To eat calories burned or not?

francescapalleschi

Hi everyone,
I have been doing MFP and tracking activities using Striiv for the past couple of weeks. I was pretty content the first week, saw some progress downward. Some days I was eating all of my allotted calories, others hunger wasn't so bad so I was under my calories. I thought it was pretty weird the way it adds calories burned back in, but I was trying to trust it.

Today I spoke to a nurse/dietitian from a local weight loss place and she was ADAMANT that calories burned should not be consumed. On here, I read that you should be consuming at least 65% of your calories burned. I am torn and looking for advice.

In the past, I had already lost well over 100lbs through lets face it, pure starvation. I was losing my hair and I broke my health. I have 60lbs left to go and I don't want to do it that way anymore. I want to be healthier and enjoy my life while finishing the weight loss journey.

Does everyone add calories burned back into the equation, even if it is just a portion?

Thanks for your time.

vmekash

It is up to you, depending on the result you want and how you want to feel. I eat mine back because I don´t want to feel deprived or hungry. I don´t need fast results, just permanent ones. Slow and steady, and enjoying my extra snacking -- thanks to cardio.

AliceKP

To maintain everyday normal activity you add a 0 to your weight and thats the number of calories you should eat. For your workout calories then that accounts for weightloss without going into starvation mode. You definately dont want to eat all your workout calories, depending on your weightloss goals you can adjust how much or how little of the workout calories to consume. The trick to not getting hungry heavier meals morning and afternoon and eating small portions about every 3hrs

marand94608

First of all go to your Home page and then select the "GOALS" tab.
This will show your MFP settings that were calculated when you signed up.

I'll explain this using my settings since I don't know yours.
First of all, I'm 5'6" and currently 185 lbs. I am trying to lose 50 lbs. all together.

When I signed up I chose "Sedentary Activity" and to lose "1 pound/week". Unless you have a lot more weight to lose 60-100+ pounds, do not pick the 2 pounds/week. If you only have 10-20 pounds to lose, a lot of people are saying to go with 0.5 lbs/week.

So on my Goals page I see the following info on the right side:
Calories burned from Normal Daily Activity: 1860 cal/day (this is what my body needs to maintain weight for normal daily activities - WITHOUT ADDITIONAL EXERCISE!)
Your Daily Calorie Goal: 1360 cal (this is what I need to eat to lose 1 lb./ wk - WITHOUT ADDITIONAL EXERCISE!)
Daily Calorie Deficit: 500 cal (you should tell your doctor that MFP already has this deficit built in)
Projected Weight Loss: 1.0 lb/ week

So everyday my Food Page starts out with my 1360 cals. If I don't exercise I only get to eat that 1360. But if I do exercise MFP adds those calories to the 1360 and I almost always eat them all back. It is OK to eat back the calories because as shown above you are already in a 500 calorie deficit. However if you don't have a heart monitor and are using MFP's Exercise database or a fitness machine to tell you how many calories you burned, I wouldn't trust those as much. They tend to overestimate so in that case you might want to only eat 75-90% of those calories back.

I have been doing it this way from the first day I signed up here and it is working perfectly for me so far. Over about 11 weeks I've actually lost 15 pounds so I'm averaging a little over 1lb/week.

drusilla126

I eat mine back. Do what you will.

d_llopez

I eat only 2-300 out of my 900 workout. For my 500 workout burn i eat about 100-200 calories over. NEVER all of it.

JenHall3310

I do both. Many times I do not eat them back, but if it's a particularly brutal work out I will eat more. I could never not eat when I'm truly hungry so I let my body decide. If the weight comes off slower, so be it. It took more than a day to put it on it will take more than a day to lose it.

alexmommy

I think if you're working with a MEDICAL PROFESSIONAL you should do what they tell you, not what some website says.

xaMErica

I'm trying to NOT eat mine back.. I'm going to be eating 1620 a day though. I will see how it goes over the next few weeks. If you add me as a friend I just decided on all of this today. I had lots of help from MFP friends.. you can see it all where they commented.

shaybuggie

Personally, I don't eat back calories I burned, but if I go over by a little bit I don't get upset. I've heard that the ones that eat back their calories are the ones trying to maintain weight and decrese body fat.

I hope this helps; good luck with your journey.

Liftnlove

Eat them...It works. Eat to fuel your training and your body. Food is not the enemy...just "too much food" is...

MFP has a built-in deficit. If you don't eat your exercise calories, your deficit will be very large, which usually leads to you feeling hungry and deprived eventually. This is COMPLETELY unncessary. I tried eating 1200 calories when I started here over a year ago...I turned into a raging B*^#h... After two weeks I said "screw it, I work out hard. I'm not going to be miserable. I'm going to EAT.".... So I started averaging 2000 cals a day, and I lost weight just fine.

I haven't felt like I was "on a diet"...EVER. That's what you want, in my opinion...something you can maintain forever. Just a healthy lifestyle, without being overly restrictive.

Tamar65

I am 47 years old and I have worked out without adding my workout calories back in and I could not lose a pound no matter how hard I worked out. when I started adding my workouts back in MFP, I started losing pounds. so with that being said...........Add your workout calories back in and EAT........................:happy:

vivaldirules

I have to say that I'm new here and find the idea of changing your caloric intake based on your caloric burn a little weird and hard to get used to. I'm not saying it's wrong, just different. Yesterday, my goal intake was over 2200 calories and today only 1200 because I couldn't exercise. That's a huge change in my diet. I rather liked targeting the same figure every day whether I exercised or not. It is what I always heard to do and seemed to work well for me and I'm not certain what damage or risk there is. I guess I need to research this.

fstender

I was wondering about this as well...I've havn't lost alot of weight by eating my calories back...but since i put down 1400 calories and stick to this im losing about a pound a week now...pretty happy about this...on days i do exercise if im hungry after my 1400 cals are used...i will have a protein snack...like a cheese stick, hummous and carrots, or cottage cheese. This has helped and i don't feel like im starving myself. Unless your 100% sure you have burned what MFP says you have...i wouldn't touch them!

ajhartley22

I think that if you are hungry after a workout, then you should eat. Your body is telling you that it needs fuel, and if you deny your body what it needs, then you are eventually going to go into starvation mode. Listen to your body. Also, it is also better to eat right after your workout, because your body is still in burning mode. You don't have to eat all of the calories you earned from exercising, but if your hungry, don't ignore your body.

Zimabob

I think eating back calories is stupid. If I set a certain number of calories per day, I eat only that amount of calories. The point of working out is to create a calorie deficit. The bigger the deficit, the more weight loss. Why cancel that out? If you want to eat after a workout, save up your calories to do it at that time.

TabithaMichelle85

MFP always says that I'm sending my body into starvation mode when I don't eat my workout calories .... drives me crazy, I want to loose weight not maintain it. So for me, I rarely eat back my calories but if I am going out or its a holiday its nice to have something to fall back on without going over my limit.