories, so by eating 250 calories per day less than my maintenance amount, I am burning off 1750 calories per week which equals to about 1/2 lb per week weightloss. I'm very close to my goal weight and don't want to lose weight too fast at this stage, so when I workout I log those exercise calories and eat them back. So if I burn 500 calories in my workout one day, instead of only eating 1370 I eat close to 1870. Since I burned those 500 calories through exercise, my *net* calories are still at about 1370, and I still lose weight at about the rate I requested.

I feel like that is all theoretical... and hugely estimated. I am 5'10 248-9lbs. I also have my cals @1370 per mfp. I have sedentary set as well but still attempt to work out 3x a week for 30-60 mins. Mine is set to loose 2lbs per week. And I am lucky if in reality that I drop one. For the past 2 weeks I have gone up and down the same 1-2lbs. I net between 870-1370 avg a day. I have gone over on some days. I have been under on some. Sometimes I eat the exercise cals... sometimes I don't.
It IS different for everyone. I so wish it were black and white... but it isn't.

There are definitely some issues that can make reality come out differently than MFP math - for example people with certain metabolic disorders or women with PCOS have special considerations that make them lose weight differently, and there is the issue of possible portion distortion if someone is not able to measure/weigh everything they eat. For example my idea of a serving of shredded cheese turned out to be WAY off-base when I bought my digital scale and saw the truth. That was a sad day. LOL Anyway there are definitely things that make it different for individual people or may make it appear different. But for most people it is at least an excellent starting point.

tiffany1185

I read a comment on here with this statement "go figure how does a large woman forget to eat lol" in all honeslly there are many large people who barely eat enough and that may be the reason why they carry a little extra weight. The human body will go into starvation mode when it do not have enough calories consumed therefore whatever that person may eat after is being stored and not burned off. I'm not making excuses for anyone but its the science of the body which completely makes sence. You dont have to eat healthy 7 days a week and even the worlds most fit person has days when they just want a greasy burger.. If you dont treat yourself from time to time your diet just wont work and then of course unhappiness. If your an active person who do not consume enough calories your body will do the same thing. Its different for everyone but from my experience and working out 40 minutes a day with no breakdays I have gained weight particulary from not consuming enough calories. Sometimes its just to hard to find the time or I am so busy I eat on the run instead of sitting to enjoy a meal I have to rush through it

ElectricMayhem

couldn't have said it better myself ;-) thanks for the details, it helps to be informed to meet my goals

rotnkat

While I am striving to get more exercise in my day I am finding it a bit tough to do. By the time I can it's 9:30 pm and I try to go to bed around 10 pm (not always possible).

My day starts at 4:50 am and I have over an hour commute each way to and from work, so that's over 2 hours that I lose. I get home around 6:15 pm and then I start cooking dinner for the family and then there's the laundry and the cleaning, etc, etc. So by the time I get a break it's bedtime!!!

I do sneak in a workout on my exercise bike/elliptical when I can. I never eat my exercise calories, but I average out about between 1400-1600 calories per day.

I'm losing slowly, but steady. Which is fine with me!! But everyone is different.....YMMV (your mileage may vary).

SassyCalyGirl

I work out for 2 hours everyday-circuit training and running. I have NEVER eaten back burned calories-doesn't make sense to me. What I am doing works for ME.

Unknown

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BellydanceBliss

If i ate all my exercise calories back every day, I'd probably explode. I work out about 30-45 minutes (fitting it in throughout the day). I already get 1400 calories per day, and if I were to add in another 300-500, I'd be too full. So I usually leave about 300 or more calories on the table, but I am losing and am not worried about it. I rarely go under 1200 total per day so I'm not worried about it.

I personally don't feel that people should have to eat all them back, but if they want to they can. As long as you get a protien/complex carb in after your workout, you are good.

this is me lol