Eating back exercise calories? Do I need to do this?

BrunetteRunner87

I think you are supposed to because a calorie deficit is already built into your goal for the day, and you don't want to create too much of a deficit.

But I wouldn't worry about it if you're not hungry. If you're hungry, go ahead and eat them or some of them back like you're supposed to. But if you're not hungry, don't force yourself to eat them back.

addict3

I've read every single entry in this thread, and my brain is about to explode. =/ I am so confused. I adjusted my settings to be "lose 1 lb/week" with "semi-active lifestyle" working out 7 days/week, 30 min/day - and now it says I'm supposed to eat 2050 calories per day?! I'm so so SO confused. This is up from before I adjusted it, when I was supposed to eat 1760 cals/day.

I understand the concept of MFP having the deficit built-in, the concepts of eating or not eating your exercise calories, but what I cannot understand is why I'm NOT losing weight! I've been at this %&*# for 42 days and I've only lost 6 lbs! I did lose 9, but I gained three back. WTF?!

I just saw that 42 days = 6 weeks = 6lbs. Nice, self, nice.

That being said, 2050 seems like an awful lot of calories to me. It's hard for me to hit 15-1700 GROSS unless I hit up the taco bell or eat a few grilled cheeses. Sure there are some days when I can put down 2000+, but it's only maybe 2-3 times per month.

The exercise is also realistic - if anything I undercut myself - I ride my bike every day, also go to the COSI at least once per week and walk around for 3-5 hours, and do 90% of the house/yard work. Sometimes I just feel really fat and I get on the Wii Fit Plus for 30-45 minutes.

Anyway, I'm starting to feel very very discouraged, as I think I am working very hard and yet I have nothing to show for it. I've seen some people say that they see a difference in their clothing but I, on the other hand, feel that my pants are tighter than ever. I am eating my recommended calories, drinking a gallon of water every day, exercising every day, and... nothin'.

Advice? What to do?!

I had the same problem. After years of diet-gain, diet-gain, My body became so sensitive to it that it would shut down to protect itself from losing. As long as I kept eating that many calories my loss was nearly non existent (I was doing weight watchers). For people like us ( and i'm assuming you are like me) sometimes it comes down to deficit, deficit, deficit. If you have no problems eating less and have trouble eating more, by all means, DON'T eat it. Like many, that is my opinion, everyone has one. My advice would be, if you can comfortably eat less, DO IT! Make sure you get your protein, balance that , carbs (low) and fat (lower) throughout the day. Don't eat one or two big meals, even if it's the same cals etc as more, smaller meals, it doesn't work the same. I eat 3 meals and 3 snacks per day. All of them are small. Try to eat some form of protein with every meal/snack to keep up your energy and keep your metabolism moving. Take a good multivitamin. I take a bariatric vitamin intended for gastric bypass patients, but take one per day instead of the 2 they are supposed to have, since I don't have the malabsorption they do. I hope this helps, good luck.

rock_kowgurl

Way to much complication on these forums!
Let me make it really easy for you, forget mfp calculator.
Multiply your bodyweight by 15
If your very overweight, multiply your "Goal" Body weight by 15. The resulting figure will be your estimated maintenance
calories. Now subtract 500 calories from this figure, eat this amount everyday for a 2 weeks.
If you don't lose any weight drop 200kcals from that figure and try again. Keep doing this until your losing a pound a week,
Be sensible if your losing too much increase them. its as simple as that.
Forget the eating back of exercise calories you wont need to worry about that.
Still use mfp to log your cals food and "drink"!

By your calculations, I should be eating 2500 cals/day. That's even more than MFP says to eat. If I eat 2500 cals/day for two weeks, I'm going to GAIN weight!!! That's ridiculous!!! Even if I subtracted 700 cals from the number, I'd still be eating 2300 per day!
No no no no nooooo.

Anyone else have advice/suggestion/insight?
Please, no more telling me I need to eat the caloric equivalent for a teenaged football player. It doesn't help.

sniperzzzz

So how heavy are you and how over weight are you?
Edit: never mind i cant be assed to help you. Your attitude stinks people are trying to help you here!
Good luck!

monty619

no it defeats the point of doing cardio if you eat back the calories you burn.

NoAdditives

no it defeats the point of doing cardio if you eat back the calories you burn.

Not if you're already eating at a calorie deficit.

captdb2000wechanged

Hi Great question. I am no way an expert but I look at it like this.

If you are at the beginning of your weight loss don't eat back the deficit.
If you are at or near the end do eat back the deficit.

The reason being is, once you are near your goal your body's metabolism would have been slowly changing to be more efficient to not burn as much when you are close to your ideal weight. I bet everyone here can attest to the fact that once we are near our goal weight we have to work really, extra hard and really watch what we eat to get that last 2 or three pounds off...
When we are in the beginning our weight is higher so our body burns more because we need to burn more so at that stage we don't have to eat our deficit.

I hope that this helps.

PS..cheat at least one day a week. Its good for you on more than one level.

db

rock_kowgurl

So how heavy are you and how over weight are you?

I'm pretty sure you can use your magical calculations to figure that out. Just do it in reverse.

PS - Didn't your mother ever teach you it's rude to ask a woman her weight?
:huh:

addict3

Way to much complication on these forums!
Let me make it really easy for you, forget mfp calculator.
Multiply your bodyweight by 15
If your very overweight, multiply your "Goal" Body weight by 15. The resulting figure will be your estimated maintenance
calories. Now subtract 500 calories from this figure, eat this amount everyday for a 2 weeks.
If you don't lose any weight drop 200kcals from that figure and try again. Keep doing this until your losing a pound a week,
Be sensible if your losing too much increase them. its as simple as that.
Forget the eating back of exercise calories you wont need to worry about that.
Still use mfp to log your cals food and "drink"!

By your calculations, I should be eating 2500 cals/day. That's even more than MFP says to eat. If I eat 2500 cals/day for two weeks, I'm going to GAIN weight!!! That's ridiculous!!! Even if I subtracted 700 cals from the number, I'd still be eating 2300 per day!
No no no no nooooo.

Anyone else have advice/suggestion/insight?
Please, no more telling me I need to eat the caloric equivalent for a teenaged football player. It doesn't help.

Ummm, I did....lol

sniperzzzz

So how heavy are you and how over weight are you?

I'm pretty sure you can use your magical calculations to figure that out. Just do it in reverse.

PS - Didn't your mother ever teach you it's rude to ask a woman her weight?
:huh:

Lmao im sure your gonna do just fine with that attitude :yawn:

monty619

no it defeats the point of doing cardio if you eat back the calories you burn.

Not if you're already eating at a calorie deficit.

if ur already eating in a caloric defecit then there is no point to do cardio for weight loss purposes.

toysbigkid

bump

heleine28

Most people who are trying to lose weight to include myself think that we are spinning are wheels if we just eat back those calories. That is not the case, ecspecially if your like me workout right before dinner. Your body just like an engine must have the right fluid (food) to run smoothly. Proper Nutrition is the key to losing weight, not starving yourself.

I always try to eat my calories back and it has worked for my weight loss goals. Just like already said on here, if you put your body into starvation mode- it will negatively affect your weight loss and the more likely a person is to fall of track and start gaining weight back.

I have learned to eat more on the days my workouts are heavy so I am not left eatting alot for dinner to make up for calories I have just burnt. But with that being said it is very important to refill the tank just don't overfill it.

HealthyNFit4Life

Listen to your body!! If you aren't hungry at the end of the day, you don't need to eat back your exercise calories. If you feel hungry or week, then eat them back. Everyone is different. Some people lose weight more efficiently by eating them back, others don't. Some days you may eat then back, other days you may not. Your body will tell you if you should be eating more.

saracatherine89

I usually don't unless I am super hungry (like I was today).

I will 'bank' my leftover calories for days when I can't hit the gym or eat my best. Like if I am under 400 one day, I won't feel awful for going over 400 during the weekend.

love4fitnesslove4food_wechange

One of my friends told me to forget about all the eating back or not thing, just multiply your weight by 12 to 18 (depending where you are at weight loss process). It will take out all the guess work.

I don't think that gives an accurate amount of calories. I'm assuming that 12 is for weight loss and 18 is for maintenance. If so, it has me eating way too many calories. It's far easier to simply eat the number of calories MFP tells you to eat. There are a lot of reasons this system (MFP) was set up the way it was. The main one is that it helps people lose weight while keeping them healthy.

I'd agree, the 12 to 18 has no basis behind it (unless its directed at one particular person/weight), if I ate 12 times my weight I'd be eating over 2800 calories a day, 18 times my weight would be over 4200 calories. My basal metabolic rate is between 2000 and 2100 calories a day (how many calories I'd burn laying in bed all day doing absolutely nothing)... so 2800 is on the high side (depending on activity level) and 4200 I'd be gaining weight like crazy (unless I was an athlete that my life revolved around working out, but it doesn't... I think MFP does an OK job with setting up goals, the only thing that would help is if it took more information in to consideration (i.e. body fat %, lean muscle weight etc.) but it is just making an assumption based on your weight which isn't the most accurate way, but its good enough...

For someone 230 pounds 2800 calories is not unheard of for weight loss--at 4'11 and ~100 pounds i frequently eat that much when training vigorously

principessang

MFP calculates your deficit for weight loss just by your diet. If you add exercise, you increase the deficit and need to replenish. No different than weight watchers points....workout, get more points. Every trainer I have EVER been to has told me to consume more calories on the days I workout.

so, lets say you have 1200 calories of food a day, and burn 600 calories at the gym...Your body has only 600 calories remaining fueling your body (simple math, right???) That is unrealistic, and no doctor is going to tell you to live off 600 calories a day. Bob Harper may be a trainer (for a television show in a controlled environment with doctors on site), but he is certainly no doctor.

If you starve your body, you will see the benefits of the numbers on the scale....but once you reach your goal and move to maintenance calories, you will gain.

I have lost 30 pounds logging on MFP. I workout 5-6 days a week, and eat almost ALL of my exercise calories every one of those days. I've been right on target losing over the 2lbs a week estimate. Log accurate calories of your exercise. Don't just hop on the machine and let MFP guess how many calories you burned. Enter your weight in the cardio equipment, and it will give you a more accurate calorie burn for your output. THEN enter that amount of calories burned in MFP.

IF you are really in doubt or confused of what to do, talk to your doctor. I know mine always knows best

jenniejengin

bump

Sarauk2sf

I started following Bob Harper on Twitter and asked him this very question today in a live chat. He replied, "If your goal is weight loss, do not eat the calories you burn. You will need that deficit."

He does not understand that a deficit is already set up in the base number MFP gives you (unless that was made clear to him)

JBott84

MFP calculates your deficit for weight loss just by your diet. If you add exercise, you increase the deficit and need to replenish. No different than weight watchers points....workout, get more points. Every trainer I have EVER been to has told me to consume more calories on the days I workout.

so, lets say you have 1200 calories of food a day, and burn 600 calories at the gym...Your body has only 600 calories remaining fueling your body (simple math, right???) That is unrealistic, and no doctor is going to tell you to live off 600 calories a day. Bob Harper may be a trainer (for a television show in a controlled environment with doctors on site), but he is certainly no doctor.

If you starve your body, you will see the benefits of the numbers on the scale....but once you reach your goal and move to maintenance calories, you will gain.

I have lost 30 pounds logging on MFP. I workout 5-6 days a week, and eat almost ALL of my exercise calories every one of those days. I've been right on target losing over the 2lbs a week estimate. Log accurate calories of your exercise. Don't just hop on the machine and let MFP guess how many calories you burned. Enter your weight in the cardio equipment, and it will give you a more accurate calorie burn for your output. THEN enter that amount of calories burned in MFP.

IF you are really in doubt or confused of what to do, talk to your doctor. I know mine always knows best

I agree with everything you said...plus a HRM will help immensely!

to understand easier watch your NET calories, your NET calories should be what MFP set you to...mine is set to 1200...so everyday my NET calories are 1100-1200...depending on how much exercise I do that day...my net may be less, but YES eat back most of your workout calories. I have lost 23lbs in 4 months doing this. I have about 30 left to go. Also the more you have to lose the more of a deficit you can have...That's why people are asking...

*Edit: So to say it in an even simpler way... you can lose weight just by eating the 1200 (or whatever) that MFP has told you to eat with no exercise, but you will be losing weight in a healthier manner if you do it with the addition of exercise....