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

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Replies

  • sweetchildomine
    sweetchildomine Posts: 872 Member
    I don't know why people keep debating over this. To me it's simple. If I'm hungry, I eat them. If I'm not, I don't lol.
  • midschool22
    midschool22 Posts: 1,267 Member
    Let's say you're 5'4" and weigh 180lbs and lightly active. You would need to consume about 2200 calories in a day to maintain your weight. Not lose. Not gain. Maintain. If you limit your calories to 1200 per day, you're already at a deficit of 1000 calories per day. Now, if you burn 200 of those 1200 calories, you're down to a net of 1000 calories per day - or a deficit of 1200 calories per day. So if you eat back those 200 calories you burned, you'll still have a 1000 calorie, daily deficit. AND you'll still be getting the added benefit of moving your body and working your muscles which will help with fat loss.

    This. And I eat mine back.
  • mandylooo
    mandylooo Posts: 456 Member
    if you enter your food consumed & the exercise done, my fitness pal subtracts the workout from your allowed food - so it seemed like common sense to me.

    Plus anything below 1200 net cals is kicking you into starvation mode, it's just going to backfire later on =/

    I wouldnt say under 1200 is starving most days im under that and i dont feel starved

    You don't have to feel "starving" (aka have an appetite) for it to be unhealthy. You wanna be healthy, don't you?
  • BerryH
    BerryH Posts: 4,698 Member
    I eat back every single delicious calorie I burn, it's how MFP is designed. You still remain at your target calorie deficit but don't feel hungry and have the energy to fuel your next workout. All my friends who are long-term MFP success stories eat them back too.
  • chrissy3064
    chrissy3064 Posts: 6 Member
    As I see it, MFP bases your maintenance calories as approx 1800, ie to not lose or gain and based on no exercise, this is what your body needs for all your organs etc to function and get around the day.

    To lose weight and depending on your goals, it caluclates what you should aim for to lose weight so that you have a deficit of cals in and cals out that lets you lose weight. Eg if you eat only 1200 cals you have a 600cal deficit.

    So yes you can "eat back your cals burned", (but you dont need to eat them ALL back!).

    for example if you burn 150cals exercising and ate this back, then cals out = 1800 + 150 = 1950. Cals in = 1200+ 150 = 1350. Leaving a deficit of still 600cals!

    Some people get upset when they go over their 1200 limit, but forget that maintenance is still 1800. If you are still staying under the 1800 they are not gaining weight, just losing weight at a slower rate. So instead of say losing a pound a week it might take you two weeks.

    Some other schools of thought out there is that by breakng up your low calroies diets with higher calories intake on one or two days is good for keeping your metabolism guessing and making it work harder. Ie on weekends treat yourself, eat more, but remember you need to exercise more too, which you should be able to with more time! then go back to your low calorie diet during the week. this is often the reason behind weight loss plateau. your body needs change and eating more is a change!

    your body's hunger is highly related to your exertion levels. you shouldn't be any hungrier on the days you dont exercise because you ate more on the days you did. just need to find better foods that keep you satisfied and within your calroie goals. on exercise days yes you should be hungrier but you dont need to eat back all your cals. im amazed at how much some people burn! and i dont think i could literally fit all that food in if i tried to eat back what they burn!!!

    however the more fitter you get and the more muscle you build the higher your metabolism will be even when resting. so you may find yourself that as time passes that yes you do need to eat more. but not all foods are equal in cals so find foods that you add without adding a whole heap of cals.
  • dannyjones26
    dannyjones26 Posts: 22
    We should all answer questions in this way :wink:
  • wellbert
    wellbert Posts: 3,924 Member
    I have been.
    Then I started gaining weight again.

    I thought I was overestimating calories burned, so I got a Polar HRM. According to the Polar, I'm actually burning MORE than I thought by a good amount.

    So, starting as of mid last week or so my current plan is to eat above my BMR gross, (2400-2500 calories) and not consume any exercise calories.
  • neverstray
    neverstray Posts: 3,845 Member
    Ok, so all this advice is great. I completely understand why you should eat back your calories. But I don't (usually). I hope that this doesn't have a negative effect later on when I'm closer to my goal weight. From what I can tell, people have success either way and it depends on the indivdual. I don't feel tired or hungry. If this becomes the case I will increase my calorie intake.
    My main reason for not eating back the calories I burn though is that I usually do my exercise at night when the kids are in bed and I try not to eat later than 5:30pm. I don't know how many calories I'm going to burn and sometimes something gets in the way of this planned exercise so I would be over for the day if I ate more.

    What might happen, and I see it a lot here, is you might plateau because you aren't eating enough and your body will stop letting go. It will hold on to all that you fed it and you will no linger be able to lose weight. When that happens, you will have to eat more to lose more. That's just how it works. But, it may or may not happen. I'm betting it will, so, if it does, just remember,

    One method to combat that is to very slowly increase your calories until you start to lose again. So, increase 100 calories every week. It might take 6 weeks or more, but at some point, your body will be happy with you eating more and will release the fat. Then just maintain that level of eating.

    Also, just so you are more educated, when you eat has nothing to do with it. I usually eat dinner around 9pm. It doesn't matter. That is a myth.

    Cheers.
  • tinkerbell_61
    tinkerbell_61 Posts: 3 Member
    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
  • Erisad
    Erisad Posts: 1,580
    I try to eat back as many as possible but if I'm not hungry, it's not happening. I hope I don't plateau. That'll make me sooo mad. >.<
  • longleggedgiraffe
    longleggedgiraffe Posts: 27
    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
    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

    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
    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
    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
    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
    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
    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: 8,330 Member
    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
    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
    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
    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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