Ok I am officially confused (eat cals back or not?!?!)

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  • LorinaLynn
    LorinaLynn Posts: 13,247 Member
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    And eating minimally was just a temporary way to lose a few pounds, and as soon as I ate "normal" again, it came back on. Eating RIGHT and fueling my body... well, I've been maintaining over a year now and I have to log my calories to make sure I'm eating ENOUGH!
    Just because someone doesn't eat back their exercise calories doesn't mean they're eating "minimally." If it weren't enough, MFP would say so, but it only tells you you need to eat more if you don't eat at least 1200 calories. Also, it's not like the majority of us are burning 1000 calories with exercise. Doing 30 Day Shred, I burn 200 at most, and in the same amount of time I'd have burned 50 just sitting on my *kitten*, so I'm really only burning off an excess of 150. If I want to leave off the extra bowl of cereal, I think I'll be alright.

    Do you know what your TDEE is? http://www.fitnessfrog.com/calculators/tdee-calculator.html

    Mine is about 2300, since I exercise pretty hard about 6 days a week, so 1200 calories would be almost HALF what my body needs.

    If I only did light exercise 3x a week, it'd still be about 1900. Eating 1200 calories would be a 700 calorie a day deficit, which would be too much for someone my size, and SHOULD, by the math, mean I'd lose about 1.5 pounds a week. I know damn well I wouldn't, though.
  • gingerjen7
    gingerjen7 Posts: 821 Member
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    And eating minimally was just a temporary way to lose a few pounds, and as soon as I ate "normal" again, it came back on. Eating RIGHT and fueling my body... well, I've been maintaining over a year now and I have to log my calories to make sure I'm eating ENOUGH!
    Just because someone doesn't eat back their exercise calories doesn't mean they're eating "minimally." If it weren't enough, MFP would say so, but it only tells you you need to eat more if you don't eat at least 1200 calories. Also, it's not like the majority of us are burning 1000 calories with exercise. Doing 30 Day Shred, I burn 200 at most, and in the same amount of time I'd have burned 50 just sitting on my *kitten*, so I'm really only burning off an excess of 150. If I want to leave off the extra bowl of cereal, I think I'll be alright.

    Do you know what your TDEE is? http://www.fitnessfrog.com/calculators/tdee-calculator.html

    Mine is about 2300, since I exercise pretty hard about 6 days a week, so 1200 calories would be almost HALF what my body needs.

    If I only did light exercise 3x a week, it'd still be about 1900. Eating 1200 calories would be a 700 calorie a day deficit, which would be too much for someone my size, and SHOULD, by the math, mean I'd lose about 1.5 pounds a week. I know damn well I wouldn't, though.
    Yes, I know what my TDEE is.
  • ObtainingBalance
    ObtainingBalance Posts: 1,446 Member
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    yes and no...

    i would not eat back ALL of my cals because, for example, if you get on the treadmill for an hour and you burn 500 cals it's not like you wouldn't have burned cals in that hour at all...so i would say eat SOME of those 500 back because MFP already accounts for your normal burn in that hour.

    here's what i do...i set my cals at maintenance, eat that, workout, but don't eat back cals. that way if i stay at maintenance AND workout i know i'm at a deficit. the only time i will eat back is if i have a ridiculous burn that day (600+) so that i at least stay over 1200 cals for the day.

    Love that idea~!
  • jacksonpt
    jacksonpt Posts: 10,413 Member
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    *sigh* Another one of these???

    Whether or not you eat them back is completely and totally dependent on how you set your activity level when you were setting up your profile/goals with MFP. If your activity level includes exercise/workouts, then you SHOULD NOT be eating them back. If it doesn't account for exercise, than you SHOULD be eating them back.

    Further reading:
    http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/383956-exercise-calories-explained
  • SyStEmPhReAk
    SyStEmPhReAk Posts: 330 Member
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    *sigh* Another one of these???

    Whether or not you eat them back is completely and totally dependent on how you set your activity level when you were setting up your profile/goals with MFP. If your activity level includes exercise/workouts, then you SHOULD NOT be eating them back. If it doesn't account for exercise, than you SHOULD be eating them back.

    Further reading:
    http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/383956-exercise-calories-explained

    *THIS*

    Anyone who gives you a "hard YES" or " hard NO" is incorrect. Weight loss or muscle gain is both a science and an art. You've got to see what works best for YOU! I personally do not, but that's irrelevant to you and your goals.
  • irisheyez718
    irisheyez718 Posts: 677 Member
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    I can only tell you that I do eat mine back, and its working fine for me. I also wear a HRM so that I have a more accurate calories burned count.
  • kairisika
    kairisika Posts: 131 Member
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    NO! NO!! NO!!! Do NOT eat back your calories! Anyone who says otherwise is nuts... How do you think Biggest Loser competitors are doing it? 65 pounds in 70 days without working to hard at it.
    Ever looked at some of those contestants a year after the show?

    To the OP:
    You should add up all the energy you burn through daily activity and exercise, determine what deficit you want, and eat the remaining calories. MFP does that for you by adding the deficit into your original eating goal, and upping that to maintain the same deficit when you burn more calories. But you can work it our for yourself as well, which is better than the stupid misunderstanding of 'eating back' calories.
  • TheRealJigsaw
    TheRealJigsaw Posts: 295 Member
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    Only eat them back if you are hungry.
  • m2kh
    m2kh Posts: 17
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    I think you really have to find out what works for you. For me, I burn about 400-700 calories a day and I only eat about 200 of those. I do have a week or two where every once in a while where I seem to not drop any weight but as long as I keep with my routine, I find I drop weight quickly the next week. I also think changing up my workout routine helps too.
  • islandnutshel
    islandnutshel Posts: 1,143 Member
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    First you have to understand that everything is an estimate.
    It is a computers best estimate on how much you burn each day. You estimate your activity level. You estimate how many calories are in what you eat. You estimate how many calories you burn on each exercise. Your estimates are a close guesses if you are dilligent. So based on that you have to work out what works for you.

    I choose to set MFP at losing 1 pound a week, so it estimates a 1340 calorie day for me. That is a 500 calorie defficit, so I should lose 1 pound a week. I try to add 500 calorie burn each day, if I didn't eat this back I would have a 1000 calorie difficit and I would lose 2 pounds a week.

    With this information I decide each day if I want to eat my calories back or not, depending on how hungry I feel. This gives me room to eat between 1340 and 1840 each day and still lose between 1 and 2 pounds a week without feeling overly restricted. It also gives me enough calories to get my nutrients in, because I want to be healthy.

    Look for an answer that feels reasonable to you.

    Edited to include that it is wise to set MFP to seditary for most people, because you log exercise into the equation.
  • laarae
    laarae Posts: 332 Member
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    You are building muscle-which weighs more than fat-if you are toning your body. I try to keep calories between 1200-1300-MFP says to eat 1330 w/o exercise but I like the 1200-1300 range-I get full and still loose inches and weight.
  • escloflowneCHANGED
    escloflowneCHANGED Posts: 3,038 Member
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    LOL yep....lot's of conflicting info OP. Since you don't have a lot to lose..I would pick a healthy number (NET @1500) and give it a try for awhile. Adjust from there:flowerforyou:

    This!

    People who say not to eat back burned calories have no idea how this website is designed and aren't educated very well because it makes no sense to not eat them back, unless you want to lose as much muscle as fat that is...

    If you set your calories up using your TDEE-% from another site, you don't eat them back.
  • maro_p
    maro_p Posts: 57 Member
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    yes and no...

    i would not eat back ALL of my cals because, for example, if you get on the treadmill for an hour and you burn 500 cals it's not like you wouldn't have burned cals in that hour at all...so i would say eat SOME of those 500 back because MFP already accounts for your normal burn in that hour.

    here's what i do...i set my cals at maintenance, eat that, workout, but don't eat back cals. that way if i stay at maintenance AND workout i know i'm at a deficit. the only time i will eat back is if i have a ridiculous burn that day (600+) so that i at least stay over 1200 cals for the day.

    That!
  • minkakross
    minkakross Posts: 687 Member
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    this topic comes up almost every day and you will never find anything but disagreement. I don't eat them back, period, that is what works for me. If you aren't happy with your inches and you would rather see the scale move, you can always try it, if it works for you great if not you can always try something else as switching up the routine is often enough to move the scale.
  • gingerjen7
    gingerjen7 Posts: 821 Member
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    *sigh* Another one of these???
    Are you under the impression that a set group of people joined MFP and no new members ever show up with questions? Is it THAT hard to understand how this question would come up for people? Perhaps you ought to friend every new member and fill them up with your wealth of knowledge so they never have to ask a question that you've answered for someone else before months before this person joined MFP. Or I suppose we could all try to develop telepathic powers so we can read your mind and not annoy you with questions you know the answer to.
  • Tilran
    Tilran Posts: 626 Member
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    Eat them back. As others have said, this site is designed with you eatting them back in mind. When you work out, it changes your goals...it increases the amount of calories you need for goal and the macro amounts. It does this because it expects you to eat them back.
  • vickilm1976
    vickilm1976 Posts: 141 Member
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    When I started on this site, I didn't eat them back, but I quickly learned that this didn't work for me. My legs were really achy and I felt weak and tired all the time. Now I eat back about half of them, more if I'm hungry, I feel way stronger and have loads of energy. I'm also sleeping way better.
  • Tilran
    Tilran Posts: 626 Member
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    And just to clarify....the biggest loser people have ALOT to lose...when you are very overweight, you can do very little to lose alot...because your body WANTS to lose weight...so if you aren't perfect with your diet...not a big deal. As you get closer to your ideal weight you will notice it gets harder and harder (ever heard people say "man those final 5-10 pounds are so hard"?) That is because they aren't doing it exactly right. The less you have to lose, the harder it is.

    Eat back your exercise calories, stay at a defecit, do strength training to tone.
  • SyStEmPhReAk
    SyStEmPhReAk Posts: 330 Member
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    *sigh* Another one of these???
    Are you under the impression that a set group of people joined MFP and no new members ever show up with questions? Is it THAT hard to understand how this question would come up for people? Perhaps you ought to friend every new member and fill them up with your wealth of knowledge so they never have to ask a question that you've answered for someone else before months before this person joined MFP. Or I suppose we could all try to develop telepathic powers so we can read your mind and not annoy you with questions you know the answer to.

    Not to speak for him, but I took his comment to mean this: there is a search function that anyone can use to find threads about this. Not sticking up for anyone, just giving my opinion.
  • tadpole242
    tadpole242 Posts: 507 Member
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    I have been trying to get some loss for some time. I was on WW and it worked well but have officially plateaued. I can't seem to lose any more weight. I'm doing the 30 day shred and have already lost inches but so far, have lost less than one lb in terms of weight. Don't get me wrong, I'm liking the way my body is responding to the 30 day shred (as is my husband hahaha!) but what about the scale? Also I did lose one size in pants which is awesome but again, that darn scale?!?

    I'm set to eat 1200 cals as per MFP. I usually burn 200-300 cals a day except for my rest day (in between levels, so every 10 days). Should I be eating those extra cals? I'm in the 170s and I'd like to lose 15 lbs.

    I know everyone has their own take - what is everyone's personal view on this?

    Think of it this way,
    Don’t eat them back, and lose weight quickly, feel great for a few months, then realise you’ve lost a shed load of muscle and that you are still fat under your skin, even though you weigh less. Get depressed after a few months/years, and get fat again, die younger than you need to.

    Or eat some of them back, lose weight slowly, feel great in a few months as you realise you’re still oozing weight from your body, feel muscle under your skin, and know you weigh less. Get to your goal a few months later than you wanted, never get fat again. Live a happy life, meet great people live life to the full, die having great sex at 90.

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