Eating back your calories rant.

Poorgirls_Diet

My comments being you are doing the exact same thing you're asking others NOT to do. You said:

"...In future I think if you want to give instructive advice please make sure you know what you are talking about before belittling someone's efforts..."

and then:

"...So to anyone else that has the same amount of weight to lose like me please do not eat all your calories back that is suggested on here otherwise you will either gain weight or won't lose it...."

So, you aren't an expert, but you're telling others the best way to lose (according to YOU.) Your tone is really aggressive and maybe a "this is what worked for me" comment would have made this so much less rude. In MY experience, I lose more when I eat back my calories (or the majority of them), so I would hope you realize that what works for you might NOT be what works for everyone. If you're so beyond caring what others think, why go through this big ranty post? Just get on with your journey. It's not a contest, you vs. everyone else. Just old you vs. new you. I hope new you wins. And relaxes a LOT, or you're headed for worse health issues down the road, due to stress.

Nope not an expert, never said I was and when I wrote that last night I was indeed very angry and it may have appeared to be very aggressive however i have absolutely nothing to apologize for my feelings. If you feel offended seriously that is nothing to do with me, that is your problem, surely?? Also I knew the same people would comment on this thread as they have commented on the first one so I was prepared for the back lash and as I said have developed a no tolerance attitude for abuse, give abuse, don't expect me to sit back and take it. The reason for my post was as stated that for the past two months I haven't lost anything due to listening to advice on here. However I have now readjusted the calories etc on here and won't be eating back any of my calories.

I have no doubt that the 'New me' will win as its only me from this day forward that will get me there but thanks for your concern but I am sure I will be fine. I have got a wonderful bunch of friends of MFP and gained another 15 from this post last night that we can all support each other on our weightloss journey. My stress levels are perfect too but thanks for the warning though will definitely watch out for the signs, take care

gxm17

Addressing the OP, I'm sorry people were rude to you. Unfortunately, on the internet, people think they can hide behind the safety of their computer screen. There's no excuse for it, but they must be very unhappy people so I try to feel sorry for them.

IMO, there really is no correct answer to the "should I eat my calories back" question. Personally, I have found that right now, for me, eating my calories back is necessary. And that's the key point, figuring out what works for you at whatever stage you are in your fitness journey. Everyone is different. What works for one person, won't always work for another. And what works for you now, may not work for you in six months. Stay open minded, listen to your body, keep putting one foot in front of the other, and you will be surprised at what you can do. Sounds like you are off to a great start. Enjoy the journey!

Poorgirls_Diet

Do you really care what people have to say? I could care less they don't know me nor do they really care. You just hang in there and remember the pounds may not tell the whole story... Inches remember inches.. muscle weighs more than fat. all the best ok

Honestly no I really do not care what they have to say. I have learnt the hard way and hopefully things will be improving from this day forwards. Funny you should mention taking measurements that was one thing the pp insisted on and took measurements everywhere. Like he said there will be days when I won't lose anything and others that I will have the inch loss to prove it. Anyways thanks, take care

DavPul

The problem is, you aren't talking about your REAL exercise calories burned, so your argument is flawed. The fact that the heart monitor said you burned less than what MFP says simply implies that you CAN'T just go on a loose estimate and then eat whatever calories back that number is. Especially if you have quite a bit of weight to lose.

Mathematically, it's still possible to eat back exercise calories and lose weight. It works for me, but I purposefully underestimate how many calories I burn doing a given activity. (I often hula-hoop and do kundalini yoga, for example, and I base my calories burned off various estimates I found online for my body weight, and then go off a bit lower number.)

It's all abut accuracy. While it may be true that eating back only half of your exercise calories is fine if you're hungry and eating 1700 a day, it changes a bit when you're someone like me who only eats 1200 a day before exercising. I burn lot of calories and I have a fast metabolism, so when I don't eat back most of mine, I get a lot of bad side-effects. And I lose weight quite quickly as long as I'm staying at a good net.

Different things work for different people, but usually it's the math that's flawed and not the method.

I guess you really didn't have much weight to lose to start off with? So don't judge your experience on mine. The fact is I have over 200lbs to lose and I have been told by a professional that I don't need to eat my calories back. Regardless of your mathematically gibberish I will stick to what the professionals tell me and after all they know best!

Also as stated in another post the HRM matched the calories burned on the machine that I was using. Use your Mathematical skills on that one and come up with an answer!!

Honestly, it's your life so make your own choices on what to do. I make mine, so you can make yours. Eat them back. Don't eat them back. Whatever you want.

But your attitude is bull$hit. If someone agrees with you they are smart. If someone disagrees they are rude and unhelpful and shouldn't judge you. Here in the real world, if someone thinks you are wrong, and they tell you so, that's what help is. If you have it all figured out, congrats, I'm happy for you. Do your thing and lose your weight. But I'm reading through your posts on here and you're the rude one, but have the nerve to call everyone else rude.

You came on here asking for advice. You got it. Just because you don't agree with it doesn't give you carte blanche to call people stupid or ignorant. A lot of the people giving you advice have been successful by doing exactly what they are telling you. They aren't trying to hurt your progress.

If you've got it all figured out, do what you do and keep your rudeness to yourself.

Poorgirls_Diet

Whew! There's a lot of bad advice in this thread. There's a lot of bad advice out there in general, but I would encourage any new users to step away from this thread and look for people on here who have been successful in losing and maintaining their weight loss, and get advice from those people. Then take that advice with healthy skepticism and research for yourself what you are being advised to do. Many of the successful MFP old-timers have a pay-it-forward attitude and are happy to share tips that helped them. Newcomers with a chip on their shoulder are not the best source for tips on successful weight loss strategies.

My advice would be to newcomers don't take any advice at all, get professional opinion and if you can't resource the internet before listening to anyone as unfortunately whether you are here 20 years or 2 there are some know it alls out there that can't help but think they are gods

Poorgirls_Diet

The problem is, you aren't talking about your REAL exercise calories burned, so your argument is flawed. The fact that the heart monitor said you burned less than what MFP says simply implies that you CAN'T just go on a loose estimate and then eat whatever calories back that number is. Especially if you have quite a bit of weight to lose.

Mathematically, it's still possible to eat back exercise calories and lose weight. It works for me, but I purposefully underestimate how many calories I burn doing a given activity. (I often hula-hoop and do kundalini yoga, for example, and I base my calories burned off various estimates I found online for my body weight, and then go off a bit lower number.)

It's all abut accuracy. While it may be true that eating back only half of your exercise calories is fine if you're hungry and eating 1700 a day, it changes a bit when you're someone like me who only eats 1200 a day before exercising. I burn lot of calories and I have a fast metabolism, so when I don't eat back most of mine, I get a lot of bad side-effects. And I lose weight quite quickly as long as I'm staying at a good net.

Different things work for different people, but usually it's the math that's flawed and not the method.

I guess you really didn't have much weight to lose to start off with? So don't judge your experience on mine. The fact is I have over 200lbs to lose and I have been told by a professional that I don't need to eat my calories back. Regardless of your mathematically gibberish I will stick to what the professionals tell me and after all they know best!

Also as stated in another post the HRM matched the calories burned on the machine that I was using. Use your Mathematical skills on that one and come up with an answer!!

Honestly, it's your life so make your own choices on what to do. I make mine, so you can make yours. Eat them back. Don't eat them back. Whatever you want.

But your attitude is bull$hit. If someone agrees with you they are smart. If someone disagrees they are rude and unhelpful and shouldn't judge you. Here in the real world, if someone thinks you are wrong, and they tell you so, that's what help is. If you have it all figured out, congrats, I'm happy for you. Do your thing and lose your weight. But I'm reading through your posts on here and you're the rude one, but have the nerve to call everyone else rude.

You came on here asking for advice. You got it. Just because you don't agree with it doesn't give you carte blanche to call people stupid or ignorant. A lot of the people giving you advice have been successful by doing exactly what they are telling you. They aren't trying to hurt your progress.

If you've got it all figured out, do what you do and keep your rudeness to yourself.

Thanks I will take everything you said with a pinch of salt.

Poorgirls_Diet

A little update from my first post. My PT has now set my calories on here to 1550 and we intend to workout 60mins a day doing various activities. Depending on the burn I won't be eating my calories back based on the advice from the PT. Thanks to everyone else who emailed and give positive advice and to other trainers on here who also emailed and told me what to do when I reach below 200lbs, cheers for that. Also thanks to everyone who commented whether it was good or bad I took with me various advice to help along my journey and I will be sure to watch those stress levels too! Take care all

mcrowe1016

However the point that I was trying to make and seemed to have got missed is that people have been telling me to eat back my calories even when they were over estimated and when I didn't really have to.

I just wanted to add the reading from the hrm was an exact calorie match to the machine that I was using to exercise on. So its 100% accurate!!

No one told you to eat more calories than you burned, and no one ever said mfp was the best place to estimate calories burned.

Nothing is 100% accurate.

I beg your pardon little miss know it all. Actually your not worthy of my response......move on

But, but, you did respond..... :huh:

I might not know it all, but I am right about this

Qskim

Good luck OP! For a while I let MFP forums screw with my diary in last few months after successfully losing weight but then feeling a threat of losing friends if I didn't eat right according to the current trend on MFP. Big advocate of do what works for u. My trainer is p*ssed at MFP n thinks eating exercise a crock. She has a university degree m 20 years in the business. She eats lean and clean n may sit around 1200 cals because of this n shes obviously not in statvation mode. She stands before me at 50+ years old as toned/fit as she ever was...so...strangers on MFP? Or trust a professional who is well known for what she does. Once again I've stopped eating exercise, I eat mostly clean at 1200, I am alert/energetic. I am now getting definition. I have more muscle than I did at a skinny 18. I don't care what others do as long as they are achieving what they want comfortably. If they can eat high n lose great!

love4fitnesslove4food_wechange

FYI the heart rate monitor and treadmill sync with one another so OF COURSE they say the same thing. That's so that you can use the treadmill to monitor your HR instead of having to look at a watch. Brilliant, huh?

Poorgirls_Diet

Good luck OP! For a while I let MFP forums screw with my diary in last few months after successfully losing weight but then feeling a threat of losing friends if I didn't eat right according to the current trend on MFP. Big advocate of do what works for u. My trainer is p*ssed at MFP n thinks eating exercise a crock. She has a university degree m 20 years in the business. She eats lean and clean n may sit around 1200 cals because of this n shes obviously not in statvation mode. She stands before me at 50+ years old as toned/fit as she ever was...so...strangers on MFP? Or trust a professional who is well known for what she does. Once again I've stopped eating exercise, I eat mostly clean at 1200, I am alert/energetic. I am now getting definition. I have more muscle than I did at a skinny 18. I don't care what others do as long as they are achieving what they want comfortably. If they can eat high n lose great!

Thanks hun, glad you are liking your PT too! Nice to hear you are on the same thinking like myself. Take care and enjoy the experience

freckledrats

Years of battling mindless eating in combination with hypothyroidism have made me an expert on my own weight loss. I know what works for me, physically and mentally, and no one else on MFP can come close to being an expert on that.

There's the obvious stuff, of course. Any dolt can tell you that you need to eat less than you burn in a day to lose weight. But no one is going to know how best to motivate you, what types of meals will make you feel fuller, what types of meals will be enjoyable enough not to make you feel sad about missing out on junk food, what level and kind of exercise you will stay motivated to keep up.

Everyone has an opinion. Everyone has a regime that works for them. But they are wrong to think it is the best program for you. Only you can be the judge of that. Make baby steps, incorporate activity and foods that will help you reach your goal, all while burning more than you eat. As long as you aren't eating ridiculously small amounts for long periods, don't obsess too much about a low caloric intake. Yes, it's unhealthy to eat too little for a long time, so don't do that. No, you probably won't have a heart attack if you eat 700 calories a day for six days in a row unless you have some OTHER physical condition on top of that.

Honestly, if you like veggies, fill up on them. If you're eating healthy and feeling hungry at 1200, eat more veggies and raw fruits and nuts. Your body receives fewer calories from raw foods than it does from processed foods. If you are eating 1200 calories a day and you are eating "clean" you are not giving your body 1200 calories a day. That is probably why most clean eaters report more energy and feeling better when they bump their calories! Source: http://home.trainingpeaks.com/articles/nutrition/a-calorie-is-not-a-calorie.aspx <-- this is an awesome article

If you do tend to eat a lot of processed foods, it is WAY more important to keep an eye on that number, IMO.

More opinions, though. Just something to think about.

Poorgirls_Diet

Years of battling mindless eating in combination with hypothyroidism have made me an expert on my own weight loss. I know what works for me, physically and mentally, and no one else on MFP can come close to being an expert on that.

There's the obvious stuff, of course. Any dolt can tell you that you need to eat less than you burn in a day to lose weight. But no one is going to know how best to motivate you, what types of meals will make you feel fuller, what types of meals will be enjoyable enough not to make you feel sad about missing out on junk food, what level and kind of exercise you will stay motivated to keep up.

Everyone has an opinion. Everyone has a regime that works for them. But they are wrong to think it is the best program for you. Only you can be the judge of that. Make baby steps, incorporate activity and foods that will help you reach your goal, all while burning more than you eat. As long as you aren't eating ridiculously small amounts for long periods, don't obsess too much about a low caloric intake. Yes, it's unhealthy to eat too little for a long time, so don't do that. No, you probably won't have a heart attack if you eat 700 calories a day for six days in a row unless you have some OTHER physical condition on top of that.

Honestly, if you like veggies, fill up on them. If you're eating healthy and feeling hungry at 1200, eat more veggies and raw fruits and nuts. Your body receives fewer calories from raw foods than it does from processed foods. If you are eating 1200 calories a day and you are eating "clean" you are not giving your body 1200 calories a day. That is probably why most clean eaters report more energy and feeling better when they bump their calories! Source: http://home.trainingpeaks.com/articles/nutrition/a-calorie-is-not-a-calorie.aspx <-- this is an awesome article

If you do tend to eat a lot of processed foods, it is WAY more important to keep an eye on that number, IMO.

More opinions, though. Just something to think about.

Good advice thanks!

icemaiden17_uk

I haven't read any of the replies but I still wanted to stick my oar in anyway!

To The OP

I have lost everything by eating back my calores. When I tried not to I just felt ill! Does that mean it is right for you to do the same? No, not really. Maybe where you are right now eating back your calories is counter productive, however keep it in your arsenal for later! One day when you weigh less and your metabolism has improved you may find that not eating them backs stops working. When that happens give it a go. Just like this time give it a fair try and be accurate! Get that HRM just like you say and know what you need to eat back. I started off eating well under my BMR and there are many people on here would really object to that but it worked while I was very heavy. Now I will not eat less than my BMR and I don't need to in order to lose!

Work hard, keep an open mind and good luck!! When you hit a wall trial and error is a God send!

ginbookus

Yeah, the calories burned estimates on FP are wayyy higher than they should be I think. I try not to eat back my workout calories. I could see why smaller people might need to but I have almost 100 pounds to lose so. I think I'll survive. :P Plus obviously, the higher calorie deficit, the more/faster you will lose.

goes211

I've been battling with my own calculation on eating back your exercise calories. Here's my conundrum....let's say you workout for 60 minutes and burn 500 calories based on your HRM. Let's also say that you wear your HRM during the same amount of time (60 min) and find that on average you burn 100 calories just doing normal daily activities (not exercising). If you would have typically burned 100 calories doing no exercise, does it make sense that the calories you burn during your exercise should be adjusted for what you would have burned doing nothing "extra"? So in this example, you really shouldn't eat more than 400 additional calories if you do want to eat back what you burn since 100 of those calories would have been figured into your daily caloric allowance. Could this be why many people find success in eating back some of their calories, but not all of them?

karint74

I've been battling with my own calculation on eating back your exercise calories. Here's my conundrum....let's say you workout for 60 minutes and burn 500 calories based on your HRM. Let's also say that you wear your HRM during the same amount of time (60 min) and find that on average you burn 100 calories just doing normal daily activities (not exercising). If you would have typically burned 100 calories doing no exercise, does it make sense that the calories you burn during your exercise should be adjusted for what you would have burned doing nothing "extra"? So in this example, you really shouldn't eat more than 400 additional calories if you do want to eat back what you burn since 100 of those calories would have been figured into your daily caloric allowance. Could this be why many people find success in eating back some of their calories, but not all of them?

^^^This. I absolutely agree! It would be much more accurate if MFP calculated only the amount of exercise calories *above and beyond* your regular activity level. I just do the math in my head and make sure *not* to eat 100-130 calories back for every hour of exercise logged.

IsMollyReallyHungry

Congrats on hiring a professional. I guess unlike myself I do my own research and I realize MFP have a lot of people on here who do not know what they are talking about. So glad you found out the truth and you are now on your way. Your HRM will be a very good investment too Keep up the good work and congrats on taking control of your life babe!:flowerforyou:

IsMollyReallyHungry

He told me that I didn't need to eat my calories back as weighing over 300lbs I should have enough fat restore in my body however he did add if I was hungry to eat half but he preferred me not to.

Sound advice. I hate to hear people talking about starvation mode and eating back calories and they are morbibly obese. A morbibly obese person does not have to worry about starving if they eat below 1000 calories and if the net calories is below 1000, there is not starvation mode for us because we have plenty of stored fat to lose.

Again keep up the good work!!!