Do I need to stop eating back the calories?

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  • Canuname
    Canuname Posts: 182 Member
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    At the end of the day it is how you feel and look that matters, not what you weigh. If you are losing inches and firming up your body and your fat % is going down you are winning. Weight is just a number. How you feel and what you are able to do is what matters.
  • erickirb
    erickirb Posts: 12,293 Member
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    If you don't think a 20% difference in volume is significant, then you've clearly never had a soda explode in the freezer (and that's only about an 8% volume difference).

    Right, because a huge volume of expanding gas is a good analogy for muscle and fat in the human body.

    20% is a huge difference, that is 1/5, not sure in what instance 20% isn't a large difference. In weight it would be the difference in being 200 lbs or 240, that is quite a large difference to me.
  • SailorKnightWing
    SailorKnightWing Posts: 875 Member
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    If you don't think a 20% difference in volume is significant, then you've clearly never had a soda explode in the freezer (and that's only about an 8% volume difference).

    If your body was made from a rigid metal exterior, that might have been relevant.
    I'd say it's pretty relevant.

    155-lbs-before-and-after.jpg
    (That's not me, I found it on Google.)
  • Canuname
    Canuname Posts: 182 Member
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    I think these pictures of fat and muscle speak to the difference.

    v6Hsr0L.jpg

    fat-v-muscle.jpg

    and what she said ^^^^^^^^^^
  • JLatham325
    JLatham325 Posts: 105 Member
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    Most days I eat back my exercise calories and I still lose weight.

    HOWEVER, I strongly urge you to invest in a heart rate monitor if you don't already have one. Once I got my Polar heart rate monitor, I saw what I was ACTUALLY burning, which was about half of what the machines will tell you that you burned. Once I had a more accurate reading of what I was burning on a day to day basis I dropped the weight
  • lynn1982
    lynn1982 Posts: 1,439 Member
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    If you're adding muscle, you will not see weight loss because muscle weighs more than fat. You will, however, see a decrease in inches.


    HAHAHAHAH...I can't believe I just read this. Are we really still posting this?? One pound of feathers weighs the same as one pound of cement. It's the same with fat and muscle... "dense": People, that i the word you're looking for!!!

    I haven't read any of the other responses, so I may very well be repeating what someone else has said, but from where are you getting your calorie burns? If you're also getting them from MFP then they very well could be off.
  • jclark0523
    jclark0523 Posts: 47 Member
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    There are so many different opinions on this so I really can't say for sure what is the best way to go about it. I did however get my metabolic rate checked professionally so I would be more accurate in what I was targeting. I can only speak for what was recommended for me as male and it has been working. I was told in order to lose 2 lbs a week I should get a 500 cal deficit through diet and create the other 500 through exercise. If I burn more than 500 through exercise, then eat back enough to keep it as close to 500 as possible.
  • goldenopp
    goldenopp Posts: 28
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    Congrats on your loss! Wonderful start of your journey! I myself am at the same loss amount as you and find sometime I need to eat part of the calories back, sometimes I stop losing because I'm not eating enough, and sometimess I need to eat them all back. If you're burning a lot of calories it won't hurt you to eat them, but play with it a little to find how many work for you. Many normal tatctics for some reason don't work on me. Also absolutely measure your inches. When the scale stops usually they start going. Good luck!
  • Daws387
    Daws387 Posts: 46 Member
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    Here's a simple way to look at the whole muscle weighs more than fat FACT. 1 cubic foot of muscle will weigh more than 1 cubic foot of fat. Canuname's illustration is very helpful as well.
  • QuietBloom
    QuietBloom Posts: 5,413 Member
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    come on you know what they mean....

    I don't. The only way that phrase makes any sense as commonly used is if people think they are gaining the same volume of muscle as they are losing of fat, which is ludicrous.

    Apart from that, the densities of the two aren't even all that different, less than 20% apart.

    If you don't think a 20% difference in volume is significant, then you've clearly never had a soda explode in the freezer (and that's only about an 8% volume difference).

    :laugh:
  • QuietBloom
    QuietBloom Posts: 5,413 Member
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    If you're adding muscle, you will not see weight loss because muscle weighs more than fat. You will, however, see a decrease in inches.


    HAHAHAHAH...I can't believe I just read this. Are we really still posting this?? One pound of feathers weighs the same as one pound of cement. It's the same with fat and muscle... "dense": People, that i the word you're looking for!!!

    I haven't read any of the other responses, so I may very well be repeating what someone else has said, but from where are you getting your calorie burns? If you're also getting them from MFP then they very well could be off.

    I think this is sort of quibbling with semantics. Surely everyone knows that a pound is a pound, and what we are talking about here is volume? But maybe it's just me. I was at one time, required to take physics. :sick:
  • Ottawa_Randy
    Ottawa_Randy Posts: 42 Member
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    While our bodies are not as rigid as a can, organs definitely get pushed/moved as body composition increases.
  • Alta2000
    Alta2000 Posts: 655 Member
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    What's your height and current weight?
  • MstngSammy
    MstngSammy Posts: 436 Member
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    Here's a simple way to look at the whole muscle weighs more than fat FACT. 1 cubic foot of muscle will weigh more than 1 cubic foot of fat. Canuname's illustration is very helpful as well.

    Thank you!

    No one was comparing a pound for a pound.


    A 5 gallon bucket of fat weighs less than a 5 gal bucket of muscles



    Sheesh just drop it already. :grumble:

    (^^^^^not directed at quoted poster but the totality of the out of control thread)
  • MstngSammy
    MstngSammy Posts: 436 Member
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    And a friggin pound of muscle is going use a lot less space than a pound of fat. So the person will think they aren't getting anywhere when they step on the scale. But they will in fact be losing inches.

    I came to this thread hoping there was some actual advice being given. All that it has amounted to is a friggin pissing contest.

    But hey! That's how these forums really end up huh? :huh:
  • lynn1982
    lynn1982 Posts: 1,439 Member
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    And a friggin pound of muscle is going use a lot less space than a pound of fat. So the person will think they aren't getting anywhere when they step on the scale. But they will in fact be losing inches.

    I came to this thread hoping there was some actual advice being given. All that it has amounted to is a friggin pissing contest.

    But hey! That's how these forums really end up huh? :huh:


    You're right, but most people can figure out that if their clothes are fitting differently, then something positive is happening even if the scale is not moving. Those are not the people who are going to be posting these topics. Besides, the OP mentioned that she (he? I can't remember) gets her calorie burns FROM MFP. Those are notoriously wrong and it's problematic if one is relying solely on that for how many calories to eat. In any case, no one really seemed to pick up on that one...

    So basically you've decided just to add to the "pissing contest"?
  • QuietBloom
    QuietBloom Posts: 5,413 Member
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    And a friggin pound of muscle is going use a lot less space than a pound of fat. So the person will think they aren't getting anywhere when they step on the scale. But they will in fact be losing inches.

    I came to this thread hoping there was some actual advice being given. All that it has amounted to is a friggin pissing contest.

    But hey! That's how these forums really end up huh? :huh:

    Hangry much?

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