Eating back my exercised calories!

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  • belindanjumo
    belindanjumo Posts: 109 Member
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    You should use common sense. Eat a little more if you're hungry and weigh yourself several times a week to see what your weight is doing. Do not automatically eat an additional 400 calories because some device or app said you burned 400 calories.

    Some people here act as if weight loss is a perfect mathematical formula. First of all, the data often is inaccurate, secondly, it is more complicated than every calorie is the same. It's a complex process that is not entirely understood. But for ordinary folks like ourselves, creating a reasonable calorie deficit with a balanced diet is a good enough rule of thumb, if we adjust our eating based on our observations.

    In addition, exercise is good for your health, but it is not critical for weight loss. You should treat it as one more healthy thing you do for yourself, not as a license to overeat.

    I actually am not keen on exercising because I want to overeat. I have been told i have a high cholesterol level and I am overweight. I am only 26 so my desire to lose weight is rather crucial to me, so thus i see exercise as a means of loosing the weight. But you made perfect sense when u stated that the machines maynot be entirely accurate. I guess the best thing to do is not to eat as much. By that i mean eating exactly what i lost through exercise.
  • belindanjumo
    belindanjumo Posts: 109 Member
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    This is almost exactly my situation. Yesterday I weighed almost 4 lbs more.. but it's just water fluctuation in my opinion. Like everyone else said, there's no way you can gain that much fat or muscle in a day or two.

    As far as eating back the exercise calories, I sometimes eat my calories back, sometimes I don't. We're similar weight and height also. Mine told me I was under my calorie suggestion and gave me the warning.. but if you're not hungry, you're not hungry. Your body will tell you if it's hungry. If it is, snack on something healthy. I'm listening to my body now more than anything. And I've actually adapted to the 1200/cal a day. It's easier now as my body has gotten accustomed to it.

    Also, good luck to you! :)

    I tried eating only when am hungry. I found that I ate little because I am not usually hungry, so I didn't even lose much weight, though i lost like 0.5kg per week but then i platued. So i included exercise lost a good amount of weight, started eating my calories back and gained nearly all back. I know several people have said it might be water weight and all but am not totally convinced as i took my measurements, and i had really added. But yea thanks for the wishes
  • cwolfman13
    cwolfman13 Posts: 41,867 Member
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    With MP, you are supposed to eat back exercise calories; the difficulty is that it is very easy to overestimate burn, particularly if you are using a database to give you burn results and/or you do a lot of exercise that is NOT steady state cardio. A reasonable rule of thumb is to allot for estimation error...many people, including myself, eat back 50% to 70% depending on how confident I am.

    It is also important to weigh and measure your foods as well. Underestimation of intake is a whole other problem.
  • thekcpiper
    thekcpiper Posts: 12
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    Good info everyone, I will no longer be concerned when it tells me to eat more calories :) lol

    after all, the goal is to burn more than I eat! How can I do that if I'm compensating for calories lost during exercise?

    At a minimum, I eat back to my BMR and then 2/3 of the remaining exercse calories above that. I do this to account for food labeling inaccuracies (which tend to slightly underreport) and/or overreporting of calories burned by HR monitors, GPS watches, etc.
  • belindanjumo
    belindanjumo Posts: 109 Member
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    With MP, you are supposed to eat back exercise calories; the difficulty is that it is very easy to overestimate burn, particularly if you are using a database to give you burn results and/or you do a lot of exercise that is NOT steady state cardio. A reasonable rule of thumb is to allot for estimation error...many people, including myself, eat back 50% to 70% depending on how confident I am.

    It is also important to weigh and measure your foods as well. Underestimation of intake is a whole other problem.

    Wao ive actually never thought of buying a food scale. Good advice!
  • Wildflower0106
    Wildflower0106 Posts: 247 Member
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    Good info everyone, I will no longer be concerned when it tells me to eat more calories :) lol

    after all, the goal is to burn more than I eat! How can I do that if I'm compensating for calories lost during exercise?

    Because mfp gives you a goal that includes a deficit without exercise. Exercising increases that deficit which is not always a good thing, especially if maintaing LBM is important to you. Why would someone join a site without having a clue how the site works?
  • cwolfman13
    cwolfman13 Posts: 41,867 Member
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    Good info everyone, I will no longer be concerned when it tells me to eat more calories :) lol

    after all, the goal is to burn more than I eat! How can I do that if I'm compensating for calories lost during exercise?

    Your logic assumes that you're trying to create a weight loss deficit with exercise. With MFP, this is not the case; your weightloss GOAL includes a massive deficit from a maintenance level of calories...this is also NET of exercise because MFP is a NEAT method calculator. It's logic like this that has so many women here vastly undereating and netting well below 1,000 calories on a regular basis. This can be extremely dangerous; learn how to use this tool.

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