Eating back exercise calories??
Options
cshmom21
Posts: 11 Member
Hi Mamas! I'm still trying to figure out what magic number will work for me to start losing weight! Question: do you "eat back" your exercise calories? With exercising and EBFing I am hungry all the time! Thanks.
0
Replies
-
I do if I am burning more than 400 calories and feel exceptionally hungry. I will add protein shake or something that gives me a good recovery. I am in it for the long, slow haul in terms of weight loss, though. This might be the wrong approach if you can balance supply with faster results on the scale.0
-
Yes - because if you don't eat the exercise calories or the breastfeeding calories it can leave you with too large of a deficit - making you grumpy, tired, and hungry!0
-
Agreed. I learned that when I was exercising, I needed to eat back at least 1/2 of my exercise calories otherwise the scale wasn't moving and I was STARVING. Now that I'm pumping, I stick to the same concept. I make sure to eat at least 1/2 or 3/4 of my pumping calories to make sure that I'm eating enough and preventing my body from hanging onto the excess weight. It has been a slow process, but my little guy isn't going to need me to make his food forever, so I'm just happy and content producing milk for him. Just be mindful of the types of foods you are eating. I'm very guilty of eating the wrong foods on most occasions....unfortunately.....0
-
Always!!0
-
Yes, I eat back at least half. Exercise machines really exaggerate your calorie burns. MFP does, too, though not as badly, and HRMs also do but are probably as accurate as we can get without doing a VO2 max test. My issue with HRMs is that they don't deduct the calories you'd have burnt just sitting around - in other words, they're not deducting what you're burning over and above your regular activity by exercising.
As an example, let's say I burn 100 calories an hour just sitting around or doing normal activity. Then I work out for an hour, and my HRM says I burned 500 calories. Well, I'd have burned 100 calories if I hadn't exercised, so I've really only burned an additional 400 calories. (I hope that makes sense.)
As such I don't take my HRM, which is about as accurate as a layperson can get, as the Gospel Truth, so I don't eat back all of my exercise calories. I generally eat back between 50% and 75% back.0 -
how to you know what your pimping calories are?! Im so lost with this ... thanks0
-
how to you know what your pimping calories are?! Im so lost with this ... thanks
Breastmilk is generally considered to be 20 calories/ounce. So if you pump 5 ounces, then that's 100 calories. When you're BFing you have to estimate because obviously you can't know exactly how much you baby is drinking. (Though if you had a medical-grade scale, you could weigh baby before and after, and the number of ounces heavier s/he is = how many ounces ("a pint's a pound the world around").)
I hope that helps!0
