Eating back calorie advice needed

Katetw
Katetw Posts: 188 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
Hi Everyone! I'm pretty new here...started my diet on 2/21/13. For that first week I lost 3lbs which I am pretty happy with (though I know it's mostly water weight). Double posting this here and on the fitness board because I thought maybe different people look at different message boards.

Anyway, I decided to mix in some exercise as well--I generally do the elliptical.

My problem is this: when I log the exercise, then I see all those extra calories I get to eat, and hungry or not, I eat them.

I don't want to eat back all my exercise calories because my whole goal is to lose the weight, so that's just making it like I didn't exercise. (And believe me when I tell you, I'd rather eat less and not exercise, but I know it is good for me in other ways as well so I am determined.) I have considered not logging the exercise but I like to see that add up over the week.

Does anyone else have this problem? How do you deal with it? Not log the exercise? Any other ideas?

Thanks!

Replies

  • CoraGregoryCPA
    CoraGregoryCPA Posts: 1,087 Member
    Look at my profile.

    I don't believe in eating them back in fear of overestimating. I'd advise eating half of them back in order to not overestimate and accidentally overeating.

    In January, I logged all of my exercise and ate the calories back, it's hard not to. Lost no weight. In February, I did not log my exercise because I didn't want to eat them back. Lost 5.7 lbs (but some of it might be built up from the exercise and strength I gained in January) In March, I'm logging my exercise but I'm not eating them back. However, I have increased my daily calories over the 3 months as well. Try different things and see what works for you. Log or not log, eat or not eat. But make this fun and liveable, if it's hard, then try something else. Life doesn't have to be hard :) Good Luck!
  • bajoyba
    bajoyba Posts: 1,153 Member
    What is your calorie goal for the day, and how many pounds did you tell MFP you wanted to lose per week? If you are using the goal that MFP set for you, you should be eating most or all of your exercise calories back (if you're worried about over-estimating calories burned, you can always get a HRM). That may sound counter-intuitive, but the net amount MFP gives you to eat every day already includes a large enough calorie deficit to lose weight, and if you're aiming to lose 2lbs a week, you don't want a larger deficit than that. If you don't eat your exercise calories back, then your deficit is larger than needed and your body may not get the energy and nutrients it needs to function properly.
    If you're having trouble reaching your calorie goal, consider adding healthy calorie dense foods like nuts, seeds, peanut butter, and avocado. Food is fuel, and losing weight quickly is not necessarily the healthiest, most sustainable way to do it. :smile:
  • Katetw
    Katetw Posts: 188 Member
    Look at my profile.

    I don't believe in eating them back in fear of overestimating. I'd advise eating half of them back in order to not overestimate and accidentally overeating.

    In January, I logged all of my exercise and ate the calories back, it's hard not to. Lost no weight. In February, I did not log my exercise because I didn't want to eat them back. Lost 5.7 lbs (but some of it might be built up from the exercise and strength I gained in January) In March, I'm logging my exercise but I'm not eating them back. However, I have increased my daily calories over the 3 months as well. Try different things and see what works for you. Log or not log, eat or not eat. But make this fun and liveable, if it's hard, then try something else. Life doesn't have to be hard :) Good Luck!

    Thank you! I'm glad to hear other people have had this struggle and some ways you are dealing with it. Very helpful. Thanks :) And good luck to you as well.
  • kimchiandblue
    kimchiandblue Posts: 11
    it's not just you! I had the same mentality when I first started MFP and still lost weight. 40 pounds under 4 months to be exact! it is proven that if you eat right after your workout, your body will burn the calories at a much faster rate than any other time you eat. so whether you eat 1/2 of those calories back, all of them, or even eat more than what you burned... you're fine.
  • Katetw
    Katetw Posts: 188 Member
    What is your calorie goal for the day, and how many pounds did you tell MFP you wanted to lose per week? If you are using the goal that MFP set for you, you should be eating most or all of your exercise calories back. That may sound counter-intuitive, but the net amount MFP gives you to eat every day already includes a large enough calorie deficit to lose weight, and if you're aiming to lose 2lbs a week, you don't want a larger deficit than that. If you don't eat your exercise calories back, then your deficit is larger than needed and your body may not get the energy and nutrients it needs to function properly.
    If you're having trouble reaching your calorie goal, consider adding healthy calorie dense foods like nuts, seeds, peanut butter, and avocado. Food is fuel, and losing weight quickly is not necessarily the healthiest, most sustainable way to do it. :smile:

    I am 4' 9.5" and 153 lbs at the start (now 150). My goal is at least 115, WHEN (not if this time!!) I get there I will decide what to do. My mom thinks I should be 95 but that was just too drastic a goal for me.

    Anyway, I told MFP I wanted to lose 1 lb a week. My cal goal should be less than 1200 to get that but it says 1200 because they don't want people going under, I suppose? So I am already overeating a little bit I think. I have no problem eating all my calories, I always want MORE! haha! But I am actually eating all the things on your list already. It's more just that I don't want the exercise to have been a total waste of time.

    I know this won't be a quick thing. I heard that 0.5-2.0 is a healthy weight range, I am shooting for 1lb a week. Not too drastic.
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  • Katetw
    Katetw Posts: 188 Member
    it's not just you! I had the same mentality when I first started MFP and still lost weight. 40 pounds under 4 months to be exact! it is proven that if you eat right after your workout, your body will burn the calories at a much faster rate than any other time you eat. so whether you eat 1/2 of those calories back, all of them, or even eat more than what you burned... you're fine.

    Good to know. Thanks!
  • Crawflowr
    Crawflowr Posts: 106 Member
    I've always eaten all my exercise calories back. Having made sure I've estimated them as accurately as possible. I've checked the numbers MyFitnessPal gives against what an HRM says and for me MFP tends to give slightly lesser numbers so I'm happy to use the MFP numbers now. I reached my goal nearly a year ago but have continued to log to help me with maintenance. I find as long as my net calories are close to my goal and even a few hundred over, then I maintain the weight.

    The point is that in order to lose weight all you need worry about is what you eat. You do Exercise for so many other reasons, such as fitness, muscle tone etc. Eat your exercise calories without shame and feel good about the exercise you've done, it is never a waste of time even when you do eat all the calories back that you used.
  • treagal
    treagal Posts: 264 Member
    I support eating them back, with that said I like to leave about half uneaten. But hey, I am always happy if i don't go over my calories! Sometimes I eat them all and sometimes half.
  • kimchiandblue
    kimchiandblue Posts: 11
    it's not just you! I had the same mentality when I first started MFP and still lost weight. 40 pounds under 4 months to be exact! it is proven that if you eat right after your workout, your body will burn the calories at a much faster rate than any other time you eat. so whether you eat 1/2 of those calories back, all of them, or even eat more than what you burned... you're fine.

    Can you reference where this is proven? I'd love to read it. Thanks.

    I actually learned this while studying at the Culinary Institute of America, as my focus was on Nutrition. We all experimented with pre and post-workout meals for one month and we found that eating after a (strength and cardio) workout gave us up to a 1lb. higher deficit than eating a big meal before. Also, you can check out any fitness or training blogs and research further on the topic. But generally speaking, it's suggested to eat within an hour or so after your work out.
  • Katetw
    Katetw Posts: 188 Member
    The point is that in order to lose weight all you need worry about is what you eat. You do Exercise for so many other reasons, such as fitness, muscle tone etc. Eat your exercise calories without shame and feel good about the exercise you've done, it is never a waste of time even when you do eat all the calories back that you used.

    Good to know. I think I have been looking at exercise in an inaccurate way. So thanks for helping me see it in a better light. And congrats on hitting and maintaining your goal weight!!!!
  • dianamatienzo
    dianamatienzo Posts: 127
    First off, I would never refer to it as a "diet." If you want lasting results, you must make lasting changes and remind yourself of that :) Secondly, I wouldn't log the exercise! I don't enter the exercise I do, at least. If you're burning more calories that you consume, that's when you'll use up fat and shed pounds. I know it can be hard when you see how many calories you burned because you'll just want to reward yourself with food, but that's more of a punishment that a reward. So I say don't log in exercise;you should keep your body active. Don't stop exercising for the sake of not eating more. Hope this was helpful!!! :)
  • bwogilvie
    bwogilvie Posts: 2,130 Member
    Since you let MFP set your calorie needs based on your age, height, weight, gender, and lifestyle, it has calculated the deficit that you need to lose weight, WITHOUT exercise.

    If you exercise, you're creating an additional deficit. If it's a matter of 50-100 calories, that's not a big deal. But if you do a long, hard workout, you can get a serious deficit that could leave you without the nutrients you need for your muscle, nerve, bone, blood, and other cells and tissues to maintain themselves. That's why you should "eat back" the calories. I think "eating back" is a misleading expression; I prefer the word "replenish," since that's what you're doing: replenishing the energy stores you used to exercise, ON TOP OF the deficit that's built into your diet.

    The problem is how to accurately measure the calories you use exercising. A lot of databases and exercise machines seriously overestimate the calories consumed when exercising. My Garmin Edge 800 is pretty accurate, and estimated the calories I consumed on my bike ride yesterday at 1027 (90 minutes of hard cycling, much of it against a stiff headwind). MFP's database says that someone of my weight should have burned 1392 calories doing that. Another heart rate monitor I have used in the past would have claimed 1500. Obviously, if I used the MFP estimate, I would be eating 365 extra calories - almost half of my daily deficit of 750.

    You could deal with the problem by getting an accurate heart rate monitor and using it when you exercise (though you'd then need to figure out which ones are accurate). Or you could do as follows:

    - Record and "eat back" 75% of the calories that you expend in exercise.

    - Monitor your progress. If, after a few weeks, you are losing the amount of weight you want, and you're accurately recording your food, that implies that your workouts are only burning 75% of the calories that MFP (or whatever you use) estimates. Good! Keep using the 75% factor.

    - If, on the other hand, you're losing faster, that implies that 75% was too small; depending on the magnitude, try 80, 90, or even 100%. If you're losing more slowly than you want, then the 75% was too big, and you need to use a smaller percentage.

    This method presumes that you're faithfully recording everything you eat, and that the calorie information you have is accurate. Sometimes you'll just have to guesstimate, especially when traveling.

    Of course, your weight fluctuates daily depending on water, salt, and fiber intake, and other factors having nothing to do with calories. Using an exponentially weighted average can help you filter out the noise and focus on the trend, as John Walker explains in "The Hacker's Diet" (http://www.fourmilab.ch/hackdiet/e4/) - not for the math-phobic, though!

    Diana's point about the word "diet" is great. "Diet" has two meanings in contemporary English: a temporary food plan aimed at losing weight (e.g., Atkins Diet, Grapefruit Diet) and a long-term pattern of eating (Mediterranean diet, vegan diet, meat-and-three-veg diet). I think the word is OK if you think of it in the second sense, but not the first.
  • Katetw
    Katetw Posts: 188 Member
    Thank you all so much for your help! I truly appreciate you taking the time to read my post and offer some suggestions. I think I will try the 75% thing. I don't have $ for a HRM and I use an elliptical at the local gym. I do put in my weight and age but I doubt it is accurate.

    Thanks everyone!

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