This is my last try to get a response!!!!

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Replies

  • californiagirl2012
    californiagirl2012 Posts: 2,625 Member
    I do not eat back my exercise calories. I have not gone into starvation mode. The proof is in the pudding.

    This was me last week, on the far right. I am still building muscle and I do not eat back exercise calories.. just a few sometimes but mainly they are way higher than reality.

    http://www.flickr.com/photos/bobbiesfitness/7909829252/in/photostream/lightbox/
  • wild_wild_life
    wild_wild_life Posts: 1,334 Member
    I was told by my nutritionist not to eat back my exercise calories, so if I exercise and have an extra 500 calories, I do not touch them, I stay at about 1500 calories a day and have been doing okay, good luck!

    Normally you shouldn't eat back exercise calories if you are trying to lose but the way MFP is set up, you are given a deficit without exercise. If you exercise and don't eat more, your deficit is higher. This may or may not be a good idea depending on what your deficit was and how much you burned though exercise (ie it could make your deficit too large). So I understand why a nutritionist would say that but most people who recommend that don't understand how the site works. That said, if it's working for you, great!
  • littlepinkhearts
    littlepinkhearts Posts: 1,055 Member
    link to a calculator (used on this site a lot) to help you figure out your numbers http://scoobysworkshop.com/calorie-calculator/
  • holly3585
    holly3585 Posts: 282 Member
    1. Figure out you BMR (what you burn if your sick in bed all day) and your TDEE (basically what your work or home sched. is - I always choose sedentary) Eat MORE than your BMR and less than your TDEE NO MATTER WHAT. I set my 'calorie goal' at my BMR, and eat back EVERY exercise calorie I burn (via HRM) Honestly I think this only works for me b/c I do go over calories a bit EVERY weekend. You really do need to eat more to weigh less if you are eatiing good foods and working out.

    Check this out:

    https://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&pid=gmail&attid=0.1&thid=138e3e6a2a00f213&mt=application/vnd.ms-excel&url=https://mail.google.com/mail/u/0/?ui=2&ik=96469e59e3&view=att&th=138e3e6a2a00f213&attid=0.1&disp=safe&zw&sig=AHIEtbTvLPx6mwk3WwOzmgyCn1WLYQ0_3w

    I honestly do not know if that link will work, but someone on this site made a huge excell sheet where you input your stats and it figures oput EVERYTHING for you. It is a little hard to follow at 1st, but super informative. I hope my link works :-/
  • _EmmaStrong_
    _EmmaStrong_ Posts: 647 Member
    I think BMR is highly unreliable. Peoples' metabolism are as different as night and day. My BMR is supposedly right around 1300 and my exercise calories average around 300. If I ate 1600 calories everyday, I would not be able to lose weight, most likely just maintain. You really just have to experiment and see what works. There is no magic formula, I don't care what they say. You have to have a deficit to lose weight. I do not eat back my exercise calories and I eat below my BMR, always. I believe that my metabolism is very slow, as my resting heart is around 45. I know people will disagree with this. Experiment, experiment, experiment, until you find the right amount of calories that will work for you. That's all you can do. I know, I've been there, done that!!
  • rm830
    rm830 Posts: 531 Member
    Sometimes threads just don't get seen, don't take it personally because you are far from the only one it happens to.

    Your BMR is what you would burn if you laid in bed all day. If you eat that much plus the calories burned from exercise you would still be under your TDEE by the amount of calories you burn walking around, cooking and doing all your normal daily activities.

    ^^This!
  • KaidaKantri
    KaidaKantri Posts: 401
    Yes. you want your NET to be at your bmr number. For example, if your bmr was 1400 and you exercised 400 calories, you would be able to eat 1800 calories and net the 1400. You don't want too much of a deficit at the end of the day. If you did NOT eat those 400 calories back then you would be at a 1000 net for the day which equals unhealthy. 1400 (bmr) - 400 (Exercise) =1000 which would be your net. 1400+400 =1800. Take that 1800 and MINUS the 400 for exercise would bring you back down to your NET goal. This all is very hard to explain I hoped it helped somewhat. If I were you, I would assume that your not burning as much and just eat 50-75% of your exercise calories back, if your not comfortable with eating them all back. I eat MOST of mine back every day (that's why I exercise >:( ) and I'm still losing weight steadily. :)
  • badfattitude
    badfattitude Posts: 54 Member
    My weight loss doctor told me to eat back 1/2 of the work out calories, but no more than 500. But that is for me (after all the tests he's conducted).

    Bottom line, you have to do what feels right for you.

    If this is about your guilty feelings, well, no amount of reading about BMR and TDEE numbers is going to make that go away.

    My philosophy is if I have to ask myself if it's okay if I eat something..... it probably isn't.
  • Capt_Apollo
    Capt_Apollo Posts: 9,026 Member
    BMR is you Basal Metabolic Rate. what that means, is that it is the bare minimum of calories you need to consume to sustain your basic bodily functions.

    your TDEE is your Total Daily Energy Expenditure. It is the amount of calories, based on your current level of activity (including exercise) that you need to maintain your weight.

    one thing that works for people is that they split the difference between their tdee and your bmr, and then eat their exercise calories.
  • Silverkittycat
    Silverkittycat Posts: 1,997 Member
    If my BMR is 1,480 and I had 403 exercise calories does that mean I can eat 1,883 calories without gaining?

    No clue. Your body's needs vary depending on so many different factors....experiment and find out what works for you. If a certain amount of calories is not working for you after a month or so, revisit and revise where needed. :)
  • Shrinking_Stacey
    Shrinking_Stacey Posts: 100
    Check out this website, it has easy to understand info & calculators that you can customize to your measurements. Good luck!

    http://www.fat2fitradio.com/tools/bmr/
  • bullisnn82
    bullisnn82 Posts: 110
    I didn't take the time to read all the other comments, so if this is redundant - sorry. Your BMR is basal metabolic rate - basically, what you need if ur in bed all day and don't do anything but sleep. To burn a pound of fat you have to use up 3000 calories above what you've used. So - to figure out how many calories you need to eat a day take your BMR x your activity level (a daily calorie needs calculator can help u out with this number) then subtract whatever number of calories you want to be negative a day (for me it's 500) to figure out how many you can eat a day and still be burning more than you're taking in. If you exercise you take the number of calories you burned and either eat them (that's what I do) or add them to your xtra burned. Whew! Example: my bmr is about 1400, my activity level is lightly active, so I multiply 1400 x 1.375 then take that number and subtract 500 from it so I get about 1400 (again). I went ahead and set my calorie needs thing on here to 1500 just because it's what I'm used to.
  • AngryDiet
    AngryDiet Posts: 1,349 Member
    Others have explained. TDEE is an estimate of how much you burn during the day, without doing special exercise. The calculation takes various body statistics in mind, and your estimate of how much exercise you likely get *as part of your daily routine*. This includes things like exercise in your job, or if you take daily walks, you should include those in the TDEE estimate instead of counting differently.

    If you eat at TDEE, all things being equal, you won't gain or lose weight. If you eat below TDEE, you will lose, and if you eat above TDEE, you will gain.

    Some caveats, of course. The calculators do estimates, based on average sorts of people. Some of them are based on very old estimates at that. Everyone is different, and you are too! So those calculators are merely a starting point for one's plan. Not the final word.

    If you you do extra exercise, you should add those calories to your TDEE for that day, to get your actual *estimated* TDEE or the day. If you eat at, you don't change, if you eat less, you lose, if you eat more, you gain. Simple really.

    The next caveat is that it's pretty difficult to accurately estimate workout calories. The workout machines don't estimate well, online calculators suffer from exactly the same difficulties as the TDEE calculators, and on top of that, people adapt to cardio exercise, and become more efficient at it, so the calories burned will drop as you get fitter. Heart rate monitors do a better job, supposedly, but again, not not really all that great.

    BMR is how much you would burn if doing absolutely nothing. So BMR < TDEE. Many believe that a healthy deficit should be greater than BMR, but less than TDEE (including any extra exercise for the day in the TDEE number). Some others happily eat less than BMR, and mysteriously, haven't died yet.

    It really comes down to a simple axiom, however. If you eat less than you burn in a day, you lose weight. If you eat more, you gain.

    The trick is being accurate about how much you are burning in a day, and counting how much you eat.

    I figured out my TDEE by logging my eating while at the deficit recommended by this site FOR THREE MONTHS, and then I went through the data looking at what I ate and how many pounds I lost (and a pound is 3500 kcal) and was able to calculate a better estimate. More importantly, whatever bad assumptions I make about the calories I eat is factored into the estimate going forward, effectively negating those errors as a factor. I don't log my exercise separately, but instead allowed my exercise to be a part of the TDEE estimate (again from the same data), also eliminating errors there as a factor going forward.

    It's worked out quite well.

    Please don't feel ignored. There are a lot of people all asking the same questions. So just keep asking. People eventually notice.
  • yourenotmine
    yourenotmine Posts: 645 Member
    Um, maybe... Try it and see if it works for you. If not, don't do it.
  • ktrauzzi
    ktrauzzi Posts: 71 Member
    I'm with a small work out group -- not a gym. We have found that if we eat back half of the calories burned, then we lose weight. We either maintain or gain if we eat back all of our calories. Good luck!
  • Kairunz
    Kairunz Posts: 51
    Mfp has already calculated what should be a healthy deficiet so you should eat back your exercise calories. I always eat back my exercise calories and I am losing about 1-2 pounds a week.
  • RunAlyndaRun
    RunAlyndaRun Posts: 162 Member
    Theoretically you will NOT gain weight if you eat them all back, but still stay in the green as long as you have your profile set to lose weight. It might be slow loss, but it should be a loss. MFP accounts for you eating all of your calories with their calculations for weight loss. However, I've found that exercise calories burnt are sometimes a bit too generous. I try to eat a net 1200 calories each day. Some days I'm over that and some days I'm under:-)
  • BrownEyedGrrl
    BrownEyedGrrl Posts: 144 Member
    link to a calculator (used on this site a lot) to help you figure out your numbers http://scoobysworkshop.com/calorie-calculator/

    I'm not too sure about this calculator! I put in all my information and it told me I could eat 1950 cal per day and still lose a pound a week. Myfitnesspal tells me to eat 1540 calories a day to lose a pound a week. I don't think I'm gonna lose much weight eating 1950 cals a day unless I was working out a lot! (and I don't.lol)
  • Healthydiner65
    Healthydiner65 Posts: 1,448 Member
    Thank you for your wonderful and supportive posts! You all(except for one) are awesome!
  • DominiqueSmall
    DominiqueSmall Posts: 495 Member
    I asked my trainer and basically that is true. However, sometimes we have to listen to our bodies. I have to be careful about eating back my exercise calories because my body struggles to process all that extra food.
  • mmeddleton
    mmeddleton Posts: 100 Member
    Hi Cindy - I have not read all the previous responses, so I may be repeating what others have written. Your BMR is the amount of calories your body would burn if you were totally inactive (think comatose). Eating that plus your exercise calories would still net you the calories your body would burn if you were totally inactive. You will definitely not gain weight at that level of calorie intake if your BMR is calculated correctly and if your exercise burn and your daily intake of calories are measured accurately. Assuming these measurements are correct and the fact that you are not totally inactive, your net would actually be below your BMR. That is actually much too low. You should not be netting below your BMR on a regular basis. The best aid to determining your daily intake goal I've seen is here:
    http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/715450-followers-of-in-place-of-a-road-map2-0

    I hope you find this helpful.
  • tlnurse
    tlnurse Posts: 229 Member
    I only eat "part" of my exercise calories back due to the possible overestimation in calories burned.

    I did a 2 week trial of "eating all of the exercise calories back"....and that is the only time I GAINED weight during this journey since February.
  • 13nicholas
    13nicholas Posts: 154 Member
    Hey I would actually advise AGAINST keeping tract of your fitness CALORIES. I would, however, keep a log of your workouts and diet. Trying to determine the extra calories from working out is a bit of a stretch I think.

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