Eating Back Exercise Calories
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:blushing:
Totally off topic. You go girl! Look at those pants!!
I went to the restroom at work and was like "holy crap! I have to take a picture of this!" :laugh:0 -
:blushing:
Totally off topic. You go girl! Look at those pants!!
I went to the restroom at work and was like "holy crap! I have to take a picture of this!" :laugh:
it IS great picture jlb! Gratz to you!0 -
SHB, 'splain 2 lb LOSS after I upped my calories? I'd been at 1200 since I started MFP in October, and went up to 1400 on Sunday. I'm very happy with my loss
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May I add something that may explain why 'eating your exercise calories' works for some people and doesnt' for others?
I think that very few of us know exactly what our maintenance calories are or TDEE. If I think I'm active when I'm really lightly active and I think I burned 400 calories on the treadmill, but only burned 200, then my true deficit may be miniscule or non-existant. So if I'm over-estimating what I should be eating, then I really need that exercise deficit to be able to lose weight.0 -
Boss.....you have much more patience than I would for explaining things. If I had a dollar for ever time you had to write all that down I'd be rich!!! :bigsmile:
lol, I would expect a percentage.
I'll hook you up! :glasses:0 -
Well, if you see a profile like Iceprincess, I think you can suppose she knows what she's talking about!Talking about that..wouldn't it be nice to have the profession or formation of the person who's answering? So we will KNOW who to believe!!!:happy:
I don't think it would help. In fact, I think it would make it even more dangerous. A degree/job does not an intelligent/informed person make (necessarily).
Aww...thanks. I try. Sports medicine, science, and this junk is my passion. I LOVE it. I read as much as I can and try to keep on top of things because I teach the class. I need to be up to date.0 -
SHB, 'splain 2 lb LOSS after I upped my calories? I'd been at 1200 since I started MFP in October, and went up to 1400 on Sunday. I'm very happy with my loss
Sometimes your metablism needs to be fooled. It's been so used to your 1200 calories that you gave it a little whirl by upping the calories. Like I said before.....our bodies become VERY efficient and burning calories and needs constant progression to keep from plateauing.0 -
Ice, would it then be advisable to up them again in a few months when I've lost another 25 lbs or so?0
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:blushing: )
I don't think if I ate 1200 calories for the day and burned off lets say 600 calories from workout that I am forcing my body into survival mode, so many people use that term so losely around these boards like it could just happen in a day.
Oh yes, I can guarantee you that if you do this consistently you WILL be in complete and total starvation mode, your body will hoard calories, and it will star canabalizing lean tissue and bone mass, and systematically shutting down organs.
Guys, I can explain further if you need me too, but I need questions in order to answer them. Dr. I'm glad you came to this realization, I know for some the concept is difficult, I'm here to help. Ask away, that goes for anyone. I may or may not have all the answers, but I know where to get them if I don't.
I totally get what you are saying, I do. What I was saying is that a lot of people I've seen post on these boards will freak out if they don't eat their exercise calories in that one day and assume they will immediately go into starvation mode. I understand that if you consistently practice this then it will have negative effects on your body long term - I just don't think that if I didn't eat all my calories in one night that I will immediately go into starvation mode. I don't believe that.
I am glad I re-read what you wrote! Of course 1 or 2 times will not do this.
Let me tell you my story:
I started out at 168 pounds. In my excitement to lose weight I put my loss per week at 2 pounds. I then commenced to eat 1200 calories and add exercise to my day. Now at that time my exercise was 20 minutes and I only burned 200 or so calories, but having not moved for 2 yrs that was a lot.
So now I am eating 1000 calories a day. Losing weight....woo hoo! 2 pounds a week..........until BAM......hit the wall. Body shut down, could not lose another pound. I had some great help (thanks Steve!) and went up to maint cals + exercise cals and then slowly went back down again. I have lost 36 pounds in 18 months.
The main points for me are
1. I was not eating enough and my body stopped losing
2. Where do you GO from there???
3. How do you lose the last 10 if you go straight into 1200 cals a day?
So now I am at 1400 calories a day, supposed to exercise 4 x week for 1 hour (:blushing: ) and when I get my exercise back in gear I will
Good lucK!:flowerforyou:0 -
bump :glasses:0
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SHB, 'splain 2 lb LOSS after I upped my calories? I'd been at 1200 since I started MFP in October, and went up to 1400 on Sunday. I'm very happy with my loss
2 lbs in one day is probably daily fluctuation my dear. I'm sorry to say that but it's most likely the case. Hopefully some of it is fat, but unless you work out long enough to literally burn 7000 calories, you don't actually lose 2 lbs of fat in one day.0 -
May I add something that may explain why 'eating your exercise calories' works for some people and doesnt' for others?
I think that very few of us know exactly what our maintenance calories are or TDEE. If I think I'm active when I'm really lightly active and I think I burned 400 calories on the treadmill, but only burned 200, then my true deficit may be miniscule or non-existant. So if I'm over-estimating what I should be eating, then I really need that exercise deficit to be able to lose weight.
I would very much agree with this statement. In fact, I would take it a step further and say I think that many people on here are actually in some form of reduced caloric burn (some stage of starvation).0 -
SHB, 'splain 2 lb LOSS after I upped my calories? I'd been at 1200 since I started MFP in October, and went up to 1400 on Sunday. I'm very happy with my loss
Sometimes your metablism needs to be fooled. It's been so used to your 1200 calories that you gave it a little whirl by upping the calories. Like I said before.....our bodies become VERY efficient and burning calories and needs constant progression to keep from plateauing.
I won't delete this because it's good data, but disregard the disagrement, cuz I read her ticker wrong. Hey... It happens!
um.... go Scott Brown?
While I totally agree with the statement Ice, I doubt it's the case here, 2 or 3 days is just too fast for a 2 lb weight loss for someone who only has about 25 lbs to lose total. I just don't see it. Now for someone who is say 150 lbs overweight (think biggest loser) then yes, I could see 1 to 2 lbs a day in real weight loss (I.E. not daily fluctuation), but otherwise, I really doubt it. Maybe some of it was real weight loss (I sure hope so) but only time will tell.0 -
Uh, Boss, take a closer look at my ticker. That's 25 lbs lost TOTAL. I am 1/4 of the way to my goal (trying to lose 100-125 lbs)
Also, I am on a very low sodium diet (1500 a day) and drink 90-120 oz of water daily. Is it still water weight that I lost?0 -
I guess what I'm trying to stress here guys, is that this stuff takes time, expecting to see weight loss is a little like watching your hair grow. You KNOW it does (well, most of us at least , maybe that was a bad analogy), but you can't actually see it. What you have to do is double and triple check your numbers, then trust that you're doing it right. Don't freak out if you don't lose one week, or even two weeks, and don't freak out if you gain a lb.
this stuff is long term, I"ve had plenty of weeks where I didn't lose (and one particularly frustrating month as well), so has almost everyone else here that's had large successes. The only people that see dramatic weight loss are people who have dramatic amounts of weight to lose.
In other words, take your time, eat right, eat a moderate deficit, exercise, keep the deficit stable even with exercise, and over the next year or so, you WILL become healthy, you WILL drop the weight, and you'll do it in a healthy way, that allows you the time it takes to develop good eating habits so you never have to ever EVER do this again.
That's pretty much the gist of it.0 -
Uh, Boss, take a closer look at my ticker. That's 25 lbs lost TOTAL. I am 1/4 of the way to my goal (trying to lose 100-125 lbs)
Also, I am on a very low sodium diet (1500 a day) and drink 90-120 oz of water daily. Is it still water weight that I lost?
oh, my bad, so you have about 75 lbs to lose, ok that's a little different, that is POSSIBLE. But still seems pretty high to me, it's probably a combination of fat and glycogen replenishment. Did you do any hard exercising between then and now?0 -
I guess what I'm trying to stress here guys, is that this stuff takes time, expecting to see weight loss is a little like watching your hair grow. You KNOW it does (well, most of us at least , maybe that was a bad analogy), but you can't actually see it. What you have to do is double and triple check your numbers, then trust that you're doing it right. Don't freak out if you don't lose one week, or even two weeks, and don't freak out if you gain a lb.
this stuff is long term, I"ve had plenty of weeks where I didn't lose (and one particularly frustrating month as well), so has almost everyone else here that's had large successes. The only people that see dramatic weight loss are people who have dramatic amounts of weight to lose.
In other words, take your time, eat right, eat a moderate deficit, exercise, keep the deficit stable even with exercise, and over the next year or so, you WILL become healthy, you WILL drop the weight, and you'll do it in a healthy way, that allows you the time it takes to develop good eating habits so you never have to ever EVER do this again.
That's pretty much the gist of it.
Wait.......your telling me that I'm not gonna be 15 pounds lighter by the end of January?????? :laugh: 0 -
oh, my bad, so you have about 75 lbs to lose, ok that's a little different, that is POSSIBLE. But still seems pretty high to me, it's probably a combination of fat and glycogen replenishment. Did you do any hard exercising between then and now?
I did 500 on Sunday and 600 on Monday, but I wouldn't consider that out of the ordinary.0 -
I guess what I'm trying to stress here guys, is that this stuff takes time, expecting to see weight loss is a little like watching your hair grow. You KNOW it does (well, most of us at least , maybe that was a bad analogy), but you can't actually see it. What you have to do is double and triple check your numbers, then trust that you're doing it right. Don't freak out if you don't lose one week, or even two weeks, and don't freak out if you gain a lb.
this stuff is long term, I"ve had plenty of weeks where I didn't lose (and one particularly frustrating month as well), so has almost everyone else here that's had large successes. The only people that see dramatic weight loss are people who have dramatic amounts of weight to lose.
In other words, take your time, eat right, eat a moderate deficit, exercise, keep the deficit stable even with exercise, and over the next year or so, you WILL become healthy, you WILL drop the weight, and you'll do it in a healthy way, that allows you the time it takes to develop good eating habits so you never have to ever EVER do this again.
That's pretty much the gist of it.
Wait.......your telling me that I'm not gonna be 15 pounds lighter by the end of January?????? :laugh:
LOL!
We really do need some kind of archival and search system here. This web based key word search just isn't good enough. What we need is a good system so that people feel empowered to search the forums. Right now the search is pretty lightweight, I'm talking keyword search, conditions (and,or, not), and the ability to choose what areas we search by (like date ranges, title, body, poster(s), thread owner...etc)
This search was fine 3 years ago when we had 500 users, but now, with the tens of thousands on here, it's just too much stuff.0 -
So Sheboss,
I am at 1200 calories a day. I want to lose about 60 more pounds. I exercise 5 days a week. I do just fine with my calories on my exercise days. However on my off days I find it hard to stay at my 1200 calories. I am starving by the time I get to dinner, and I only have about 300-400 calories left for dinner. Since MFP already calculates a 500 calorie deficit, could I get away with eating around 1400 calories on my off days, and still lose weight?
Also, I am pretty busy during the week. I was exerising for an hour 5 times a week. I have now cut back to 30 minutes on about 2 or 3 days out of my exercise week. I still stay within my calorie goal(with eating my exerise calories). Do you think that only getting in 30 minutes on some of my exercise days will hurt my weight loss?
Thanks for all of your great posts
I learn so much from you!0 -
So Sheboss,
I am at 1200 calories a day. I want to lose about 60 more pounds. I exercise 5 days a week. I do just fine with my calories on my exercise days. However on my off days I find it hard to stay at my 1200 calories. I am starving by the time I get to dinner, and I only have about 300-400 calories left for dinner. Since MFP already calculates a 500 calorie deficit, could I get away with eating around 1400 calories on my off days, and still lose weight?
Also, I am pretty busy during the week. I was exerising for an hour 5 times a week. I have now cut back to 30 minutes on about 2 or 3 days out of my exercise week. I still stay within my calorie goal(with eating my exerise calories). Do you think that only getting in 30 minutes on some of my exercise days will hurt my weight loss?
Thanks for all of your great posts
I learn so much from you!
could you get away with 1400? Sure you could, assuming 1200 is actually 500 lower than your maintenance and not just the cut off because it's as low as MFP will go. You'd still have a 300 calorie deficit. But that's not the issue, the issue is whether your body can handle it. And because of all the myriad of things going on in the human body, I can't even begin to guess whether that goal is right for you. I can make a very vague educated guess based on the fact that you say that you need to lose 60 lbs and say yes you can probably afford to stay at 1200, but that's really just what I said, a guess. Why? Because I don't know anything about you, I don't even know your weight. I can't make even a reasonable assumption without facts.
"How do I KNOW?" You may ask. Well, here's the rub. You need to start doing it, be dilligent, record your progress, and be methodical. Give your body the time it needs to see if it's working, if it isn't (say after 6 weeks or so) then you know you need to tweak the system.
Things to think about:
-what is my Body Fat % (this is rather important, so the excuse of "I don't have the money or time to go get a body fat test done" is illogical. You have the time, and it only costs 30-40 bucks and is something you do once or twice a year, it takes an hour to do.)
-How did I come to my goal? Is 60 lbs REALLY the goal you should be shooting for? Is weight even a good goal? In my experience on here, I estimate that about 1/2 the people here have set unrealistic or just plain inaccurate goals for themselves.
- Am I giving my body enough time to adjust. Think about it this way, if you gash yourself and have to stitch it up, does it take 3 days to heal? Then why expect large changes when losing weight? A relatively deep wound takes weeks, and sometimes months to heal (assuming no organ damage), fat loss is the same, you need to give it time.
-How did I come to my calorie deficit, is it the right one for me. This is a little self explainitory, make sure you're not trying to do too much.
Obviously these are questions you need to ask yourself, maybe you already have these answered, but then again, maybe not. If not, you should.0 -
-what is my Body Fat % (this is rather important, so the excuse of "I don't have the money or time to go get a body fat test done" is illogical. You have the time, and it only costs 30-40 bucks and is something you do once or twice a year, it takes an hour to do.)
Or buy a good scale. Ours has metal foot pads that send a low charge through your body & tells you what you body fat percentage is. We only paid $50 for it, and that was several years ago. When I started MFP, my body fat percentage was an embarassing 48%, now that I am 25 lbs healthier, it's down to 43%. I'd like to lose at least another 15% of that.0 -
It's late evening now, and in total I've only consumed 1, 114. And this is a bad day where I snacked on some naughty crisps. I have to find 912 calories from somewhere to meet my target. It's evening here now, and I'm not hungry!
I can't be doing this every day!
Keep in mind - there are some easy ways to get these cals in! 6 Tablespoons of peanut butter (that's like 4-5 bites if you spoon it out of the jar) and a glass of milk is 650 cals. That's not a lot of food.0 -
thanks for all the posts on this topic. its really helpful for me.... i think i will be in the pool tommorrow counting out the glasses of wine i can add in as i go 0
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thanks for all the posts on this topic. its really helpful for me.... i think i will be in the pool tommorrow counting out the glasses of wine i can add in as i go
Not to be a Debbie downer, but your calories need to be *quality* calories the majority of the time. Just because you exercise for an hour doesn't mean it's okay to eat a hot fudge sundae or drink 4 glasses of wine every night. There's a little more to it than only calories in/calories out -- you need to actually refuel your body after it does the extra work.
I'm not going to lie and say I never use my exercise calories to allow myself a treat -- I do, and I think most other people do, too. That being said, it's important to acknowledge that blowing your exercise calories on junk is not going to do anything to help you reach your health and/or weight loss goals, especially if you do it often. :flowerforyou:0 -
I think everyone here has made some really good comments. Thanks to Boss for the science behind weight loss (or gain) and his patience in explaining it. I have quickly learned from reading posts that he knows what he is talking about. I would just like to add that I think many people on this site tend to make two fundamental mistakes about weight loss.
One, expecting to lose weight too quickly. MFP sets our calorie deficit to reach a reasonable weight loss goal. If you add exercise and don't eat back those calories, you risk a calorie deficit that is too severe. Of course, you'll lose weight initially and perhaps quickly, but you will eventually gain it back and then some over time. I am fond of telling myself it took you years to gain the weight it should take you years to lose it. Of course no one wants to hear that. However, weight gain is insidious and slow for the most part, weight loss probably should be too.
Second, a lot of people comment that they can't eat their daily calories because they just aren't hungry. I think in that case what is happening is that the calorie deficit is large enough that their metabolism has slowed and they are less likely to experience "hunger". My experience tells me that if you eat regularly and at or near your daily caloric goal, you will be hungry at regular intervals, even after exercise. That's why I agree with those who say eat back your exercise calories to lose weight. In order to keep your metabolism active and your weight loss progressing, I think you have to eat at or near your daily calorie goal.0 -
-what is my Body Fat % (this is rather important, so the excuse of "I don't have the money or time to go get a body fat test done" is illogical. You have the time, and it only costs 30-40 bucks and is something you do once or twice a year, it takes an hour to do.)
Or buy a good scale. Ours has metal foot pads that send a low charge through your body & tells you what you body fat percentage is. We only paid $50 for it, and that was several years ago. When I started MFP, my body fat percentage was an embarassing 48%, now that I am 25 lbs healthier, it's down to 43%. I'd like to lose at least another 15% of that.
yeah, bio electrical impedance is notoriously unreliable for fat loss, one day it may give you a perfect reading, and the next it may give you one 10% off. I would go have a professional test done.0 -
I would also like to add one more thing in regards to the comments about qualifications of the posters on this site. I am not a specialist in weight loss. I am neither certified or licensed. That's why I don't charge for my advice. :laugh:
What I am is a 40 year old who has lost weight every way imaginable. I have tried starvation. I have tried low fat diets and low carb diets. I have tried Body for Life, South Beach, and Slim Fast. I have eaten high protein diets and vegetarian diets, and many more.
In each of these I managed to lose weight, usually very quickly, but I always gained it back and then some. When I joined this site in December, I weighed more than I ever had. What I have discovered is that true weight loss is about watching what and how much you eat. I don't think any diet plan that restricts the foods we eat is effective over the long term. Of course, some foods have better calories than others. But who wants to go through life denying themselves the things they like only to gain the weight back once they start indulging themselves again. (And they will) I have decided that I don't. So take the advice given on this site for what it is; personal experiences shared with each other out of a sense of community.
Thanks.0 -
bump0
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OK this is kinda on this topic ... Kinda
I understand the idea of eating the extra calories but what is the general thoughts on eating before or after exercise - Logically i can see it both ways
A) if you eat before you have easy access to energy - then you can give more during exercise
if you eat after you give your body a chance to burn the fat that you have stored to get the energy - and your less likely to throw up.
are either of these theories of mine correct? any advice ... half and half?0
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