i can't seem to make myself eat back my exercise...

ScarletTarah

calories. and I know thats wierd coming from somebody who had a 6000+ calorie a day habit, I am not saying it is because I am just so full that is just not the case, it's in my head and i know it. I have such great control at staying in the 1200-1300 that I am having a hard time letting up, and I really don't want to let up but then I hear you have to eat it back or you'll stop losing.

rach89652

ahh! i know exactly what you mean! I have been trying to get this weight issue of mine under control. At this point, i LOVE working out. I just cant make myself undo all of my hard work! If you find a solution, please share!

jwurtz

Me personally. I have found that I rarely use any of those exercise calories because I feel that I'm eating to much.

I would love the opinions of a nutritionist, hey I have access to one at my gym. I'll get back to her with a response.

JJ

MelleyJ

We are in the same position I think. We are the same sw and same gw, so I sympathize. But working with personal trainers & nutritionists at the hospital I work at, I don't think you have to "eat it back". Your body needs 1200-1300 calories per day to function. Any less than that and you start to break down muscle for energy, so that's the advantage of staying within that range. But if you eat that much, but workout, you don't have to "eat it back". That's just calories you burned from fat or carbs that your body will not store. As long as you do some strength training and cardiovascular, I don't think it will inhibit you from losing weight. Especially if you vary your exercise and eating.
That being said, I definitely believe that sometimes, when I consistanty eat 1200 calories, and every now and again I "eat back" a dessert (skinny cow ice cream sandwiches work best!), I definitely see a boost in my weight loss. But I don't eat back what I burn with exercise. That would almost be counter productive. As long as you are eating that minimum caloric intake and working out, you may plateau, but changing something up will keep you going. Hope this helps.

Jerzeebabie04

I have that problem too.. I can eat all of my calories, but find it hard to eat back my exercise calories. I know a lot of people who are really successful on here, they eat back half of their exercise calories. Maybe we can take small steps and work our way up to eatting back half of them. Try an extra 50-100 exercise calories a day or something (just using my exercise calories for example because I try to burn at least 500-600 a day, sometimes I only burn 350-400)
Plus I feel that I will go over my sodium if I eat back my calories

Jerzeebabie04

We are in the same position I think. We are the same sw and same gw, so I sympathize. But working with personal trainers & nutritionists at the hospital I work at, I don't think you have to "eat it back". Your body needs 1200-1300 calories per day to function. Any less than that and you start to break down muscle for energy, so that's the advantage of staying within that range. But if you eat that much, but workout, you don't have to "eat it back". That's just calories you burned from fat or carbs that your body will not store. As long as you do some strength training and cardiovascular, I don't think it will inhibit you from losing weight. Especially if you vary your exercise and eating.
That being said, I definitely believe that sometimes, when I consistanty eat 1200 calories, and every now and again I "eat back" a dessert (skinny cow ice cream sandwiches work best!), I definitely see a boost in my weight loss. But I don't eat back what I burn with exercise. That would almost be counter productive. As long as you are eating that minimum caloric intake and working out, you may plateau, but changing something up will keep you going. Hope this helps.

From what I've read on the many posts about this issue, you are not eatting a net of 1200 calories when you eat your 1200 calories, but then workout. If you burned 200 calories from exercise your net calories would be 1000 calories for the day. But the way MFP is designed is it gives you how many calories you need to eat, already including your deficeit to lose way, so if you don't eat back exercise calories you are not eatting your net total and are increasing that deficit.. just from what I've been reading. I also find it hard to eat them back though, but many people are having great success by doing so, which means I will have to give it a try

MelleyJ

Oops, also.. try upping your caloric intake a bit and see if that helps. Maybe try eating 1400kcal per week. Like I said, sometimes when I work out and eat a bit extra, it really does help. Don't "eat back" what you burn with exercise, but stick with a bit of a higher number on your caloric intake on a regular basis. Then, whatever you burn after that 1400kcal is what you burn with exercise and your net should just be 1400kcal of intake. Hope that makes sense and helps a bit. Good luck. Feel free to contact me if you have any questions. I have access to some exercise physiologists/nutritionists if you ever have a question.

BassBoneBabe

I have issues just eating my needed calories without adding int he exercise calories. I am stuffed at 1100, and usually try to force myself to eat something else. The only time I go over is if I eat things I shouldn't be. How do you get 1300-1400 cals a day eating foods that are like 60 cals a serving, and the serving fills you up?

BrendaLee

I have great success eating my exercise calories. Just know that you can eat them, and still lose the weight.

sheri3762

Have you ever tried zig-zagging? I hit a plateu about 5 weeks ago and I didn't lose anything for 3 weeks! I was only eating between 12-1300 a day and excercising for atleast an hour everyday, sometimes more. I read a couple articles about zig-zagging, so I tried it. An example of this is eat 1200 on day one, 14oo on day 2, 11oo on day 3, 1500 on day 4 and so on.... I still did my excercise, but I cut it back to no more than 75 minutes a day. ( I read a bunch of articles about injuries from over excercise and it scared me!) Anyway, this did the trick and I lost 3 pounds after the first week! I weigh again next friday, so We'll see. If I plateu again, I might go back to my original cal intake, I really don't pay attention to eating back calories because i am set at 1200 a day and I usually always get closer to 1400. But, then again, I am doing this on purpose. I guess it just depends on your body....

mworld

maybe you could try drinking them back (and no, not booze )...but earlier people were talking about how OJ with pulp was like 100 calories for a glass. Something like that isn't so hard to add in and probably not feel too guilty about?

katbass

I like the OJ suggestion since it doesnt feel like 100 calories and it wont stuff you

I also have a mental block about eating all those calories sometimes. I was eating 1200 cals, exercising 200-600 calories a day, and eating all of my exercise calories back. I lost weight at first, but stopped after 3 weeks.
I scoured the pages here and read a lot of posts, and decided to TRY to eat to my BMR calories (under tools at the top, MFP will calculate for you). My BMR is 1489 calories. (That is the number of calories MY body needs to remaining functioning if I were to lay in bed all day doing nothing...just breathing,. etc). So, as hard as it was to up my calories, I did it. And I have seen major differences in my body and my weight on the scale. (OK, so 7 lbs may not be a lot to some people, but when the scale doesnt budge after 3 lbs.....7 looks great in my ticker!)
So now i eat my 1450 cals each day....but I am struggling to eat back ALL of my exercise calories. Especially on the days I work off 600 calories. I commit to eating back 50% of them. So far, success.
I also agree that you need to change it up a bit. I worked out 6 days a week. Finally, yesterday, I just had a bum day and didnt feel like it. I allowed myself to eat ovder my 1450 by about 150-200 calories, AND I didnt workout........and I woke up to a 1.4lb loss this morning.
So i think its good to eat MOST of them back MOST of the time....but I also think its okay to switch it up every once in a while.

smae1980

your body needs 1200-1300 cal a day to function doing nothing but breathing. That's what the BMR calculated means. Any extra enegy output requires extra enegy input. That means if you want to be healthy EAT THE EXERCISE CALORIES!!!

jwurtz

I received this post from my nutritionist this morning.

My question to her:
"My question is on days that I exercise I could burn as much as 1000 calories a day and I was wondering what how I should be looking at those calories. Some say that allows me to eat more, up to the 1000 calories more. Some say I should leave them and maintain my 2000 daily calorie intake."

Her answer.
"I would leave and try to keep to 2000 calories this way you have what I call a safety net on the days you might eat more then 2000."

I'll leave them....

Hope this helps...

ScarletTarah

Thank you all for your responses.