Do you "eat back" the calories that you burn?

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  • longleggedgiraffe
    longleggedgiraffe Posts: 27
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    If you are losing then you are doing great!!! Nobody says you have to lose at a certain rate. I have been healthy eating and exercising for 6 months and lost 27lbs. Everyone is built different and will lose at different rates. Just keep up your good work and you will succeed!
  • natewbartlett
    natewbartlett Posts: 1 Member
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    Not eating after 5:30pm, in my opinion, is not good. Unless of course your getting up at and eating breakfast at 2am. If you're working out, your muscles needs protein and other nutrients to repair themselves. If you aren't eating for 12 or 13 hours, you're starving your body of these nutrients. When this happens your body can start breaking down muscle. The less muscle you have, the less fat you burn.

    As someone else posted, this is a myth that you shouldn't eat after a certain time of the day. I personally try to take in a lot of protein right before bed (preferably a slow digesting protein like casein so it lasts through the night), and immediately when I wake up (usually whey). The only thing you may want to be conscious of is your carb intake at night. Your body doesn't really need carbs as much as they are used as the primary energy source. I try to get most of my carb calories out of the way early in the day when I need more energy to complete my workouts and daily activities.
  • Deathangl13
    Deathangl13 Posts: 38 Member
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    If you aren't eating for 12 or 13 hours, you're starving your body of these nutrients. When this happens your body can start breaking down muscle.

    The only thing you may want to be conscious of is your carb intake at night.

    Myth & myth...
  • kjjbean
    kjjbean Posts: 23 Member
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    Thanks for all of the helpful posts. I get it now :happy:

    My question is where does MFP come up with the calories burned?I get most of my exercise from cycling - I ride about 80 -100 miles a week. I also do Pilates and Yoga.

    MFP puts my calories burned for a 90 minute ride @ 1408 & 60 min of yoga / pilates @ 176. There isn't a chance that any of these figures are accurate. So how do I determine realistic calories burned? :huh:
  • maurbor
    maurbor Posts: 14
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    To be able to "eat back" those calories can actually be a motivation to exercise, especially for those of us that are normally not that active.
  • maurbor
    maurbor Posts: 14
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    Have you check other fitness sites to verify their calculations - that should give you a more accurate picture of you think that MFP estimate of calories burned is incorredt.
  • maurbor
    maurbor Posts: 14
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    I am 50 years old 5'4 inches and weigh 165 lbs
    I have a sit down job but walk for about 45 mins 3 days a week plus I bike about 60-90 mins 6 days a week
    my mfp is set at 1300 calories a day
    I do eat back some calories not all of them but occasionally I do eat more of them.
    I have only lost 17 lbs in 105 days but my clothes feel a little loser.
    am I doing ok ??
    so much confusion about all this
    thanks

    105 days equals 15 weeks so in fact you're right on. They encourage us to lose a pound a week. I'm sure that's also the best way to stick to the program. I've only been following the program for about 5 weeks now but I've lost about 5 pounds.
  • slrea2012
    slrea2012 Posts: 31 Member
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    Heck Yes! I would FLIPPIN' starve. 1200 IS NOT ENOUGH! I excercise 5 days a week minimum. Today I road my mountain bike 2.5 hours and burned approx 1000 calories. If I'm hungry, I eat. You don't want to send yourself into starvation mode IMHO.
  • rileysowner
    rileysowner Posts: 8,239 Member
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    This was prompted by other comments that I've seen about if someone has exercised, then they should be incorporating that back into the calories they eat for the day. So that, for example, if I have my calories set to 1200, and burn a further 200, then I'm actually eating 1400 calories that day.

    Am I interpreting this correctly?

    Because, to me, this just doesn't make sense. I don't exercise every day, instead I do a full on workout 3 times a week where I'm burning between 500 - 900 calories. So that would mean that on those exercise days, I could be eating up to 2000 calories, and on the off days back to 1200? If I was to do that, I would be really hungry on those off days as my stomach would be expecting that extra food.

    So is there something I'm missing? Feel free to explain it to me :)

    If you are going to use the MFP calories, they are set to give a reasonable deficit if you eat the exercise calories. If you don't the deficit becomes too large. If you don't want those changes day to day based on exercise, I would suggest setting your calories manually including your intended exercise. A good place to figure that out is http://scoobysworkshop.com/calorie-calculator/ The number you get there is an average amount that you would eat every day which includes your intended exercise activity and thus you don't have to eat back exercise calories.
  • jaylas_mom21
    jaylas_mom21 Posts: 311 Member
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    I may eat a litte of them back but never all of them. I do get more hungry when I exercise so sometimes I feel like I need to eat more.
  • kinkykiddo
    kinkykiddo Posts: 34
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    I 'eat back' most of my calories. I typically burn 700-1500 calories on an average work out day, and I eat majority of them back for the fuel and energy. Sometimes I don't eat them all back, simply because I'm not hungry. But usually I do. I love food anyway, so it works in my favor. ;-p
  • schondell
    schondell Posts: 556 Member
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    Eating back calories you worked off is counterproductive. You work out to BURN calories, if you eat them back just do not work out at all, what would be the point?

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