WHY DO PEOPLE EAT BACK THEIR EXERCISE CALS?!

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  • wazzanz
    wazzanz Posts: 78
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    A lot depends on what you eat too. Not all calories are created equal. If you want to eat back your exercise then a big mac and thickshake at the way home from the gym not the way.

    Exercise a key part of weight loss and especialy if you want to keep it off. I joined a gym about 6 weeks ago and was not losing weight (feeling better though). 2 weeks ago joined MFP and have lost 3.5kg (almost 8 pounds) since by eating good foods, (less highly processed carbs, takeaways etc) and not starving myself.
  • happythermia
    happythermia Posts: 374
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    CAUSE I GET HONGRY!

    lol
  • OneFitDude16
    OneFitDude16 Posts: 169
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    i eat 2500 cals a day i dont eat back my cals though
  • twonkieone
    twonkieone Posts: 132
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    Because MFP, unlike most calorie counting websites, doesn't include the exercise you SAY you'll do into your calorie goal. It doesn't matter if you say you're going to sit on your *kitten* 7 days a week, or run a marathon every day, MFP will give you the same base calories. Surely you understand that someone who exercises a lot needs more fuel than someone who doesn't?

    When I just cut calories, when I believed that creating a large deficit was all it took to get the body I wanted, I lost weight, but too much of that weight was my lean body mass... my muscle. By "eating my exercise calories," I was able to maintain a moderate deficit, which allowed me to retain most of my lean mass and lose mostly body fat.

    What that means in terms everyone can understand... The jeans on the bottom are the size 8 jeans I wore at 130 pounds about 5-6 years ago when I didn't eat enough, and the top pair is the size 5 jeans I'm wearing NOW, eating my exercise calories, at about 135-138 pounds. (Typically a 2 or 4 in misses.)

    IMG_3265.jpg

    Here's me at about 130 pounds 5-6 years ago, and me at 133 pounds in February.

    five-years-later.jpg

    Then I still had a muffin top, back fat rolls, double chin, and cellulite out the wazzo. Now?

    IMG_4850.jpg

    http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/494091-i-just-don-t-care-anymore


    THIS IS THE BEST PROOF EVER THAT SKINNY DOES NOT = HEALTHY AND THE SCALE ISN'T THE END ALL BE ALL OF FITNESS -- YOU LOOK AWESOME!!
  • dansls1
    dansls1 Posts: 309 Member
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    WHY DO PEOPLE YELL AT RANDOM PEOPLE ON THE INTERNET?
  • BarbWhite09
    BarbWhite09 Posts: 1,128 Member
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    I LOVE when people post about this topic...Seems that it's super hard to go back & look at the other 569,009,304,056 times it's been discussed on here...A google search would even give you a pretty quick answer...OR a textbook...! Education is fun.
  • XaviAvant
    XaviAvant Posts: 20 Member
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    I thought the point was OK TO EAT THOSE CALORIES, as long as you have a deficit. If you have a calorie budget of 1900 calories and you work off 600 calories, then you have to ingest 2500 calories to maintain your current weight. But If you work off 600, and then you EAT 600, you're still 1900 calories in the clear for the day, so YOU'RE STILL LOSING WEIGHT.
  • CathEsh
    CathEsh Posts: 135 Member
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    The whole net calorie thing confuses me, so I'm posting to save this forum. I've found it quite helpful! Sometimes I earn back 1,000 calories from a long bike ride but have a hard time grasping the concept that I can eat those back! :noway:
  • Eifersucht
    Eifersucht Posts: 34
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    I view those exercise calories as extra sine MFP already calculates my daily calories at a number that would still allow me to lose weight. For me, those 1400 calories aren't enough and I feel like I'm starving all day. Exercise earns me enough extra calories (around 500/day) so that I don't feel hungry all the time and I'm still losing weight or at the very least maintaining my current weight but giving my body the fuel it needs to do my workouts. I may not be losing as much weight as I was previously but my body is still changing and tightening which is more important to me than the number on the scale right now. Just my two cents.
  • MsNewBooty83
    MsNewBooty83 Posts: 1,003 Member
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    ill tell you why...ive lost 10lbs since joining MFP, 6lb of that was fkn muscle because ive been putting myself at such a deficiet. im so pissed that i didnt take the time to understand things better, thought id just burn burn burn and that would work. DOESNT WOOOORK....unless u dont mind being a flabby lil stick person. then carry on, lol.
  • infamousmk
    infamousmk Posts: 6,033 Member
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    Because MFP already creates a deficit for you. You technically don't need to exercise to lose weight. But you do need to fuel your body and not create a too large deficit that can be harmful and dangerous.



    /endthread



    First reply. Why are we at multiple pages??


    Oh, because it's about eating your exercise calories... here, this might help: www.shouldieatmyexercisecalories.com
  • gogojodee
    gogojodee Posts: 1,261 Member
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    CAUSE I GET HONGRY!

    lol

    :laugh:
  • weatherlover1
    weatherlover1 Posts: 17 Member
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    Every person needs to do what works best for them! If its eating back the exercise calories fine if not fine. I want to lose weight yes but at the same time I don't want to drive myself crazy either. I let the scale be the judge. If eating back my calories is causing me to not lose weight I adjust.
  • XaviAvant
    XaviAvant Posts: 20 Member
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    From what I can best understand about how the deficit works, it goes like this. And I'm doing to try and explain it the best I can.

    Let's say for example, your body requires 2000 calories in order to function throughout the day. This means that if you did NOTHING for an entire day, you would burn through 2000 calories a day.

    Now knowing this, If you don't eat anything, your body would still burn through 2000 calories a day, it simply won't get those calories from food. You'll either start going into fat reserves or muscle, but your body WILL get that energy from somewhere. So in order to counter and balance that expenditure, you would need to ingest 2000 calories in order to maintain your current body weight without any adverse side effects.

    Now, If you worked out and burned off 600 calories, this mean that your body now burns through 2600 calories to function for that day.

    This means that, after working out, you decided to eat a 600 calorie meal, you're body would still require 2000 calories in order to maintain your current body weight. This means that YOU ARE STILL LOSING WEIGHT, and for those of trying to lose weight, the point is to still get enough calories to function throughout the day without feeling hungry or starved, while staying low enough below that deficit to lose weight.

    Exercising means we burn MORE calories, which means we have to ingest more calories, but because of the extra calories expended through exercise, still retain a higher calorie deficit than if we just sat around and starved ourselves.

    My point is, you HAVE to eat those calories, but don't just replace them, replace them with nutrient-dense calories, calories your body can actually use for things instead of just storing as fat, and don't go over them. Don't go and burn off 1000 calories at the gym and then eat 3000 calories.

    Sorry for the caps but MFP's reply boxes don't allow Italics so I don't have any other way of getting my point across.
  • mandorla
    mandorla Posts: 81 Member
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    Because this can be such a decisive topic with much vitriol I'm not reading other peoples posts, so I apologies if by some miracle I repeat what someone else has said.

    Many years ago I did Weight Watchers and WW does two things. One it has a rang of calories/points to eat in a day. WW also has you add calories/points from working out to your day which MFP pretty much does the same thing. Because MFP has a one number system I find it frustrating. In the 8 weeks I've used it I've only ones hit ZERO as the number of calories need to eat or gone over for the day.

    I use the base number of calories MFP gives me for the day as the bottom end of what I want to eat. I use the base number plus calories from exercise as the top number I want to eat that day, thus giving me a buffer.

    Also, I'm in this for the long haul. I've dieted and worked out before, I lost 40 lbs in 4 months by making losing weight my part time job. Guess what happened? I burned out. Ones the events I lost the weight for were over I quit going to the gym and everyday became a cheat day. I need to loose half my body weight and I'm guessing that's going to take me 2-3 years. I don't want to burn out. I want this to be a long term change in my lifestyle. Cutting myself back to the point I'm crying and having a break down because I'm so hungry and have deprived myself for so long is not going to get me there.
  • TyFit08
    TyFit08 Posts: 799 Member
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    I did Weight Watchers years ago, and while you do earn activity points for exercise as well as flex points, no one ever made me feel like I had to use them. In fact I recall being encouraged to minimize use of these extra points for maximum results. Unless I'm hungry or its a special occasion, I'm not touching my exercise calories. I don't have a HRM so all I have are estimates and we know that MFP tends to estimate burned calories high. I just feel like its a slippery slope to eat back your calories, if you have the discipline to do it without ODing than go for it, but I just don't trust it. Besides I couldn't imagine eating that much food. Today I burned more than 1000 calories and I ate 1200 calories. It is 1030 at night. I have eaten 3 meals and a snack and I am full and one for the night.
  • erickirb
    erickirb Posts: 12,293 Member
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    I did Weight Watchers years ago, and while you do earn activity points for exercise as well as flex points, no one ever made me feel like I had to use them. In fact I recall being encouraged to minimize use of these extra points for maximum results. Unless I'm hungry or its a special occasion, I'm not touching my exercise calories. I don't have a HRM so all I have are estimates and we know that MFP tends to estimate burned calories high. I just feel like its a slippery slope to eat back your calories, if you have the discipline to do it without ODing than go for it, but I just don't trust it. Besides I couldn't imagine eating that much food. Today I burned more than 1000 calories and I ate 1200 calories. It is 1030 at night. I have eaten 3 meals and a snack and I am full and one for the night.

    Do you relaize that by eating only 1200 and burning 1000, is the same as eating only 200 on a day you don't workout? 1200 is the minimum anyone should ever get with no exercise.

    As an example say MFP gives you 1450 calories to lose 1 lb/week, and you plan on exercising 5x/week for an average of 400 cals per workout. well MFP will tell you to eat 1450 on the days you don't workout and 1850 on the days you do whereas a "professional" may tell you to eat 1700 everyday regardless if you workout.

    So for the week MFP will have you eat 12,150 (1450*2+1850*5) whereas doing it the other way will have you eat 11,900 (1700*7) almost the same number of cals for the week (250 dif). The issue in not following MFP is if you don't workout the full 5 days or burn more or less than planned. If that is the case you may lose more or less than your goal, whereas MFP will have you lose your goal amount regardless how much you actually workout.

    What many MFPers do is take the low 1450 and not eat back exercise calories which is wrong, if you are not eating them back then your daily activity level should reflect the higher burn with would be covered in the 1700/day above.
  • escloflowneCHANGED
    escloflowneCHANGED Posts: 3,038 Member
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    Do you relaize that by eating only 1200 and burning 1000, is the same as eating only 200 on a day you don't workout? 1200 is the minimum anyone should ever get with no exercise.

    I think a better way of saying it is, if you eat only 1200 calories and burn 1000, you now have a 2000 calorie deficit for the day. Thats what people don't understand. MFP needs to put up a sticky or just explain it better when you sign up!
  • missfelicia6
    missfelicia6 Posts: 174 Member
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    So since my BMR is like 1700 cal and i want to burn 2lbs a week, i need a defecit of 7000 cals a week (-1000 a day).

    So, MFP sets my food at 1200 (-500 so far) and then i need to burn 500 more a day to meet that -7000 cal a week.

    So why would I eat it back?!?

    I AGREE
  • escloflowneCHANGED
    escloflowneCHANGED Posts: 3,038 Member
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    So since my BMR is like 1700 cal and i want to burn 2lbs a week, i need a defecit of 7000 cals a week (-1000 a day).

    So, MFP sets my food at 1200 (-500 so far) and then i need to burn 500 more a day to meet that -7000 cal a week.

    So why would I eat it back?!?

    I AGREE

    BMR is if you were to stay in bed all day, TDEE is what you should be looking at. You will burn 500 calories a day doing your normal activities even if it's a desk job. so you have reached 1000 calorie deficit everyday by not working out. going to the gym will cause the deficit to be larger than 1000, thats why you eat them back.

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