Do you eat back your calories?

jmyoung971
jmyoung971 Posts: 32 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
I have heard some say that they eat back calories and I have heard some say that they dont. I am kind of in the middle. I do not eat all of my calories back but about half. Am I suppose to? I mean I dont mind, that gives me more to eat!! LOL! I was wondering everyones thoughts because I dont want to hinder myself from losing. Thanks everyone!!

Replies

  • mindidily
    mindidily Posts: 196 Member
    If I am hungry I eat them, if I'm not, I don't. But I typically do, because working out, especially all my running, makes me pretty hungry!
  • jmyoung971
    jmyoung971 Posts: 32 Member
    Yeah I am noticing that I want to eat more, especially on the days I burn more calories. Thanks for your input!!
  • TavistockToad
    TavistockToad Posts: 35,719 Member
    Yeah I am noticing that I want to eat more, especially on the days I burn more calories. Thanks for your imput!!

    it also depends on how much you have to lose. the less you have to lose, the smaller the deficit should be.
  • footiechick82
    footiechick82 Posts: 1,203 Member
    Yes. I work out more when I want more food.
  • now_or_never13
    now_or_never13 Posts: 1,575 Member
    I do. Having too high of a deficit will cause more of your losses to come from muscle. Not consuming any of your burned calories will cause too igh of a deficit which isn't always a good thing.

    If you use MFP to calculate calories burned, I would only eat back half of them. Far too often we either overestimate how intense we think we are working out or we use inaccurate numbers. I have a HRM so I eat back amost all of my exercise cals.
  • jmyoung971
    jmyoung971 Posts: 32 Member
    Right now I have 21 pounds left to lose. After that I may change my goal weight to losing 10 more pounds.
  • sophayz
    sophayz Posts: 592 Member
    Yeah I am noticing that I want to eat more, especially on the days I burn more calories. Thanks for your imput!!

    it also depends on how much you have to lose. the less you have to lose, the smaller the deficit should be.

    what do you mean by that ? if you only have 5 lbs to lose you should have a smaller deficit ?
  • agggie550
    agggie550 Posts: 281 Member
    Your body needs a certain amount of calories to function, each person is differnt for me personally, i have to eat 3000+ a day to be able to net 1200-1700 calories, so yes I like to exercise and eat, its a pretty good equation. The only thing i really struggle with is 3000 healthy calories and not just filling it with junk sometimes for the sake of eating.
  • legnarevocrednu
    legnarevocrednu Posts: 467 Member
    Do you let MFP come up with your recommended calories or do you do the TDEE-20% method? If the first, yes, eat most of them back (maybe not all, to leave room for error). If the second, don't.
  • sally_jeffswife
    sally_jeffswife Posts: 766 Member
    I don't eat all of them back usually but I do eat some of them back just cuz I need an extra snack days I work out harder.
  • now_or_never13
    now_or_never13 Posts: 1,575 Member
    Right now I have 21 pounds left to lose. After that I may change my goal weight to losing 10 more pounds.

    You should have your daily goal set to 1lb per week and eat back your exercise cals.
  • now_or_never13
    now_or_never13 Posts: 1,575 Member
    Yeah I am noticing that I want to eat more, especially on the days I burn more calories. Thanks for your imput!!

    it also depends on how much you have to lose. the less you have to lose, the smaller the deficit should be.

    what do you mean by that ? if you only have 5 lbs to lose you should have a smaller deficit ?


    With only a little left to lose your deficit should be set at no higher than 0.5lbs per week. The smaller you are the slower weight will come off. The higher the deficit the more muscle you will lose in the process.
  • jmyoung971
    jmyoung971 Posts: 32 Member
    Oh I was talking about weight, I kind of dont get the deficit thing. What is that? Thanks!!
  • Dibbsa
    Dibbsa Posts: 19 Member
    I've STS this week, despite four runs last week (average 3.5 miles). I've not eaten many exercise calories and wonder what to do this week - I did lose 4.5lbs last week. I think I'll stick to what I've been doing and see what happens next week, if I don't have a decent loss then I may start eating a little more on my run days. I'm by no means over-exercising at all.
  • jmyoung971
    jmyoung971 Posts: 32 Member
    Yeah I use MFP to track calories
  • jmyoung971
    jmyoung971 Posts: 32 Member
    Yeah I do have it set to lose 1 pound a week
  • now_or_never13
    now_or_never13 Posts: 1,575 Member
    Oh I was talking about weight, I kind of dont get the deficit thing. What is that? Thanks!!

    Your deficit is the difference between what you are eating and how many calories your body is using in a day.

    So if your maintance calories are 2500 and you consume 2000 cals than your deficit is 500 cals.
  • caspergirl7
    caspergirl7 Posts: 590 Member
    If I am hungry I eat them, if I'm not, I don't.

    ^ This is what I do!! If your body is hungry eat if not don't worry about it. That's my motto anyway.
  • cwolfman13
    cwolfman13 Posts: 41,865 Member
    You are supposed to with the MFP method. MFP method does not include exercise as a part of daily activity...so if you eat 1,200 calories and then burn 500 calories, you're only netting 700 calories per day which is extremely unhealthy. Do some research on BMR, etc. You should really be netting to your BMR...and at the very minimum, 1,200 calories which would mean you would need to eat exercise calories back.

    The stickies you're supposed to read when you sign up explain all of this to great lengths. Perhaps people should read the instructions before using a tool. MFP's calorie goal already has a built in weight loss deficit built in. You need a caloric deficit from your maintenance level of calories to lose weight...MFP builds that into your goal.

    When you exercise and don't eat back exercise calories, you are creating a mammoth size deficit that is unhealthy and unsustainable for your body. In response, ultimately your body will shut down your metabolism in order to conserve energy for basic functions like heart pumping and breathing and your mammoth sized deficit now becomes your maintenance level of calories....and it's a ***** trying to reboot your metabolism and usually results in gaining a good chunk of weight back before attempting to lose again.

    I swear this is why so many women come back on here and say the scale isn't moving...they can't lose weight, etc. They just think starving themselves is the way to go and have no understanding of the science of all of this.
  • skydiveD30571
    skydiveD30571 Posts: 281 Member
    Do you let MFP come up with your recommended calories or do you do the TDEE-20% method? If the first, yes, eat most of them back (maybe not all, to leave room for error). If the second, don't.

    ^^^ This is the truth. Especially leaving room for error since MFP and machines almost always overestimate calories burned during workouts.
  • jmyoung971
    jmyoung971 Posts: 32 Member
    Thank you Cwolfman!! Makes much more sense now!! And yes you are right!! LOL!! I know I think the less I eat the better!! Thanks again for eveyones post!!

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