For those of you who don't eat exercise cals back

myfitnessnmhoy

You are stressing WAY TOO MUCH about these numbers! Eat light, eat right... stay within your daily goal! Yes you earn more calories because you burned an excess through exercise...but these numbers are only GUIDES AND NOT LAW!!!!!

No one is talking "law", we're talking actions and physical consequences. You can freely ignore the guidelines of the site and use it as a pure calorie tracker, if you like. We're all free adults here. We all get to choose.

The only thing to be aware of is that "calories burned" can be affected by "calories consumed", and if you choose the fast path, just be aware that you still need to feed your vital organs something (and if you aren't eating at least enough protein, your body will start using the only internal protein source you have, namely muscle - and some vitamins and minerals are not stored by the body and cannot be internally synthesized).

Yes, you can burn fat faster, but your body simply cannot live on fat alone.

Again, you are an adult, you get to choose how you treat your body. It's just something to be aware of - if you've been eating a net of 500 calories for a week and you suddenly find that elliptical much harder to crank, or that 45-pound weight suddenly feels closer to 55 pounds, you may want to stop and think about why.

If it works for you, it works for you. If it stops working for you, keep an open mind about exploring things that might.

L_amore

bump for great links on page 2

Rynatat

I couldn't read through all the comments, but seriously, this topic has been beat to death more times than the which came first, the chicken or the egg, debate!

Simple: see these guns to the left.. yea, my biceps & shoulders. These come from working out consistently, eating well & ENJOYING what I am doing to get to this point, to my goal & then maintain. I eat, I workout, I eat. I eat most if not all, if not even, dare I say it, go over, my caloric "allowance" each day. I still lose, and even when I don't lose, I don't worry because for every pound of fat I'm "losing", I building up the muscle so it's stronger and that keeps my metabolism going all day, every day.
For many who do not eat back, or do not eat the right combinations of foods (think proteins, veggies & fiber), yes, you will lose weight. For many even keep it off. But if you compare your physique with someone who works out & EATS, you will "look" scrawny & unhealthy. I prefer not to look like the sick super model and work more towards a fit physique which also means those slips & falls that may happen when I'm older, I'm more likely to either not get too injured or recover quicker. I'm not doing this weight loss thing "for now", I'm doing it "for life".

Yes, there are many benefits to losing weight. And there are infinity more to being healthy for life.

lforner46

One last thing- Any trainer or nutritionist will tell you that 1200 calories is barely enough to sustain the average sized person if all they did was lay in bed all day. So, if you're exercising at all, its simply not enough fuel. You're not only at a calories deficit, you're at a nutritional deficit as well.

My trainer just looked over my MFP diary and I was averaging 1686 calories minus 300-500 exercise = 1100 to 1300 and says I am eating too much. All I know is I am stuck for the last 5 weeks and MFP 'eat to lose' keeps saying to eat more but its not working.

If i lay in bed and eat 1200 cals, will I lose the weight then??

TheVimFuego

I don't log exercise, I don't log booze.

Yes, I know, insane.

TheVimFuego

One last thing- Any trainer or nutritionist will tell you that 1200 calories is barely enough to sustain the average sized person if all they did was lay in bed all day. So, if you're exercising at all, its simply not enough fuel. You're not only at a calories deficit, you're at a nutritional deficit as well.

My trainer just looked over my MFP diary and I was averaging 1686 calories minus 300-500 exercise = 1100 to 1300 and says I am eating too much. All I know is I am stuck for the last 5 weeks and MFP 'eat to lose' keeps saying to eat more but its not working.

If i lay in bed and eat 1200 cals, will I lose the weight then??

1200 calories of what?

1200 calories of Snickers bars? 1200 calories of sweet potato?

myfitnessnmhoy

My Fitbit adjusts my exercise which, in turn, ups my calories and macros for what I can eat. I stay around or under the initially macro goals before exercise is counted. I have my activity level set to Active to match what I've gotten for a daily burn from Fitbit. It was my albeit limited understanding that eating exercise cals back was only for people who set themselves as Sedentary for activity.

Correct. If you've set yourself as "active", and by that you mean "I don't work a very active job like a landscaper or another job that requires heavy lifting for a significant portion of the day, but I work out a lot every day", then you absolutely DO NOT want to eat back your exercise calories because they are already accommodated for in your lifestyle.

"Exercise calories" are those that are "earned" by engaging in activity over and above your "normal lifestyle".

So someone like me, who is a desk monkey, can choose to set my activity level to "active" and commit to spending an hour on Mr. Elliptical daily, or set my activity level to "sedentary" and log my visits to Mr. Elliptical as activity over and above my lifestyle, thereby earning extra calories that (the way the MFP site is designed) I am expected to eat back. I'll end up with about the same calories every day.

Example, based on 1 lb/week weight loss:
- sedentary gives me 1,890 calories a day.
- active gives me 2.,270 a day.

So if I did a 400-calorie workout daily, I could choose between sedentary and logging the workout, and active and not logging it, and be allotted nearly the exact same number of calories.

If you set your activity level to something that includes your exercise and THEN log the exercise, you're double-eating those calories back and cutting into the very deficit that is designed to lose the weight for you. In my case, if I set my lifestyle to active, then ate back that 400 calories, it's 4/5ths of the 500-calorie deficit that loses me the 1 lb/week. So I'd be losing 1 pound every 5 weeks.

claudPolo

While strength training, I will eat back calories. I do find it too much food though if I eat back an extra 400-600 calories a day, which is the average burn for me.

half_moon

Simple: see these guns to the left.. yea, my biceps & shoulders.

.. omg.

For many who do not eat back, or do not eat the right combinations of foods (think proteins, veggies & fiber), yes, you will lose weight. For many even keep it off. But if you compare your physique with someone who works out & EATS, you will "look" scrawny & unhealthy.

-- I agree. Veggies, proteins, and fiber are important. But some are assuming that people who only take in 1200 cals a day don't get this is wrong, and I don't think they will look sick.

Eat your veggies, peeps!!

jillianlovesyarn

One of my big activities is walking. I know walking counts are frequently off. Now, I do a lot of walking so I feel safe eating back some of those calories but I'm not starting out eating them all back because I think that would put me way over on calories. It really depends on what else I do that day. I'm not interested in under eating because I think that actually has more to do with how I got where I am than over eating. But I have other variables to consider (like breastfeeding) that contain huge unknowns so I feel like I've got to experiment to get the number just right for me. Finding a good heart rate monitor that fits my budget will also go a long way towards me getting my numbers just right.

selig0730

i put in my exercise in the phone/computer and then i eat like normal, i dont eat more if i exercise i just eat when im hungary and only if i have calories left, the phone will let me know how many i have eaten, exercised and how much i got left, when i log into the exerise coloum i just look at the food part so i dont try to eat all my work out calories, i hope this makes any sense and helps

zorbaru

most of the time i dont look at it as "eating back burnt calories" i look at it as "burning off excess calories eaten"

kayemme

One last thing- Any trainer or nutritionist will tell you that 1200 calories is barely enough to sustain the average sized person if all they did was lay in bed all day. So, if you're exercising at all, its simply not enough fuel. You're not only at a calories deficit, you're at a nutritional deficit as well.

i don't totally agree, though i don't necessarily disagree. I feel like I eat really well. some days maybe not as great as others, but most days I eat very clean, high-fiber, nutrient-dense food. It's actually quite difficult to eat more than 1500 of this kind of calorie because the fiber is keeping you very full for a long time.

Some days I don't even reach 1200 according to MFP, but I also know that I "gauge" things like "1/4 cup" this or that, but mostly I try to eat when I'm hungry.

I would agree that for the "typical" american diet, 1200 calories wouldn't be very nutritious nor very plentiful, but I am confident in saying I eat plenty and stay well under 1500 calories a day.

susannamarie

I found this on the LiveStrong website:

"Net Calories Used

To calculate calories burnt during a specific activity, use a free calculator such as the Calories Burned Estimator on the Health Status Website. This calculator tells you how many calories you burned based on the activity you did, the time spent and your weight. To determine net calories, subtract the calories you burned from the calories you took in. If you get a negative number, you burned more calories than you took in and you will lose weight."

I presume you're meaning this article: http://www.livestrong.com/article/290204-net-calories-after-exercise-to-lose-weight/

This article is not very clear, but it seems to be using a different definition of net calories which would require calculating every single activity (including sleeping, etc) for calorie burn, for 24 hours.

Using MFP's definition, you should NOT be aiming for negative net calories.

HelenDootson

i just know how much im allotted a day and when i hit that number the day is done.

Thats the way I do it. Although if I am eating out unplanned or doing a hugh amount of extras I will eat about half of my exercise amount - Doesn't happen too often

charlotteannnnn

I add in the amount of calories I have burnt through exercise as and when I do the exercise, because that is the amount your body is running off? However, I try not to eat them back otherwise what was the point in burning them off? But, for example if your goal is 1200kcal and you burn of 600kcal, and then you eat 1400kcal - your body has still consumed less than 1200, which is why I log as I go.

levirudy

hi dont mean to be confusing but ive done the healthy diet,walked 12miles,strenght exercise 2times a day at 15mins each & always busy &put on a pound in my 1st week...not impressed...how has it worked for you...what are you doing im not???

LoveAustralia

I don't eat my exercise calories back, I log my exercise as soon as I do it. So if I burn 400 calories I log it but then I use quick add calories in my snacks and add 400 calories so I don't get confused then at the end of the day I delete the quick add calories before I complete my log.

Bssh

I log my exercise but record it as 1 calorie burned (I keep a note of actual calories burned in the notes section so I can ensure I am not burning more than my BMR - if I am then I eat extra the difference).

tadpole242

I do it slightly different than everyone it seems
I’ve 2040 per day, so on day where I do nothing, that is my target. On days I exercise, I divide my target 2040 by 24 (85 calories per hour) and subtract that for each hour or part that I exercise from my exercise total. I do it this way as I don’t want to count the calories twice.
I’m then free to eat enough food on the days where I exercise, so I don’t end up feeling faint or I’m kept up at night with hunger pains. I’m always hungry, (even when I was eating 6000 calories a day) so that to me is no indicator of whether I need to eat or not.
I will also keep track of my weekly calories and usually I have a few thousand spare at the end of the week.
I don’t eat back all or even half my exercise calories but I also don’t beat myself up if I go over by a couple of hundred calories on non-exercising day

soontobesam

My Fitbit adjusts my exercise which, in turn, ups my calories and macros for what I can eat. I stay around or under the initially macro goals before exercise is counted. I have my activity level set to Active to match what I've gotten for a daily burn from Fitbit. It was my albeit limited understanding that eating exercise cals back was only for people who set themselves as Sedentary for activity.

Correct. If you've set yourself as "active", and by that you mean "I don't work a very active job like a landscaper or another job that requires heavy lifting for a significant portion of the day, but I work out a lot every day", then you absolutely DO NOT want to eat back your exercise calories because they are already accommodated for in your lifestyle.

"Exercise calories" are those that are "earned" by engaging in activity over and above your "normal lifestyle".

So someone like me, who is a desk monkey, can choose to set my activity level to "active" and commit to spending an hour on Mr. Elliptical daily, or set my activity level to "sedentary" and log my visits to Mr. Elliptical as activity over and above my lifestyle, thereby earning extra calories that (the way the MFP site is designed) I am expected to eat back. I'll end up with about the same calories every day.

Example, based on 1 lb/week weight loss:
- sedentary gives me 1,890 calories a day.
- active gives me 2.,270 a day.

So if I did a 400-calorie workout daily, I could choose between sedentary and logging the workout, and active and not logging it, and be allotted nearly the exact same number of calories.

If you set your activity level to something that includes your exercise and THEN log the exercise, you're double-eating those calories back and cutting into the very deficit that is designed to lose the weight for you. In my case, if I set my lifestyle to active, then ate back that 400 calories, it's 4/5ths of the 500-calorie deficit that loses me the 1 lb/week. So I'd be losing 1 pound every 5 weeks.

This is perfect - very helpful explanation.

trophywife24

I don't log my exercise in mfp. I stopped a while ago. I think that most of the time, mfp grossly overestimates the amount of calories that most people burn while working out and well....... I'm too lazy to tinker with a heart rate monitor. I lift, spin and do pilates, and stay pretty active. If I'm hungry, I'll also eat. I don't live and die by my calorie goal. Having that little red - number at the end of the day is fine compared to living in a state of Hulk rage because I'm hungry.

70davis

Bump