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

mjj79

I would say try it and see. It does NOT work for me, but it DOES work for a LOT of people here. If it worked, I would be all over it So I would do trial and error. See what happens. Also, as others have said, maybe eat only half or so back as they seem to be overestimated. GOod luck!

The only way it won't work for everyone is if:
You have a hormonal issue (i.e. Thyroid);
Have less than average muscle mass, for your gender, age, weight, height (lower BMR);
over estimate calories burned from exercise (most machines and MFP over estimate);
Under estimating what you actually ate (If you don't measure liquids and weigh dry food then you are probably under estimating);
picked the wrong activity level; or
picked a much too aggressive weekly weight loss goal, that given your stats your body just can't lose that fast
If you have 75+ lbs to lose 2 lbs/week is ideal,
If you have 40-75 lbs to lose 1.5 lbs/week is ideal,
If you have 25-40 lbs to lose 1 lbs/week is ideal,
If you have 15 -25 lbs to lose 0.5 to 1.0 lbs/week is ideal, and
If you have less than 15 lbs to lose 0.5 lbs/week is ideal.

I guess I'm the exception b/c it truly doesn't work for me I wish it did and I hope the OP finds what works for her.

Iceman1800

I don't see the point of that. You exercise to burn calories to lose weight. Then this place says to eat those calories back? Makes as much sense as using my left hand to hold my ice cream cone instead of my right hand will be less calories....

Iceman1800

If you want to preserve lean muscle mass and lose weight a little more slowly, eat them.

If you want to lose muscle mass and lose weight faster, don't.

or you could increase protein....

jacksonpt

I don't see the point of that. You exercise to burn calories to lose weight. Then this place says to eat those calories back? Makes as much sense as using my left hand to hold my ice cream cone instead of my right hand will be less calories....

Then you don't understand how this site calculates calorie goals. And not everyone should be eating back their cals - you can't say yes or no across the board.

redheadkirsty

200-500 under my net calories on days I exercise. This is because I can't be accurate on if that figure is correct.

MFP has me at 1400 a day. I exercise say 800 calories off so my overall that day is 2200 calories I can eat.
What I actually eat is anywhere from 1700-1900 and this seems to work for me.

I've tried eating them all back and my weight loss slowed but I still lost. I've tried not eating them back at all and my body stalled for days, no loss but no gain.
I have the most success with partially eating them back, the proof is in the pudding as they say. 35 days and a 23lb loss.

Different bodies work differently though so my case may not be the same for you. You really need to experiment to find the balance for your body

Iceman1800

I don't see the point of that. You exercise to burn calories to lose weight. Then this place says to eat those calories back? Makes as much sense as using my left hand to hold my ice cream cone instead of my right hand will be less calories....

Then you don't understand how this site calculates calorie goals. And not everyone should be eating back their cals - you can't say yes or no across the board.

yes I do and its total bs. Just like the outrageous carb inake they want people to ingest

srhershey

Eat the back. You don't have to eat them all back, but eat most of them back. If your goal is 1200 per day, and you burn 200 while working out, your net caleries for the day is 1000. If you're doing the 30 Day Shred, you are burning much more than that. When I did the 30 Day Shred, I'd burn 600 or so depending on how much effert I was putting in it. If I stayed at 1200 caleries, burned off 600 from working out, my net for the day would only be 600. That's way too low. Look at you net calories for the day, not just the amount of calories MFP is saying you need to eat or eat back. When I first started to really understand how MFP works, I never ate my calories back. Then I went into the reports tab and looked at my net calories for 30 days and realized I was only netting 400-800 every day. Now I'm back to eating most of them back and I'm starting to see the scale drop again.

LovelyVegetarian

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.

While that may be true, each person has a choice as to whether or not they want to take part in these forums. If a person finds it so exasperating to see the same questions asked, that person has the option of not reading the forums, and their response is certainly not required. If the thought of seeing a completely understandable question bothers that person so much, perhaps he out to take responsibility and stay away from the message boards or refrain from responding, rather than expecting anyone else to avoid asking questions that annoy him.

Does that then imply that it's not also completely understandable to hope that people will search before posting, or at the very least read through the first page of the forum topics before posting?

And yes, I do understand that new people join all the time. Do you/they understand that I answer this question daily? So while you ask me to be more understanding of new people, perhaps you should be a little more understanding of the repetition some of us deal with in answering these questions in an attempt to help people.

Furthermore, I do understand that I don't have to participate in the forums if I don't want to... but "so exasperating"? Seriuosly? I participate in the forums because I like helping people learn, and if it weren't for people like me trying to teach (for lack of a better word), the forums would be full of "it works for me so you should do it to" advice, which is bad in almost every way possible.

I am the original poster. I did read other threads about this but as no one is in exactly my position, I wanted to ask the question with my details in the post. My hope was that this would yield a more applicable response.

Thanks to all who have offered their personal opinions. I appreciate it. I don't know what will work yet but will try to figure it out.

gingerjen7

If your goal is 1200 per day, and you burn 200 while working out, your net caleries for the day is 1000. If you're doing the 30 Day Shred, you are burning much more than that. When I did the 30 Day Shred, I'd burn 600 or so depending on how much effert I was putting in it.

I use a heart rate monitor. I know how many calories I burn, and it's been between 161 and 195 depending on my effort.

chocolatemama30

That makes so much sense...thank u! Was baffling me a bit!!

crazylovergrl

Try both. See which you like better. I eat mine because I get hungry. Different strokes for different folks.