HELP! Confused w/ Exercise Cals! & HRM Advice

bearsie84
bearsie84 Posts: 10 Member
in Introduce Yourself
Hello All,

I am really really struggling trying to wrap my brain around eating back my exercise calories. In the beginning I wasn't able to make it to the gym as much- stuck to my 1200 calories and the weight was coming off well. I seem to have halted my weight loss- and am wondering if it is because I am ending the day to far negatively.

I dont understand why one would eat back calories burned at the gym- what is the point of working out? I am a gym rat and would never give it up- but just cannot grasp this concept. :noway:

I am also looking to buy a better HRM- the ones that are advertised on this site are pretty cool. Anyone have any recommendations?!?

Replies

  • tonya0587
    tonya0587 Posts: 32
    im confused as well about eating back the calories that you burn. it seems to me thats the whole reason you work out is to burn the calories so eating them back doesnt make sense.
  • Hulk0511
    Hulk0511 Posts: 407 Member
    Hi. I use the Polar FT4 it is my first one and i love it. It seems to be accurate and I already want to upgrade to the FT7 I believe that one is totally waterproof so I can use it for swimming. Check out their website thay have all kinds of info and models there, Good luck!!
  • maylosew8
    maylosew8 Posts: 1
    Hi, I'm new to the boards. My medifast counselor recommended mfp, I'm liking it so far!

    On the comments below, I just noticed when I added my exercise, it added back into my daily count. That confuses me as well. I'm on 1200 calories a day and 100 g carbs. I don't want to eat more than that regardless of the amount of exercise I do. Is this something you can turn off but still track the exercise?
  • Hulk0511
    Hulk0511 Posts: 407 Member
    Also what I gather if you eat some of your calories back so you net 1200 calories and no less, it keeps your body from going into starvation mode. if it does you wont lose weight. I usually stay between 1200-1500 net calories and have lost 20 lbs in the past 50-60 days
  • Pebble321
    Pebble321 Posts: 6,423 Member
    Almost every calorie calculator out there asks you to "eat back exercise calories" they just don't separate them out like MFP does.
    If you find another site to calculate your daily calories they will usually ask you to nominate how active you are - if you say you are moderately active then the calories they suggest already have "exercise calories" built in.
    MFP does it differently - they ask you to nominate how active you are without including exercise (so you wouldn't choose moderately active, you would probably choose sedentary or lightly active) and then you add those cals back later.

    The numbers are going to work out about the same - it's just a different way of getting to the same end point. Bear in mind that every calorie calculator is an estimate anyway - all you can do it pick one system that makes sense to you and try it out for a month or so and see how those numbers are working out for you.

    Personally I'm not a big fan of eating the bare minimum you need to stay alive - that doesn't seem sensible or sustainable to me, so adding in more cals when i exercise more makes perfect sense to me.
  • 1dce
    1dce Posts: 238 Member
    well here's how it works, when you put your info in your calorie goal is based on no activity, so when you add in activity it allows more calories, so if your goal is to lose weight and it has you at 1200 calories that's for doing nothing all day, so if you workout then you burn more calories which puts you below the recommended weight loss goal so they allow you to make it up... hope that helps
  • mgarcia8001600
    mgarcia8001600 Posts: 3
    I'm still confused. I ran 10 miles and burned 1600 calories. I really don't think I should be eating 3600 calories to stay out of starvation mode. I ate 1700 calories today but burned 1600. That would put me at only eating 100 for the day? Is that right?

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