Burning and Eating Calories back, what's the point!

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  • UrbanLotus
    UrbanLotus Posts: 1,163 Member
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    I just don't believe in the science.

    It hurts me. It physically hurts me.
  • Annie_01
    Annie_01 Posts: 3,096 Member
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    You don't believe the science......?????

    Ok, then why are you bothering with asking a question here?

    This is just my opinion...

    I think most of us (or maybe I am the only one) start out fairly uneducated about weight loss. It is such a personal journey that we don't associate it with science...until...we start researching on how best to achieve the weight loss.

    Where better to ask these questions...express your doubts...than a place where many of us have finally gotten to the point that...yes...there is a "science" aspect to weight loss?

    Oh...okay...the rest was borderline snarky...so I erased.

    The OP maybe is just here to learn...like many of the people that use this forum.
  • TeaBea
    TeaBea Posts: 14,517 Member
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    I will jump in here. The reason you work out, cardio or weight training, is to get fit. You can lose weight without being fit. If you only goal is weight loss then, sure starve yourself and you'll be thin in no time. But don't confuse thin with healthy. Running, burns calories but it works your heart and muscles. Strength training builds muscle which makes you stronger, look better, and burn more fat. However any workouts require calories to power it. there is a whole science to feeding your workouts that we won't get into here. This site focuses on caloric deficit which is a good measure of how much weight you will lose but there is more to fitness than a number on a scale.

    What a great first post! Well done :flowerforyou:
  • WendyTerry420
    WendyTerry420 Posts: 13,274 Member
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    Burning calories is what we do every day. It's also called "daily activity" or "living life." Exercise is what we do to stay fit and healthy. You have to eat for your activity level. If trying to lose weight, then you eat a little bit less than you burn.
  • BlueBombers
    BlueBombers Posts: 4,065 Member
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    MFP gave you a calorie deficit BEFORE exercise. That way people who can't/won't exercise still lose weight.

    ^ This
  • WendyTerry420
    WendyTerry420 Posts: 13,274 Member
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    i realize that i will be probably the only one saying this and maybe I'm nuts but I just don't believe in the science or fact that I have to eat back the calories I burned. I don't lose weight when I don't work out, bottom line. When I do workout especially at night I notice that in the morning I am lighter and depending on my eating I'm usually >6 to sometimes 2 pounds lighter. I went from 265 to 245 within a couple of months last year but stopped working out (and tracking my calories and pretty much dieting) and went back to 258 as of April of this year. I've been working out and dieting for the last 55 days and so far I've lost about 19 pounds. I feel as if my metabolism kicks up by me working out and the deficit in calories equate to my weigh loss. Mind you growing up I was always skinny and atheletic so I don't know how that contributes to it but I just can't believe that if I just ate 1850 calories every day that I would lose weight within the near future if at all.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nYb6rwtOx4Q

    21JumpStreet****YouScience.jpg
  • WendyTerry420
    WendyTerry420 Posts: 13,274 Member
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    I don't lose weight when I don't work out, bottom line.

    If exercise is the only cause of your weight loss, then you'd be eating at maintenance and your deficit is only being created by calories burned through exercise.

    Yep!

    Personally I'll say keep doing what works until it doesn't. I really don't think OP is starving himself. He's most likely eating more than he thinks! Start weighing everything and logging accurately then complain about having to eat 1800 calories plus exercise. Hahah

    Yes, this is probably the truth. If he isn't hungry, then he's likely not eating only 1800 calories.
  • jennk5309
    jennk5309 Posts: 206 Member
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    I think it's up to you, and your approach may even vary from day to day. What I mean is that some days you may feel extra hungry and want to eat more, so you might want to dip into them. Other days, you might be fine without them. I'm a relatively small woman, so to lose 2 pounds a week, I'd actually have to eat less than 1200 calories a day, which is no fun. I'd rather do an intense cardio session and burn 500 calories and then eat them back for a total of 1700 than only eat 1200 calories worth of food. 1200 is nothing!! Another person, such as a large male, might be able to eat 2,000 calories a day and still lose weight, and so may be satisfied at not eating back exercise calories. Hope that helps.
  • jennk5309
    jennk5309 Posts: 206 Member
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    Stop using the calorie burns on the machines. You are NOT burning 400 calories 30 minutes.

    I have to say that you don't know that for sure. I think it depends how intensely you work out. I could plod along on my elliptical and only burn 200 calories at a lower level. However, before my current pregnancy, I got so fit that I could crank that puppy up to a level 10 at an incline, do "sprinting" intervals and burn 100 calories every 7 minutes. Again, that IS what the machine said, but I also looked it up according to my heartrate, intensity level, etc., on other sources and it was about the same caloric burn. It certainly helped my weight loss! I'm just saying, the machines are not necessarily wrong IMO.
  • csy108
    csy108 Posts: 58 Member
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    USDA reports that average American daily calorie intake has increased by 300 since the 70s. If you reduce this to "elementary math," the average 30-40 year old American should weigh more than 1000lbs.

    No wonder you don't think weight gain/loss is a mathematically predictable metabolic function.

    Using the Mifflin-St. Jeor equation, a sedentary 5'8" male, 25yo, 160lbs, needs 2,025 calories to maintain. If this theoretical person suddenly and consistently started eating 300 daily above maintenance, by age 26 he would weigh about 191lbs. However, his TDEE would be 2,188. So during age 26, he would only be eating 137 above maintenance per day and would weigh 205 at age 27. Now his TDEE would be 2,265 and he'd be eating only 60 calories above maintenance and would gain only 6lbs this year, putting him at 211lbs at age 28. Voila, you have a nice, obese 28 year old man eating very close to maintenance (at 216.5lbs, this man's TDEE would be 2,327, or 300 calories a day above maintenance at 25yo and 160lbs).

    It is scientifically impossible for someone to gain 1,000 additional pounds by eating 300 calories more per day than they were eating before. Even a 900 pound person would gain only about 50 more pounds before hitting maintenance by increasing daily caloric intake by 300 per day.
  • Aaron_K123
    Aaron_K123 Posts: 7,122 Member
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    Weight loss is pure math you must burn more than you consume, it does not matter to the equation how you accomplish this.

    Weight loss is not pure math, wtf.

    I agree with you. I have to play about a million mind games on myself, such as weighing myself in kilograms instead of pounds. For those people who find losing weight as simple as a basic math equation, that's great. But it sure as heck ain't that simple for me.

    Even if it is not your natural mindset I would encourage you to try to view weightloss scientifically. If I've noticed anything while on MFP its that those who are consistently successful are those who consider weightloss to be "pure math".
  • Aaron_K123
    Aaron_K123 Posts: 7,122 Member
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    Yes it is, a calorie is a unit of energy and the calculations for weight loss is simply calories in - calories out = if it is a negative you lose weight, if it is zero you maintain and if it is a positive you gain. It is math and not even complex math at that, just some elementary school addition.

    USDA reports that average American daily calorie intake has increased by 300 since the 70s. If you reduce this to "elementary math," the average 30-40 year old American should weigh more than 1000lbs.

    Riiiight. And what has happened to the average SIZE of American's since the 70's? And what is your caloric requirement dependent on? Think about it.
  • Aaron_K123
    Aaron_K123 Posts: 7,122 Member
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    You don't believe the science......?????

    Ok, then why are you bothering with asking a question here?

    This is just my opinion...

    I think most of us (or maybe I am the only one) start out fairly uneducated about weight loss. It is such a personal journey that we don't associate it with science...until...we start researching on how best to achieve the weight loss.

    Where better to ask these questions...express your doubts...than a place where many of us have finally gotten to the point that...yes...there is a "science" aspect to weight loss?

    Oh...okay...the rest was borderline snarky...so I erased.

    The OP maybe is just here to learn...like many of the people that use this forum.

    There is a difference between being ignorant of something and declaring that you don't "believe" in it. One is lack of knowledge, the other is a declaration that you are not interested in knowledge.
  • _KitKat_
    _KitKat_ Posts: 1,066 Member
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    USDA reports that average American daily calorie intake has increased by 300 since the 70s. If you reduce this to "elementary math," the average 30-40 year old American should weigh more than 1000lbs.

    No wonder you don't think weight gain/loss is a mathematically predictable metabolic function.

    Using the Mifflin-St. Jeor equation, a sedentary 5'8" male, 25yo, 160lbs, needs 2,025 calories to maintain. If this theoretical person suddenly and consistently started eating 300 daily above maintenance, by age 26 he would weigh about 191lbs. However, his TDEE would be 2,188. So during age 26, he would only be eating 137 above maintenance per day and would weigh 205 at age 27. Now his TDEE would be 2,265 and he'd be eating only 60 calories above maintenance and would gain only 6lbs this year, putting him at 211lbs at age 28. Voila, you have a nice, obese 28 year old man eating very close to maintenance (at 216.5lbs, this man's TDEE would be 2,327, or 300 calories a day above maintenance at 25yo and 160lbs).

    It is scientifically impossible for someone to gain 1,000 additional pounds by eating 300 calories more per day than they were eating before. Even a 900 pound person would gain only about 50 more pounds before hitting maintenance by increasing daily caloric intake by 300 per day.

    Thank you for figuring this all out, it was 3 am for me when I was having that discussion. I made my point but would have preferred to have the math to back me up :flowerforyou:

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