eating your burned calorie! Really!

stitchinggirl

If I eat any, and I'm not burning many right now because I am not hitting the gym enough, I only eat half, if that much of what it says I burned.

In the end, if the calculator is off, I've left myself room for error. I work out to give myself a little more calories if life is hectic and I choose poorly, but I don't work out to gorge out either.

Really, in the beginning you need to figure out what balance of working out vs. eating works for you.

olee67

I wasn't eating back my calories for a few months and I plateaued for a few weeks. Now, to change things up, I'm eating back my calories to reduce my deficit and keep my net calories between 0-500....

It's good to change it up and not keep it the same. The lowest deficit you should ever have is 1,000 calories..

Don't forget to have a cheat day... Confusing your body is key to keep that metabolism raging hot and burning fat.

oneill38

I wear a heart rate monitor everytime I exercise just got back from the gym and burnt a whopping 1060 cal. I dont eat the back as I thought why am I bothering to exercise then. It is a crazy concept but maybe it might work. If you decide to eat them back let me know so I can see if it works.

Cheers

Huffdogg

I wear a heart rate monitor everytime I exercise just got back from the gym and burnt a whopping 1060 cal. I dont eat the back as I thought why am I bothering to exercise then. It is a crazy concept but maybe it might work. If you decide to eat them back let me know so I can see if it works.

You act as if the OP is considering some radical new dietary experiment, rather than discussing one of the primary goals of MFP's system, which is to maintain a fixed NET deficit for slow, steady weight loss. If you burn more calories one day than another, you are SUPPOSED to eat more to compensate. Massive deprivation (undereating when your body really wants the fuel, especially), not only sets you up for a binge later, but also increases the chances of undernourishing a hard-working machine and making you prone to reduced benefit from your exercise, or even injury.

oneill38

I am extremely hungry when I get back home from the gym and I have a protein shake and the about 1 hour later have lunch but just find that I haven't been extremely hungry. I will eat more so that I don't deprive my body in the long run. I am definitely not starving myself. I eat when I am hungry and stop eating when I am full.

Patovader

I do NOT eat my exercised calories back and it has worked for me-but.be prepared to be bashed by people who do-huge controversey here and they are not nice about it. Everyone else knows best! NOT.

MFP already puts you in a deficit. Any extra work you do, puts you in a deeper deficit. Being in a severe deficit hinders weight loss.

Good luck with your fitness goals in 2012.

Exactly, I eat most of my calories back (only most because I go well over at the weekends) and have managed to lose 41 pounds here. As someone else mentioned just be sure that the amount you have burned is accurate.

Good luck.

imkegoal

I generally eat about 200 cals less than my allowance- this is partly because I simply don't need any more food, but also to allow for inaccuracies in exercise calories burned, or food not accurately logged (although I weigh my own food, when I eat out I won't ask the restaurant keeper to weigh each of the ingredients!).

I prefer to 'under log' my exercise calories than over log. IE. the 'wobbly plate' is supposed to burn a lot of calories within 10 minutes of using it. A friend of mine always logs 200 calories for 5 minutes based on what they told us in the gym. However, after doing a bit of internet research I read an article which advised that actually it is more likely to burn 15 calories in 5 minutes, so I go with that advise.

I try to eat to at least 300 under the MFP limit- If I haven't reached than by the evening I might have a banana or some qauvers to make up the calories. This is because of worrying about my metabolism slowing down. I also allow myself to over eat 1 day a week (although in reality this has only happened twice in the past month) knowing I make it up by eating a little less other days.

I have to admit I exercise more on Saturday with the goal to stay within my calories limits even after a bottle of wine.This makes my hubbie laugh, as wine isn't very nutricious. but hey; a girl needs her treats once in a while!

I have not yet plateaud using this method. in previous diets I plateaud after 3 weeks, and I am now in my 6th week. Have lost 14 LB so far, which is more than addequate for me- prefer to loose it slow and steady.

kymcyndie55

Main thing it pay attention to your body.
Most people do not recommend eating less than 1200 calories. So once you hit that your usually good. As for the extra calories you burned this is where you should listen to your body. Your body may need you to eat the extra calories but you may not need to use them all..

BerryH

Wow, so many post, so much great information!!!! I feel success runnin' through me! This is what I think I will try. On days I don't exercise I will eat 1200 and on days I do I will eat 1500 to 1600. What thoughts would you guys have on that?

You could also average them out over the week - eat more on non-exercise days if you're hungry, eat a bit less than you burn on non-exercise days when you're not hungry.

I burned over 1,500 calories on a three-hour run on Sunday and ate most of them back - every single one was delicious!

My only concern is 1,200 is very low for most people to sustain for long. Go back to your MFP goals and go with the calories it gives you to lose 1lb a week. Bet it's more!

AH2013

Hi.

When I first joined MFP back in August last year I ate at 1200 cals a day and rarely ate back my exercise cals. I lost 1lb, not even every week but most. I couldn't understand why when I was eating so little, working out a lot and still not losing as much as everyone else. In Dec I hit a wall and my weight stalled for 2 1/2 months. It's only just started moving again after I upped my cals a fair bit and zigzag (I don't want to confuse you, but look it up, I'd recommend it). I'm not an expert, but I would suggest asking someone who is, what you should really set your daily intake to. I really wish I had listened to everyone back then telling me to eat a little more. You've probably come to this conclusion by now but thought I'd just weigh in also as I hate to think others may end up heading for where I hit.

Good luck, you'll get into the swing of things in no time.

Peta22

Great thread... I had wondered this myself! But from my personal experience I lost 9kg last year over 5mths and I was eating the calories burned during exersizing. Generally I added about 300-400 calories per day by working out for an hour on a recumbent bike in the mornings. I found that this, added to my set calorie allowance of 1400, meant I could generally eat and drink as I pleased (within reason) and still lose weight - albeit slowly. Sadly, an overseas holiday followed by Xmas ect meant I slipped back into old habits an so I'm back here again. But at least I know it works now and hopefully I can maintain self control this time