My doctor vs MyFitnessPal and calories

I have a serious issue on my hands my doctor has me on a 900-1100 calorie diet MFP wants me not to go under 1200. However, on days I exercise which is 4-6 days a week and I burn 500-800 and MFP wants me to eat back all of those calories. My doctor (who does specialize in weight loss)says no! She says of course if I feel hungry eat, but I should not "force myself" to eat all of them back if I am not hungry just because "the computer tells me so." But I have seen so many post that my weight lost will stall which it seems like it has. I am down 16 pounds my first month but in the last 2 weeks I have lost 4 so most of the weight I lost was in the first few weeks. I am really concerned that my weight lost will stall. My body fat is dropping so I am not losing muscle which is good. It is really hard to eat back that much calories.

So the question really isn't who to listen to, but more does anyone NOT eat all their exercise calories back and still have steady weight loss?

I do agree that you should maybe get a second opinion because eating 900-1100 calories is going to be hard to stay on. But as far as your weight loss stalling it hasn't if you lost 4 lbs in 2 weeks that's great. The average person looses at a rate of 1-2 lbs per week. Don't expect quick results, it may be quick right away but it will slow down.

Good Luck!

If you don't trust your doctor, get a second qualified medical opinion (from another doctor board certified in the relevant areas).

Don't take medical advice from strangers on the internet with no idea about your specific health issues, and no stake in your success. The advice you'll get on forums is predominantly motivated by furthering the particular way of eating a person has chosen (whether it be paleo, vegan, IIFYM, etc...). Don't take medical advice from a website that cannot take into account your various health issues to which your doctor is privy and can work around.

MFP is an incredible service, and I'd not be without it. But the 'advice' it gives is generic - designed to apply to the widest group possible. If a medical professional I trusted, with appropriate credentials in nutrition and weight loss, told me it wasn't right for me for medical reasons, I'd dump it in a heart beat.

On calories that low, I would eventually expect a stall in weight loss. HOWEVER, with a medical perspective in mind, that's not what your doctor is probably worried about. The four-month supervised weight loss trial is going to see if you legit need a procedure or if your condition can be managed via lifestyle changes. Obviously, your doctor did a physical and checked your overall health with your labs and everything and so going that low in caloric deficit would not pose a medical problem so long as you keep checking in with your doctor to be positive you are not having negative effects (like a high degree ketoacidosis or something fun like that). I'm noticing a lot of people calling your doctor stupid...s/he is not. After the initial four month supervised trial s/he will probably put you on a higher calorie diet depending on what s/he thinks is best for your overall health.

So...yeah...I'd expect plateaus. When I was going below 1,000 calories/day I lost a whole lot of weight in the first couple weeks and then felt like I had to struggle like crazy to go down just a half of a pound. I didn't start losing again until I increased calories, which came with an initial weight increase before finally settling into a slow, steady weight loss.

I'd be skeptical of any doctor who told me it's okay to exist on what amounts to 300-500 calories a day (what you eat-hour workouts=300-500 calories a day.) I'm not saying your doctor is wrong, just that perhaps something has been missed in translation.

First of all, you are losing muscle. You're losing both fat and muscle. Whenever people "lose weight" it's both.

Secondly, well... I don't have a secondly.

I had a lap band and had it taken out. It doesn't guarantee success and I had some problems. I think you're doing great if you exercise and stick to your calories. Don't give up on doing it naturally, the band didn't help me that much, unfortunately.

you are not stalled if you lost 4 lbs in 2 weeks. That is where you need to be. Mfp set you up to lose 1 to 2 lbs a week. Yes you will lose more at first but as long as you are losing that is a positive. I do think you need to eat more then 1200 a day.

I don't understand why people are responding on rather she should go with her doctor or MFP because that was not her inital questions. She just wanted to know if you ate back your calories from exercising and if you did was you still able to lose weight. The rest of her information regarding the doctor was her just giving you some background information. Read, comprehend and then respond.

Maybe it's because the thread title is "My doctor vs MyFitnessPal" and the OP amounts to "is it OK to do what my doctor says, or should I do it the MFP way?"

I have been very terrified of eating all my calories back. However, I have been working hard to do so and I find I have more energy and feel better. I actually think I can burn more and my metabolism is better because I have high enough energy and it feels like an upward swing.
I think its important for the doctor to fully understand the fitness pal and be on board with it and then if he/she is truly versed in nutrition then that doctor can help, especially since it sounds like he/she recommended mfp in the first place.
Good luck. It is scary to eat the calories but I find it really makes me feel healthier.

OP...MFP is a NEAT method calculator (Non Exercise Activity Thermogenesis). This is why when you set your activity level, it says nothing about what kind of exercise you do...just description of your day to day job, etc. Because it is a NEAT calculator, exercise is extra activity that is unaccounted for and needs to be fueled.

NEAT method calculators are commonly used with individuals who are new to exercise and fitness and do not have a consistent routine...tend to miss workouts, etc. It is designed to allow you to lose weight without any exercise whatsoever as the calorie goal includes a deficit for weight loss without exercise being included in your activity level.

It also promotes exercise in that the extra activity needs to be fueled...thus the individual is allotted more calories....thus the individual can eat a bit more. You do have to be careful that you aren't underestimating consumption (common pitfall) and/or overestimating calorie burn with exercise (also common pitfall). Most people who say it doesn't work for them commonly do both of those things and/or have an underlying medical condition which makes any of these calculators irrelevant.

I commonly ate back around 70-80% of my exercise calories when I was "dieting" and lost consistently and steadily according to my goals. I always had ate at least 50% of those calories back. The biggest issue with not eating them back is severe calorie deficits which result in the loss of a lot of lean body mass in addition to the fat. Many people who achieve goal weight on large calorie restrictions are often unhappy with the outcome because they still have a higher BF% relative to that weight because they've lost so much muscle in the process.

I set my activity level to sedentary and generally tried to eat back my exercise calories when I was losing weight (I'm in maintenance mode now after losing 22 pounds in four months--I'm 5'9" and 162 pounds). However, I didn't eat those calories back when I didn't feel like it. On a weekly basis, I was usually slightly under my calorie goal with exercise calories added back because I wanted a margin of error to account for portion measurement, incorrect listings, and other data errors. Not eating when I wasn't hungry helped me do that.

The point is that not forcing yourself to eat when you don't feel like it gives you wiggle room for when you do go over a bit. And while we want to always hit our goals, maybe that is best evaluated on a longer than the one day basis that MFP uses. In any case, I didn't use a solely mechanistic approach that ignored how I felt and it worked fine. Perhaps talk to your doctor to get some clarification so that you know exactly why she made the recommendation, and congrats on your progress--keep it up!

OP - you have as many people voicing opinions.
for you so far , you have done what works.
I am not sure why the doctor has you on such a restrictive diet,

other than needing you to eat less for immediate and rapid health issues

this is what i do - and it works for ME-

I set my activity level to sedentary with 2 lb a week weight loss, MFP gives me 1200 cals, for me , at my weight , 1200 cals is plenty, I exercise and workout DAILY
so I do end up with a calorie defecit, a lot of times I dont even worry about eating that back, because well, at 7 or 8 pm , when I log an hour of mountain biking , thats 2k calories. there is no way I am going to eat that all back