Eating back your burned calories??

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  • Bob314159
    Bob314159 Posts: 1,178 Member
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    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
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    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
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    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
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    I donate my exercise calories to the American Red Cross

    The tsunami victims said thank you! :flowerforyou:
  • zena92
    zena92 Posts: 128 Member
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    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
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    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
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    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
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    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
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    Eat them back!!!! I upped my calories this week and the weight is melting off of me!!!
  • ehoward1009
    ehoward1009 Posts: 4
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    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!!
  • PetulantOne
    PetulantOne Posts: 2,131 Member
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    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.

    And I would never eat if I waited for hunger signals.
  • WendyTerry420
    WendyTerry420 Posts: 13,274 Member
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    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.

    That makes a little more sense. Yes, I would eat more as well. In fact, I have found that it can take 15-20 minutes before my brain figures out that I've eaten and stops sending hunger signals. It seems faster for high carb stuff and slower for fats/proteins. Maybe that's a blood sugar thing. This is where MFP is my saving grace. Pre-logging my food and planning my meals is the way I avoid hunger in a calorie deficit. I hate being hungry. :smokin:
  • amymichelle1226
    amymichelle1226 Posts: 150 Member
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    My goal is also 1200 and I used to eat every single calorie back when I worked out but now I just do it only if I'm hungry. Sometimes I am hungry, sometimes I'm not. It was just ridiculous to me to try and eat just to eat all of my calories back when I wasn't even hungry. I used to just randomly have a soda with my dinner if I still had lots of calories left and I realized that doesn't make any sense.

    On the other hand though, I know about how much I'm going to burn now...so when I go to Zumba every Wednesday night I'll eat more during the day so I don't end up with a ton of calories left.
  • lemartin84
    lemartin84 Posts: 1 Member
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    Don't stop working out! It does not matter so much how many calories you eat or burn as long as you understand your body and maintain a deficit from calories consumed vs. burned each day. You need to have a net deficit of 3,500 calories to lose 1 lb. 1200 calories a day is NOT a required number for everyone just a reminder that falling below 1200 calories a day may rob you of needed nutrients. You will not lose those consumed nutrients simply by going to the gym though.
  • TheCurvyGamble
    TheCurvyGamble Posts: 42 Member
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    What i do and it works for me is log in all my food and eat as close to the calorie goal as i can and then once all the food is logged and i stick to it i then log in all the exercise i did to see what i burned off.
  • jacksonpt
    jacksonpt Posts: 10,413 Member
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    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.

    And I would never eat if I waited for hunger signals.

    Exactly... the other end of the spectrum.
  • akhilton
    akhilton Posts: 57
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    I find this hard also.

    Some days I burn 1000+ calories if I do a long run, that would mean I should eat 2100 calories - but I just don't feel like I could.

    Do people think it's OK to average some of that out? so use the long run calories burnt to absorb any days where you go over by a few?
  • green022
    green022 Posts: 115
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    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.

    And I would never eat if I waited for hunger signals.

    Exactly... the other end of the spectrum.

    I'm setting in between the two now. I eat but after lunch time I don't feel the need to eat anything else I guess you could say I forget about food after I get home and start doing things.
  • jacksonpt
    jacksonpt Posts: 10,413 Member
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    I find this hard also.

    Some days I burn 1000+ calories if I do a long run, that would mean I should eat 2100 calories - but I just don't feel like I could.

    Do people think it's OK to average some of that out? so use the long run calories burnt to absorb any days where you go over by a few?

    Yea, that's generally fine. Our bodies are pretty adaptive and you won't see any meaningful changes on a day-to-day basis. Looking at things weekly is a far better approach.
  • jacksonpt
    jacksonpt Posts: 10,413 Member
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    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.

    And I would never eat if I waited for hunger signals.

    Exactly... the other end of the spectrum.

    I'm setting in between the two now. I eat but after lunch time I don't feel the need to eat anything else I guess you could say I forget about food after I get home and start doing things.

    And that's fine. But if you are doing that and still only hitting 800 or so cals, make sure that when you eat you are eating as many cals as possible. That doesn't necessarily mean a large volume of food (2 tablespoons of peanut butter have more cals than a big chicken breast does), so don't feel like you have to eat piles of food. Just get the most out of the food you are eating.

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