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

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.