Eat back what you burn or not??

MoreBean13

i do not eat back my calories. and, if you do, you need to make sure you have an accurate hrm to ensure that you are not eating back more cals than you burned. alot of equipment will give you numbers that are too high, even mfp gives numbers that are way too high! mfp says i burn almost 600 cals when in reality i only burned 300... as i said, i do not eat back my excercise calories, and instead, i give myself 2 days a month where i can have what i want and go "a little crazy" with my family... these are the days where ill plan outings and such, cause i know i can eat whatever and not worry about it. so far, its great! good luck to you, and whatever you decide, just remember that it has to work for you, not us! eaveryones body is different!

I disagree with this about the HRM. The OP has a built in deficit of 500 calories, which means that for her to NOT lose any weight, her calorie estimate would have to be off by more than 500 calories. I suppose that's possible if she was logging 1500 calorie workouts, but it's EXTREMELY unlikely to offset that within a normal 30-60 minute workout. Your weight loss will tell you whether your numbers are right or not- the HRM is just a more expensive estimation method- it's not infallible. I have one and don't wear it, and have lost my weight 98% without it and with eating my calories back. If a person wants to use one that's fine, but it is certainly not a requirement to lose weight while eating your calories back.

well i dont trust the numbers the machine or mfp gives me. for a 30 minute ride on the elliptical, it just about doubles my cals burned. sometimes i do a full hour, and thats a number of 600 cals over what i actually burn. that can easily sabatage someone whos eating back thier cals. i dont have to worry about it, because i choose not to eat mine back, but for those who do, i highly reccomend a good hrm. some girl on here the other day, a hundred and something pounds, said that her elliptical said she burned 13 hundred cals after 30 minutes on her elliptical... really? some machines are whacked and even mfp can only give estimates. i find good hrm to be much more reliable!

There's nothing wrong with trying to get reliable numbers from an HRM. I agree that it works.

I don't understand why you're telling people that eating back calories without using an HRM will stall weight loss, though. That's awfully specific advice when you don't eat yours back at all, since you're basically speculating about what might happen if you did do it.

i never told people not to eat back calories without a hrm, i said its a good idea to have an accurate number of how many calories they are actually burning, since machines and mfp arent as accurate. thats what i said.

The first thing you said in this thread was:

i do not eat back my calories. and, if you do, you need to make sure you have an accurate hrm to ensure that you are not eating back more cals than you burned.

You can see where I may have been confused and thought you said "if you do [eat your exercise calories back] you need to make sure you have an accurate hrm to ensure that you are not eating back more cals than you burned." My apologies for the confusion.

HRMs are an estimation method for tracking your calories based on an algorithm that correlates your VO2max to your heart rate. There is no direct connection between your heart rate and calories burned performing an exercise. A lot of data has been collected to suggest that the equations used are reasonably accurate, assuming your body falls within the "normal" range of people on whom the equations are based, and that you accurately know your VO2max and have it set correctly on the unit. Just to summarize here, HRMs do not measure calorie burns.

weapher

In addition, your VO2 max changes as your body changes. So keeping it accurate is essential. Then you get into gross calories and net calories etc...

Best advice starting out is to keep it simple. The more time you spend on trying to figure it out is less time you could be out enjoying the new you

I have always ate back all or most of my calories when I work out. I lost 35lbs back in 2007 in about 14 mos and tried the HRM route for about 2 weeks. I didn't really like having to strap it on all the time, I don't like wearing a watch, and it didn't work for activities such as TaeKwonDo etc... so I used a calorie calculator online and it seemed to be fairly effective.

If you consistently do similar exercise you will begin to see that certain activities burn approximately so many calories.

Try not to get too caught up in the technicalities of it all and most of all... enjoy the journey!

i do not eat back my calories. and, if you do, you need to make sure you have an accurate hrm to ensure that you are not eating back more cals than you burned. alot of equipment will give you numbers that are too high, even mfp gives numbers that are way too high! mfp says i burn almost 600 cals when in reality i only burned 300... as i said, i do not eat back my excercise calories, and instead, i give myself 2 days a month where i can have what i want and go "a little crazy" with my family... these are the days where ill plan outings and such, cause i know i can eat whatever and not worry about it. so far, its great! good luck to you, and whatever you decide, just remember that it has to work for you, not us! eaveryones body is different!

I disagree with this about the HRM. The OP has a built in deficit of 500 calories, which means that for her to NOT lose any weight, her calorie estimate would have to be off by more than 500 calories. I suppose that's possible if she was logging 1500 calorie workouts, but it's EXTREMELY unlikely to offset that within a normal 30-60 minute workout. Your weight loss will tell you whether your numbers are right or not- the HRM is just a more expensive estimation method- it's not infallible. I have one and don't wear it, and have lost my weight 98% without it and with eating my calories back. If a person wants to use one that's fine, but it is certainly not a requirement to lose weight while eating your calories back.

well i dont trust the numbers the machine or mfp gives me. for a 30 minute ride on the elliptical, it just about doubles my cals burned. sometimes i do a full hour, and thats a number of 600 cals over what i actually burn. that can easily sabatage someone whos eating back thier cals. i dont have to worry about it, because i choose not to eat mine back, but for those who do, i highly reccomend a good hrm. some girl on here the other day, a hundred and something pounds, said that her elliptical said she burned 13 hundred cals after 30 minutes on her elliptical... really? some machines are whacked and even mfp can only give estimates. i find good hrm to be much more reliable!

There's nothing wrong with trying to get reliable numbers from an HRM. I agree that it works.

I don't understand why you're telling people that eating back calories without using an HRM will stall weight loss, though. That's awfully specific advice when you don't eat yours back at all, since you're basically speculating about what might happen if you did do it.

i never told people not to eat back calories without a hrm, i said its a good idea to have an accurate number of how many calories they are actually burning, since machines and mfp arent as accurate. thats what i said.

The first thing you said in this thread was:

i do not eat back my calories. and, if you do, you need to make sure you have an accurate hrm to ensure that you are not eating back more cals than you burned.

You can see where I may have been confused and thought you said "if you do [eat your exercise calories back] you need to make sure you have an accurate hrm to ensure that you are not eating back more cals than you burned." My apologies for the confusion.

HRMs are an estimation method for tracking your calories based on an algorithm that correlates your VO2max to your heart rate. There is no direct connection between your heart rate and calories burned performing an exercise. A lot of data has been collected to suggest that the equations used are reasonably accurate, assuming your body falls within the "normal" range of people on whom the equations are based, and that you accurately know your VO2max and have it set correctly on the unit. Just to summarize here, HRMs do not measure calorie burns.