Eating back exercise cals does not wok for me
Replies
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Seems stupid and surely defeats the point if you burn off 300 cals then these are added back to your allowance to eat?!?!?:huh:
Another poster who clearly has no understanding of how MFP is designed ........ :ohwell:
This! It boggles my mind when I see people calling something stupid when they have no clue what they are talking about. If you are going to join a site for weightloss at least educate yourself as to how the site works. Good googly kamoogly! I guess ignorance is bliss.
Thought people posted for help, advice and support??
They do. I support people by giving them advice on how to use the website as it is designed. It's helpful to know how to drive a car, not just getting in and pushing all the buttons on the radio... and expecting the car to drive itself.0 -
bodymedia is, if I'm thinking correctly, part of what you're burning through the course of the day.. just by existing. IF that's the case, how are you not feeding your body those calories to keep the base functions of your body working? Those aren't EXTRA calories.. those are "HI Colleen, I'm your spleen and I'm working. I'll need you to pay me 200 calories to keep on going, mkay?" calories. You're paying your guts to keep working.I wear a body media on my left leg at all time. It has really given me an accurate picture of what I am burning. But could I eat all them back no way. But I do eat some back.
Hello, Spleen....I'm too busy running like a hamster on a wheel, must cardio...... no time for you. Go get the energy you need from my muscles, so then I'll be skinnier.0 -
Seems stupid and surely defeats the point if you burn off 300 cals then these are added back to your allowance to eat?!?!?:huh:
Another poster who clearly has no understanding of how MFP is designed ........ :ohwell:
This! It boggles my mind when I see people calling something stupid when they have no clue what they are talking about. If you are going to join a site for weightloss at least educate yourself as to how the site works. Good googly kamoogly! I guess ignorance is bliss.
Thought people posted for help, advice and support??
"help" sometimes means helping people overcome their delusions0 -
I want to live in a world where swimming 2 miles burns upwards of 2000 calories.
OP, take me with you to Bizarro World the next time you visit.0 -
do your thing! whatever works..you will make the needed adjustments when it arrives0
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This is one of those reasons I usually tell people to up their calories in 100 to 200 calorie increments.
The truth is, most folks simply refuse to give their bodies the acclimation time it needs before they make a mental assertion that something works/doesn't work.
If you are accurate in your logging (This is super important), and you up calories by a large amount, and add in new exercise...expect 4-6 weeks for your body to acclimate. Some acclimate faster, some slower. But if you base your success/failure on a small sample size (Timeframe), you end up spinning your wheels.
And then again, it may not work for you. I'm not saying it will.
It takes a fair amount of time if you really want to "dial" in your body and figure out what your true maintenance is, and remove the fluctuation your body takes because of changes.0 -
I just think you need to be brutally honest here. I'm just starting out myself, so I'm certainly no expert, but I think the fact that you are eating two entire containers of Ben and Jerry's in one day on top of stuff like pizza and chips and all that else is to blame, not eating back any calories you might have burned. I don't know your weight, but I looked at your pics and I don't think you're much bigger than I am and yet your calorie allowance says 3500 a day? If you're 'allowed' 3500 calories and then on top of that you are 'eating back' the supposed 200 calories you are logging for exercise, that's 5500 calories a day. You can't honestly think that's correct, that you ought to lose weight that way?
Time to be honest, is all. You can't have 'dinners' like you had on Monday of a container of Ben & Jerry's, some rice cakes and two cups of salsa and expect you'll lose weight. You just can't, that's not how it works. I won't even touch that astonishing 7100 grams of sodium in one day thing. That's, like, a whole week's worth in one day.0 -
I've read the topics here on eating back exercise cals and had some comments that said I needed to eat more. But I'm here to say that eating back the cals is making me gain. I've put on five pounds and it's NOT muscle.
I'm going back to what was working, 1200-1400 cals a day and keeping my workout cals burned to boost my fat loss.
The theory sounds good, eat more and lose, but it's not happening for me.
I also think that MFP way inflates the cals earned during exercise.
A few notes:
-Yes, the MFP calorie burn numbers are often greatly exaggerated, and if you follow their "eat back your exercise calories" system going off of their estimated calorie burn amounts you may be setting yourself up for failure. A HRM is basically a must if you want to use their system.
-The MFP system is based on NOT factoring your exercise into your daily activity level when initially determining your calorie goals. Most other systems DO have you factoring that in. If the exercise you are doing is anything more than light to moderate in intensity, it is better to go with one of these systems instead. Use a calculator such as the one found at scoobysworkshop.com to determine what your daily calorie goals are after factoring this in and manually edit the MFP numbers.
-Be careful the weight you're losing is all fat. When eating that low of a calorie allowance it's possible you're eating under BMR, which may be seeing fat loss, but is also detrimental to organ health.0 -
I just think you need to be brutally honest here. I'm just starting out myself, so I'm certainly no expert, but I think the fact that you are eating two entire containers of Ben and Jerry's in one day on top of stuff like pizza and chips and all that else is to blame, not eating back any calories you might have burned. I don't know your weight, but I looked at your pics and I don't think you're much bigger than I am and yet your calorie allowance says 3500 a day? If you're 'allowed' 3500 calories and then on top of that you are 'eating back' the supposed 200 calories you are logging for exercise, that's 5500 calories a day. You can't honestly think that's correct, that you ought to lose weight that way?
Time to be honest, is all. You can't have 'dinners' like you had on Monday of a container of Ben & Jerry's, some rice cakes and two cups of salsa and expect you'll lose weight. You just can't, that's not how it works. I won't even touch that astonishing 7100 grams of sodium in one day thing. That's, like, a whole week's worth in one day.
She brings up a very strong point here.0 -
I never understood WHY they want you to eat back those Cal you burned? Doesnt that defeat the purpose of burning them?? I mean in order to LOSE the weight, you have to burn more calories than you consume in a day! Just sounds so silly to me to eat them back, i never do!!
I'm going to assume by this response that you didn't read a lot of the answers already provided, so I'll say it once again.
MFP (myfitnesspal) calculates your deficit when you set up your account. Let's say you want to lose 1 lb per week. You calorie deficit is calculated at 500 a day. What this means is, according to the information you entered into MFP, you burn lets say 2000 calories a day doing your normal activity, so MFP will give you a calorie goal of 1500. Now MFP is already doing the math for you to make it easy. When you exercise, lets say you burn 300 calories. So now your goal is 1800. If you look at the way the MFP lays it out, you have Goal = Food - Exercise = Net. Basically 1500 (Goal) 1800 (Food) - 300 (Exercise) = 1500 (NET). In essence, you are NETTING 1500 calories, which is the same goal you had without exercising, which gives you a deficit of 500 calories, which is 3500 calories a week, which is = to 1 lb of fat a week.
This works ONLY if you are properly logging food and exercise. This has worked for 1000's of people and continues to work. There isn't enough difference in the human body between individuals to negate the fact that a calorie deficit creates weight loss. How you create that deficit is up to you....but facts are facts, and the facts remain that only a calorie deficit will generate weight loss and exercise will aid in that deficit and will create a more pleasing body composition and help maintain lean body mass.
The primary problems people run into can be boiled down to:
A) Setting the goal too small, creating a much larger deficit than is healthy. This creates an environment for the body to change the way it processes. It kicks into a "survival mode" if you will, and decreases metabolism so that it can make what you give it last. This will slow results and is often the cause of the yo-yo dieter.
2) Incorrectly logging exercise burned. While one of the better ways to calculate calories burned is a HRM (Heart Rate Monitor), these aren't 100% accurate either. They are often times more accurate than the numbers taken from the exercise machines or the amount provided by MFP, but they are still anywhere from 10% - 25% higher than what is actually burned. HRM's are not designed to accurately measure calories burned from weight lifting, but more for cardio type exercises. Research and customer reviews are often a good way to find out if there is a common % your particular brand of HRM is inaccurate then make the adjustments necessary. Also, make sure that you are updating your user data every 5 lbs of weight loss. Otherwise you will get much higher calorie burns.
III) Incorrectly logging calories. A food scale is a non-emotional lie detector. Weigh as much food as you possibly can. Take peanut butter for instance. 2 tbsp = 200 calories in general. Too many people eyeball this and in reality are using 2 1/2 to 3 tbsp of peanut butter but logging 2. 50-100 calorie difference adds up, especially when you are repeating this same thing over all of the food you eat.
Bottom line, the numbers given on MFP, or any weight loss website for that matter, are a guide. Try it for about 30-45 days, let your body adjust to the new way of eating and exercise, and if there is no change tweak it. If you are gaining and not losing, decrease your calories by a couple hundred. If you are losing at a rate that is too fast to be healthy (this is NOT a good thing depending on how much you have to lose) then dial the calorie goal up a hundred or two. Keep within your goals, both calorie and macro goals as much as possible. I personally shoot for about 90% of the time, allowing for weddings, office parties, birthdays, holidays, and those "I really wanna eat EVERYTHING" moments.
Also, understand that this isn't a fly by night, get skinny quick scheme. This is something you will need to be at least sub-conscious about for the rest of your life. Take the time you need to properly lose weight and it will become second nature and you will be more likely to keep the weight off by developing good habits. It's going to take time, understand that, accept that, and you will already be halfway to your goal.
TL;DR version: Understand how MFP is supposed to be used, log food and exercise as correctly as possible (HRM and food scale), don't starve yourself, and be patient.0 -
1. You eat more than you think
2. You burn less calories than you think
put 1 and 2 together and you got weight gain. stop lying to yourself when you log your food and exercise.
Gosh, I thought this was supposed to be a SUPPORT network =-S0 -
Get a heart rate monitor so that you'll know how many calories you're burning.
1000% agree you can get a solid one for 50-60 bucks on Amazon make sure you get one with a chest strap!0 -
1. You eat more than you think
2. You burn less calories than you think
put 1 and 2 together and you got weight gain. stop lying to yourself when you log your food and exercise.
Gosh, I thought this was supposed to be a SUPPORT network =-S
Don't assume your veiw of what support means is the same as everyone elses.0 -
Lol!!!! This is hilarious. Go visit the eat more group and honestly tell me that none of them are particularly fit. Sorry I stil can't stop laughing!
Are you talking about people who body build and lift weights or a 30s-50s aged woman who does primarily cardio and is looking to shed pounds?
I'm not familiar with the "Eat More Group" on this forum, but the idea that you need to eat more to break plateaus is prominent on another forum I visit and 80% of the members are pretty overweight.
What I said is a blanket statement, but 'eat more' works for a particular said of people. Unless you're doing some pretty vigorous, weight bearing exercises (not swimming and gardening, which is what the OP does), eating more is just going to make you gain weight.
It is simple math. The "eat more" is NOT eating more than your maintenance. It is eating at a REASONABLE calorie deficit so that you lose weight while not sacrificing Lean Body Mass (LBM). It is about losing FAT. Preserving LBM is important for many reasons. Muscle is more active and burns more calories. It helps preserve bone density which is very important for women. Eating LESS will mess up your metabolism and your hormones and your body will cannibalize your LBM.
I'm 50, and I'm losing weight and losing fat "eating more" than MFP sets for me.0 -
I've read the topics here on eating back exercise cals and had some comments that said I needed to eat more. But I'm here to say that eating back the cals is making me gain. I've put on five pounds and it's NOT muscle.
I'm going back to what was working, 1200-1400 cals a day and keeping my workout cals burned to boost my fat loss.
The theory sounds good, eat more and lose, but it's not happening for me.
I also think that MFP way inflates the cals earned during exercise.
In just looking at your past week of eating, I'd have to say that you are indulging a lot in what I'd consider really bad food. Those are the types of things I would say should be a treat like 1x per week or so not daily. Example: pizza hut, hot dogs, ben and jerry's ice cream, dairy queen. If I ate those things daily I would definately gain weight. I also think that you are maybe burning 500 cal max with the swimming etc, not 2000. I would try to eat cleaner most days (still have treats every so often if they fit in your calorie goal) and put in a more realistic exercise burn.0 -
1. You eat more than you think
2. You burn less calories than you think
put 1 and 2 together and you got weight gain. stop lying to yourself when you log your food and exercise.
Gosh, I thought this was supposed to be a SUPPORT network =-S
As someone else already said, support means different things to different people at different stages of the process. The biggest support someone can offer to me when I am struggling is a slap in the face to set me straight when I am kidding myself.0 -
I just go by my TDEE and BMR..... 1600-1800 calories regardless of how much I exercise. I think this is a much better method to avoid all this "should I or shouldn't I (eat back the cals)" discussions.0
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For me, I didn't see a real movement on my scale after a long stall until I stopped eating back exercise calories.0
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I cant' eat TDEE minus 20% everyday it's too much.. I set my calorie range to 1408-1643 and just try to hit that everyday. Plus I get different TDEE numbers and BMR numbers depending what site i am looking at. Too complicated, confusing and frustrating. If this isn't simple I wont' stick to it (I didnt' say easy.. simple and easy are two different things) I arbritariitly picked a middle range and aim for that. Then I eat what I want and dont' worry too much if I miss by too much or too little occasionally. I feel great, I look great, i'm healthy and i'm losing weight. I usually exercise everyday.. (but ith the end of school year upon us I have not time, between parties, gradution (8th grade sniff sniff), concerts and other activities i'll be missing it most of this week.. It's killing me. lol) and I do log my calories, but I still try to aim for my range. so I don't have to worry about if MFP logs the calories burned right or not and I don't have to worry about eating back a certain percentage of calories or whatever. Then again.. my problem wasnt' over eating.. i was under eating..0
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1. You eat more than you think
2. You burn less calories than you think
put 1 and 2 together and you got weight gain. stop lying to yourself when you log your food and exercise.
this0 -
Just looked at your diary and I definately think part of your problem is eating crap food. Hot dogs and stuff from Dairy Queen isn't exactly on most people's plans to lose weight if they do it daily. Also.... how long are you swimming to supposedly burn 2000 cals?
I think you should re-evaluate your diet and try to eat a little cleaner.... your body needs fuel. You don't get a whole lot of that eating over-processed foods. Veggies, Fruits, Lean Meats and Complex Carbs should be where you get the fuel from.0 -
I cant' eat TDEE minus 20% everyday it's too much.. I set my calorie range to 1408-1643 and just try to hit that everyday. Plus I get different TDEE numbers and BMR numbers depending what site i am looking at. Too complicated, confusing and frustrating. If this isn't simple I wont' stick to it (I didnt' say easy.. simple and easy are two different things) I arbritariitly picked a middle range and aim for that. Then I eat what I want and dont' worry too much if I miss by too much or too little occasionally. I feel great, I look great, i'm healthy and i'm losing weight. I usually exercise everyday.. (but ith the end of school year upon us I have not time, between parties, gradution (8th grade sniff sniff), concerts and other activities i'll be missing it most of this week.. It's killing me. lol) and I do log my calories, but I still try to aim for my range. so I don't have to worry about if MFP logs the calories burned right or not and I don't have to worry about eating back a certain percentage of calories or whatever. Then again.. my problem wasnt' over eating.. i was under eating..
If eating less that 80% of your actual total daily energy expenditure is "too much" then you are either not understanding real TDEE (versus calculated) or still under eating.0 -
I eat back most of my exercise calories (sometimes all) - not necessarily the same day i earn them but over the week.
I am ultra careful about logging everyhting i take in - that's why you'll often see 6 cups of tea on my diary for the day:drinker: - and weighing things like pasta and cereal where its so easy for that "small/recommended" serving to get bigger.
I did up my calories slightly from what MFP set me because I was scared by the amount of calories the TDEE-20% gave me, and I knew if I didn't log the exercsie I would go back to lazy ways (whole list of fat girl non-exercise excuses available :blushing: )
Everyone is different, but its working for me. As others have said - politely and less so - double check you're logging accurately, both calories AND exercise. For example, my mother-in-law walks REALLY slowly, so her "walking moderately" would be about half my speed (or less) and therefore she wouldn't burn the same amount of calories, even though MFP might say we did. And I might go to a step class, but if I didn't put in much effort I shouldn't log the calories MFP would reckon I'd earned.0 -
bingo.I cant' eat TDEE minus 20% everyday it's too much.. I set my calorie range to 1408-1643 and just try to hit that everyday. Plus I get different TDEE numbers and BMR numbers depending what site i am looking at. Too complicated, confusing and frustrating. If this isn't simple I wont' stick to it (I didnt' say easy.. simple and easy are two different things) I arbritariitly picked a middle range and aim for that. Then I eat what I want and dont' worry too much if I miss by too much or too little occasionally. I feel great, I look great, i'm healthy and i'm losing weight. I usually exercise everyday.. (but ith the end of school year upon us I have not time, between parties, gradution (8th grade sniff sniff), concerts and other activities i'll be missing it most of this week.. It's killing me. lol) and I do log my calories, but I still try to aim for my range. so I don't have to worry about if MFP logs the calories burned right or not and I don't have to worry about eating back a certain percentage of calories or whatever. Then again.. my problem wasnt' over eating.. i was under eating..
If eating less that 80% of your actual total daily energy expenditure is "too much" then you are either not understanding real TDEE (versus calculated) or still under eating.0 -
bingo.I cant' eat TDEE minus 20% everyday it's too much.. I set my calorie range to 1408-1643 and just try to hit that everyday. Plus I get different TDEE numbers and BMR numbers depending what site i am looking at. Too complicated, confusing and frustrating. If this isn't simple I wont' stick to it (I didnt' say easy.. simple and easy are two different things) I arbritariitly picked a middle range and aim for that. Then I eat what I want and dont' worry too much if I miss by too much or too little occasionally. I feel great, I look great, i'm healthy and i'm losing weight. I usually exercise everyday.. (but ith the end of school year upon us I have not time, between parties, gradution (8th grade sniff sniff), concerts and other activities i'll be missing it most of this week.. It's killing me. lol) and I do log my calories, but I still try to aim for my range. so I don't have to worry about if MFP logs the calories burned right or not and I don't have to worry about eating back a certain percentage of calories or whatever. Then again.. my problem wasnt' over eating.. i was under eating..
If eating less that 80% of your actual total daily energy expenditure is "too much" then you are either not understanding real TDEE (versus calculated) or still under eating.
This. What are you going to do when you have reached your goal if eating at TDEE is 'too much'?0 -
2. I'm glad you realize you didn't gain 5 pounds of muscle.
LOL0 -
thanks for this!!! i was wondering what to make for dinner, but you gave me the idea of making stir fry with my wok!!0
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MFP calories burned are way off for me I know that because I wear a HR monitor that calculates calories I agree with you completely I was in the same boat eating back my exercise calories didn't work at all for me either I am more careful not to do that any more unless I do a killer workout where I burn 1000+ then I definately have to eat some back. Hang in there!!!!0
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Your spleen called, it wants a peanut butter sammich and a glass of milk.0 -
bingo.I cant' eat TDEE minus 20% everyday it's too much.. I set my calorie range to 1408-1643 and just try to hit that everyday. Plus I get different TDEE numbers and BMR numbers depending what site i am looking at. Too complicated, confusing and frustrating. If this isn't simple I wont' stick to it (I didnt' say easy.. simple and easy are two different things) I arbritariitly picked a middle range and aim for that. Then I eat what I want and dont' worry too much if I miss by too much or too little occasionally. I feel great, I look great, i'm healthy and i'm losing weight. I usually exercise everyday.. (but ith the end of school year upon us I have not time, between parties, gradution (8th grade sniff sniff), concerts and other activities i'll be missing it most of this week.. It's killing me. lol) and I do log my calories, but I still try to aim for my range. so I don't have to worry about if MFP logs the calories burned right or not and I don't have to worry about eating back a certain percentage of calories or whatever. Then again.. my problem wasnt' over eating.. i was under eating..
If eating less that 80% of your actual total daily energy expenditure is "too much" then you are either not understanding real TDEE (versus calculated) or still under eating.
well since I get an answer of 2200 or more on most of those TDEE calculators.. minus 20% means I should be eating around 2,000 calories.. give or take.. the *only* time I can eat that much is when I have a cold (cause i'm starving non stop when I have a cold) or when I eat really unhealthy food. I use lightly active or moderately active settings.. since I have a desk job, but I work out 60-90 minutes most days [sometimes more] and don't sit much outside of work. i'm 5'9" or 5'10' depending what state i'm in (literally jersey says i'm taller then colorado says I am weird) CW is 197 and i'm considered "big boned" if that makes a difference. Currently I am never hungry. I eat enough to keep myself satisfied, but not stuffed. If I want a snack I get one. But i'm not gonna just go eat ice cream or peanut butter toast after dinner because I have calories left over. unless i am hungry, then I will.. I used to over eat.. then I flipped unintentionally and was undereating for months.. then I got control of it and now I find it very hard to over eat. 2,000 calories is a lot of food. I added granola into my yogurt for snack today and yesterday. That will fill me until my late lunch (like it did yesterday.. actually wasnt' hungry for lunch yesterday, but made myself eat it), which means I will probably not eat my snack.. I will probably take my son out to dinner to celebrate, I will probably stil not hit 2,000 calories.
i'll probalby die or something right?This. What are you going to do when you have reached your goal if eating at TDEE is 'too much'?0
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