stop eating back burned calories?
Options
mtortorella
Posts: 1 Member
Not having much success with weight loss. Has anyone found success with NOT eating back their burned calories?
0
Replies
-
Not having much success with weight loss. Has anyone found success with NOT eating back their burned calories?
Personally burned calories from exercise or hard work are just bonus from eating at a deficit.0 -
You could lose weight by not eating back the exercise calories but the key is to provide your body with the required amount of nutrients for good health and have enough energy to properly fuel your workouts. Not eating enough over a long period of time could affect your metabolism in a negative way.
What specific issues are you having with weight loss?0 -
Rather than not eating them back at all, which can really leave you under-fueled considering that your original daily goal already has you at a deficit, and burning off more through exercise leaves you with a HUGE deficit - maybe cut back to only eating a portion of them back. MFP is notorious for overestimating calorie burns, so a lot of people choose to err on the side of caution and only eat 50-75% of the burned cals back, and have good success doing so.
Other than that - looking through your diary I see several days where you're well over your goal, which is likely the problem. And I wouldn't log things like cleaning - unless you're hanging wallpaper or moving all your furniture or something out of the ordinary like that, things like housework and your job are regular activities which should be accounted for in your activity level, and already factored into your daily goal. Logging them as exercise and then eating back the cals takes you out of your deficit.
Do your best to log as accurately as possible, weighing and measuring foods (get a food scale if you don't have one, they don't cost much), and consider investing in a decent heart rate monitor (Polar is a very popular choice) with a chest strap to more accurately gauge calorie burns.
Good luck!0 -
If you aren't losing weight, you aren't in a deficit. (possible logging errors from estimating portions) So if you aren't willing to do what it takes to make sure you're actually consuming the calories you should be, maybe stop eating them back, or only eat back half.
ETA: Agreed with the poster above me. I also looked at your entries. If you're eating back over 200 calories you think you burned from cutting the grass with a riding lawnmower, and a few hundred more for cooking....this could very well be a big part of your problem. Those are regular every day activities, not exercise.0 -
AmyRhubarb is wise!0
-
I never eat back my calories, I drink 10-14 cups of water a day, and I try to eat about 2000 calories a day and I have 3-4 scoops of protein per day. I hit all my stats and percentages and am down 65 pounds.0
-
Since MFP doesn't accurately track calorie burn, I don't eat mine back at all.0
-
Agree with the others above and will add this. I took a look at your diary and it is obvious why you are not losing. Not only are you adding in exercise calories that you really haven't earned, but it looks like you might be way over estimating your burns.
Disregard those people suggesting you not eat your exercise calories back. As others have said, your daily calories are already factoring in a healthy weight loss deficit. You need to fuel your workouts. I would highly suggest you get a HRM (Heart Rate Monitor) for your workouts. Kickboxing can create a really good burn, but the only accurate way to track it is with a HRM.
Another option is follow TDEE and then you don't even worry about your workouts. Read the post and the links in the post below. They should really help.
http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/1080242-a-guide-to-get-you-started-on-your-path-to-sexypants0 -
I went through this too little/too much imbalance after I'd been on MFP for a few months and read a couple posts about starvation mode, exercise cals, etc. I logged my exercise and ate back the majority of the calories of my "estimated burn." I plateaued for many months. It did NOT work for me.
It took me almost four months to finally wake up and say "this is not giving me the results I want to see." So I adjusted things in my settings to start putting me at a more structured deficit. I plugged in my estimated work out time, set my activity level at sedentary (I have a desk job) and MFP put me at 1800 cals/day to lose 1.5lbs a week. I'm 5'11", 24 yo.
I'll be honest, bumping up my daily caloric intake in general was helpful since it helped me not to feel like I was starving and also gave me the energy to do what I do on a daily basis. Yes, I frequently go over my limits by about 200/300 calories which has slowed my progress, however it is PROGRESS so for me personally, I've been happy with it.
It's all about finding what works for you. From this post, it sounds like the current system is not working. Yes, you should eat enough calories to fuel your body and I certainly don't recommend eating anything less than 1200 a day however it is not necessary to eat back your exercise calories (unless you might be seriously lifting/bulking). You won't enter starvation mode. You might lose some muscle tone but you're not going to wind up a bag of bones. Regardless- one solution does not fit all, especially for weight loss.
ETA: Just checked out your diary. I know it feels awesome to think you have all these cals left at the end of the day but I would definitely try to refrain from eating half a pie as your "reward." You're only hurting yourself there. Moderation is key to those treats! (This is coming from someone who eats chocolate every day and is still losing weight.)
TL;DR: You do you, boo. Just make sure you're accurate in your measurements and if the current system is not working, try something else.0 -
What are you doing that is giving you such high exercise burns? I have over a thousand calories burned several days a week, but then I bike 30 miles, walk on my lunch and go to the gym on those days, so I'm exercising for 4+ hours.
Also, 8 cookies, not once but for several days? I'm all for eating what you want so long as you fit your calories, but 8 cookies?
My thought - MFP is overestimating your calories burned by exercise. Eat back half your exercise calories. And cut down on the cookies. If you want to have them every day, fine, but probably not 8 cookies a day, several days in a row.0 -
I took a peak at your diary as well. Read through the sexypants link. I also suspect that you are overestimating calories burned in exercise (perhaps try eating about half of them for a while and see if that makes a difference). Also, if you don't have one, I highly recommend a kitchen scale to weigh out all of your solid foods. Particularly items such as macaroni salad (I can't remember if it was macaroni or potato), these things are really calorie dense which means if you are off by a fraction, it will wipe out your calorie deficit pretty fast.
I also recommend looking around in the forums for people who are helpful, and send them a friend request. It is nice to send them a note along with the request. Take a peak at their diaries. It's helpful to have support along the way. You can do it! You just need to figure out the right amount for you. :flowerforyou:0 -
You have earned 1,384 calories from exercise today
Unless you ran a half-marathon that day I think your problem might be vastly overestimating your caloric burn from exercise.
As a 6' tall man I generally estimate an hour of heart-pounding-from-my-chest cardio to be 600 and some form of resistance training to be about 250. That is a full hour of elevated heartrate which means that I would estimate 600 cal burned for an exercise session of like 75 minutes that included a warm-up and cool-down.
To log that I burned 1384 calories for me I think I would have to run probably 14 miles.0 -
I never eat mine back. In fact, I do not even log it here on MFP. I set my own goals because I am eating between 1500-1800 per day and working out 6 days per week (kickboxing cardio and resistance band strength training rotating every other day).
I eat 40% of my cals from carbs, 30% from fat and protein respectively....0 -
With the amount of exercise cals the calculator is coming up with I would say they are way overestimated (830 cals for 60 mins running at 6mph is quite high, most likely is 550-650) I would suggest just eating half back.0
-
TL;DR: You do you, boo.
:laugh: I needed that. thank you.0 -
This is a good thread. Alot of times calorie burns are overestimated to compete with fellow MFP posts. Additionally, some of us don't log EVERYTHING (guilty).0
-
Whether or not you 'should' eat back your exercise calories depends on your calorie strategy. If you do TDEE you should not eat back your calories, if you do a net calorie approach (MFP default) you should eat back you exercise calories.
I found this list to work well for me:
0 -
Not having much success with weight loss. Has anyone found success with NOT eating back their burned calories?
Personally burned calories from exercise or hard work are just bonus from eating at a deficit.
I don't log my work outs, but eat at maintenance (or strive to) level. I figure my work outs will create enough of a deficit to keep my size moving in the right direction. :drinker:0 -
I don't ever rely on MFP for calories burned. I think it overestimates, which will set you up for failure. I use what the machine tells me I burned. If I walk the dog at night, I still use what the treadmill I use everyday would have calculated. For example, I walk the treadmill some days for 60 minutes. I know that I normally burn 100 cals for every 15 minutes so if I walk a similar pace at home for 60 minutes, then I log approximately 400 calories burned. Who knows if that's exact, but it is closer than what MFP tells me I burned just by putting in my minutes.
I agree that you shouldn't log your everyday activities as exercise because I believe that it already taken into account when you set up your weight loss goal. I do, however, log in yard work, mowing grass, etc that I do once a week. That is considered exercise since it's not an "everyday" activity. Swimming is good to but it doesn't burn that many calories (that I'm aware of) but it is good exercise.
I eat back some just to make sure I NET 1200 calories in a day. That is the minimum that your body needs just for it's normal functions. If you are eating less than that, eventually your body will not lose weight because it wants to hold on to the extra fat for energy. It's called "starvation mode"0 -
I don't eat back all of mine and its working for me. My philosphy is that I literally busted a55 to burn them off, so why would I want them back? :laugh:0
Categories
- All Categories
- 1.4M Health, Wellness and Goals
- 391.6K Introduce Yourself
- 43.5K Getting Started
- 259.7K Health and Weight Loss
- 175.6K Food and Nutrition
- 47.3K Recipes
- 232.3K Fitness and Exercise
- 393 Sleep, Mindfulness and Overall Wellness
- 6.4K Goal: Maintaining Weight
- 8.5K Goal: Gaining Weight and Body Building
- 152.7K Motivation and Support
- 7.8K Challenges
- 1.3K Debate Club
- 96.3K Chit-Chat
- 2.5K Fun and Games
- 3.3K MyFitnessPal Information
- 23 News and Announcements
- 939 Feature Suggestions and Ideas
- 2.3K MyFitnessPal Tech Support Questions