attention! all who eat back your exercise calories

ashley_d78

oook.
I have always been on the " I only eat 1200 calories a day" side of the fence.
I have read the msg boards,watched people debate and call each other all kinds of silly things.
It is not my point to debate which is right or wrong. I would like all who DO eat back your exercise calories to tell me why they do, and how well it has worked for them
a little back round history on me.
I'm 23, 5'8 and 148lbs. measurments of 34,28,35 highest weight 168lbs lowest 128lbs
I have muscular arms and legs but that little belly is driving me nuts!
I eat between 12-1400 calories a day and I do not eat any sugar but fruit and some dairy ( stomach issues)
I workout HARD in the gym everyday, I follow p90x, lift some extra weights on top of that and run about 3 miles.
I also walk everywhere. It amounts to about (as mfp says) about 1000 calories a day burned.
NOW. i'm wondering if the last 10lbs won't budge because i'm not eating ENOUGH.
If this was true for you and you began loosing weight when you started eating more please give a girl some help
I'm terrified that if I eat more i'm going to gain a bunch of weight.
please help!
and please, be gentle!

ladyraven68

This may help.

http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/395881-people-who-lost-weight-eating-more?

ashley_d78

waa! thankk you!!

dad106

Personally, I'm more in the camp of do what works for you.

On days that you lift whatever then eat more.. On rest days, eat less. It's called calorie cycling or zig-zagging and that has worked best for me.

You may gain more initially, but it should go away.. and if it doesn't, then you re-adjust by going lower. Remember that it takes about 4 weeks for any changes to happen.. so if you start and you see a gain after like a week or two, just ride the wave out before declaring that it doesn't work.

LizKurz

oook.
I have always been on the " I only eat 1200 calories a day" side of the fence.
I have read the msg boards,watched people debate and call each other all kinds of silly things.
It is not my point to debate which is right or wrong. I would like all who DO eat back your exercise calories to tell me why they do, and how well it has worked for them
a little back round history on me.
I'm 23, 5'8 and 148lbs. measurments of 34,28,35 highest weight 168lbs lowest 128lbs
I have muscular arms and legs but that little belly is driving me nuts!
I eat between 12-1400 calories a day and I do not eat any sugar but fruit and some dairy ( stomach issues)
I workout HARD in the gym everyday, I follow p90x, lift some extra weights on top of that and run about 3 miles.
I also walk everywhere. It amounts to about (as mfp says) about 1000 calories a day burned.
NOW. i'm wondering if the last 10lbs won't budge because i'm not eating ENOUGH.
If this was true for you and you began loosing weight when you started eating more please give a girl some help
I'm terrified that if I eat more i'm going to gain a bunch of weight.
please help!
and please, be gentle!

I eat my exercise cals back, because unlike any other diet sites I personally know of, MFP doesn't count exercise until you actually do it and log it. I work out six times a week, for an hour or just under that and bike/walk for transportation. According to MFP, my activity level is set to lightly active and then when add in my workouts, I get the right amount of cals I need to not only lose weight, but fuel my body.

And I will say its worked. I have been working out for years. Workouts aren't my issue. Apparently listening to my body was the issue, because this baby weight wouldn't budge because I ate healthy foods, and did so when I was hungry and was maintaining. So I started eating what MFP told me I could have cal wise, and I dropped 1.6 lbs last week, after being on here for only one week, even though the only thing I changed was logging my food and making sure that defecit was there via MFPs calculations.

neanderthin

I just work from an average of TDEE (total daily calorie expenditure) it's a no brainer, for the mathematically challenged, like me.

LorinaLynn

Because without eating my exercise calories, I wouldn't have the energy to work out the way I do.

I used to think, "Just eat less and the weight will come off," too. It didn't work that way for me. Eating the RIGHT amount did. Too little didn't work, too much didn't work. Having too large of a calorie deficit meant that I lost too much muscle and not enough fat, and ended up keeping my muffin top and back fat that I wanted to shed so badly.

The results of eating too little vs eating enough: http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/494091-i-just-don-t-care-anymore

There's two ways to calculate your calorie goal. One is to take an average of the total amount of calories you'll burn - your BMR, your normal daily activity and what you burn when you exercise, then take your deficit off that. I typically burn about 2200 calories a day, so if I wanted to lose a pound a week, I'd knock 500 calories off that and eat around 1700 a day, and not count my exercise at all.

MFP doesn't factor your exercise into your calorie goal unless and until you do it. So rather than give me 1700 calories to lose a pound a week, MFP would give me, it would calculate my daily calories based on my BMR and normal daily activity, then subtract 500 calories from that, and give me around 1300 calories. Then I'd go for a 45 minute run and burn about 400 calories, and MFP would add that back on and I'd end up with... the same 1700 calories a day.

It's the same math, just with numbers added in at different times.

If you don't want to bother with exercise calories, you should at very least put yourself as "very active" on here. Better if you use another site to calculate your TDEE and use that as your calorie goal.

JesterMFP

I eat them back because it's how MFP is set up. When I first started losing weight a few years ago, I was very much in the mindset of "the less food I eat, the better". This time, I started using MFP and I like how it's set up. After reading lots and lots about metabolism and calorie deficits, I realise that having too big of a deficit is not healthy. I started at 1200 calories but that wasn't enough for me, and I was just getting too tired to exercise. I've gradually increased to 1400 calories (I will take it a bit higher) and MFP says I am set to lose 0.7 lbs a week. I'm happy with that rate, but the last few weeks I've actually lost more like 1.5 lbs a week.

I'm trying to do this slowly because I want to maintain muscle mass and I don't want to damage my metabolism. I want to be able to keep the weight off and I'm trying to create a sustainable lifestyle change. Plus, I really like food!

I have a heart rate monitor, by the way, so I get quite an accurate estimate of exercise calories. Without the HRM, I probably wouldn't eat them ALL back, because of MFP's inaccurate estimates.

kimberly0416

oook.
I have always been on the " I only eat 1200 calories a day" side of the fence.
I have read the msg boards,watched people debate and call each other all kinds of silly things.
It is not my point to debate which is right or wrong. I would like all who DO eat back your exercise calories to tell me why they do, and how well it has worked for them
a little back round history on me.
I'm 23, 5'8 and 148lbs. measurments of 34,28,35 highest weight 168lbs lowest 128lbs
I have muscular arms and legs but that little belly is driving me nuts!
I eat between 12-1400 calories a day and I do not eat any sugar but fruit and some dairy ( stomach issues)
I workout HARD in the gym everyday, I follow p90x, lift some extra weights on top of that and run about 3 miles.
I also walk everywhere. It amounts to about (as mfp says) about 1000 calories a day burned.
NOW. i'm wondering if the last 10lbs won't budge because i'm not eating ENOUGH.
If this was true for you and you began loosing weight when you started eating more please give a girl some help
I'm terrified that if I eat more i'm going to gain a bunch of weight.
please help!
and please, be gentle!

I ate my calories back since 1200 is not by any means a high calorie diet. My body and my muscles needed enough fuel to heal and to not store fat. I went from a size 14 to a size 6 sometimes 4 by eating healthy and working out from 1-2 hours at least three times a week. Since I’ve hit my goal I’ve increased my calorie intake to maintain and get a bit more defined.

Work outs where spinning at least three times a day, yoga and free weights at home.
And I didn't lose much weight until recently. So don't look at the scale, look at sizes..

HeidiMightyRawr

You will not gain by eating them back unless you are severely underestimating how much food you eat, and overestimating your burn.

My experience: When I was losing weight, I lost the first 15 of 20lbs fairly easily. At that point I was eating 1500 a day + exercise cals, so not really undereating but anyway, I was having a hard time losing the last few pounds. I'd been doing this for a few months with no change and getting very frustrated, so I upped my calories to 1/2lb a week loss (1750 + exercise cals) This wasn't because I thought it might suddenly help, but more because I was frustrated living off what I felt was so little (I love food!)
Once I upped the calories though, I found it surprisingly easy to lose the last few pounds. I've since learnt when you only have a little left to lose, you should be on a smaller deficit anyway

MrsLong1980

Because MFP tells me to and I do what it tells me to do ... 'nuff said!

meechster20001

I can't function without eating back those exercise calories, my body tells me I need them.

LuckyLeprechaun

I do.
Because there was a user here when I was new, her name was _________irrelevant. And she lost like 138lbs. She told me to eat them. So I listened.

And then LOOK what happened!!! ___________________________VVVVVVV

megsmom2

I eat most of them back...keeps me energized and also gives me calories wiggle room, so I really can eat just about anything I want. And I'm losing just fine so far.

cyclerjenn

You have to find what works for you. I burn anywhere from 300 - 5000 a day depending on my training schedule. I usually just eat the same amount every day, around 1800 calories so some days i'm above my limits, some days I'm below.

Xaspar

I try to listen to my body on this one. If I exercise and feel hungry I go ahead and eat some or all of them back. If I am not feeling like I need the extra fuel, then I stick with the original goal for the day. I don't want to feel like I ate just because I had calories left.

cheddle

Yes I eat my exercise calories

Reason - I dont want to be weak and skinny - that is all

jeffarthur

I do.
Because there was a user here when I was new, her name was _________irrelevant. And she lost like 138lbs. She told me to eat them. So I listened.

And then LOOK what happened!!! ___________________________VVVVVVV

Perfect answer!

fteale

I feel really ill if I don't eat my exercise calories.

herownkindofwonderfull

I do.
Because there was a user here when I was new, her name was _________irrelevant. And she lost like 138lbs. She told me to eat them. So I listened.

And then LOOK what happened!!! ___________________________VVVVVVV

bump!

herownkindofwonderfull

I eat back my exercise calories as well. At first, I was also hesitant. I figured if I ate 1200 calories, my body was getting what it needed despite any workouts (and I work out burning between 1000-2000+ calories daily). I decided to give this whole "eating back exercise calories" thing a shot a couple weeks ago. I honestly still have trouble eating back all of them, but I'm a lot closer and netting a lot higher than I was (I was SUPER in the negatives prior to that)... And guess what? I went from losing 1lb a week or two.... to losing 3-4lbs PER WEEK. Crazy stuff!

It keeps your metabolism up, on top of giving your body EVERYTHING it needs. I also feel more nourished! I'm not hungry all the time, and I feel less restricted which is awesome! PLUS, I am losing even more! It's a win-win!