What's with the calorie settings?

Aksumite

Any time I burn 150 calories from an exercise I'll check my food chart and it will tell me that I "earned" an extra 150 calories.

Aren't we supposed to burn off that weight? Why is this program encouraging us to eat back what calories we have lost?

DenyseMarieL

Fitness pal has you set at a calorie deficit already, the amount depending on how much weight you want to lose each week. The extra calories from exercise are a bonus. I eat mine back and have lost about .5 lbs per week. It works!

Aksumite

So are you saying that in this program, weight loss is largely dependent upon diet? I already eat healthy [for the most part] so I've never heard of this before.

Chrisswa

I eat back my exercise calories and still lose size and weight.

T1mH

MFP has you set at a calorie deficit to lose weight depending on what you set as your goal in your profile. When you exercise you use more calories and even if you eat your exercise calories your still at a deficit so you will still lose weight. This is a healthy sustainable way to to lose weight be healthy and keep it off long term.

Exercising crazy on a low cal diet should cause you to lose a lot of weight but often when you lose weight that way you gain it right back as soon as you cut back on the exercising or go back to eating normal.

If you calculate how many calories it should take for you to maintain your current weight and eat that many calories you should neither gain nor lose weight but if you exercise on your maintenance calories you should lose weight.

FredDoyle

So are you saying that in this program, weight loss is largely dependent upon diet? I already eat healthy [for the most part] so I've never heard of this before.

Yes it is.
If you expend 2000 calories daily through whatever routine, and you eat 1500 you are at a 500 cal. deficit. You will lose a pound per week.
If you expend your usual 2000, plus burn 500 exercising, you have expended 2500. If you only intake 1500 you are at a 1000 cal. deficit. Therefore, you can eat back those 500 cals. you earned exercising because it still leaves you at a 500 cal. deficit and you will still lose 1 pound a week.

T1mH

So are you saying that in this program, weight loss is largely dependent upon diet? I already eat healthy [for the most part] so I've never heard of this before.

Weight loss is completely dependent on diet. Exercising has so many additional benefits other than just burning calories. You can lose weight without exercise but by exercising you are converting fat to muscle. Muscle burns calories all the time. Especially when your exercising and repairing your muscles after exercising but it also burns more calories at rest. This is the way to maintaining a long term healthy weight. It is also the reason why so many diets to fail. Most people can't maintain or don't maintain a low calorie diet forever so even if they manage to lose a bunch of weight it immediately starts to come back as soon as they stop the low cal diet. By converting the fat to muscle it's easier to keep that weight of long term without a diet that feels like your starving all the time.

That doesn't even take into account how much better you will look and feel by putting replacing that fat weight with muscle. If you stick around you will probably see the term skinny fat. This is usually what people who lose their weight by dieting without exercise are called. They look good with clothes on but not good naked.

kimberliiw

The times are a-changin. When I was younger it was taught to exercise and diet to lose weight. Now it's pretty standard on any weight loss plan to eat your exercise calories. I generally don't eat all mine back because I don't completely trust the amount of calories I'm supposed to have burned.

megsmom2

This is how MFP is set up to work. It works..very well! Its a little different from other websites or groups, but its very User friendly. Too many people sort of overthink the whole process ....just use this tool---success!