Eating back your burned calories??

green022
green022 Posts: 115
in Health and Weight Loss
I'm not eating enough calories as of now I've been told so I'm taking it up to 1200 but I get a lot more with my workouts that are logged. Eat back those calories or don't? Not losing weight as quick as before either need a little advice.
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Replies

  • lgladybug
    lgladybug Posts: 68 Member
    Well everyone's body is different. If your weight loss has already stalled from not eating enough calories I'd say you should try eating at least 1200 calories regardless if you work out or not to prevent your body from going into starvation mode.
  • L1zzydarcy
    L1zzydarcy Posts: 15 Member
    I have been eating back what I've earned and have steadily lost just over a pound a week.

    I would love to lose the weight quickly, but ultimately I want to make sure I am doing something that is sustainable, through both the weight loss process and my life going forward. I would be concerned that I would burn myself out by being tired and cranky from not eating enough when I'm working out.
  • purpleipod
    purpleipod Posts: 1,147 Member
    I eat back my calories because MFP expects me to net 1300. If I exercise and don't eat them back, I'd only be netting about 800. That's not even close to enough.
  • SoDamnHungry
    SoDamnHungry Posts: 6,998 Member
    I eat them back. And it's awesome!
  • BSBgirl337
    BSBgirl337 Posts: 119 Member
    I normally eat back some of them if I'm hungry. But ALWAYS eat at least 1200!
  • jacksonpt
    jacksonpt Posts: 10,413 Member
    Probably.

    When you calculated your goal of 1200, did you factor in exercise into your activity setting? If so, you don't need to eat them back. If not, you should be eating them back. IMO, at 1200 per day, you should be eating them back regardless.

    And no... not everyone is different. We aren't all little snowflakes. Our bodies are remarkably similar. Give it a healthy deficit and you'll lose weight. Give it an unhealthy deficit and you may or may not lose weight, but given enough time, bad things will happen.

    Read these for more info...

    http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/383956-exercise-calories-explained
    and
    http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/818082-exercise-calories-again-wtf
  • jessikamellott
    jessikamellott Posts: 3
    I've been told by nutritionists never to eat less than 1200 callories a day. I've also been on several different weight loss programs in my life and have found that when loosing weight it sometimes fluctuates as to how much I loose each week. If you feel hungry having the extra calories from the exercise will help. If you don't feel hungry don't use them.
  • pastryari
    pastryari Posts: 8,646 Member
    MFP is set up so that you do NOT have to exercise to lose weight. It calculates a deficit into your calorie goal. Please educate yourself on what you are signing up for. If MFP's system didn't intend for you to eat back your exercise calories, it wouldn't tell you to eat them back.

    This is a great read: http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/818082-exercise-calories-again-wtf
  • jacksonpt
    jacksonpt Posts: 10,413 Member
    If you feel hungry having the extra calories from the exercise will help. If you don't feel hungry don't use them.

    Unless you know the OP, this is bad advice. If I ate when I was hungry, and ate until I wasn't hungry... I'd never stop eating. Relying on hunger to determine if/when you should eat is fine for some, but terrible for others.
  • KenosFeoh
    KenosFeoh Posts: 1,837 Member
    I gained weight doing that before, and I was only eating back about half of my exercise calories.

    I don't know why, but I suspect that since BMR, TDEE, and calories burned are estimates, the figures are wrong for some of us.
  • JenRunTriHappyGirl
    JenRunTriHappyGirl Posts: 521 Member
    Some days I eat them back and some days I do not. You do not have to eat them back, but if you are hungry then eat them! With this method I have lost on average 1 pound a week... lately it has been more because I have been working out more and not eating them back. I am doing that because I have been slacking for a little while and I want to get out of those bad habits.
  • jacksonpt
    jacksonpt Posts: 10,413 Member
    I don't know why, but I suspect that since BMR, TDEE, and calories burned are estimates, the figures are wrong for some of us.

    This is an important point. You take the numbers MFP gives you and use them as starting points. After a month or so, see what kind of progress you've made and adjust the numbers as necessary.
  • green022
    green022 Posts: 115
    If you feel hungry having the extra calories from the exercise will help. If you don't feel hungry don't use them.

    Unless you know the OP, this is bad advice. If I ate when I was hungry, and ate until I wasn't hungry... I'd never stop eating. Relying on hunger to determine if/when you should eat is fine for some, but terrible for others.

    Thank you for all the advice guys! And used to it would have been horrible because I was always hungry BUT now I eat normally around 800 calories and then work out in the mornin and at night. I'm full and satisfied throughout the day so I'm a little confused about what to do.
  • SideSteel
    SideSteel Posts: 11,068 Member
    I don't know why, but I suspect that since BMR, TDEE, and calories burned are estimates, the figures are wrong for some of us.

    They are. So are calories burned through exercise, so are calories ingested through food intake.
  • cwolfman13
    cwolfman13 Posts: 41,865 Member
    Bottom line is that you should never really net below your BMR. If your setting in MFP includes exercise (like mine) then don't eat them back. If your settings don't take your exercise into account, absolutely, eat them back PLEASE! From what I've seen, the 1,200 calorie thing is usually from the "sedentary" so anything you do outside or a normal day (like exercise) you would log as accurately as possible and eat those back.

    Generally speaking, MFP is set up based on a base activity level that doesn't include exercise so most people should be eating their exercise calories back. Also remember that this is a tool based on estimates...it's not a hard and fast science...you'll likely have to play with your numbers a bit.
  • MsLee502000
    MsLee502000 Posts: 9
    I wouldn't eat back all the calories. I see people on here with a calorie goal of 1200, consuming 2600 calories, exercising and burning 1500 calories and having a net of 1100 calories consumed and not losing any weight. I think they are eating way to much and overestimating the effort they have put into the exercise. Just because you work our for 30 minutes doen't mean you have actually burned as many calories as this web site says. It depends on if you have gone into cardio burn or not. You can be doing the treadmill for 30 minutes but going slowly. You haven't increased your respiration at all. So you really haven't burned that many calories. i guess you need one of those monitors to read the actual calories burned.

    My point being until you actually "know" how many calories you are actually burning I wouldn't eat back all the calories you burned during exercise.
  • Chief_Rocka
    Chief_Rocka Posts: 4,710 Member
    I donate my exercise calories to the American Red Cross
  • jacksonpt
    jacksonpt Posts: 10,413 Member
    If you feel hungry having the extra calories from the exercise will help. If you don't feel hungry don't use them.

    Unless you know the OP, this is bad advice. If I ate when I was hungry, and ate until I wasn't hungry... I'd never stop eating. Relying on hunger to determine if/when you should eat is fine for some, but terrible for others.

    Thank you for all the advice guys! And used to it would have been horrible because I was always hungry BUT now I eat normally around 800 calories and then work out in the mornin and at night. I'm full and satisfied throughout the day so I'm a little confused about what to do.

    First, stop working out. Second, eat more calorie dense foods - full fat dairy, beef, nuts/seeds... cook with oil, etc.
  • MsLee502000
    MsLee502000 Posts: 9
    Eating only 800 calories is dangerous. Up it to 1200 calories.
  • Soulshaa
    Soulshaa Posts: 19 Member
    I was told that this site & other sites like this, warn us to eat the 1200 calories (or whatever your plan says) to protect themselves from lawsuits. If they told you it was ok to eat less & someone died, they could go after this site.
    I'd say, if you are not hungry, don't eat. Just have common sense & eat enough so you stay healthy. :)
  • Bob314159
    Bob314159 Posts: 1,178 Member
    MFP is set up so that you do NOT have to exercise to lose weight. It calculates a deficit into your calorie goal. Please educate yourself on what you are signing up for. If MFP's system didn't intend for you to eat back your exercise calories, it wouldn't tell you to eat them back.

    This is a great read: http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/818082-exercise-calories-again-wtf

    Where exactly does MFP tell you that you should eat back calories?
  • jacksonpt
    jacksonpt Posts: 10,413 Member
    MFP is set up so that you do NOT have to exercise to lose weight. It calculates a deficit into your calorie goal. Please educate yourself on what you are signing up for. If MFP's system didn't intend for you to eat back your exercise calories, it wouldn't tell you to eat them back.

    This is a great read: http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/818082-exercise-calories-again-wtf

    Where exactly does MFP tell you that you should eat back calories?

    1) Mods have responded to posts saying just that... that MFP is designed to log exercise and eat back cals.
    2) When you log exercise cals, they then get added to your daily calorie goal. It's not hard to infer from that.
  • WendyTerry420
    WendyTerry420 Posts: 13,274 Member
    If you feel hungry having the extra calories from the exercise will help. If you don't feel hungry don't use them.

    Unless you know the OP, this is bad advice. If I ate when I was hungry, and ate until I wasn't hungry... I'd never stop eating. Relying on hunger to determine if/when you should eat is fine for some, but terrible for others.

    Seriously, you are *always* hungry? That must really suck, I think. :ohwell:

    I got fat from eating even when I wasn't hungry, and from eating second breakfast like a hobbit, as well as extra desserts. I always eat when I'm hungry. Hunger is painful. lol
  • WendyTerry420
    WendyTerry420 Posts: 13,274 Member
    I donate my exercise calories to the American Red Cross

    The tsunami victims said thank you! :flowerforyou:
  • zena92
    zena92 Posts: 128 Member
    If you feel hungry having the extra calories from the exercise will help. If you don't feel hungry don't use them.

    Unless you know the OP, this is bad advice. If I ate when I was hungry, and ate until I wasn't hungry... I'd never stop eating. Relying on hunger to determine if/when you should eat is fine for some, but terrible for others.

    Thank you for all the advice guys! And used to it would have been horrible because I was always hungry BUT now I eat normally around 800 calories and then work out in the mornin and at night. I'm full and satisfied throughout the day so I'm a little confused about what to do.

    First, stop working out. Second, eat more calorie dense foods - full fat dairy, beef, nuts/seeds... cook with oil, etc.

    wait...did you just say stop working out? i wouldn't go that far :p
  • jacksonpt
    jacksonpt Posts: 10,413 Member
    If you feel hungry having the extra calories from the exercise will help. If you don't feel hungry don't use them.

    Unless you know the OP, this is bad advice. If I ate when I was hungry, and ate until I wasn't hungry... I'd never stop eating. Relying on hunger to determine if/when you should eat is fine for some, but terrible for others.

    Seriously, you are *always* hungry? That must really suck, I think. :ohwell:

    So maybe "never stop eating" was a bit of an overstatement... but I'd easily be double or maybe triple my daily calorie goal if I ate when I was hungry and didn't eat when I wasn't hungry. I can put away a TON of food before my brain tells me to stop.
  • jacksonpt
    jacksonpt Posts: 10,413 Member
    If you feel hungry having the extra calories from the exercise will help. If you don't feel hungry don't use them.

    Unless you know the OP, this is bad advice. If I ate when I was hungry, and ate until I wasn't hungry... I'd never stop eating. Relying on hunger to determine if/when you should eat is fine for some, but terrible for others.

    Thank you for all the advice guys! And used to it would have been horrible because I was always hungry BUT now I eat normally around 800 calories and then work out in the mornin and at night. I'm full and satisfied throughout the day so I'm a little confused about what to do.

    First, stop working out. Second, eat more calorie dense foods - full fat dairy, beef, nuts/seeds... cook with oil, etc.

    wait...did you just say stop working out? i wouldn't go that far :p

    If she's netting 800 cals and struggling to get above that... yes, that's absolutely the first thing I would do. Unless she has other health conditions that trump basic nutritional needs.
  • MaraDiaz
    MaraDiaz Posts: 4,604 Member
    I donate my exercise calories to the American Red Cross

    :laugh:

    I eat some back if I feel fatigued or light headed. Otherwise I have stopped doing so for two reasons:

    1. A recent study shows that, particularly for women, even good Heart Rate Monitors can be wildly inaccurate (and I can't afford a good one!).

    2. My BMR is now so few calories away from 1200 that if I ate all my exercise calories back it would take over a year to lose the last of this weight and I would snap if I had to eat under maintenance that much longer. Or my poor burdened spine would.
  • MrsLehman24
    MrsLehman24 Posts: 204 Member
    Eat them back!!!! I upped my calories this week and the weight is melting off of me!!!
  • ehoward1009
    ehoward1009 Posts: 4
    I did Weight Watchers a number of years ago and fell into the same plateau that you have-I was eating all of my points most days and on other days was eating under my points, and yet my weight loss simply plateaued. I sat down with my counselor who looked at my food log and saw that I was eating a nearly completely fat free diet. You need fat to burn calories and lose the weight, so take a look back at your food journal and see if you're eating fats-healthy fats of course, but you need fat to help you lose the weight. Give it a shot-adding fat back into my diet helped me lose an additional 12lbs!!

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