Eating back exercise cals does not wok for me

bagge72

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

Gotcha, so we are suppose to support people being wrong, but it doesn't count as support to give them the correct information.

Hey great job OP on taking the information given to you, and using it as an excuse to eat way more than you should, and as a way to stop eating healthy. Good job blaming it just on the fact that you are eating your exercise calories, and not what really happened. Keep up the good work! You can do this!

ncl1313

From what I can tell, MFP has set your calorie goal at 1470, and then you are logging 2000 calories most days for exercise, hence your 3500 net calorie goal. I definitely think you are over-estimating your calories burned. I'm not sure if it's because you honestly think that's what you're burning or if it's to justify not changing your eating habits so you can still eat 3500 calories per day, but either way you are not going to lose weight if you continue this way.

I get that HRMs are expensive. I don't have one either. I use this website to help me calculate my calorie burns: http://www.shapesense.com/fitness-exercise/calculators/ It helps determine your calories burned based on duration, age, height, weight, and activity, and then even has an additional calculator to figure net calories burned (subtracting the calories used for your body to function). Again, this will likely not be as accurate as a HRM, but it is way better than MFP's figures. To give an example of why everyone (including myself) thinks you are overestimating your calories burned: according to shapesense, a 250lb, 5'8, 48 year old female swimming crawl stroke at a vigorous rate (75 yards/minute) for 47 minutes (around 2 miles total distance) would burn 664 gross calories, or about 598 net calories. To net 2000 calories burned, that same woman would have to swim at that pace for around 2 1/2 hours, and would swim almost 6 1/2 miles.

craigmandu

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.

bingo.

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.

This. What are you going to do when you have reached your goal if eating at TDEE is 'too much'?

i'll probalby die or something right?

2200 - 20% = 1760

trogalicious

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.

2,000 calories isn't a lot of food... if you're eating real food... not "diet" food.
Also, hunger (or lack thereof) isn't a dead giveaway of proper nutrition.

But you seem to be pretty vested in your argument, so you keep on doin whatever you're doin. That seems to be the common thread in the forums today.

Hell, I'll even change my photo in your honor.

LindseySprake

I also think that MFP way inflates the cals earned during exercise.

^^THIS^^ definatley!

kts3639

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..

Hmmm, get thee a calculator...2200 -20% is 1760 calories...not "2,000.. give or take". Big difference!

lizfreakinm

I'm not an expert by any means, but I think you're consuming way too much sodium. You're probably retaining quite a bit of water because of it. I mean I've been losing over the past 3-4 weeks, but one week I randomly gained 3 lbs because it was that time of the month. It wasn't fat or muscle, it was just water.

Try eating less processed foods such as veggies, fruits, etc. and see if that helps at all.

SkinnyBubbaGaar

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.

Former competitive swimmer here and it certainly is possible for that distance of a swim to burn 2K calories.

That said, for 99.9% of us here now, that 2K number will not be anywhere near realistic based upon the actually activity level that we are swimming at.

To hit that high of a calorie burn the swim would truly need to be "vigorous" - I mean butterfly and 200 meter splits on the 2 minute mark vigorous.

I'm back swimming again and I usually log about 1/2 to 1/3 of my workout as vigorous and the other 1/2 to 2/3 as light/moderate.

Will swim anywhere from 1 mile to 3 miles per workout and the burns generally log in at anywhere from 800 to 1400 calories each depending upon duration and exertion level.

Even with that, I generally try to make it a goal to only eat back 1/2 to 2/3 of those calorie burns in order to give some leeway from overstating the burn calculation or understating the calorie intake.

For most people who are not doing high intensity swim-training I would suggest that you just log your swim workouts as either:

1) Swimming / Treading Water, Moderate

or

2) Swimming / Leisurely, General


These will likely give you a more accurate count of what your actual calorie burn will be for the activity. The numbers will be way down from what you think, and wish/hope, you are burning but they will be a better approximation of the real burn.


For example, 60 minute of the following swim activities (at my current weight) would burn the following per MFP calculations:

1) Swimming / Treading Water, Moderate: 505 Calories

2) Swimming / Leisurely, General: 758 Calories

3) Swimming / Freestyle, Light/Moderate: 884 Calories

4) Swimming / Freestyle, Vigourous: 1263 Calories


So looking at the above you can see where there can be a problem. While swimming we might feel/think that we are doing the full workout at "Vigorous" intensity, but unless we are pushing at competitive levels than the reality of the burn is probably much more in line with the "Treading Water" number.

1,263 - 505 = an overestimation of 758 calories burned for that workout (per the 1 hour swim)

Do that overestimation 4 times a week and your pretty close to about a 1 pound / per week overestimation of the calorie burn.

Pretty much enough of a difference to wipe out your weekly calorie deficit (especially if there are also miscalculations in the logging of calorie intake as well).

Just some food for thought here.

Good luck with the process.

WifeofPJ

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.

Improtant thing to remember is that MFP does inflate the Cals earned during exercise. It's best to get a heart Rate Monitor and record your calories burned from that. It is common that most people under estimate their food and over estimate their calories burned. I would suggest measuring everything and trying to eat back calories earned and see what happens then. I don't eat back all my calories earned by I do eat back many of them.

cwolfman13

If it doesn't work it's because something is wrong in your estimation of calories...either you're underestimating consumption (i.e you don't weigh/measure or you're otherwise using faulty data) or overestimating burn. You may also have your activity level set incorrectly.

Conversely, it is possible that your metabolism is just slower than the average person. MFP is a NEAT method calculator...it works for most people if they're doing it right and don't have an underlying medical condition or medication that is interfering with their metabolism.

SGSmallman

i've done all the low cal high cardio 'diets' when i messed my knee up ended gaining more weight back then i had before i started training.

Now im working to my TDEE -20ish% deficit. when i first worked this out i was shocked with how much i had to up my calories (at the time i was on 1850) for how i work out it says a 20% deficit is around 2500 so after losing 14 lbs in a 2ish months and it slowing down decided restricting my calories wasn't making me happy i was tired, grouchy short attention span.....

so upped them slowly each week over the past month while maintaining my 14lb loss. a week into using 2500 cals I've seen a 3lb drop and im eating more than ever.

i have around another 28ish lbs of fat to lose but i dont want to reduce my lean body mass which has been important in this journey of self discovery so plan to continue to lose fat % instead of weight loss.

We are trying to build a healthy lifestyle that is sustainable not a diet that we finish when the weight has gone but long in to maintenance.

meeper123

I rarely eat them back I just eat more on days I workout example 1400 on days I don't and around 1700 on days I do ( depending on what I am doing)

Confuzzled4ever

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..

Hmmm, get thee a calculator...2200 -20% is 1760 calories...not "2,000.. give or take". Big difference!

ah yes.. I did 10%... my bad..

i just used fitness frog and it says 2589.. minus 20% would be 2,000 give or take (I knew I got that number from somewhere.. I just gave the wrong starting number). i get closer to that because i pick moderately active, because I work out 5-7 days a week. Which is what i'm supposed to do right?

I'm working on getting to 1600 everyday currently and increasing protein. (which I think I figured out)

cutchro

this is exactly why i dont track exercise cals....
i go by my TDEE which already incorporates my activities and just cut out whatever i want from that to get my daily goals.
i do not complicate it and add in exercise cals and eat those back and what not. if you are going by your BMR, then perhaps you can, but i prefer not to log exercise since its all estimates and what not...i just see how my body reacts to changes and i make alterations accordingly.

^^ This. I do track my exercise just becuase I am curious but ignore these calories and go by my TDEE-200.

SuffolkSally

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.

Improtant thing to remember is that MFP does inflate the Cals earned during exercise. It's best to get a heart Rate Monitor and record your calories burned from that. It is common that most people under estimate their food and over estimate their calories burned. I would suggest measuring everything and trying to eat back calories earned and see what happens then. I don't eat back all my calories earned by I do eat back many of them.

I got myself a decent heart rate monitor because of my concerns about this. In fact, MFP estimates of my burn are near enough the same as the HRM - by which I mean that after have deducted my BRM from the HRM burn, it's within 20 or so calories either way of the MFP estimate. So now I don't bother much with wearing the HRM, I just use the MFP estimates (although I do periodically check my regular exercises against the HRM, and I use it when trying a new type of exercise). All these things are only estimates, you have to adjust according to your own experience. But I notice it's often stated almost as a given that Mfp estimates are way over, and I'm sure they are for some people - notably the ones fitter than me, lol - but my case shows that it ain't necessarily so.

Afura

You said you put on weight, but you didn't mention when (though I didn't look through all the responses), taking a quick trip back through your diary, most of the days within the past week you've been over sodium. I ate over sodium twice this week (damn you ham!) and I swelled with water retention. I also think that either you're over calculating your exercise (when I started walking I thought 2mph was pretty fast-ha!), or the generic MFP burn calories are too high.

Lower your sodium, and lower your caloric intake slowly (to account for inaccurate burn), give it time (at least a few weeks) and see how it goes.

laurasuzanne2006

You are eating crap. No one needs sweets daily like you are eating especially not full or even double servings. If you need sweets that bad try fresh fruit or a snack size candy

LeeWorrall88

Everyone telling me I dont know how MFP works, amusing.

I use MFP to input and track my nutrition, nothing more. I dont use MFP to tell me how to eat or train

LeeWorrall88

Eat Less Do More = Lose Weight
Eat More Do Less = Gain Weight

Its not rocket science

firstsip

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.

bingo.

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.

This. What are you going to do when you have reached your goal if eating at TDEE is 'too much'?

i'll probalby die or something right?

I haven't seen this brought up to you, but hormones (specifically ghrelin and leptin) help control hunger/satiety. They can very easily be skewed--a few days of overeating, and suddenly the body expects more and gets hungry. Conversely, a few days of undereating and... guess what happens? Tons and tons of research has gone into these hormones, whether with humans, rats, whatever--they're that hugely important to how the body works in terms of hunger.

If your problem has always been undereating, you're NOT going to be hungry. I get that--I still struggle. MFP helps me eat more mostly because I know, "I need to eat." From over a decade's worth of starvation, I rarely get hungry. I find myself being surprised when I feel hungry, if anything.

Add in exercise, and that almost 100% zaps any minimal appetite from me further (outside of swimming and rock climbing, which both tend to trigger hunger... but then I usually do those for hours at a time when I do them).

2,000 is not much food--I know that, even though I too have trouble reaching that even on days where my net should be higher. But I don't sit here saying, "It's just too much for me." Between periods of therapy for ED recovery, tons of research into nutrition science, and overall health, I know, "This is normal... *I* am the one who needs to adjust gradually."

The trick? Gradually up your calories. Your appetite will adjust with you. And your body will, too--which is good, because you want a healthy body.