WHY DO PEOPLE EAT BACK THEIR EXERCISE CALS?!

I eat back some these days because I feel like I am starving. I am still losing.

Do whatever you want and I will do whatever I want. I don't eat all my exercise calories back, but that's neither here nor there.

Ive noticed lot of people do either or.. i was just wondering why the people who do eat them back do it to begin with! I just dont get it!
The only way i can understand them doing this is if they went WAY over their calories to begin with and needed to work them off. Then technically they "ate" their exercise cals

I eat most of my exercise calories back - but not because I ate them already!

I burn most of my calories before dinner so usually i am going into evening meal in deficit. I eat them back because I do alot of strength training and I need the calories, I eat them back because I am hungry otherwise. I eat healthily and still lose up to 2 lb a week and inches whilst eating my exercise calories.

Each person is different (just don't tar us all with the same brush)

Um, because I am freaking starving...

This is why I eat mine back. ALSO- I'm TOTALLY obese. Still eat them. Won't even consider doing anything that means I have to maintain a ridiculously low calorie intake. Ridiculously low is subjective; to me it means less than 1500 calories a day.

I was not eating my calories and only netting like 800 a day, I felt grumpy and eventually tired all the time. Then I started making sure I ate back up to 1200 and since then I have been losing 1.5 to 2.0lbs a week and feeling more energized. So it works for me.

I drink mine in a long stemmed glass. :drinker:

I do it because I prefer to exercise and have wine than to not exercise and not have wine.

If you think losing weight is really all about calorie deficit, why are you exercising? Just eat 1200 a day, why put yourself through exercise? Weight loss is about creating a healthy and beautiful body, its about feeding it the right amount of fuel and using fitness to sculpt a healthy and fit physique. If you think weight loss is literally calories in, calories out and not about lifestyle and balancing your bodies hormonal and metabolic processes you are seriously misinformed my dear.

^This

Because they want you to net at least 1200 calories. Meaning if you eat 1200 and no exercise then that's fine. But if you exercise and burn 600 calories then they say your only having 600 calories that day for food intake and that's to low. Whatever I don't eat mine back unless I'm hungry.

At least that's what I get from all the other posts about this subject

^^^^^^^^^^THIS^^^^^^^^^^

Because MFP already figures in a reasonable to high calorie deficit when you choose your weight loss goals. If you are shooting to lose 2lbs/wk, and you don't eat back exercise calories, your deficit becomes higher than well established safe limits. You can only lose so much fat in a day, so pushing the boundaries means your additional weight loss beyond a reasonable deficit is going to come from your muscle mass. Not a good choice.

NOT TRUE, you won't start using muscle until your below 6% body fat.

I'm pretty sure that's not true...

Because your goal is to gain/lose X amount of pounds per week. Not some amount that is greater or less than the target you set, with the potential for plateauing from too big or too small of a deficit because you really have no idea of what your actual calorie balance is. When that occus don't make threads confused as to why things aren't working. You suck at this whole counting thing, that is the problem.

Please do research on eat more, lose more or women eating 2000+.

The main logic is: if you eat 1200 and sit on your *kitten*, that's cool. If you eat 1200 then burn 1000, you just NETTED 200 calories. Normal body function is 1200+. You should be netting 1200 no matter what you burn.

Lets say you eat 1200 then work out and burn 1200 calories. Your net is 0. You should eat that 1200 calories back because you should be netting 1200. If you eat 1200 then work out and burn 2200 calories. Your net is -1000. You should eat back those 2200 calories to get to a net of 1200 calories.

You can't possible believe that your body can function on ZERO net calorie intake? Or maybe do you?

I suggest readjusting your goal. 2 lbs a week is aggressive. I suggest 1 lb a week.

My TDEE is around 2300 calories a day. I manually set my calories to 1440, which is my BMR (or conversely, my TDEE with no movement aka a couch day). I burn roughly 800-1200 calories a work out. Most days I am netting negative. However, I eat back my calories to try to get at least 1200 net. Overall, on a full day, I eat around 2000-2200. And I'm still at a deficit for the day....when eating back some of my work out calories.

There's no magic formula. Eating them all. Eating none of them. Eating 75% of them. However, YOU HAVE TO EAT SOME OF THEM BACK! Your body CANNOT function on negative or super low calorie intake. You have to give your body enough fuel to get through the work out, enough fuel to power you otherwise, enough fuel to repair your body after the work out and enough fuel for body function. DO YOU REALLY THINK NETTING NO CALORIES IS HOW YOU DO THAT?

:grumble:

I just DO NOT get it!! You spend an hour in the gym working off burning 600 cal and then you just eat them back???
Why would you eat even a LITTLE back??

I thought the point was to burn these calories. WHY does MFP then add them to your food?!

Quite honestly MFP is wrong on this one. As I've stated before, I'm in a medical weight loss clinic and they do NOT want us eating back calories we've burned. Ive never done it and I never will.

Why does it really matter how everybody else chooses to lose their weight? MFP already provides a deficiet if thats what your going by. Having too much of a deficit isn't good and exercise is still a good thing to incorporate in daily for health not just weightloss.

Think of your body as a car.

It takes 5 gallons of fuel to drive from point A to point B. This 5 gallons of fuel is the equivalent of your daily calorie goal based on losing 1-2 lbs per week.

Now once you are at point B, you decide you want to venture on to point C (i.e. you work out). You need additional fuel to make it to point C because the 5 gallons to get from A to B is used up. So you have to add more fuel based on how much further you have to drive (i.e. eat back your exercise calories).

I love this explanation!

I honestly don't get why people don't understand this. You can create a deficit two ways - by eating less or exercising more. If you eat a lot less AND exercise a lot more, you're depriving your body of the fuel it needs to perform basic functions. Your BMR is the amount of calories your body needs to do things like breathe, pump blood, and digest. MFP creates your deficit assuming you're not going to exercise at all. Therefore, if you exercise, you can eat more and still maintain the same deficit. Now if you say you have an active lifestyle because you exercise every day, then your exercise calories will be factored in to your deficit and you shouldn't count your exercise twice.

So I guess you could think about it this way - you apparently want to be netting only 700 calories a day. A lot of people would tell you that's a bad idea. But you can do that two ways - you could just eat 700 calories and not exercise, or as you choose, you could eat more and burn it off with exercise.

Obese people feel better knowing they can eat more after they workout and as long as they're still in a caloric deficit it works but it just makes people feel better about eating more for the most part.

Please look at my pictures, I am definitely not obese . . . this entire sentence is completely nonsensical.

The scariest part about this is his profile says "ISSA Certified Personal Trainer"....... Yikes. :noway:

Because MFP already figures in a reasonable to high calorie deficit when you choose your weight loss goals. If you are shooting to lose 2lbs/wk, and you don't eat back exercise calories, your deficit becomes higher than well established safe limits. You can only lose so much fat in a day, so pushing the boundaries means your additional weight loss beyond a reasonable deficit is going to come from your muscle mass. Not a good choice.

NOT TRUE, you won't start using muscle until your below 6% body fat.

WHERE on earth did you get this little gem of misinformation????:huh: :noway:

Um, because I am freaking starving...

This is why I eat mine back. ALSO- I'm TOTALLY obese. Still eat them. Won't even consider doing anything that means I have to maintain a ridiculously low calorie intake. Ridiculously low is subjective; to me it means less than 1500 calories a day.

for Crystal -