Exercise = Eat More Food?

MaggiePuccini

I don't eat them all back, maybe about a third of them. I'm not losing weight at all. I don't mean to discourage anybody. But I'm not sure I can lose anymore. I'm hoping I can still improve my shape and my tone and lose a few millimetres here and there.
I've stuck to the 1200 cals every day for about 15 days now AND NOT LOST A GRAM. sO, yesterday I upped my calories to 1300. I'll see how I go with that. There's just no point eating so little when I'm not seeing ANY results.

LorinaLynn

Do most people actually eat more food by the end of the day "because" they exercised and earned more, or do most people just accumulate more calories but don't necessarily eat more food?

I ate them. Not necessarily at the end of the day, but I knew about what I'd burn and how much I'd need to eat to keep the same calorie deficit. I didn't want a larger deficit because I wanted to keep muscle and burn fat.

If you are one who eats more food because you earned it, are you still losing weight?

I'm maintaining now, but I lost as promised eating most of my calories. An average of one pound a week for the first 25 pounds.

claire7090

I have been eating them back and have lost 28lbs in 6 months. Am now at my goal weight and so have increased my calories to a maintainance level so am not eating back all my exercise calories now as I can't cope with eating that much food!

irisheyez718

Yes, I use my Polar HRM, and I do enjoy eating my exercise calories. Yes, I'm losing just fine.

katkins3

Yes, I use my Polar HRM, and I do enjoy eating my exercise calories. Yes, I'm losing just fine.

Yes, I use a Garmin HRM and feel confident that I am getting pretty accurate numbers.

olliepbone

can i eat back the calories burnt from doing weights? or just cardio?

Il_DaniD_lI

Hell yes Exercise = Eat more food/drink more beer. In my books anyways. Works for me :drinker:

katscoots

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May I present Exhibit A?

- Size 24W to Size 6 jeans
- 56% body fat to 22% body fat
- 45.5" waist to 26.25" waist
- Eats her exercise calories

LOVE IT - I too eat mine back and have from the beginning of my "journey" and have steadily lost

jpinge

lost 105 pounds that way....seems to be working for me. I do have a HRM so my calories burned is more accurate than MFPS but yes....you can eat your exercise calories back

SPBROOKS68

I am always not hungry after working out so I tend to eat less on days I work out and try to seldom eat my calories back.

monyango

I think if you are hungry you should eat the extra calories. If you are not, then don't. So I guess my answer is, sometimes I eat them and sometimes I don't.

UpEarly

If you are one who eats more food because you earned it, are you still losing weight?

I ate my exercise calories and lost about 52 pounds in nine months. I've been keeping it off (and have actually lost about ten more pounds) since meeting my original goal back in February.

I'm 5'9", 40, female and 140 pounds. I usually eat between 2300 and 2700 calories a day.

Cliffslosinit

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May I present Exhibit A?

- Size 24W to Size 6 jeans
- 56% body fat to 22% body fat
- 45.5" waist to 26.25" waist
- Eats her exercise calories

I'm still fairly new here.
So it's a simple game of "follow the leader".

BigBrewski

Sometimes yes, sometimes no. I try to eat 5 small meals a day sometimes 6 (not counting a protien shake on days that I weight train). Yes, there is a LOT of talk about eating the calories back and eating to lose weight. I personally listen to my body, if I am hungry I eat a snack, if I am WAY worn down and I can tell my energy is low..again I eat a snack.

Brittonloves

I JUST started logging my exercise on here (though I have been exercising with a trainer 3x a week for 2 months now) and am trying to watch my net calories instead of just food calories. But I have to admit... it's kind of scary! When I see that I've eaten 1800 calories in a day, I definitely have a little moment of panic because I've gotten used to eating so little and that number seems so high. Then I look at my net calories and it's under or at my goal and I breathe and say "Trust the process". I've lost 35 lbs total, so I'm hoping this change will help with the last stubborn bit.

That being said, I don't have an HRM (although I really want one!) so I have to use averages to plug in my exercise. I've been using this website: http://www.healthstatus.com/calculate/cbc and in order to be conservative with it, I usually use "moderate" instead of "vigorous" where applicable, AND I log my hour with my trainer as 40-45 minutes instead of 60. Hopefully that keeps me close to the real #...

Dauntlessness

I am a great example of "eat to lose". For the last 6-8 months I just stopped losing weight. I kept lowering my calories thinking that would help. I was on a 1600 calorie diet by the end of it and exercising 6-7 days a week burning around an average of 800-1000 HRM calories a day. You would think the weight would fall off me huh? Nope. Not at all.

A few weeks ago I decided to try the "eat more, lose more" method everyone talks about. I mean, what is the worst that could happen? I gain,? Well, I haven't lost, so why not? I raised my calorie intake to 2100, which helped me exercise even more( around 1100 HRM calories burned each day).

I lost 4 pounds in a week! 5.5 in 2 weeks!!! I did gain 1.5 back because I had a really tough time cause my dog died and I ate some really bad foods and got take out like 5 times but seriously. (Thank goodness I'm on track again) The scale hasn't moved like that since I first started! Come to think of it, I was on a 2000 calorie diet all the time I was losing weight like crazy.

I mean, there is no way I can eat back my calories....that would be 3200 cals a day but eating 2100ish is working great for me. I think that if you are on a lower calorie diet and you don't work out as much, eating them back would be just fine. Of course everyone is different but its worth a try if nothing else has worked, right?

SPNLuver83

I EAT MORE FOOD. O yes. I love food. And I still lose!! INFACT, when I started eating more I broke through my plateau! yay for food! :laugh: