Eating back calories - why? Confused!

Options
snufs
snufs Posts: 78
in Health and Weight Loss
I know this is a topic that has been discussed multiple times, but I find it easier to start a new topic myself and then go from there, hoping that someone responds with a good link or a simple answer that I could really understand. The thing is, I don't really get why you have to eat back calories you've burned by workouts during the day? I mean, isn't the whole thing about getting fewer calories in than what's going out? It's all just so confusing to me!

I mean, I have my daily calorie-intake set on 1350. Today I've burned a bit over 400, and I'm planning to do some strength-training before the day is over, and later on eat something light after my workout although I've already eaten my 1350 cals today. Then is it okay for me to eat, say, 1600 calories today? But then it doesn't make sense 'cause I'd eat more than my daily intake should be! But people seem to be doing this all the time when working out? Ah, I just don't get it, please be kind and explain!

Ps, don't bother checking my diary if you don't understand Finnish or Swedish .. I have very little stuff in English there.
«1

Replies

  • knra_grl
    knra_grl Posts: 1,568 Member
    Options
    MFP already puts you in a calorie defecit to lose weight - I would try to eat at least enough to put you back to your base calories and maybe a little more.

    Look in apps and check what your BMR is it will be higher than the base calories that MFP has calculated for you.
  • sam_m187
    sam_m187 Posts: 27 Member
    Options
    I always get confused at thr concept that of eating back exercise calories, in my head the point of working out is to burn the extra, surely eating them back defeats the purpose?
  • nomeejerome
    nomeejerome Posts: 2,616 Member
    Options
    http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/818082-exercise-calories-again-wtf
  • AmyRhubarb
    AmyRhubarb Posts: 6,890 Member
    Options
    Ye, the daily goal MFP gives you already has a deficit built in - meaning you could eat all your calories every day, do zero exercise and you'll lose weight. Burning more cals off through exercise creates a much larger deficit, too large, and can cause you problems in the long run.

    You are supposed to eat them back, bringing your net cals to or very near goal each day.
  • Ninkyou
    Ninkyou Posts: 6,666 Member
    Options
    Your deficit is already built in. When you exercise, in order to maintain your deficit, you have to eat those calories. It's not just for the sake of eating either, it's to fuel your body for the extra work it's doing.

    So for example, you daily goal is 1350 calories. You exercise 400 calories.

    1350+400=1750 calories to consume
    1750(consumed)-400=1350 NET

    Your deficit is therefor the same.

    If you didn't eat those calories, it would look more like
    1350-400=950 NET

    Your body needs a heck of alot more than 950 calories to sustain normal bodily functions.
    By creating too large of a deficit, you're not giving your body enough to work on. That's why it's recommended you eat your exercise calories. Because you still have the deficit MFP set for you.
  • sloth3toes
    sloth3toes Posts: 2,212 Member
    Options
    http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/818082-exercise-calories-again-wtf

    This ^ should be the link you are looking for.
  • snufs
    snufs Posts: 78
    Options
    Ye, the daily goal MFP gives you already has a deficit built in - meaning you could eat all your calories every day, do zero exercise and you'll lose weight. Burning more cals off through exercise creates a much larger deficit, too large, and can cause you problems in the long run.

    You are supposed to eat them back, bringing your net cals to or very near goal each day.

    This is absolutely the shortest, simplest yet BEST answer I've read! Thank you so much, I finally get it now!

    And thank you all for sharing, and the link was also super!
  • Mr_Knight
    Mr_Knight Posts: 9,532 Member
    Options
    Just fair warning - the calorie burns in your diary look..."exaggerated"....if you're going to eat them back, be very very careful. Eating back exercise calories that don't actually exist is one of the most common source of problems in the MFP community.

    And if you're going to say "but it's from an HRM!" let me just pre-emptively kick your virtual *kitten*. :laugh: HRMs do not give accurate burns for intervaly type exercise like "tabata" training.
  • TeaBea
    TeaBea Posts: 14,517 Member
    Options
    I always get confused at thr concept that of eating back exercise calories, in my head the point of working out is to burn the extra, surely eating them back defeats the purpose?

    MFP gave you a calorie defict with ZERO exercise....when you exercise you increase the deficit more. Too large a deficit results in fat+muscle loss.....as opposed to (mostly) fat loss.

    The degree of muscle loss depends upon lots of factors .....diet (lots of protein=good) .....exercise (strength training=good)...starting weight (close to goal = fewer reserves to draw upon).

    Do you want the same body fat % that you started off with? If moving the number on the scale is most important.....then don't worry about exercise calories.
  • cwolfman13
    cwolfman13 Posts: 41,867 Member
    Options
    You put into MFP your stats, activity level, and how much per week you want to lose...MFP spits out a calorie goal that includes your weight loss deficit as per all of that information you put into the system. Your calorie goal is not a maintenance level of calories unless you selected to maintain. If you selected to lose 1 Lb per week, your calorie goal is roughly 500 calories short of your theoretical maintenance...1,000 calories short of your theoretical maintenance for 2 Lbs per week (but MfP won't go below 1200 and you really shouldn't either)...so if your calorie goal that MFP gives you is 1300 calories to lose 1 Lb per week, that means per statistical averages of similar individuals, your estimated maintenance without exercise would be 1300 + 500 = 1,800 calories.

    Note that your activity level on MFP does NOT include exercise...it's just your normal day to day living...exercise has to be accounted for somewhere. In the same scenario as above...let's assume a solid 300 calorie workout burn...now your calorie goal would be 1300 + 300 = 1,600 calories...but you still maintain that 500 calorie per day deficit because your theoretical maintenance has also increased with exercise to 2,100 calories (1,800 + 300 = 1,800)...and 2,100 - 1,600 = 500 calorie deficit still.

    You just have to be extremely careful to not overestimate your exercise burn...we simply don't burn all that many calories with exercise. 10 calories per minute is working pretty hard so if you're getting anything beyond that from a database or your HRM, you're really going to want to check that. Personally, I'd reconcile your calorie burn with several sources and then still take a cut for estimation error.

    Eventually you can come up with a pretty reasonable estimate that you can be reasonably comfortable with...that said, this is the primary reason I just prefer to use the TDEE method and include some estimate of my exercise activity in my activity level based on my number of hours of weekly exercise...but I'm pretty consistent in my fitness...the MFP method works well for those who are not so long as you are being reasonable and conservative in your burn estimates.
  • mschicagocubs
    mschicagocubs Posts: 774 Member
    Options
    I understand the point of eating back the calories burned. But does anyone else have an issue sometimes? Because of my work schedule, I usually work-out before dinner (about 6pm on average). Then I come home and eat dinner. Sometimes I am still left with like 300 calories even after a 9pm snack and I just am not hungry.

    Is it going to make losing weight harder if I do not eat 300 calories back? If so, I guess I should make it more of a point to eat more during the day at work so I don't have that many at night to eat back....

    Thoughts? I have only lost 3 pounds in 4 weeks and am doing Insanity 6 days a week.
  • TeaBea
    TeaBea Posts: 14,517 Member
    Options
    I understand the point of eating back the calories burned. But does anyone else have an issue sometimes? Because of my work schedule, I usually work-out before dinner (about 6pm on average). Then I come home and eat dinner. Sometimes I am still left with like 300 calories even after a 9pm snack and I just am not hungry.

    Is it going to make losing weight harder if I do not eat 300 calories back? If so, I guess I should make it more of a point to eat more during the day at work so I don't have that many at night to eat back....

    Thoughts? I have only lost 3 pounds in 4 weeks and am doing Insanity 6 days a week.

    Eating them the morning before......or eating them the next day ............that's fine.

    But, if you don't like the up/down of eating exercise calories back.......look into TDEE less a % ......this method includes exercise up front, so you get the same calories every day.....and you don't log exercise.
  • Tobi1013
    Tobi1013 Posts: 732 Member
    Options
    I understand the point of eating back the calories burned. But does anyone else have an issue sometimes? Because of my work schedule, I usually work-out before dinner (about 6pm on average). Then I come home and eat dinner. Sometimes I am still left with like 300 calories even after a 9pm snack and I just am not hungry.

    Is it going to make losing weight harder if I do not eat 300 calories back? If so, I guess I should make it more of a point to eat more during the day at work so I don't have that many at night to eat back....

    Thoughts? I have only lost 3 pounds in 4 weeks and am doing Insanity 6 days a week.

    If you know that you will be exercising later in the day, and you know approximately how many calories you will burn, and you know that you will not "flake" on working out, then work those exercise calories into your day BEFORE you work out. You can spread them over several meals, incorporate an extra snack (or two)...whatever works for you. There is nothing that says you have to eat those calories AFTER you work out.
  • CynthiaT60
    CynthiaT60 Posts: 1,280 Member
    Options
    .
  • MeanderingMammal
    MeanderingMammal Posts: 7,866 Member
    Options
    Is it going to make losing weight harder if I do not eat 300 calories back? If so, I guess I should make it more of a point to eat more during the day at work so I don't have that many at night to eat back....

    It shouldn't make it harder but that really depends on whether that's 300 of 1200, 1500 or 2000. If the former it's probably not sustainable given the physiological side effects of not giving your body adequate nutrients to maintain it's operation whilst you're losing weight.

    fwiw I generally err on the side of caution with respect to consuming exercise calories. I'd rather leave myself slightly under calories to account for the various approximations in the system.
  • mschicagocubs
    mschicagocubs Posts: 774 Member
    Options
    Is it going to make losing weight harder if I do not eat 300 calories back? If so, I guess I should make it more of a point to eat more during the day at work so I don't have that many at night to eat back....

    It shouldn't make it harder but that really depends on whether that's 300 of 1200, 1500 or 2000. If the former it's probably not sustainable given the physiological side effects of not giving your body adequate nutrients to maintain it's operation whilst you're losing weight.

    fwiw I generally err on the side of caution with respect to consuming exercise calories. I'd rather leave myself slightly under calories to account for the various approximations in the system.

    Thank you! That is kind of what my thinking was too. I try to get to at least 200 remaining if I am going to have extra cuz I just assume some of the foods I logged were off or the two pieces of crust off my daughters PB&J sandwich probably balanced it out :)

    I just havent seen a lot of pounds yet. I definitely feel better in my pants (especially after cutting soda out of my diet for a month). SO...PATIENCE!!!
  • wink212
    wink212 Posts: 46 Member
    Options
    Just fair warning - the calorie burns in your diary look..."exaggerated"....if you're going to eat them back, be very very careful. Eating back exercise calories that don't actually exist is one of the most common source of problems in the MFP community.

    And if you're going to say "but it's from an HRM!" let me just pre-emptively kick your virtual *kitten*. :laugh: HRMs do not give accurate burns for intervaly type exercise like "tabata" training.
  • wink212
    wink212 Posts: 46 Member
    Options
    I've seen other posts about exagerated calories burned. How acurate is the database here on mfp? I don't have anyother way to judge my calories burned so am I ok in just using mfp?
  • diannethegeek
    diannethegeek Posts: 14,776 Member
    Options
    I've seen other posts about exagerated calories burned. How acurate is the database here on mfp? I don't have anyother way to judge my calories burned so am I ok in just using mfp?

    If you are going to use MFP's estimates I'd aim for about 50-75% of the calories they say you burned. When I got my heart rate monitor and started comparing the database was pretty close for me, but it depends on which exercises you're doing, how much energy you put into them, etc.
  • cwolfman13
    cwolfman13 Posts: 41,867 Member
    Options
    I've seen other posts about exagerated calories burned. How acurate is the database here on mfp? I don't have anyother way to judge my calories burned so am I ok in just using mfp?

    If you are going to use MFP's estimates I'd aim for about 50-75% of the calories they say you burned. When I got my heart rate monitor and started comparing the database was pretty close for me, but it depends on which exercises you're doing, how much energy you put into them, etc.

    Also bear in mind that burning 10 calories per minute is working pretty hard...if you're getting bigger burns than that, I would conservatively bring them down to around 10 calories per minute at the most for a fairly strenuous cardiovascular workout. You may in fact be burning a bit more if you are overweight, but it's best to be conservative here.

Categories