Eating back exercise calories

emlevine

I'm not doing the special diet, but I am wondering the same thing! Please let me know what you find out

tsh0ck

does nobody look into how and why the MFP setup works? yes. you do lose weight. because you are automatically set to be at a deficit. you work out, to make the deficit even bigger. so if you eat them back, you may lose slower. but you also won't drop to unsafe, too-low levels of calorie intake.

NO, WHY should yea? U can just ask!! LOL I know u love me tshock!!!

I do. who doesn't?

but I'm not bothered when people ask. I asked. I am annoyed when people chime in that you can't eat them back because then you will waste all your hard work and not lose anything. those are the people not paying attention, many of them having been here a while. just hate when people spread bad info as fact.

TNoire

I don't, some days I go into the negatives
honestly lol
I try to eat what I can to get my body fuel'd
usually between 1200-1300 cals
I burn 500- 2000 sometimes more a day

it takes 3500 BURNED cals to burn 1lb
if your eating back all your calories you burn
where you at?
0

I found personally in the years i been losing exp during the time I dropped 156lbs in 19 months
eat what you eat and make sure its all healthy, 1200 for females and 1800 for guys no less
you drop weight pretty well

I gained some back when I lost track during the house buy/sell
My weight I gained was from quitting smoking I went from 135 to 330 in a few yrs swapping smoking with fast food/junk food etc

but im back on track now and I NEVER eat my cals back

Thats just me, to each there own really, I wanna see results so i don't eat em back

gigisview

@maximaLife Well said!!!

BeautyFromPain

I was told by my trainer, not to eat back the calories, because then I am just eating the work I have done. So I stick to my 1400 per day (for now) and then just go from there.

:grumble: Exercise has SO many more benefits than burning calories.

Becoming happier, more energy, smaller, tighter body, and cos it's fun?!

Kristinemomof3

Your trainer needs a new job.

BeautyFromPain

I don't, some days I go into the negatives
honestly lol
I try to eat what I can to get my body fuel'd
usually between 1200-1300 cals
I burn 500- 2000 sometimes more a day

it takes 3500 BURNED cals to burn 1lb
if your eating back all your calories you burn
where you at?
0

I found personally in the years i been losing exp during the time I dropped 156lbs in 19 months
eat what you eat and make sure its all healthy, 1200 for females and 1800 for guys no less
you drop weight pretty well

I gained some back when I lost track during the house buy/sell
My weight I gained was from quitting smoking I went from 135 to 330 in a few yrs swapping smoking with fast food/junk food etc

but im back on track now and I NEVER eat my cals back

Thats just me, to each there own really, I wanna see results so i don't eat em back

You burn calories by sleeping, eating, etc. There is already a deficit built into MFP.
If you have a large amount of weight to lose not eating can speed up the loss for a bit but after a while you will lose muscle, your metabolism will slow and you will stop burning as many calories over all.

BeautyFromPain

Your trainer needs a new job.

^ THIS. I'm studying to become a Personal Trainer and whilst I am not qualified yet another student asked the teacher this question and they answered with YES!

Srdking

When I ate back calories I stopped losing weight. So I read on other forums not to eat them back or it's pointless. So far so good, not eating them back! At least for me, I don't know how it is for the rest of you.

Thena81

just depends on how hungry i am. hard workouts make you hungrier!!! lol
pay attn to the net cals/deficit of the day!! i try to keep it close but go over myself lolz

TNoire

I don't, some days I go into the negatives
honestly lol
I try to eat what I can to get my body fuel'd
usually between 1200-1300 cals
I burn 500- 2000 sometimes more a day

it takes 3500 BURNED cals to burn 1lb
if your eating back all your calories you burn
where you at?
0

I found personally in the years i been losing exp during the time I dropped 156lbs in 19 months
eat what you eat and make sure its all healthy, 1200 for females and 1800 for guys no less
you drop weight pretty well

I gained some back when I lost track during the house buy/sell
My weight I gained was from quitting smoking I went from 135 to 330 in a few yrs swapping smoking with fast food/junk food etc

but im back on track now and I NEVER eat my cals back

Thats just me, to each there own really, I wanna see results so i don't eat em back

You burn calories by sleeping, eating, etc. There is already a deficit built into MFP.
If you have a large amount of weight to lose not eating can speed up the loss for a bit but after a while you will lose muscle, your metabolism will slow and you will stop burning as many calories over all.

Yep I burn almost 1700 just laying in bed all day (if thats what i ever decided to do so on top of that I burn another 500-2000 or more ~

Muscle weighs more than fat and it also helps burn more fat
I learned quite a bit going from 330lbs to 176lbs in 19 months
Ive learned it all good and bad, thats why now I have my docs and my dietitian always there for me and helping me out
I am thankful & blessed to have them with me as well as my friends/family that workout with me on a daily bases

I eat my 1200-1300
I can't eat anymore cause I don't get hungry for anymore
My body has enough fuel to get though
I can tell when it doesn't cause Ill want more food and I wont say no im not gonna eat it cause if i am hungry ill eat if not I wont

3 meals + 2 snacks = make me happy

I do zumba a lot and thats a workout lol

lisakyle_11

bump

Dstdiva01

I've been doing Jillian Michael's 30 day shred and am trying to figure out whether I should eat back any of my exercise calories. Has anyone read anything on this? What do you all do?

MFP calculates our total daily calorie intake WITHOUT exercise to lose 1 pound or so per week.
And after we log exercises, our daily calorie limit increases.
Why?
Because MFP telling us to eat our exercise calories.
Large deficits are unhealthy, because while you will lose weight, what's the quality of the weight loss?
In many cases you'll lose lean body mass - MUSCLE - which LOWERS your metabolic rate, making weight loss harder.
These crash diets work well for a season -- and sure enough, the pounds melt away. But when you eat so
few calories, you train your metabolism to slow down. Once the diet is over, you have a body that burns calories more slowly -- and you gain weight.
Be smart.
Exercise well both cardio and resistance, and eat back the calories.
The exercise will RAISE your metabolism and burn more fat at rest.

Best explanation I've read on this so far. I was so confused! Thank YOU!!!

I agree and if you are not using a HRM to track the cal burned be very careful in my experience so far I found that MFP was over @ least 200cal more than my HRM on my workouts, big wake up call for me

jennifershoo

MFP calculates our total daily calorie intake WITHOUT exercise to lose 1 pound or so per week.
And after we log exercises, our daily calorie limit increases.
Why?
Because MFP telling us to eat our exercise calories.
Large deficits are unhealthy, because while you will lose weight, what's the quality of the weight loss?
In many cases you'll lose lean body mass - MUSCLE - which LOWERS your metabolic rate, making weight loss harder.
These crash diets work well for a season -- and sure enough, the pounds melt away. But when you eat so
few calories, you train your metabolism to slow down. Once the diet is over, you have a body that burns calories more slowly -- and you gain weight.
Be smart.
Exercise well both cardio and resistance, and eat back the calories.
The exercise will RAISE your metabolism and burn more fat at rest.

This^^

jennifershoo

Your trainer needs a new job.

:laugh: Exactly!

WickedGarden

I agree and if you are not using a HRM to track the cal burned be very careful in my experience so far I found that MFP was over @ least 200cal more than my HRM on my workouts, big wake up call for me

I keep heaing this ^^^ MFP will only give me 450 (ish) calories burned for kickboxing, but according to my HRM, I burn 860 during a session of Kenpo (kickboxing/martial arts) with the P90x program. I am working out at my target heart rate too.

EDIT: oh, that's why I figured out I needed to eat back my calories..or at least most of them. When I used the MFP calories burned, I suddenly kept getting tired and taking 3 hour naps. Now that I eat back the calories, I'm not tired and don't need the naps.
I ♥ my HRM. hahahhaha

KathieSwenson

You need to eat back at least a small portion of the calories you burn exercising. Like everyone has said mfdp already calculates a deficit in there. 1200 calories is a deficit trust me on that one if you don't do the research. I do find if I exercise and I don't eat ,an extra meal at the least I will gain weight not loose it. Look at it this way. A friend told this to me yesterday and is a good example. The women body was created/designed to carry life for NINE months in a depression, Nine months is the gestation period for a pregnant woman. So that being said it will naturally be harder to loose weight if you don't eat because your body will kick into starvation mode and it will want to sustain life for nine months. You have to eat back some of your calories or your body is going to say "uh oh something is not right and I need to keep her alive for nine months". Okay. That's how I look at it. Since then I have ate more and didn't exercise and still lost weight. I struggle with it but loosing slowley is much better than loosing quickly.

shanlynt

I suggest eating a majority of them back. It's really hard to know if the cardio machine etc is giving you a true number.

tigersword

I am wondering this too! By the time I add in my exercise burn I am quite a bit below my calorie intake because I am really
trying to watch what I eat. But isn't the objective to be below so that you can lose the lbs? I have read some comments
about people not eating enough - but if you don't have a calorie deficit than you don't lose the weight.
I need more explanation I guess.

Your MFP calorie goal factors in weight loss without exercise. When you add in exercise, you need to properly fuel that exercise by eating more, otherwise you risk losing muscle tissue and damaging your organs. By eating exercise calories you can ensure that you are maintaining health and losing fat.

I'll put it this way. Do you think eating 500 calories a day is ok? Eating 1200 calories, but burning 700 in exercise is the same thing as just eating 500 calories. When you exercise, your body burns off the food you eat for the exercise, so it isn't available for your body rouse to support your normal life functions. It's no different than just flat out starving yourself.

tialynn1

There are some days that I don't eat the calories back, and some days that I eat almost all of my calories back from exercise. I have lost weight every week. I am eating healthier than ever, but I am not restricting myself of anything. I am exercising everyday for at least 1 hour.