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Eating Back Calories....I JUST DON'T GET IT.

Aprillsmith

Ok the thing is to eat more than you burn so why is eating back calories included encouraged?! I have asked this question over and over but no one seems to know the answer. It just seems like you are canceling out the burn by eating the calories back. I just dont get it...DOES ANYONE UNDERSTAND THIS PHILOSOPHY??

Replies

maysflower

I eat back my calories because it works for me. If I don't eat them I find my weight loss slows down, but when I do eat them I am losing pounds on a constant basis. What works for some does not work for others.

I always suggest giving it a try for a couple of weeks to see if it works for you. The worst thing that happens is you maintain, but the best thing that could happen is you could see a more constant weight loss....you may even lose more than you were before.

ingfit

I think this is more a question of how heavy you are to begin with. If you are a woman and have a high BMI or over 200 lbs to begin with, then following the MFP guidlines to lose 2lbs a week is fine, with or without eating back calories - your choice.

BUT ..... once your weight gets closer to your goal, or within 20 lbs of goal, and you exercise you will find that your weight will slow down signifigantly or stall out completely. At this point most people will take on even more exercise to compensate as there is no room to lower calories. This sets you up for serious failure. Overtraining and undereating can actually make you stall or gain water weight through inflamation, and you will feel chronically tired and hungry. Especially if you decide to weight train, you must fuel your body properly with enough protein and fats, and moderate carbs.

I am 20 lbs away from goal and eat 1800 cals per day, exercise hard 4 times a week and am losing consistantly 1 lb a week. When you get close to your goal weight you may have to re-evaluate your goals. Hope this helps.

gooteek

If you do not eat back the calories to assure you only have a deficit between 3-400 calories a day, then you will put your body into starvation mode and it will hold on to as much fat as possible until your body feels it is safe to release it...many plateau when they workout like crazy people without eating back the calories from their workouts to stay just under their daily caloric levels. Too much deficit = plateau due to starvation mode (body preserving itself), a 3-400 calorie deficit is the most extreme you should go. Get the caloric numbers MFP tells you and you will be golden.

This has been explained a million times already, but I'll try one last time.

When you sign up to MFP you select how quickly you want to lose weight...0.5lb a week/1lb a week/1/5lb a week...
MFP then tells you how many calories to eat to achieve this...the deficit needed is already there.
If you then exercise your deficit becomes even bigger and therefore you need to eat back the exercise calories to go cancel out the extra calories you've burnt ON TOP of the deficit.

For example (using a hypothetical person):

Maintainence Cals 2000
MFP goal lose 1lb/week
Daily deficit required to achieve this = 500cal a day
(this is worked out because 3500cals = 1lb and 500 x 7 = 3500)
Therefore MFP says eat a net of 1500 a day
You eat 1500 cals of food and all is great
But then you do a 300cal workout
Therefore you've eaten 1500 - 300 = 1200
To get back to the 1500 net cals you need to eat 300cals back.

Does this make sense?

ItsMeRebekah

Most people on here aren't bodybuilders, they are just regular people trying to lose weight.

If you told someone on 1200 calories NOT To eat back the 500 calories thay had just burned, leaving them a net 700, surely that's worse than them eating some sensible calories to get back to their goal calories.

Nobody is suggesting that people go out and eat McDonalds burgers to make up their exercise calories.

Sigh.

I have the same digestive etc systems as you. I higher muscle mass which ultimately enable one to burn more calories and retain less fat as your metabolism is increased. I'm not remotely different to you, just I have a different shape and eat as my body actually needs.

As for calories, it shouldn't be just 'calories'. Your body doesn't need 'calories' it needs protein and fast carbs to repair. Which is where the eating back falls over.

As for me being a body builder so its not the same, tell this to my misses who recently lost 3 stone following my advice on IF

She's no body builder and did zumba for her resistance, cardio and ab work. We all work in a very similar way.

yep im with you.. dont eat them back and im not starving and my body looks fine. oh and i have muscle which seems to be the big trigger point around here.

Reckabek

I think this is more a question of how heavy you are to begin with. If you are a woman and have a high BMI or over 200 lbs to begin with, then following the MFP guidlines to lose 2lbs a week is fine, with or without eating back calories - your choice.

BUT ..... once your weight gets closer to your goal, or within 20 lbs of goal, and you exercise you will find that your weight will slow down signifigantly or stall out completely. At this point most people will take on even more exercise to compensate as there is no room to lower calories. This sets you up for serious failure. Overtraining and undereating can actually make you stall or gain water weight through inflamation, and you will feel chronically tired and hungry. Especially if you decide to weight train, you must fuel your body properly with enough protein and fats, and moderate carbs.

I am 20 lbs away from goal and eat 1800 cals per day, exercise hard 4 times a week and am losing consistantly 1 lb a week. When you get close to your goal weight you may have to re-evaluate your goals. Hope this helps.

I may say i have to agree with this, possibly...i lost 95 lbs on my own hardly any excersise. I joined MFP a few months ago and started becoming aware of needing to work out. So started working out. I do not eat back my excersise calories and i have not lost weight if not gained in the last 2 months. I am starting to realize what i am doing is not working. I keep saying im gaining muscle, which is more then fat, but am starting to doubt that to be all i need to do. I am trying to up my calories when i work out, but its so hard cause im not used to that many calories. Its been two days now, and i couldnt do it yesterday. Imma try again today! I realize i need to reevaluate my goals. I would like to loose 10 more at least understaniding i have at least 10 lbs in extra skin i will never get rid of, im 156ish....its so frustrating

Matt_Wild

*This is in reply to Mattwild post.* Sorry, but you have no idea what you are talking about. Research eating disorders and potassium levels. Reasearch aneroxia and electorlytes . Your advice is not only inaccurate, but could be deadly to others.

Are you stating that 1200 calories is an ED?

Hypokalemia can be caused by overuse of laxatives; by eating disorders such as bulimia, which involves self-induced vomiting; and by prolonged fasting and starvation. This can cause weakness and irregular heart rhythms, fatigue, anorexia and decreased bowel motility. The normal potassium level is 3.5-5.0 mEq/L (this is a measure used to evaluate the level). Low potassium is defined as a potassium level below 3.5 mEq/L.

We are aren't discussing eating disorders. 1200 calories is not starvation, nor is it fasting.

You should also stop copying and pasting information from other websites and claiming it as your own without marking it as a quote - http://www.eatingdisordersonline.com/medical/potassium.php

Increasing potassium in your diet and using potassium supplements are both forms of treatment. Sometimes, hospitalization may be required to add potassium. If you cannot move your arms and legs or you feel as though your heart has an irregular heartbeat, then call a medical provider immediately

Would not debate this, never in question.

I am a nurse practitioner and my husband is a physician. My sister is a nutritionist, and we ARE EDUCATED in this manner. Please be careful people, and listen to the drs.

Sorry, all I can see above is information that has no relevance to what is being discussed. We are aren't discussing bulimia not anorexia or similar. You have even confirmed treatment is supplementation which is exactly what I said.

You haven't actually posted there ANYTHING that is different what I have said.

curvatrino

http://www.shouldieatmyexercisecalories.com/

This is exactly what I wanted it to be

^^^^ This

LOL

LorinaLynn

All this talk about "losing weight faster" makes me laugh. Dropping a lot of POUNDS isn't all that impressive. I'd rather lose as few pounds as possible, but change my body as much as possible.

After all... this is how I looked five years ago at 130# after eating at less than 1000 calories a day for months and months on end. And how I look NOW at a little over 130# eating around 2000 calories a day.

These are the jeans I wore five years ago at 130# and the jeans I'm wearing now.

And THIS is just 8 pounds difference from last March to last week. When I was 130# five years ago, I was about the size I was at 140# last year, but with more muffin top, cellulite and back fat.

So... go ahead. Eat as little as you can get away with to drop as many pounds as you can.

No one can see how much you weigh. They can see the size of your *kitten*. I'll continue eating like a hungry man because I'd rather weigh more and look smaller than weigh less and look bigger.

amymeenieminymo

I struggle with the same question!! I don't understand it!

So I started logging into MFP and I also write everything in a food journal.

If I start the day off in the morning and I have 1400 calories to eat that day, I exercise before eating ANYTHING...MFP says I have 1700 calories now!

That doesn't make sense to me....so I look at the written journal. I continue to take in 1400 calories and whatever is burned...stays burned. I don't eat it back!!

So at the end of the day MFP tells me I have 400 calories left to eat, but I don't pay attention to that because I know that was the calories burned.

I think you would eat those calories back if you wanted to MAINTAIN your weight...but not if you're trying to LOSE weight.

There are some people on MFP trying to maintain their weight (or even gain) but the vast majority come to MFP to lose weight, so why on earth would the maker of this website automatically set you up to maintaine weight????

There are two ways to lose weight:

1. Eat the SAME way you have been all along, and exercise. The calories you burn from exercise is what will help you to lose weight.

2. Eat LESS than what you were eating before (thus the calorie deficit MFP builds into your daily calories for you). This alone will make you lose a pound a week (if this is what you set it up to lose). But if you don't exercise along with eating less, you'll become "skinny fat" looking lean but have no real muslce mass and not be "heart healthy". So you work out.....but since you're already eating less to begin with, you need to eat back those exercise calories so that you're calorie deficit is not too large.

All snarkiness aside, please tell me, what about that above explanation does not make sense to you? How do you figure that would maintaine your weight when you're already eating less than you would in order to lose that pound a week?

ladyraven68

Simple answer - if you want to keep exactly the SAME defict that MFP set, based on what you input, then yes eat them - that's what they are there for, to mainatin the deficit you chose.

If you don't want to keep the SAME deficit, dont.

Your choice.

Matt_Wild

Simple answer - if you want to keep exactly the SAME defict that MFP set, based on what you input, then yes eat them - that's what they are there for, to mainatin the deficit you chose.

If you don't want to keep the SAME deficit, dont.

Your choice.

Now that Ms Raven, I'd fully agree :bigsmile:

No hard feelings? :flowerforyou:

ladyraven68

No hard feelings at all,

I enjoy reading what other people think, sometimes It's educational, sometimes it's just entertaining

betsygw

All I am saying is you need to be careful.1200 calories is safe, but not if you burn 1200 calories a day exercising. Your body needs a minimum calorie amount each day to function. For me, it is 1900ish calories a day. I ate 1200 and exercised a lot and succesfully lost weight. I also developed electrolyte imbalances because for me the deficit of 1200 calories plus burning off 700-900 additional calories a day was too much and my body went into starvation mode. My friend DIED because her potassium (an electrolyte) was below 2.0 meq. I KNOW this is not about eating disorders, i just wanted to share my VERY PERSONAL story as a caution of cutting calories too low and exercising too much and the life threatening damage they can cause. Sorry I forgot the to name the website with the info but I was in a hurry. I just want people to be educated about the dangerous effects of very restrictive calories and excessive exercise. There are many more websites out there that accurately explain the definition of potassium and other electrolytes and the dangers of imbalances. Potassium IS maintained purely by diet and high potassium foods.(green leafy veggies, tomato products, potatoes, bananas etc..) there are supplements but levels too high are dangerous too. Maintain proper electrolyte balances through healthy diet and enough calories a day to maintain a proper healthy and balance. This was just a warning to make sure you eat enough, that is all. Despite my friend eating healthy foods she wasn't eating enough and suffered a fatal heart attack. This happened to Karen carpenter and many others. Just make sure you eat enough if you are exercising. That is all I am saying, and it is medically proven accurate. Good luck to everyone Loosing weight is such a long hard road, just please be safe about it.

Smuterella

I just don't get why this question comes up 20 times a day. Firstly - give the system that MFP sets out a try before pulling it apart. I used MFP last year, just to track calories, did no exercise, ate at 1200 and lost. I came back, carried oin at 1200, exercised and didn't log it out of laziness. Wasn't losing. Not a lb.

Once I started logging and realised I was meant to eat those cals back I finally started losing again.

Give the system a try!

Also - how can people not understand the basic concept of "net" calories. Did they not do math at school?

*mind boggles*

betsygw

For crying outloud, why is this a hard concept to understand? This thread alone has four pages of explanations, along with the million other posts about it. You're already eating less to lose weight....you're not working out to lose weight, you're working out to tone and strenghten your body and cardiovasvular system. If you don't eat the calories back, you won't be eating enough. What about that is confusing?

If you don't agree with it, DON'T DO IT. If you don't like the system MFP set up, GO SOMEWHERE ELSE. It's one thing to ask a question for clarity, but if you are so sure you're doing it the right way then why bother with this question?????

babyblooeyes

My base calories to lose 1 lb a week is 1400, I worked off about 1000 calories yesterday. I ate a total of 2150 calories to compensate for the increased deficit. This morning I was 1 lb lighter. People it works. I predict what I am going to work out for the day and eat ahead of schedule. In other words if I know I am going to work out for 2 hours and burn 800-1000 calories then I will eat whole eggs instead of egg whites, I might make a fruit smoothie for lunch, add extra olive oil to my salad dressing, eat 6 oz of lean fish instead of 3-4oz.... It is all still healthy fats and proteins just increased for the expected expenditure. Then you don't have to worry about eating another 900 calories late at night and you feel energized and satisfied throughout the day.

What if for some reason I can't work out later?

Well, the calories that I consumed throughout the day just equals what I could have to maintain my current weight. So, I won't gain just won't lose for that day and I can make it up somewhere else in that week.

Wavdeep

Related note - one very effective and sustainable way to burn fat is to increase muscle tone and mass. To do this you need to exercise and then take on enough carbs and protein to rebuild the muscle stronger and leaner. If you don't take on the calories you will risk burning muscle instead of fat when you exercise which means you may lose weight, but not in a way that makes you look or feel good, or is healthy.

This doesn't just apply to bodybuilders and doesn't mean you will risk getting big muscles that you don't want - the type of exercise you do will dictate how your body looks (assuming you're eating properly). It's just a way of reducing fat and getting healthy. The more muscle you have, the more calories your body will burn passively, and the quicker you will lose fat. But if you don't eat enough to build muscle, you'll burn muscle instead of fat, or your body will refuse to burn anything at all.

Matt_Wild

All I am saying is you need to be careful.1200 calories is safe, but not if you burn 1200 calories a day exercising. Your body needs a minimum calorie amount each day to function. For me, it is 1900ish calories a day. I ate 1200 and exercised a lot and succesfully lost weight. I also developed electrolyte imbalances because for me the deficit of 1200 calories plus burning off 700-900 additional calories a day was too much and my body went into starvation mode. My friend DIED because her potassium (an electrolyte) was below 2.0 meq. I KNOW this is not about eating disorders, i just wanted to share my VERY PERSONAL story as a caution of cutting calories too low and exercising too much and the life threatening damage they can cause. Sorry I forgot the to name the website with the info but I was in a hurry. I just want people to be educated about the dangerous effects of very restrictive calories and excessive exercise. There are many more websites out there that accurately explain the definition of potassium and other electrolytes and the dangers of imbalances. Potassium IS maintained purely by diet and high potassium foods.(green leafy veggies, tomato products, potatoes, bananas etc..) there are supplements but levels too high are dangerous too. Maintain proper electrolyte balances through healthy diet and enough calories a day to maintain a proper healthy and balance. This was just a warning to make sure you eat enough, that is all. Despite my friend eating healthy foods she wasn't eating enough and suffered a fatal heart attack. This happened to Karen carpenter and many others. Just make sure you eat enough if you are exercising. That is all I am saying, and it is medically proven accurate. Good luck to everyone Loosing weight is such a long hard road, just please be safe about it.

Agreed be safe about it.

I'm very sorry to hear your loss, I really am but I can assure you (and I'm sure you'll confirm) that you're friend was eating well below 1200 calories per day.

As for starvation mode - please in you medical training can you explain what exactly it is. Without copying and pasting, I'd love to hear your explanation of the effects of diet and leptin and triiodothyronine and exactly what this mode is thanks.

As for the medical profession - Forgive me for not having a lot of faith.

This the same one that advocates low fat diets the one that has caused a massive increase in obesity in the Western world in the last 30 years? The one that advises the use of statins to control cholesterol when there is a huge amount of evidence showing the biggest user groups have little or no benefits to them? The one that heart related diseases have gone thro the roof because of the advise from the medical profession? That incidences of diabetes will now effect 1 in 5 due to their advice?

Medicine now is about treating, not about about prevention. Its all about the money in the pharmaceutical companies pockets.

CallmeSbo

For crying outloud, why is this a hard concept to understand? This thread alone has four pages of explanations, along with the million other posts about it. You're already eating less to lose weight....you're not working out to lose weight, you're working out to tone and strenghten your body and cardiovasvular system. If you don't eat the calories back, you won't be eating enough. What about that is confusing?

If you don't agree with it, DON'T DO IT. If you don't like the system MFP set up, GO SOMEWHERE ELSE. It's one thing to ask a question for clarity, but if you are so sure you're doing it the right way then why bother with this question?????

wow **raising eyebrows**

watboy

I'm really glad this was asked. I only recently started using this program mostly because I wanted to track carbs and protein and fat since I started to weight lift(bodybuilding) I lost 58 lbs just doing it the old fashion way , eating healthy and exercising. Never calorie counted, well now that I'm on MFP tracking on most days I have a net of about 600 or so. I know that sounds crazy but I haven't changed the way I've been eating for 3 years, I feel great I've been getting great results in building muscles and found it to be counter intuitive to eat back my calories. I've also have had people tell me I'm doing it all wrong and should be eating my calories back. Well when I already ate 1700 calories and I'm stuffed I can't just eat anymore. I've still been losing weight I've lost 6 more lbs and never felt better. I may not be doing the "acceptable thing" or the"right thing" but for me I'm doing what works for me. I have a healthy breakfast with a protein shake, healthy lunch, hit the gym have a protein shake afterwards followed by dinner. By the time I've had dinner its already 7:30 and I'm stuffed but according to MFP I should still be eating more. I think the feeling of being sick because you ate to much is worse personally. I also love people telling me I don't eat enough, yeah that's been my problem … not eating enough…….It is what it is. Some stuff works for some some stuff works for others. I still have a good 10 lbs to lose but still on track. I wish everyone luck and just because it's "wrong" doesn't mean it can't have a good and healthy result.

tiffypooh2u

I just don't get the whole eating calories back thing. It doesn't make sense to me... I feel like if you eat back the calories, you are defeating the purpose of burning them off??!

keiraev

I then had to eat an additional 1280 calories. this is crazy considering I went to the gym at 3:30, there is no way I was eating another full 1280 calories after that time.

Haha I totally could eat 1280 calories between 3.30pm & bedtime

LorinaLynn

I then had to eat an additional 1280 calories. this is crazy considering I went to the gym at 3:30, there is no way I was eating another full 1280 calories after that time.

Haha I totally could eat 1280 calories between 3.30pm & bedtime

I would only eat that much between 3:30 and bedtime on days that end in Y.

I get antsy if I don't have at least 1000 calories left for dinner and a bedtime snack.

Lizajane42

Excuse me if I missed someone who already said this-
but my profile is set up so that I should lose 2lb per week. My daily intake is set at 1200. Under my exercise tab there is also a goal of 1000 calories burned per week. The two combined would be equal to a loss of 2lb per week without eating back calories. I can see though that you would want to eat back anything above and beyond the 1000 calorie burned goal. I personally don't most of the time because I have too many days where I overshoot on my calories consumed.

So, it isn't just the calories consumed goal you have to be aware of, it is also the exercise calories goal as well.

sportyskylar

Simple answer - if you want to keep exactly the SAME defict that MFP set, based on what you input, then yes eat them - that's what they are there for, to mainatin the deficit you chose.

If you don't want to keep the SAME deficit, dont.

Your choice.

Now that Ms Raven, I'd fully agree :bigsmile:

No hard feelings? :flowerforyou:

lol aww :drinker:

LorinaLynn

Excuse me if I missed someone who already said this-
but my profile is set up so that I should lose 2lb per week. My daily intake is set at 1200. Under my exercise tab there is also a goal of 1000 calories burned per week. The two combined would be equal to a loss of 2lb per week without eating back calories. I can see though that you would want to eat back anything above and beyond the 1000 calorie burned goal. I personally don't most of the time because I have too many days where I overshoot on my calories consumed.

So, it isn't just the calories consumed goal you have to be aware of, it is also the exercise calories goal as well.

Your exercise goal is meaningless on here.

That 1000 calories you say you'll burn through exercise doesn't have any impact whatsoever on your calorie goal. Change it to where you say you'll burn 10,000 calories a week, and you'll still get the same 1200 calories. MFP doesn't count any exercise you SAY you'll do, they only count exercise when and if you actually DO it.

In short... you're supposed to eat them back.

lhumenik

I'm so glad after 5 weeks I finally logged on to the site. The fact that the deficit was already there was lost on me. It's nice have all the info.

KXanthos

I didn't read through all 6 pages, so someone probably already said this, but the benefits of working out are LONG TERM. By toning and replacing fat with muscle (which ultimately burns more calories than fat), you are investing in you body's ability to burn more in the future.

chicpeach

I finally reasoned it out this way: when you stretch before working out, you make small, slight tears in your muscles. Your body must repair the tears by making new muscle. In order to make those repairs, it must have good nutrition so that your body can make effective repairs. When you exercise, again you're building muscle and again your body needs that nutrition to build the new tissue.

If you don't eat your calories back using nutrient rich food (not junk - candy, fast food, etc) your body can't repair the muscle tissue.

You do want to build your muscle up because it takes more calories to support the newly repaired and developed muscles, not only when you exercise but also all the rest of the day to. That means your base burn rate is higher - you burn more calories naturally which helps you lose weight faster and more effectively and once at goal, helps you stay there.

memega

These are my MFP stats today:

Cal Carbs Fat Protein
Totals 1,548 137 38 177
Your Daily Goal 2,295 315 76 86
Remaining 747 178 38 -91
*You've earned 915 extra calories from exercise today

My goal upon sigh up to loose 2lbs per week is 1380 cal per day. So far I've lost 6kgs from 01 Feb 12. Do I stand to lose more if I eat back the 747, for eg? I doubt. Last week I saved a total of 5236 cal by not eating back my remaining cals.