WHY DO PEOPLE EAT BACK THEIR EXERCISE CALS?!

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Replies

  • Jbarbo01
    Jbarbo01 Posts: 240 Member
    If you think losing weight is really all about calorie deficit, why are you exercising? Just eat 1200 a day, why put yourself through exercise? Weight loss is about creating a healthy and beautiful body, its about feeding it the right amount of fuel and using fitness to sculpt a healthy and fit physique. If you think weight loss is literally calories in, calories out and not about lifestyle and balancing your bodies hormonal and metabolic processes you are seriously misinformed my dear.
  • ball858
    ball858 Posts: 395 Member

    Ive noticed lot of people do either or.. i was just wondering why the people who do eat them back do it to begin with! I just dont get it!
    The only way i can understand them doing this is if they went WAY over their calories to begin with and needed to work them off. Then technically they "ate" their exercise cals

    I eat most of my exercise calories back - but not because I ate them already!

    I burn most of my calories before dinner so usually i am going into evening meal in deficit. I eat them back because I do alot of strength training and I need the calories, I eat them back because I am hungry otherwise. I eat healthily and still lose up to 2 lb a week and inches whilst eating my exercise calories.

    Each person is different (just don't tar us all with the same brush)
  • EmilyOfTheSun
    EmilyOfTheSun Posts: 1,548 Member
    I eat mine back because I lose weight more quickly that way. I've been doing some pretty intense workouts lately (well at least for me they are), and now I'm CONSTANTLY hungry. P90X and Insanity. I finally read the nutrition guide that came with both those programs, did the equation that calculates how many calories I'm supposed to be eating per day and it told me I should be eating WAY more than I was. So I upped my calorie intake and had a lot of success. During the first week or two of Insanity, I didn't really lose any weight, now that I've upped my calorie intake I've lost over 2 pounds per week! Eating more is awesome lol because I have a huge appetite. But it's not just about eating more it's about eating more HEALTHY foods.
  • Crystal_Pistol
    Crystal_Pistol Posts: 750 Member
    Um, because I am freaking starving...

    This is why I eat mine back. ALSO- I'm TOTALLY obese. Still eat them. Won't even consider doing anything that means I have to maintain a ridiculously low calorie intake. Ridiculously low is subjective; to me it means less than 1500 calories a day.

  • Just my personal experience, but if I do eat a little of my exercise calories back, I lose more *shrug*

    Same here. When I burn more AND eat more (healthfully), I lose more than just working out and eating less.
  • SoViLicious
    SoViLicious Posts: 2,633 Member
    I was not eating my calories and only netting like 800 a day, I felt grumpy and eventually tired all the time. Then I started making sure I ate back up to 1200 and since then I have been losing 1.5 to 2.0lbs a week and feeling more energized. So it works for me.
  • iLoveMyPitbull1225
    iLoveMyPitbull1225 Posts: 1,690 Member
    I am starving after I work out and burn 600 calories. MFP builds in a deficit for you and you do not want to eat too few calories because it will hinder your efforts to not feed yourself enough.
  • bcattoes
    bcattoes Posts: 17,299 Member
    I drink mine in a long stemmed glass. :drinker:

    I do it because I prefer to exercise and have wine than to not exercise and not have wine.
  • Nerdy_Rose
    Nerdy_Rose Posts: 1,277 Member
    Short answer: Because it is healthy.
  • If you think losing weight is really all about calorie deficit, why are you exercising? Just eat 1200 a day, why put yourself through exercise? Weight loss is about creating a healthy and beautiful body, its about feeding it the right amount of fuel and using fitness to sculpt a healthy and fit physique. If you think weight loss is literally calories in, calories out and not about lifestyle and balancing your bodies hormonal and metabolic processes you are seriously misinformed my dear.

    ^This
  • nursenikki829
    nursenikki829 Posts: 432 Member
    I have lost 60 lbs and gained lean muscle by eating back my calories. I want to healthy and fit. Not starving and miserable! I eat back 30 to 50% on a regular basis, but sometimes more. I haven't had any problems losing. If you are working out like crazy while already having a caloric deficit, it will really mess with your body systems. It messes with your hormones, metabolism and even affects how your cells work to create energy. It isn't just about dropping weight, it is about being healthy while you are doing it.
  • Francesca3162
    Francesca3162 Posts: 520 Member
    Because they want you to net at least 1200 calories. Meaning if you eat 1200 and no exercise then that's fine. But if you exercise and burn 600 calories then they say your only having 600 calories that day for food intake and that's to low. Whatever I don't eat mine back unless I'm hungry.

    At least that's what I get from all the other posts about this subject

    ^^^^^^^^^^THIS^^^^^^^^^^
  • I was wondering the same thing. I just started, and I am going to eat only if I feel hungry. I'm not just going to go eat more cals simply because it says I can. :)
  • dyburke
    dyburke Posts: 7

    NOT TRUE, you won't start using muscle until your below 6% body fat.

    I'm pretty sure that's not true...
  • vkruithof
    vkruithof Posts: 227 Member
    Bump.
  • waldo56
    waldo56 Posts: 1,861 Member
    Because your goal is to gain/lose X amount of pounds per week. Not some amount that is greater or less than the target you set, with the potential for plateauing from too big or too small of a deficit because you really have no idea of what your actual calorie balance is. When that occus don't make threads confused as to why things aren't working. You suck at this whole counting thing, that is the problem.
  • Im down 34 pounds, still have 44 to go..... Im trying to eat 1200 calories a day and not go over im working every dau.. sometimes twice a day and Im taking a suppliment
    with the suppliment alone(AdvoCare, thermo plus) Im buring 900 cal. a day then with my work outs and cleaning and yada yada yada.. Im buring 12-1300 calories a day JUST from my activities and suppliments.. but I still am trying not to eat over 1200 calories.. If i feel hungry I eat but so far im doing very well:P
  • cynthiaj777
    cynthiaj777 Posts: 787 Member
    Please do research on eat more, lose more or women eating 2000+.

    The main logic is: if you eat 1200 and sit on your *kitten*, that's cool. If you eat 1200 then burn 1000, you just NETTED 200 calories. Normal body function is 1200+. You should be netting 1200 no matter what you burn.

    Lets say you eat 1200 then work out and burn 1200 calories. Your net is 0. You should eat that 1200 calories back because you should be netting 1200. If you eat 1200 then work out and burn 2200 calories. Your net is -1000. You should eat back those 2200 calories to get to a net of 1200 calories.

    You can't possible believe that your body can function on ZERO net calorie intake? Or maybe do you?

    I suggest readjusting your goal. 2 lbs a week is aggressive. I suggest 1 lb a week.

    My TDEE is around 2300 calories a day. I manually set my calories to 1440, which is my BMR (or conversely, my TDEE with no movement aka a couch day). I burn roughly 800-1200 calories a work out. Most days I am netting negative. However, I eat back my calories to try to get at least 1200 net. Overall, on a full day, I eat around 2000-2200. And I'm still at a deficit for the day....when eating back some of my work out calories.

    There's no magic formula. Eating them all. Eating none of them. Eating 75% of them. However, YOU HAVE TO EAT SOME OF THEM BACK! Your body CANNOT function on negative or super low calorie intake. You have to give your body enough fuel to get through the work out, enough fuel to power you otherwise, enough fuel to repair your body after the work out and enough fuel for body function. DO YOU REALLY THINK NETTING NO CALORIES IS HOW YOU DO THAT?

    :grumble:
  • I had the same question, and was super confused. I was getting the same response that you are getting, but it still didn't make sense to me. I saw a nutritionist, and she explained it this way...maybe it'll help you because it helped me. You need to find your BMR and add your exercise to that. Subtract what you've eaten for the day from the sum of your BMR and exercise; the difference should be about 300-500. Yes, the weight loss will be slower, but she said it's easier to maintain for life. If you wanted to lose 2 lbs a week, then I guess the difference should be around 700.

    So here's an example of how I do it. My BMR is 1350, and one day I worked out and burned 1030 calories. So 1350+1030 = 2380. I ate 1630 calories so I do 2380-1630 which gives me a deficit of 750 for the day. It's worked for me so far. The main thing I was concerned about was putting my body into starvation mode which is the last thing I want to do. So her explanation has worked for me. Hope it makes sense!
  • thebrianmo
    thebrianmo Posts: 108
    I just DO NOT get it!! You spend an hour in the gym working off burning 600 cal and then you just eat them back???
    Why would you eat even a LITTLE back??

    I thought the point was to burn these calories. WHY does MFP then add them to your food?!

    Quite honestly MFP is wrong on this one. As I've stated before, I'm in a medical weight loss clinic and they do NOT want us eating back calories we've burned. Ive never done it and I never will.
  • jennaworksout
    jennaworksout Posts: 1,739 Member
    for the record, I usually don't eat all my calories back....i still usually have about 500 -600 calories left at end of day ...I will however eat some back for sure
  • aproc
    aproc Posts: 1,033 Member
    Why does it really matter how everybody else chooses to lose their weight? MFP already provides a deficiet if thats what your going by. Having too much of a deficit isn't good and exercise is still a good thing to incorporate in daily for health not just weightloss.
  • Bumping so I can check this out later.
  • ahmommy
    ahmommy Posts: 316 Member
    Think of your body as a car.

    It takes 5 gallons of fuel to drive from point A to point B. This 5 gallons of fuel is the equivalent of your daily calorie goal based on losing 1-2 lbs per week.

    Now once you are at point B, you decide you want to venture on to point C (i.e. you work out). You need additional fuel to make it to point C because the 5 gallons to get from A to B is used up. So you have to add more fuel based on how much further you have to drive (i.e. eat back your exercise calories).
    I love this explanation!

    I honestly don't get why people don't understand this. You can create a deficit two ways - by eating less or exercising more. If you eat a lot less AND exercise a lot more, you're depriving your body of the fuel it needs to perform basic functions. Your BMR is the amount of calories your body needs to do things like breathe, pump blood, and digest. MFP creates your deficit assuming you're not going to exercise at all. Therefore, if you exercise, you can eat more and still maintain the same deficit. Now if you say you have an active lifestyle because you exercise every day, then your exercise calories will be factored in to your deficit and you shouldn't count your exercise twice.

    So I guess you could think about it this way - you apparently want to be netting only 700 calories a day. A lot of people would tell you that's a bad idea. But you can do that two ways - you could just eat 700 calories and not exercise, or as you choose, you could eat more and burn it off with exercise.
  • MoreBean13
    MoreBean13 Posts: 8,701 Member
    Check this
    http://fitnessblackbook.com/main/starvation-mode-why-you-probably-never-need-to-worry-about-it/
    Not trying to be snarky here, but I don't know if you're agreeing with me or arguing by posting this site- it doesn't really have any impact either way on my point. I'm definitely not going to get in to an argument about starvation mode vs. starvation- those discussions always get hung up on semantics and I'm not interested. If you're using a blog where it mentions muscle loss at lower than 6% BF to counter a textbook, I'm not going to argue that either. People can post anything they want in blogs- they're not credible sources.
  • anneerick
    anneerick Posts: 147 Member

    Please look at my pictures, I am definitely not obese . . . this entire sentence is completely nonsensical.

    The scariest part about this is his profile says "ISSA Certified Personal Trainer"....... Yikes. :noway:
  • ElviraCross
    ElviraCross Posts: 331 Member
    why do you care what others do?
  • astrampe
    astrampe Posts: 2,169 Member

    NOT TRUE, you won't start using muscle until your below 6% body fat.
    WHERE on earth did you get this little gem of misinformation????:huh: :noway:
  • erickirb
    erickirb Posts: 12,294 Member
    i never ate back any excercise calories....everytime i tried it i wouldnt lose


    aaronbefore123.jpg
    aaronafter3.jpg

    Great job.

    If that is the case then you either burned less calories than you though, or ate more than you though, or had a lower BMR than MFP estimated, or over estimated your activity level. If all of those things in line you would have to eat your exercise calories back in order to lose your goal amount of weight.
  • Silverkittycat
    Silverkittycat Posts: 1,997 Member

    This is why I eat mine back. ALSO- I'm TOTALLY obese. Still eat them. Won't even consider doing anything that means I have to maintain a ridiculously low calorie intake. Ridiculously low is subjective; to me it means less than 1500 calories a day.

    for Crystal -

    stock-photo-1843455-neon-eat-sign.jpg