eating back excersise calories doesnt work for me :(

Radcliffe83

takes time. I have gained a pound this week while being in a defecit. It isn't going to be fat probably itsn't muscle (although I am lifting more), it is probably water. Takes a while to put weight on, takes longer to get it off.

RoxyLDN

If you are doing exercise, even if the weight seems steady, you might be losing inches! :happy:
Scales are not always the best way to appreciate your progress. Measure your body and take before & after pictures to see if you appreciate any changes.

Also, as some other people said, give it a proper try, and also make sure that you are recording your intake of calories and your expenditure of calories correctly.

valenief

I eat a lot of sodium foods eek ...therefor I hold alot of water .... maybe your holding water too??

JoHola

http://www.bodyrecomposition.com/fat-loss/you-are-not-different.html


That is all.

Great link - thanks

valeriestelloh

First of all, you are beautiful....regardless of how much you need to lose. With that being said, you're a beautiful, determined 20 year old with a goal. You have the world in your hands. You can do this.
I have the same problem as you (and I'm 16 years older than you).... (my profile pic was taken a LONG time ago) and I want to thank you for posting this because you and the others who have responded showed me that I'm not alone. I have been eating back my exercise calories, and not losing for the past few weeks. I, too, need to eat a little less than most people to lose weight, for me exercise is SO important but if I want my "bikini body" back, it's 75% what I am putting in my body, 25% exercise. The Fitbit has helped get me motivated in MOVING more and getting to the gym (I even got my husband to join), but I need to log everything and I need to keep looking at my goal if I am going to make better choices.
Start logging every single thing you eat, I will too. Every leaf of lettuce and every raisin. :-)

shannonbillows

Just like the title says, I gained doing what others swear by. So..does this mean I am one of the people who can only lose weight by eating little? Really frustrated right now

No, this means one or more of the following is happening:
You over estimate how many cals you burn from exercise (using MFP or the machine will do this)
You under estimating how much you eat (not weighing solids and measuring liquids)
You have a lower BMR then MFP predicts
You are retaining water, most likely either due to workouts or sodium intake
You have Thyroid or other hormone issues

I couldnt have said it any better myself.

i highly recomend using your BMR as a bare minimum. Try not to consider any exercise you have done as extra room to eat. most of the time machines are wrong or you will over estimate how much you have actually burnt and/or under estimate how much you have actually eating.

yarwell

This whole "eating back" thing seems to be a localised nonsense mainly on this site.

If you eat more because you've exercised then you've reduced your calorie deficit. That may be fine, or it may mean you lose weight more slowly. I see countless posts "I'm exercising doing blah blah and not losing weight".

Someone eating 800 or 1000 calories a day will not see their metabolism stop or shutdown or the other silly phrases bandied about. They will see their body use the massive energy stores present as fat to fuel their metabolism. That's the whole point of trying to lose fat weight - you create a situation where the reserves are used to keep you going in the absence of or with a deficit of food intake.

Find me a clinical trial with subjects on less than 1,000 calories where even one of them fails to lose weight ! I won't be holding my breath.

RoxyLDN

And remember:
http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/539912-why-eating-exercise-calories-is-so-important

MelissaL582

http://www.bodyrecomposition.com/fat-loss/you-are-not-different.html


That is all.

Nice article. Thanks for sharing!

PrettyNPink801

Are you only doing cardio? Because if that is the case then you are not going to lose weight. You body ends up getting what is called muscle memory which means it gets used to what your doing (i.e. cardio) and hits a flat point. Unfortunatly because you are a girl (and so am I), we tend to hit these more often then men and it is harder for us to lose weight (yay for us lol). You need to add strength training to your workout. With this, you will build more muscle which burns more fat and calories than any diet or healthy eating alone. I used to be a personal trainer and I would burn this into my clients brains! I know it seems like doing cardio after cardio is the best thing, but trust me...lift, squat, push up, pull up...do whatever strenth training that you like and you will see results :-) Hope this helps!

dinosnopro

I completely understand your frustration because I am like you. Myfitnesspal limited me to 1500 calories for the weight I want to lose. Well when I put in my exercise, the site adds morcalories I am "supposedly" allotted. WELL THAT DOES NOT WORK FOR ME *sad face*. So I have been limiting myself between 1500 and 2000 calories. I have been doing a ton of cardio for the past 4 weeks and lost 6 lbs. I do not see a difference in my body and that is really discouraging but I know it will happen eventually. I am not going to incorporate weights until I at least lose 20 lbs. What ever you do... DO NOT GIVE UP! Have a productive day *hugs*.

Can I ask why wait?

714rah714

I looked at your food diary for a week and there were a number of days you didn't log anything, one day were you ate your exercise calories and the rest of the days you were under. I think you should definitely log your food diary more accurately before coming to the conclusion that eating back your exercise calories doesn't work for you.

FYI. I'm not a big fan of eating back your exercise calories.

Milandar

Just a thought, my wife was training for a half marathon last year and was actually gaining weight. She was running on average 12 km a day so we figured she could eat pretty much anything....Nope!! We discovered that its not only calorie in calorie out, its what type of calorie. Limit your carbs and fat and add more lean protein, you should see real difference.

kendra0224

I have also been wondering whether or not I should eat my exercise calories back. MFP has given me a 1200 calorie limit, and most days that leaves me feeling pretty hungry. I usually workout pretty hard, so I get a good number of calories back, but I limit myself to only eating about 1400-1500 with exercise. Even that is not working right now! I dont know if I am doing something wrong as far as filling out my MFP goal info or what, but it is extremely frustrating. I need to switch something up, but I dont want to go hungry for a week and lose just to eat the next week and gain. I'm not giving up, just need to find a way to jump start my fat loss again! Good luck to you!

Yasmine91

Are you only doing cardio? Because if that is the case then you are not going to lose weight. You body ends up getting what is called muscle memory which means it gets used to what your doing (i.e. cardio) and hits a flat point. Unfortunatly because you are a girl (and so am I), we tend to hit these more often then men and it is harder for us to lose weight (yay for us lol). You need to add strength training to your workout. With this, you will build more muscle which burns more fat and calories than any diet or healthy eating alone. I used to be a personal trainer and I would burn this into my clients brains! I know it seems like doing cardio after cardio is the best thing, but trust me...lift, squat, push up, pull up...do whatever strenth training that you like and you will see results :-) Hope this helps!

My main form of exercise is Zumba. I have started going regularly to the gym because I don't wanna be a 'skinny fat person' again. I'm just really torn between keep doing what I'm doing and risk gaining more weight or to just not eat my calories back. It's rlly scary.

Helloitsdan

You arent very consistent.
Looking at your diary how would you know what you do or dont eat?
Some days look great and others....not so great.

Concentrate on hitting the calories every day.
Set up the diary the day before and life gets easier.
I've preset my diary for today and have everything but dinner planned.

Once you get the basics down this becomes easier.

Yasmine91

I looked at your food diary for a week and there were a number of days you didn't log anything, one day were you ate your exercise calories and the rest of the days you were under. I think you should definitely log your food diary more accurately before coming to the conclusion that eating back your exercise calories doesn't work for you.

FYI. I'm not a big fan of eating back your exercise calories.

Usually on the weekend I dont log in, I'm away from a computer so I can't. But like I started earlier, the explanations for ky diary was posted.

psuLemon

This whole "eating back" thing seems to be a localised nonsense mainly on this site.

If you eat more because you've exercised then you've reduced your calorie deficit. That may be fine, or it may mean you lose weight more slowly. I see countless posts "I'm exercising doing blah blah and not losing weight".

Someone eating 800 or 1000 calories a day will not see their metabolism stop or shutdown or the other silly phrases bandied about. They will see their body use the massive energy stores present as fat to fuel their metabolism. That's the whole point of trying to lose fat weight - you create a situation where the reserves are used to keep you going in the absence of or with a deficit of food intake.

Find me a clinical trial with subjects on less than 1,000 calories where even one of them fails to lose weight ! I won't be holding my breath.

It's a problem on this site as many others sites include exercise into your TDEE. And yes, you will lose on huge deficits as demonstrated on problems like HCG, but the issue is, you lose muscle mass. You don't magically lose body fat and not tap into your muscle mass. You know how I know this, because there has been several people, that have done HCG and modified VLCD that have tracked weight and body fat concurrently. The result was 50% loss in muscle mass of their total weight loss. One lady lost 33 lbs of weight and 16 lbs of muscle. Do you know what less muscle does? A slower metabolism.


Now, lets look at athletes, like a Michael Phelps. Do you know he eats 15,000 calories a day? Unfortunately, there is weight loss and fat loss. If you want fat loss where you body becomes much tighter and athletic looking, then you need to feed your body to burn fat. I know this for a fact as I have done this with well over 100 men and women on this board. In fact, here is a response that I got from a 36 year old female that I have eating 2100 calories on workout days and 1800 on non workout days.

"I just wanted to thank you for your help. You helped me a few months back and I just wanted to give you an update on my progress. 12 weeks ago I started at 154 and 28% bf. I got my bf remeasured last Friday and it was 24%. But I only lost 1 pound. It is crazy to me but I have learned to ignore the scale. You were right that keeping consistent and not giving up my body would finally adjust.

Thanks again for your help!

Stephanie"


As you can tell, she cut 4% body fat in 2 months. You can say all you want and theorize, but I have proven results. If the OP wants the same, i can put her on a similar plan where she can cut weight, maintain muscle and get fit and not just skinny.


http://www.bodyrecomposition.com/fat-loss/why-big-caloric-deficits-and-lots-of-activity-can-hurt-fat-loss.html

anfmusicgrl

I'm not a big fan of eating them all back, I've found it does not work for me. However...what you might want to do is just go day by day. If you are really hungry one day, eat 60% of them back. If you have eaten, and are not hungry, then don't eat them back that day. If you are not using a HRM, and going by MFP or machine calories, it's quite common for those to be overestimated. So, that could be where the problem is happening. Especially if you have been eating them "all" back. Perhaps, the exercise calories are overestimated. Mix that with small amounts of underestimations on calories (which can happen even when measuring, because weighing foods is more accurate); and you would get the = no weight loss.

I have not had any problems losing by eating 10-60% of them back. Give it a try. Not all of us are so lucky to be able to eat 100% of them back. Don't however, deprive, your body. If you are hungry. Eat them back. Just having a few days where you don't eat them back completely might help move things along.

EllieMo

I've never "eaten back" my calories and think it's a daft concept. I know to lose 1lb per week I need to have a calorie deficit of 3,500 per week. I do that either by eating roughly 500 calories a day less than my body requires, or by doing 3,500 calroies of exercise per week, or a mis of both. My plan already takes into account what my goals are, so no, I don't eat back my exercise calories!!