Question on the Diet

Lozze

Im 109.8kg (approx 240lbs) I'm reading the diet and am confused if we're meant to eat exercise calories back. I'm only subtracting 300 from his recommendations. I'm obese and don't want to eat at maintenance (1600 which is what I eat and will hit the higher cals on weight days) but if I'm doing cardio (because I love it and need to have fitness) do I eat those back?

Thanks!

bizco

I completely ignored the book's diet (calorie) plan because I found it much easier to use MFP the way it's designed to be used. Plus, it comes very close to the book's plan anyway.

You choose your weight loss goal (ex: lose 1 lb. per week), choose your activity/job setting (ex: sedentary), log your workouts using the Exercise tab (under Cardio at the top and select "strength training" from the database, key in your minutes worked), and DO eat back all or most of your extra earned calories. Done. All the calculations are done for you.

If you want to follow the book and not use MFP tools, then no, you're NOT supposed to eat back your exercise calories from your lifting workout. However, if you choose to do cardio on top of lifting then log your cardio workouts and DO eat back all or some of your extra earned calories.

Hope that helps! Happy lifting.

Elleinnz

Yes - any time you do exercise ( burn calories) you need to eat more....
I have to disagree with bizco - he clearly says in the "ironclad rules "that you need to eat more on workout days....

bizco

Yes - any time you do exercise ( burn calories) you need to eat more....
I have to disagree with bizco - he clearly says in the "ironclad rules "that you need to eat more on workout days....

Her question was "do I eat back my exercise calories if I follow the book" and the correct answer is NO. The book already has you eating more calories on lifting days so you wouldn't log them in MFP on top of that and eat them back. That would be doubling.

Her choices are:
1. follow the book and don't log any calories burned from exericse in MFP. She could still enter her workouts (minutes worked) but overtype the calories to zero.

2. Ignore the book and follow MFP as described in my first post.

kunibob

I find that setting myself to sedentary, setting my goals to losing 1/2 lb a week (and macros to 40/30/30) and then logging my exercise calories/eating them back on MFP has almost exactly lined up with the diet recommendations in the book for folks wanting to lose.