Eating back calories (another post AGAIN)

lisaelainee

I apologise for asking this because it's been done one billion times but I really don't understand. I exercised my butt off for 800 calories and I was wondering if I need to eat the calories back and why?
I don't see the point in exercising and then eating it back again.
Please explain?
My diary is open for you to look at.
Thanks :flowerforyou:

inge88

No problem - everyone is here to help!

I could try and explain it - but have seen the best explanation possible on this thread: http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/206951-asked-my-trainer-re-eating-back-calories

But do get back when you have more questions!

PS: just be careful with MFP's calorie-estimation. I found that it was too high for me. It might be a good idea to invest in a heart rate monitor. If not, consider eating back 75%-85% of the calories burned.

heybales

I apologise for asking this because it's been done one billion times but I really don't understand. I exercised my butt off for 800 calories and I was wondering if I need to eat the calories back and why?
I don't see the point in exercising and then eating it back again.

Did you select a weight loss goal in Diet Profile?
You can confirm by looking at your Goals page.
Is there a difference between the maintenance calories and your net goal calories already?

If so, then you already have a deficit from what you would eat to maintain your weight, to what goal MFP shows on each day.
The exercise is not included in that of course, unless you just wanted to increase your activity level and not log exercise.

The only problem would be that estimate of calories burned.
What gave that figure of 800 for your workout?

lisaelainee

MFP gave me the 800 estimate

WickedGarden

Well, FIRST of all...you are NOT eating enough to feed your body for daily functioning. I saw between 300-800 calories a DAY. Your body is starving, so it's going to hold onto as much fat as possible in case you stop eating completely.

Your body needs to know "oh hey, I'm gonna get a consistent amount of calories every day, so I can let go of all this excess fat I'm storing" I didn't realize this fat until a fitness buddy told me about it. So, PLEASE eat at LEAST the 1200 calories MFP has set your minimum at.

Personally, at first I wasn't eating enough AND working out (at a high intensity) 6 days a week. So guess what happened? I would get really tired in the middle of the day, and literally pass out. I'd be reading a book, and wake up 3 hours later thinking "I thought I was reading, I don't remember wanting to take a nap".

Now I eat back most of my calories,feel good, and losing weight.

heybales

MFP gave me the 800 estimate

Use a few other sites, though some of them have obviously bought the same database, so you get the same figures.

But MFP database and others, except for walking type workouts, seems to be very overestimated.

Try a few, and use the lowest one.

http://www.primusweb.com/fitnesspartner/calculat.htm

http://briancalkins.com/caloriecalc.htm

xraychick77

unless you are an athlete there is no reason to be exercising that much. moderate cardio everyday is all you need to be healthy. anyways, you should have all ready accounted for your exercise in your activity level. so if you eat back you could be actually eating excess calories. plus, as we all know we tend to over estimate the amount we burn, and underestimate what we eat. again, another pitfall of eating back.

now..people swear up and down that there is this starvation mode..as that link says in the other post. 'my trainer says'..sorry but trainers are NOT dieticians, nor are "nutritionists" or doctors or fitness celebs on tv who try to sell us stuff.

you go study true starvation and you'll see that in fact our bodies DONT hold onto anything if we dont eat enough. your bmr may slow, but its mostly due to muscle wasting. this myth comes from a starvation study done called the minnesota starvation study. you can google it and read up on it. the myth comes from the fact that although everyone involved lost weight steadily, those who ate less calories had their BMR's reduced a bit. (again because of muscle wasting mostly and slowing of digestive action). so hence lowered bmr of course automatically means 'starvation mode'.

our bodies simply just dont work like that. We need to intake carbs to be turned into glucose to power our metabolism. we need to intake calories to give us energy. If we dont eat enough what happens is our bodies take fat for energy, muscle for glucose. our bmrs are our bmrs, they dont change. if our body doesnt get what it needs it HAS to take it from someplace. it HAS to run our nervous system, our organs etc. so no..it doesnt 'store' it.

david081

I exercise every day with a minimum burn target of 1000 calories. I don't usually eat back my exercise calories, but tried it this weekend and am now 2lb heavier this morning. Never go below 1200 cals. I eat around 1500 per day, am NOT and have NEVER been in starvation mode, and my body is not clinging on to every scrap of fat. 27lbs gone, 13lbs to go...

Good luck

:drinker:

heybales

I exercise every day with a minimum burn target of 1000 calories. I don't usually eat back my exercise calories, but tried it this weekend and am now 2lb heavier this morning. Never go below 1200 cals. I eat around 1500 per day, am NOT and have NEVER been in starvation mode, and my body is not clinging on to every scrap of fat. 27lbs gone, 13lbs to go...

Congratulations, you just topped off your glucose stores that have been sorely running low because of that diet and exercise routine.

When glucose goes low, it must come from somewhere to keep the brain fed, and to burn the fat.
It will come from muscle breakdown.

Since muscle only has 600 cal energy in it compared to 3500 in fat, you can lose a whole lot more weight with big deficit when the muscle is torn down than from fat loss.

Since you topped off your glucose stores, you could have gotten an extra 1500 cal worth of glucose stored. That amounts to 3 lbs with the water that goes with it.

peachNpunkin

Bump!