Qustion for those of you who have been successful

randisaucier

I am not trying to make this a debate by any means so I am asking those who do reply to please not make it one!

For those of you who have been successful long term, I am wondering did you eat your exercise calories back or not? I'm so confused on where to keep my calorie level so that I am not starving and still have a steady loss.

Thanks in advance!

Qatsi

Yes. The baseline calories are set so that you will make your weight loss goal with NO exercise beyond your normal daily activity level.

GrAlVt

My strategy has kind of shifted over time. Keep in mind I've been generally losing more than 2 pounds a week for the last 4 months, so my intake is less than myfitnesspal actually recommends, but I haven't felt any starvation.

When I started, I ate even less than my BMR. I'm 6'2" and started at 295 pounds. My initial intakes were usually from 1700-2000. That seems a little low now that I know better.

My current strategy is simply to eat at the level I expect to eat at my goal weight. Using fat2fitradio, my calculated expenditure (from sedentary to lightly active) is about 2400-2700. Thus, I tend to eat about 2200-2400. This meets might BMR but probably does not count for many of my exercise calories. The reasoning is that my body will already be adjusted to the proper calorie intake when I reach my goal weight, and by eating slightly less than that for a while, it won't plateau above that amount. We'll see how well it works. I'm down to 230 lbs as of the moment.

randisaucier

I think maybe I'm over thinking this whole calorie counting thing....I lost weight in the past on low carb so forgive me if this is new to me.
Let me get this straight.......Lets say MFP has my calories set at 1400 and I burn 400 with exercise.....my actual calorie allowance for the day is 1800? Seems like a lot to me.

dovesgate

Like Gvousden I am using fat2fit's calculations and allowing my exercise to create my deficit.

Here's the info if you are interested:

http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/538381-in-place-of-a-road-map

kikilareggae

Yes! Sometimes I don't want to eat my exercise cals back cuz I'm not really hungry but I am pretty much always within at least 100 calories of my daily goal. I've lost 20 since February and it's stayed off. Good luck!

dvisser1

I think maybe I'm over thinking this whole calorie counting thing....I lost weight in the past on low carb so forgive me if this is new to me.
Let me get this straight.......Lets say MFP has my calories set at 1400 and I burn 400 with exercise.....my actual calorie allowance for the day is 1800? Seems like a lot to me.

Basically yes.

If your body, at your normal daily activity level, burns 1900 calories a day (your total daily energy expenditure as estimated by MFP) and you set a goal to lose 1 lb a week (3500 calories in 1 lb of fat, 3500 / 7 = 500 cal per day required deficit) then MFP gives you a goal of 1900 - 500 = 1400 calories. When you exercise, your TDEE is increased for that day. Say you burn 400 calories exercising. Your TDEE for that day is now the 1900 calculated + 400 exercise = 2300 calories burned by your body that day. You're still targeting that same 500 calorie per day deficit to lose that 1 lb for the week, so your allowed calorie intake goes up 2300 - 500 = 1800 calories.

Not everyone eats back their exercise calories. Seems there are some very polarized opinions about that on here. What I can say is that you would be best served by trying it all three ways (eat all back, eat some back or eat none back) and see what feels best for you. Only you know your body.

gatecityradio

I eat mine back. Unless I'm over my baseline, then I exercise in the evening to get back under. Either way I try to stay under or right at my baseline.

jaireed

I try not to. If I am hungry then I may eat some of them back, but not all of them when I'm trying to lose. I guess it depends on your weight loss goals, how much you want to lose and how fast. When I want to maintain my weight I will eat them back. Just my thoughts! Hope you find what works for you!

briebear77

I'm glad you asked this - I'm confused, too. I have an additional question. Does your total calories for the day when you complete your food entry include your exercise? I was looking at my diary the last two days and my food intake seems a bit too low even though I haven't been hungry. I just don't want to undereat.

bandj75

I've always eaten mine back and I've successfully lost 14 pounds, albeit slowly. My recommended net is 1200 so I keep to within 50 either way each day and consistently lose 1 pound a week. I generally do about 200 worth of exercise each night, so I eat 1400 per day and its worked really well for me. The only suggestion I will make is not to overestimate your calories burned during exercise. ie, I don't put in cleaning the house or general daily activities like that as I think they are included in my lifestyle calorie estimate. I er on the side of caution and underestimate exercise calories a little. Good luck!

Elle408

Yes, always ate mine back! Which meant when I was burning 800 in a day, my cals would be 2000. And even when it was just a 200cal walk, i'd eat them back too!

I'm now NOT eating them back, but that's because i'm maintaining and aiming for 1700-2200 a day anyway, so don't need to.

LorinaLynn

Yes, I always ate them back.

Now that I'm maintaining my weight, I'm amazed at how much I have to eat to not lose weight. I'm going to be 40 and have the metabolism of a 20 year old. :happy:

BerryH

Every delicious, well-earned one of them :happy:

samandlucysmum

Underestimate your calories burned, unless you have an accurate HRM or one of those fitnit things, then my advice is to stick to MFP recommended cals, and eat back your accurate exercise cals, or like me, if in doubt, only eat back half of them.

moepwr

I am also confused by this but I am also breast feeding which throws a whole new factor into the ring! I always eat my calories but I am worried about fat content in my milk. Now that I am weaning I am really, really confused. Good luck with your weight loss journey.

gazerofthestars

Always eat em back.
If your scale loss has plateau'd then take a few days off and come back with a higher intensity exercise.

Rinse and repeat.

MiChaChelle

i lost 33 pounds in 100 days, i am set at 1200 calories by mfp and whenever i workout even if i burn 1000 cal i eat all of it back. u should eat back ur exercise calories or else u'd have a hard time in maintenance later

Patovader

The short answer is yes. Just be sure to be as accurate as possible with what you are logging as exercise and what you log for food. The database on here is full of mistakes so understand the numbers you are inputting.

I used to try and be within 100 calories every day although I did 'save' up some calories for the weekend, it is important to still enjoy yourself. Lots of people beat themselves up if they go over on a particular day but your body does not work like that. Feel free to check out my diary and see for yourself.

Good luck Ax

mikeyrp

I think maybe I'm over thinking this whole calorie counting thing....I lost weight in the past on low carb so forgive me if this is new to me.
Let me get this straight.......Lets say MFP has my calories set at 1400 and I burn 400 with exercise.....my actual calorie allowance for the day is 1800? Seems like a lot to me.

Yup - that is correct.

Elle408

Underestimate your calories burned, unless you have an accurate HRM or one of those fitnit things, then my advice is to stick to MFP recommended cals, and eat back your accurate exercise cals, or like me, if in doubt, only eat back half of them.

I think the key is to have a bit of a play around with it. I went with what MFP said in terms of calories burnt, which were always the same as what the machines said, and ate every one of those calories whilst still losing weight. If you only eat half of them, you could still be massively under-eating (for instance on those days when you do burn 800cals, to only eat 400 and then attempt the same amount of exercise the next day seems counterproductive)

It seems really odd now looking back, that I was generally eating a regular persons diet every day (the recommended 2000cals) meaning that exercise was the only difference. But because I was seeing 1200 net, it made me feel like I was dieting!

rbn_held

Yes, most of the time I eat back my exercise calories.

kdruga

I think the most important thing is to keep your net for the day at or above 1200. If you are set at 1400 and burn 400, you're only at 1000 net for the day and should try to eat back 200. The main thing is not to let your net go too far below 1200 on any day.

2youngatheart

Bump...interesting question!

TheNewDodge

I just eat when I'm hungry for the most part and avoid crappy foods. I don't overthink it too much. I generally end up right around my weekly calorie goal. Some days I'm way under. Some days I'm way over.

NicLiving

Yes, you should eat them and stay at a NET calorie at the end of the day.
Trainer explained it to me like this: You can't drive a car without gas right.
So you have to have enough fuel to complete a workout. You gotta eat

freder1ck

For those of you who have been successful long term, I am wondering did you eat your exercise calories back or not?

yes. 330+ days of logging, and that's what I've done. I was eating a LOT of calories at the beginning, and lost weight, because I was eating less net calories. Some folks report that MFP estimates of calories burned are high, but I've mostly been using those estimates. Lately I've been using Runtastic calories about half of the time, which are usually a bit lower than MFP. I started out losing about 2 lbs a week, but as I made progress I dropped it to 1.5 lbs/wk. Exercise is good for my heart and cholesterol, and it softens the blow of reducing net calories (on Thanksgiving and Christmas, I burned over 1,000 calories before going to dinner).

BerryH

One good tip to avoid overestimating is to divide your BMR by 24 then multiply that by the number of hours you work out. Subtract that from your exercise calories as that's what you'd be burning during that time even if you were sitting on the sofa.

Obviously there's all sorts of other factors involved in overestimating, but if you're just going to take off "some" of what you eat back, it's at least a vaguely scientific way of going about it

ShannonMpls

My thoughts on "exercise calories" and setting a deficit are here:

http://www.myfitnesspal.com/blog/ShannonMpls/view/tdee-exercise-calories-an-alternate-way-to-customize-mfp-goals-238045

(I eat more than that now though, minimum of 2040 on a typical day).

tobnrn

It all depends on the method you are using. Some will say yes, some will say no. It takes 3500 kcal deficit to lose 1lb.

stephanj

I am going to be honest and unpopular. That eat more to lose weight thing never worked for me.
I have to cut calories consistently, and the exercise is just bonus. THE KEY for me was to realize how much better my own body functions on higher protein/lower carb, and to build muscle!