Eating Back Exercise Calories

Finally the body thinks, wait, if this gets any worse I could be in real trouble here, so it grabs any available energy and stores it as fat, at a higher level than normal. So now not only are you slowing down your daily calories, you are adding extra body fat and reducing muscle size.

First - FMPer of the year to Banks for being our Exercise Cals Go-to so well and patiently! I also wanted to elaborate on this point - You may say "I'm not burning less calories. My metabolism has not changed. I'm not storing any extra fat - i'm not gaining weight! So this cannot be true." BUT, this "save up all the fat" won't really kick in until you are eating again. So, if you are still on your "starvation mode" diet of 200 - 600 (or even negative!) net calories a day, your body may not be able to store up any weight at this time because it is truly trying to survive - but if you hit your goal weight and start eating more, or just up your cals in general - that is when you will see some pretty drastic weight gain. It's part of why people gain back their weight after dieting.

First - FMPer of the year to Banks for being our Exercise Cals Go-to so well and patiently! I also wanted to elaborate on this point - You may say "I'm not burning less calories. My metabolism has not changed. I'm not storing any extra fat - i'm not gaining weight! So this cannot be true." BUT, this "save up all the fat" won't really kick in until you are eating again. So, if you are still on your "starvation mode" diet of 200 - 600 (or even negative!) net calories a day, your body may not be able to store up any weight at this time because it is truly trying to survive - but if you hit your goal weight and start eating more, or just up your cals in general - that is when you will see some pretty drastic weight gain. It's part of why people gain back their weight after dieting.

Why thank you!

I would like to interject my thoughts on the point of when and how your body stores fat though. While I agree, moving from starvation to a more healthy diet too quickly will absolutely kick off fat storage for a while, until the body adjusts to it, that doesn't mean your body won't store fat even in starvation. It will, remember, the body can only process a fixed number of calories at any one time, and in starvation that fixed number lowers, so if you eat a meal that's say (for example) 100 calories more than your body can use, that 100 calories would be stored as fat. Now make no mistake, I am dumbing down the concept really severely to make it easy to understand, but essentially that's what happens.

In reality there's no such thing as 100% for your body, I.E. you don't go from "normal" calorie burn to "starvation mode" like crossing a line, it's a gradual move, just as your body doesn't go from normal fat storage to hoarding, it just takes what it doesn't need and stores it, it's just that when you are in what we commonly believe is a state of starvation, the amount of food your body needs at any one time is smaller, so the amount of energy converted to fat becomes greater, even though the total volume of food is the same as it was before.

These facts are why I always say to slowly move either up or down with calories. I.E. in 50 or 100 calorie increments with about a week after each move to allow your body to adjust.

Put it this way, if you instantly lower your calorie amount by 500 or 600, after 2 or 3 days your body's gonna panic for a little while (unless you have really high body fat %, in which case the game completely changes), and you may end up not losing weight for a couple of weeks until your body gets used to the new calorie amount. This is especially true for those who choose to ONLY do diet changes and no new exercise, why? Because exercise forces the body to release more fat burning hormones, which will minimize fat storage as it keeps the metabolism artificially high.

I know it's a lot, and really it takes a while to get a good grasp, but keep reading stuff guys, if it sounds counter-intuitive, then it probably is, or you probably don't have the whole picture. Question everything, keep learning, knowledge is the BEST way to win this fight!

I've noticed that the only way for me to lose weight is NOT to eat back my exercise calories. Eating back your exercise calories works for some people and for some people it does not. I think its all related to your metabolism but I've eaten 1200 calories and burned 500 at the gym and do not eat it back and do not notice a slow down in my metabolism whatsoever.

I'm the same way. For a few months, I tried eating back my exercise calories, and I plateaued for those months. I quit eating back the calories and I started losing again.

Every body is different. What works for some may not work for others. You just have to go through a trial and error process and find what works for you.

I totally get what you are saying, I do. What I was saying is that a lot of people I've seen post on these boards will freak out if they don't eat their exercise calories in that one day and assume they will immediately go into starvation mode. I understand that if you consistently practice this then it will have negative effects on your body long term - I just don't think that if I didn't eat all my calories in one night that I will immediately go into starvation mode. I don't believe that.

... and you shouldn't.
And, if I may, that's not what SHBoss is saying.
Nutrition, body chemistry, etc are all extremely complex subjects. A lot of the information about it has been dumbed down here for the laymen MFP users (edit to add -- that includes me! :embarassed: ). Unfortunately, a lot of folks take the watered down versions and run with them which leads to the propagation of a lot of information that isn't exactly accurate. If you hang around here long enough you'll know which posters are posting valuable information and which posters aren't.

Totally off topic. You go girl! Look at those pants!!

actually i completley argree with her. I asked some people why i wasent losing weight and they told me to up my calories. I did that and i gained two pounds. So i went back to eating my 1200 cals. and i lost 3 pounds because of going back to the 1200 calories. read a biggest loser book they will say take your body weight times 7 and that is what you should be eating. It says nothing about calories. and the book has the influence from doctors and exercise experts.

In 90% of the cases I can explain EXACTLY why that happened to you. It has to do with my reply a little ways up, and how people change their calories too fast, but it's exhausting explaining this stuff.


I'll say this, not specifically to you Lara, but to anyone who's had this type of issue, and I've seen it quite a bit on here in the past.

It takes the body time to adjust to a new calorie deficit, and by that I mean it can take a month or more for your body to adjust to a 300 calorie drop, So yeah, if you change your calories upward, many times you will see an initial weight gain if you do it all at once. I'd bet anything that if you did 50 calories a week for 6 weeks you wouldn't see that rise, because you're giving your body time to adapt to the new calories.

Also, remember this, if you WERE in starvation, you probably wouldn't know it, but your body does, so when you up your calories, your body's going to immediately hoard them, making you gain, or it could just be fluid weight from the change in calories.

this is why I don't like using weight as a weight loss measure, it's just so arbitrary.

Totally off topic. You go girl! Look at those pants!!

:blushing:
I went to the restroom at work and was like "holy crap! I have to take a picture of this!" :laugh:

it IS great picture jlb! Gratz to you!

May I add something that may explain why 'eating your exercise calories' works for some people and doesnt' for others?

I think that very few of us know exactly what our maintenance calories are or TDEE. If I think I'm active when I'm really lightly active and I think I burned 400 calories on the treadmill, but only burned 200, then my true deficit may be miniscule or non-existant. So if I'm over-estimating what I should be eating, then I really need that exercise deficit to be able to lose weight.

Talking about that..wouldn't it be nice to have the profession or formation of the person who's answering? So we will KNOW who to believe!!!:happy:

I don't think it would help. In fact, I think it would make it even more dangerous. A degree/job does not an intelligent/informed person make (necessarily).

Well, if you see a profile like Iceprincess, I think you can suppose she knows what she's talking about!

Aww...thanks. I try. Sports medicine, science, and this junk is my passion. I LOVE it. I read as much as I can and try to keep on top of things because I teach the class. I need to be up to date.

bump :glasses: