Eating back calories - Professional opinions

Basal Metabolic Rate (BMR) Calculator
By Dennis Thompson Jr.

Medically reviewed by Cynthia Haines, MD You burn most of your daily calories with little to no conscious effort. Whether you're talking on the phone, working at a keyboard, or just watching television, your body is burning calories to keep your heart pumping, your lungs expanding and contracting, and your organs functioning. The calories used to maintain these basic bodily functions add up to your basal metabolic rate, or BMR. Basal essentially means base — think of it as the number of calories that are just enough to cover all your body’s bases.

"These are what I call your couch-potato calories," says dietitian Sari Greaves, RD, CDN, of Step Ahead Weight Loss Center in Bedminster, N.J,. and spokesperson for the American Dietetic Association. "It amounts to 60 to 75 percent of the total calories you use daily, and there's no physical activity required for this."

In other words, this is what you burn without lifting a finger. That’s why BMR is also is called the resting metabolic rate, or RMR, by some.

Knowing your BMR can help you create a more effective strategy for weight loss, allowing you to better keep your calorie count on track and better understand the effect exercise will have on your waistline.

Calculating Your BMR

The easiest way to measure your BMR is to use an online calculator, like the one at My Calorie Counter. This calculator factors in your height, weight, gender, and age, and activity level, then assesses how many calories you need to eat daily just to maintain your current weight.
You can do the math yourself, using the appropriate equation:

• If you’re a man, your BMR is equal to: 66 + (6.23 x weight in pounds) + (12.7 x height in inches) - (6.8 x age in years). For example, if you’re 170 pounds, 5’11”, and 43, your BMR is 66 + (6.23 x 170) + (12.7 x 71) – (6.8 x 43) = 1734.4 calories.
• If you’re a woman, your BMR is equal to: 655 + (4.35 x weight in pounds) + (4.7 x height in inches) - (4.7 x age in years). For example, if you’re 130 pounds, 5’3”, and 36, your BMR is 665 + (4.35 x 130) + (4.7 x 63) – (4.7 x 36) = 1357.4 calories.

Next figure out your total daily calorie requirement by multiplying your BMR by your level of activity:
• If you rarely exercise, multiply your BMR by 1.2.
• If you exercise on 1 to 3 days per week, doing light activity, multiply your BMR by 1.375.
• If you exercise on 3 to 5 days per week, doing moderate activity, multiply your BMR by 1.55.
• If you exercise 6 to 7 days per week, doing vigorous activity, multiply your BMR by 1.725.
• If you exercise every day and have a physical job or if you often exercise twice a day, multiply your BMR by 1.9.





If the man in the example exercises 3 days a week, doing moderate activity, his daily caloric requirement is 1734.4 x 1.55, or 2688.3 calories.

If the woman in the example exercises 6 days a week, her daily caloric requirement is 1357.4 x 1.725, or 2342.5 calories.

This calculation gives you the number of calories you burn in one day at your current level of activity; in other words, this is the number of calories it takes to stay at the weight you are if you don’t change anything.

Applying Your BMR Calculation to Weight Loss


Once you know your BMR and the number of calories you burn for your activity level, you can improve your weight-loss efforts by setting a lower daily calorie-intake limit and crafting a plan for increasing your physical activity:

Set your daily calorie limit. To lose weight, you need to reduce your caloric intake below your total daily calorie requirement indicated by your BMR + activity level. Putting yourself in a 500-calorie deficit every day should result in the loss of one pound per week (since there are 3,500 calories in a pound), Greaves says.

Adjust your exercise output. Our BMR calculator asks you for your level of physical activity for a very good reason. You can influence your BMR through exercise, spurring your body to burn more calories even after you’ve finished and are just lounging about.

• Aerobic exercise provides a temporary boost to your BMR, an effect sometimes referred to as after-burn or excess post-exercise oxygen consumption, says Noelle Lusardi, a certified personal fitness trainer who also works at the Step Ahead Weight Loss Center in Bedminster, N.J. Your BMR will return back to its normal level anywhere between 15 minutes and 48 hours.

• Strength training provides a more-lasting boost to BMR by altering your body's composition. Muscle at rest burns more calories than fat at rest. That's why men enjoy a naturally higher BMR than women, as they tend to have more muscle mass, Greaves explains.

• If you cut calories and increase your BMR by exercising, you’ll see results even faster. Increase the amount of calories you burn by 250 each day, and you’ll lose a half-pound more on top of the calorie cuts made in your diet. You could exercise longer or you could increase the intensity of your workouts to burn more calories — either way will increase the calorie deficit.

The advantage of knowing your BMR is that you can learn the number of calories you need to consume and expend to meet your personal goal for weight loss.


Hope this helps

I hear ya.....and I know that almost everyone on this site will agree that you have to eat back your calories.

I am on a special diet, called Medifast. I eat 5 prepackaged meals a day, and I make one meal on my own. Doctors have designed this diet, and part of their plan is you can exercise for 45 minutes a day, but nothing more. Why? because then you really start to burn too many calories and will physically feel it. I eat no more than 1000 calories a day with all my other nutrients and vitamins, etc. I exercise 45 mins to 1 hour (yea, I break the rule a bit) a day. I am consistently losing weight. I am never hungry (oh yea, thats part of the plan, we are not supposed to be hungry) except when it is time to eat my meal (every 3 hours).

SO to say that I would burn 350 calories each day, and then sit back and eat it, is just not part of my diet. This diet has taught me how to eat and taught me about good carbs and bad carbs. I am still in the weight loss phase, and when I reach goal, I will very slowly transition into maintenance, where I will eat 3 packaged meals and 3 of my own. Yes, we eat six times a day - which is Key for me.

So I am one of the rare people who actually don't buy into this eating back your calories thing, but, however, I do respect those who choose to, because everyone's diet is different and must do what works for them. I have tried a gazillion diets before this one, sure I'd lose initial weight, but then the diet just lost success.

OK trying to make sense of this all, I hope you don't mind helping me out. My BMR is 1539.15 so I x that by 1.55 (spinning instructor, I teach usually 5 classes a week, some weight training usually 1 or 2/week) and I come out with 2385.6825. These are the calories I need to maintain my weight, if I want to lose I just cut down from that number??? Am I understanding this right?

For the LIFE of me I don’t understand why this is such a complex topic. It’s basic math, and basic biology with a dash of “wiggle room”.

EVERYONE is a little different, no 2 people burn calories at the exact same rate. All the calculators you find are “best estimates”. Additionally, the bare minimum calories required is also a general rule. You have to stop treating the numbers for calories burned whether it’s for your daily BMR or from working out, as absolutes.
So that being said, and understanding that the numbers often used are just a best guess, we can proceed.


Your body needs X number of calories to live off of and “break even” each day. This is just to keep the organs functioning and the heart pumping.
Add normal activity, motion, & work to the mix and you need some more calories to break even. (X+A)
Add exercise above and beyond normal daily activity and you need even more calories to break even (X+A+E)=T
T is now your Total calories needed to break even, which includes your base metabolism just to live, plus your normal daily activity, plus your exercise above & beyond that.

Now to lose weight, the actual caloric intake MUST be less than T. If you are gaining weight, it must be more than T.

The number MFP spits out at you for a target caloric intake is NOT “T”. It is X + A – D. Where D=your desired daily deficit in calories that will theoretically allow you to lose your desired weight per week. (X+A-D) = G, the MFP goal for your daily caloric intake. (No exercise included) Let’s repeat, MFP already includes a deficit. It is NOT your break even calories.

Here is where you get the wiggle room. Remembering above that everyone is different and you can’t take these numbers as absolutes, you also have to understand people bodies respond differently to caloric deficits. Some people can have a large caloric deficit and lose weight in a healthy manner, others will hang on to that weight and have a difficult time losing. Generally speaking, if D is too high, you will have a tough time losing weight, especially if G (your MFP goal) is near the minimum accepted caloric intake.

So what you want to do, is maintain D at a consistent level and one that your body responds to and allows you to lose weight. This may take time to figure out thru some trial and error. Be patient.

If you eat G calories, but exercise E calories more, your “D” number now grows larger, which for most people becomes Too large to achieve healthy weight loss. This is why in order to keep D the same, you have to eat G+E.

bump

I think they are saying that when you exercise and burn 500 calories, you will essentially have only eaten 700 net calories, which in turn won't help you lose (long term anyway) any weight as your body will go into starvation mode. If you continue with that trend, you begin losing calories from muscle which is bad--it will mess with your metabolism, etc. You want to lose calories from fat. Does this help?

I agree with the people stating that they don't understand why this is such a difficult topic to understand. There are two factors at work:

1) basic math - if you're already eating at a calorie deficit and want to maintain that same deficit then you eat back any extra calories you earn

2) understanding the human body - someone who isn't in the obese and above category is likely to lower their metabolism if they have too high of a deficit for an extended period of time

Put 1 and 2 together equals the conclusion that people with a low or moderate amount of weight to lose need to eat back exercise calories to maintain a safe deficit to avoid negatively impacting their metabolism.

I know that this topic has been beaten to death, but here is my dilemma: I have a degree in nutrition and the "rules" state that a woman needs 1200 calories of food per day, period. There is no mention of eating back exercise calories. I've searched the web and cannot find any professional articles or sites that talk about this idea one way or the other. Does anyone know of any such article, or has anyone spoken to a professional about this topic?

Thanks, Delania

I find that awfully questionable that the "rules" (from wherever you learned/got them) would even attempt to give a set number of calories that everyone woman needs. The fact is, is a woman who is 5'0" at her healthy weight would likely maintain at 1200 calories (or a little less) but a woman who is 5' 10" would certainly lose weight at 1200 cal/day, and would need more than that to maintain at her healthy weight. Everyone is different and 1200 calories is a pretty low number.

I understand the MATH of weight loss and BMR's and all of that. What I am asking is, if I burn 500 calories during exercise, WHY is it bad for me to only eat 1200 calories (example, I rarely eat that little or I feel tired)? WHAT is wrong with trying to lose more than a pound a week?

because 1200-500 = 700 to low

You already are in a deficit with food. So when you exercise your putting yourself into a further deficit. So NET calories should = you body requirement with activity/exercise.

PS you do that long enough your body will start holding the food you do eat and store it as FAT! Because you eating to Little. Thay is why you need to eat most or all back. Expecially when your calories are already really low

ive set my BMR based on sedentry lifestyle - so i only need 1700 a day to stay same weight so i do eat back most of my "exercise calories" as i havent included any exercise in calculating my BMR

if i set my BMR to include moderate/high exercise every day my daily calorie would be 2100 for example so then i wouldnt eat back any extra calories as i'd already included them

surely its just 6 of one and half a dozen of the other?

I have very little knowledge of all this.

However, 1200 calories is the min amount of calories a person should consume. Most people can't survive off of 1200 alone... to maintain you would likely eat more than that. So, when you burn say 300 calories, then technically you are only consuming 900 so you need the extra 300 to be back at 1200. Essentially, your body is burning calories all day and burns the 1200 that you eat so you need to replace the extra burning through exercise.

I know that this topic has been beaten to death, but here is my dilemma: I have a degree in nutrition and the "rules" state that a woman needs 1200 calories of food per day, period. There is no mention of eating back exercise calories. I've searched the web and cannot find any professional articles or sites that talk about this idea one way or the other. Does anyone know of any such article, or has anyone spoken to a professional about this topic?

Thanks, Delania

Well, I'm not an expert by any means but I have had a love affair with health and fitness for many years now. I have not come across this idea before until posting here.

From what I know you don't really need to eat back your exercise calories. I think people confuse eating a low calorie diet which is nutritionally deficient and therefore harmful and eating a well balanced diet but then adding cardio to ensure a negative calorie balance which can be very effective.

The 1,200 calorie guideline is a good one as generally the individual has a margin of error to ensure they are getting sufficient nutrients from their food intake. However, I would like to point that medically supervised VLCD's are nutritionally complete at 800 calories.

I guess some people presume that you somehow exercise out the nutrients you have consumed but that is generally not correct as they are absorbed by the body save for that which you lose through transpiration (ie sweating.)

Of course there are many good reasons for eating much more than 1,200 calories if you are approaching normal weight. However, there is no harm in my view of not eating back your calories say if you are on 1,700 calories yet burn 700 calories through exercise leaving a 1000 calorie balance.