PLEASE READ, I need some advice!
BRANN80
Posts: 46 Member
I decided that when I exercise I will not eat the "earned" calories MFP gives me, but to stay at my 1275ish range (unless I get hungry then I will eat something or drink a lot of water). I feel like it's okay because I have a job where I don't move around much (front desk at a hotel) like right now for instance, I sit down and play on the computer. I feel like I don't need all those extra calories if I'm not being all energetic anyways, right? Another reason why I want to stay at my goal calories is because MFP doesn't always calculate calories burned correctly...
Is this a good thing or a bad thing?
-Brandie
Is this a good thing or a bad thing?
-Brandie
0
Replies
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I decided that when I exercise I will not eat the "earned" calories MFP gives me, but to stay at my 1275ish range (unless I get hungry then I will eat something or drink a lot of water). I feel like it's okay because I have a job where I don't move around much (front desk at a hotel) like right now for instance, I sit down and play on the computer. I feel like I don't need all those extra calories if I'm not being all energetic anyways, right? Another reason why I want to stay at my goal calories is because MFP doesn't always calculate calories burned correctly...
Is this a good thing or a bad thing?
-Brandie
do it for a couple of weeks and see how you feel. if you feel lethargic alot, you need more calories. if you're hungry alot, you need more calories.0 -
The nutritionist that I have been working with tells me NOT to eat back calories burned. So I would imagine it's fine.0
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Its a hard question to answer and your likely to get pages upon pages of people debating with each other. Id say ( and im no expert ) try it out and see how it works for you, give it a couple weeks. You can always adjust things if you dont like the results.0
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Agree with ALL. Don't eat them back. If you figure the body was designed to run on 2000Kcal that is taking into account that we move around ALL day and HUNT our own food. we aren't doing that any more. I went to Ranger School and ate only 1900Kcal a day and moved ALL day 15+ miles a day with an 80lb ruck sack.. I lost 38lbs in 62 days but it didn't kill me. You'll be fine with 1200kcal and moderate exercise. It will get you to your goal.0
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I think you're plan in just fine. It's what I decided to do, as well and I started seeing/feeling results soon after. Don't go to bed starving (hungry, eh...starving keeps me up), and don't deprive yourself or nutrients (if you are hungry, swig some milk, eat some almonds, or something small to tide you over until bedtime, or your next meal).
Good luck!0 -
Sounds like a plan to me. Good luck
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The nutritionist that I have been working with tells me NOT to eat back calories burned. So I would imagine it's fine.
To be fair, when nutritionists calculate you calorie intake, they account for anticipated exercise in their formula, which would make sense not to eat them back. MFP does not account for exercise unless a you enter it in, which is why they suggest to eat it. For someone who isn't familiar with how MFP works and uses a different formula it is easy to get confused.
As for what you are planning or not is right, depends really on what works for you. Personally I would eat less, but not necessarily none. MFP can be inaccurate for calorie burns. While in a huge fan of eating, I don't always eat all of my exercise calories. I tend to underestimate my calories burned and overestimate calories eaten.0 -
Awesome advice! Thanks guys! (:0
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I decided that when I exercise I will not eat the "earned" calories MFP gives me, but to stay at my 1275ish range (unless I get hungry then I will eat something or drink a lot of water). I feel like it's okay because I have a job where I don't move around much (front desk at a hotel) like right now for instance, I sit down and play on the computer. I feel like I don't need all those extra calories if I'm not being all energetic anyways, right? Another reason why I want to stay at my goal calories is because MFP doesn't always calculate calories burned correctly...
Is this a good thing or a bad thing?
-Brandie
It depends. What kind of exercise are you doing, and what are you're goals from that?0 -
I decided that when I exercise I will not eat the "earned" calories MFP gives me, but to stay at my 1275ish range (unless I get hungry then I will eat something or drink a lot of water). I feel like it's okay because I have a job where I don't move around much (front desk at a hotel) like right now for instance, I sit down and play on the computer. I feel like I don't need all those extra calories if I'm not being all energetic anyways, right? Another reason why I want to stay at my goal calories is because MFP doesn't always calculate calories burned correctly...
Is this a good thing or a bad thing?
-Brandie
It depends. What kind of exercise are you doing, and what are your goals from that? And what are you actually netting? If you are burning most of what you are eating I would say it isn't a good idea. If you're only burning like 100 calories I'd agree to testing it out for a few weeks.0 -
I decided that when I exercise I will not eat the "earned" calories MFP gives me, but to stay at my 1275ish range (unless I get hungry then I will eat something or drink a lot of water). I feel like it's okay because I have a job where I don't move around much (front desk at a hotel) like right now for instance, I sit down and play on the computer. I feel like I don't need all those extra calories if I'm not being all energetic anyways, right? Another reason why I want to stay at my goal calories is because MFP doesn't always calculate calories burned correctly...
Is this a good thing or a bad thing?
-Brandie
It depends. What kind of exercise are you doing, and what are your goals from that? And what are you actually netting? If you are burning most of what you are eating I would say it isn't a good idea. If you're only burning like 100 calories I'd agree to testing it out for a few weeks.0 -
I decided that when I exercise I will not eat the "earned" calories MFP gives me, but to stay at my 1275ish range (unless I get hungry then I will eat something or drink a lot of water). I feel like it's okay because I have a job where I don't move around much (front desk at a hotel) like right now for instance, I sit down and play on the computer. I feel like I don't need all those extra calories if I'm not being all energetic anyways, right? Another reason why I want to stay at my goal calories is because MFP doesn't always calculate calories burned correctly...
Is this a good thing or a bad thing?
-Brandie
It depends. What kind of exercise are you doing, and what are your goals from that? And what are you actually netting? If you are burning most of what you are eating I would say it isn't a good idea. If you're only burning like 100 calories I'd agree to testing it out for a few weeks.0 -
I decided that when I exercise I will not eat the "earned" calories MFP gives me, but to stay at my 1275ish range (unless I get hungry then I will eat something or drink a lot of water). I feel like it's okay because I have a job where I don't move around much (front desk at a hotel) like right now for instance, I sit down and play on the computer. I feel like I don't need all those extra calories if I'm not being all energetic anyways, right? Another reason why I want to stay at my goal calories is because MFP doesn't always calculate calories burned correctly...
Is this a good thing or a bad thing?
-Brandie
Food for thought:
If you only eat 1,275 calories for the day and you burn, let's just say 400 calories, here's the math on that-
1,275 - 400 = 875. So your body is designed to LIVE off of 875 calories a day when "THEY" say the absolute bare minimum number is 1,200 for women? I'm curious as to what your BMR is (which is what you would burn should you end up in a coma or bedridden and need to be fed via tube) and your TDEE (the amount of calories you need to fuel your body daily (to allow you to do normal daily activities like get out of bed, take a shower, cook a meal, clean house, walk the dog, drive to the store, etc. etc...you get the picture).
I strongly suggest you do a search on Google about BMR and TDEE to understand how eating at 1275 AND exercising is going to have the opposite effect...eventually. What's going to end up happening is you're going to lose weight and, more importantly, LEAN MUSCLE. Muscle is what you'll need to help burn the fat, even on days when you don't work out. Don't believe me? Research to learn for yourself.
I research a lot of stuff that people say on here to 1. find out if it's true and 2. find out if it's right for me. You should do the same because what's happening is people are being told things to pacify them and not telling them the truth. You need to eat in order to lose weight HEALTHILY and not lose lean muscle.0 -
Jackie- I am burning about 500-600 calories from my exercises (says MFP). I do the workout class called "Body Attack". It's a high impact cardio workout for an hour about 4 times a week and I also walk on the treadmill at around 3.0-3.5 mph for an hour about 1 to 2 times during the week and that burns abour 200+ calories. Add me and you can see my diary. I'm not sure what you mean by "what am I actually netting"?
-Brandie0 -
Mzedavis- I burn approximately 500 calories when I workout doing the Body Attack workout class about 4 times a week and I walk on the treadmill for an hour at the pace of about 3.0-3.5 1 to 2 times a week. When I calculate my food in my diary and my workouts I don't look at the "earned" calories, I look at my actually goal calories and eat that... Mind you, I'm just starting this today...
-Brandie0 -
as long as you continue seeing results and do not feel deprived, it is fine, you should never eat when you are not hungry0
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I met with my dietician today and she actually told me NOT to eat my calories back.0
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You can check out this similar question: http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/775382-do-you-lose-weight-when-you-eat-exercise-calories-back0
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I met with my dietician today and she actually told me NOT to eat my calories back.
Again, see my above post. Dietitians typically use a different where exercise is already accounted for. MFP doesn't.
If following the advice of a dietician, then follow what they say. But If not, MFP uses a different formula so the advice does not necessarily translate.0 -
Jackie- I am burning about 500-600 calories from my exercises (says MFP). I do the workout class called "Body Attack". It's a high impact cardio workout for an hour about 4 times a week and I also walk on the treadmill at around 3.0-3.5 mph for an hour about 1 to 2 times during the week and that burns abour 200+ calories. Add me and you can see my diary. I'm not sure what you mean by "what am I actually netting"?
-Brandie
First off, sorry about the multiple posts, MFP is acting crazy tonight. But I bumped your post a bunch lol. You're right MFP does overestimate calories. If you don't have a heart rate monitor, I would suggest cutting there numbers by about half anyway. By netting I mean, if you ate 1200 calories, than burned 500 for the day, you are only netting 700 calories for the day. What I was getting at is if you are burning a great deal you do need to eat at least some of them back, or you are going to hit a wall very quickly. I'll add you now 0 -
as long as you continue seeing results and do not feel deprived, it is fine, you should never eat when you are not hungry
I agree. If u feel deprived for too long it will mess with ur metabolism and possibly cause u to binge.0 -
Mzedavis- I burn approximately 500 calories when I workout doing the Body Attack workout class about 4 times a week and I walk on the treadmill for an hour at the pace of about 3.0-3.5 1 to 2 times a week. When I calculate my food in my diary and my workouts I don't look at the "earned" calories, I look at my actually goal calories and eat that... Mind you, I'm just starting this today...
-Brandie
That's the problem and where people get confused A LOT. Your GOAL calories is what you net AFTER exercise. If you go to your Goals page, you will see in fine print (there's an asterisk next to Net Calories Consumed per Day to read at the bottom) that it says Net Calories Consumed = Total Calories Consumed LESS Exercise Calories. If you aren't exercising, then you need to be eating a little bit more. The Net Calories Goal is what you should net after eating and exercising for the day. MFP already worked your deficit into your names based off your TDEE, which is the Normal Daily Activities number.0 -
as long as you continue seeing results and do not feel deprived, it is fine, you should never eat when you are not hungry
This is just not true. I'm not trying to start a fight here, but if I didn't eat when I wasn't hungry, I'd only eat like once a day. Hunger pains can easily be covered up by lots of things. If I drink a lot of water I don't feel hungry. If I work out really hard I don't feel hungry, but that is when my body needs the fuel the most.0 -
as long as you continue seeing results and do not feel deprived, it is fine, you should never eat when you are not hungry
This is just not true. I'm not trying to start a fight here, but if I didn't eat when I wasn't hungry, I'd only eat like once a day. Hunger pains can easily be covered up by lots of things. If I drink a lot of water I don't feel hungry. If I work out really hard I don't feel hungry, but that is when my body needs the fuel the most.
Jackienb3 makes a good point.
Last time around this mountain (-50lbs prior to an accident and relapse into the arms of food), I was religious about getting 450-600cals of exercise every day (get an HRM as the calculations on MFP are averaged and generally too high). I ate approx. half back (starting from 1200); so I would often have between 1400-1500 cals per day.
This time around, I want to make sustainable life choice, not just wait loss choices, so I am taking it a lot slower... eating back about 75% and starting at 1350 (I've been getting around 1700 daily). Just food for thought from someone who has seen both success and failure. Moderation is always best.0 -
I think it depends... let me explain - As mentioned in post from other MFPers you need to continue to consume enough calories to keep your body going healthy as you want to lose body fat and not muscle. With that said, the human body uses its resources wisely and when there is a lack of food the body preferentially uses the fat stores as its primary source of energy. There was one interesting case study where a severely obese man undertook a [medically supervised] 382 day fast to lose over 200 lbs and kept the weight off for at least 5 yrs after the fast ended. ****THIS WAS MEDICALLY SUPERVISED and I would NOT advise anyone to under go any long term fast without the constant supervision of a medical physician!**** HOWEVER, your body also requires specific vitamins, minerals and essential amino acids (AA's); so even if you body has plenty of fat to use for energy it will start to break down the muscles if it is not getting those important essential amino acids. In the case study I mention the man was given a daily multivitamin, electrolytes and yeast (The yeast here serves as the source of essential AAs). So to make a long story short - when you are burning a lot of extra calories from exercise -> you need to make sure your body is getting all of the essential AA's, vitamins and minerals it needs. Most people get these from a balanced diet, the problem is when many people restrict their calorie intake they also by default restrict important nutrients. SO if you dont want to eat back your calories I think that is fine as long as the calories you do eat are balanced correctly - Proteins are the main source of AA's and some important vitamin and minerals, veggies and fruit also contain important vit./minerals. Hope this helps! I've included info below to the case study mentioned:
PS- I also want to emphasize that the paper below is only a case study looking at one man, not an actual scientific study, there are no controls, treatment groups and therefore no statistics so for those reading please do not attempt to starve yourself. I only mention it to illustrate what the human body is capable of
Features of a successful therapeutic fast of 382 days' duration
W. K. Stewart, Laura W. Fleming
Postgrad Med J 1973;49:203-209 doi:10.1136/pgmj.49.569.2030 -
It probably won't hurt to do it occasionally, but I find that I loe the most eating back about 1/2 of the exercise calories. MFP has me set at 1230, most days I earn around 800-900. I eat somewhere between 1450 and 1600 most days. This has me losing 2-3 lbs a week, so maybe a bit fast, but I just switched to MFP in September and really cranked up the activity. I still have about 50lbs to lose, so I fully expect it to slow down to about 1lb a week soon.0
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The nutritionist that I have been working with tells me NOT to eat back calories burned. So I would imagine it's fine.
I bet you that your nutritionist would never put you on a 1200 calorie diet though!!!
It's NOT fine!!! Your body can't live off so little calories when she is using it up to exercise. There's nothing left to keep her metabolism going...0 -
Only read this now - this is CRAZY!!! You need to fuel your body!! Your body needs energy to fuel your metabolism - without it, you could simply end up doing lasting damage because your body will simply adjust to this little net calories.Jackie- I am burning about 500-600 calories from my exercises (says MFP). I do the workout class called "Body Attack". It's a high impact cardio workout for an hour about 4 times a week and I also walk on the treadmill at around 3.0-3.5 mph for an hour about 1 to 2 times during the week and that burns abour 200+ calories. Add me and you can see my diary. I'm not sure what you mean by "what am I actually netting"?
-Brandie0 -
Only read this now - this is CRAZY!!! You need to fuel your body!! Your body needs energy to fuel your metabolism - without it, you could simply end up doing lasting damage because your body will simply adjust to this little net calories.Jackie- I am burning about 500-600 calories from my exercises (says MFP). I do the workout class called "Body Attack". It's a high impact cardio workout for an hour about 4 times a week and I also walk on the treadmill at around 3.0-3.5 mph for an hour about 1 to 2 times during the week and that burns abour 200+ calories. Add me and you can see my diary. I'm not sure what you mean by "what am I actually netting"?
-Brandie
this is not true.
when you fill up your gas tank, do you drive 10 miles and then think to yourself, "oh no, i have to go get more gas because my car is about to stall!". of course you don't. you have plenty of other fuel stored in the gas tank for your engine to use. that's the same with the human body. the human body stores fat (fuel) for use in the future when daily caloric intake doesn't meet daily needs. until you get very low on fat reserves, your body has plenty of "stored energy" to draw on when needed. your body doesn't magically learn how to defy the laws of physics by figuring out a way to do the same things while burning fewer calories. it may get more efficient at doing some things, but your metabolism will continue along at pretty much the same rate until the body can no longer provide the necessary energy for it. then your body will stop doing some things to conserve energy. that happens at 5%-6% body fat for men. that's very lean.0 -
I think it depends... let me explain - As mentioned in post from other MFPers you need to continue to consume enough calories to keep your body going healthy as you want to lose body fat and not muscle. With that said, the human body uses its resources wisely and when there is a lack of food the body preferentially uses the fat stores as its primary source of energy. There was one interesting case study where a severely obese man undertook a [medically supervised] 382 day fast to lose over 200 lbs and kept the weight off for at least 5 yrs after the fast ended. ****THIS WAS MEDICALLY SUPERVISED and I would NOT advise anyone to under go any long term fast without the constant supervision of a medical physician!**** HOWEVER, your body also requires specific vitamins, minerals and essential amino acids (AA's); so even if you body has plenty of fat to use for energy it will start to break down the muscles if it is not getting those important essential amino acids. In the case study I mention the man was given a daily multivitamin, electrolytes and yeast (The yeast here serves as the source of essential AAs). So to make a long story short - when you are burning a lot of extra calories from exercise -> you need to make sure your body is getting all of the essential AA's, vitamins and minerals it needs. Most people get these from a balanced diet, the problem is when many people restrict their calorie intake they also by default restrict important nutrients. SO if you dont want to eat back your calories I think that is fine as long as the calories you do eat are balanced correctly - Proteins are the main source of AA's and some important vitamin and minerals, veggies and fruit also contain important vit./minerals. Hope this helps! I've included info below to the case study mentioned:
PS- I also want to emphasize that the paper below is only a case study looking at one man, not an actual scientific study, there are no controls, treatment groups and therefore no statistics so for those reading please do not attempt to starve yourself. I only mention it to illustrate what the human body is capable of
Features of a successful therapeutic fast of 382 days' duration
W. K. Stewart, Laura W. Fleming
Postgrad Med J 1973;49:203-209 doi:10.1136/pgmj.49.569.203
I was so amazed by this 382 day fast I looked up the study out of curiosity. It deserves repeating that this was a HEAVILY CONTROLLED MEDICAL STUDY. DO NOT TRY THIS AT HOME! I found a link to the study online but I wont post it here because I don't want to trigger anyone who might become upset with such a controversial study.0
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