Eat back ALL my exercise calories????
Improvised
Posts: 925 Member
REALLY confused about this.
if I were eating 1200 calories a day, and ate back 500 calories that I burned, making a total of 1700 calories, and left a ZERO amount left, wouldn't that mean I would lose nothing? I haven't tried it, but I would guess that MFP would tell me "in 5 weeks, you'll be the same weight." Correct me if I'm wrong, just trying to figure this out.
Thanks!
if I were eating 1200 calories a day, and ate back 500 calories that I burned, making a total of 1700 calories, and left a ZERO amount left, wouldn't that mean I would lose nothing? I haven't tried it, but I would guess that MFP would tell me "in 5 weeks, you'll be the same weight." Correct me if I'm wrong, just trying to figure this out.
Thanks!
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Replies
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MFP already has calculated the deficit for you.
You want to have your net calories be "0"0 -
Eat 'em up! It's what I've been doing for 3 weeks, and I'm down 8 lbs.0
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I have tried not eating my caloroes and eating them. I lose inches more than weight when I eat them back...I love the results I am getting. BUT, what works for me may not work for you. You will need to use trail & error to see what your body responds to. See the link in my signature, maybe it will help. Good Luck!0
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I would eat back part of them (60-75%) to leave a cushion for error, unless you are using a bodybugg or fitbit.
When you entered your goals in MFP (lose 1 or 2 pounds per week), it calculated your deficit before it gave you your calorie goals. So the idea of eating back your exercise calories is intended to keep that deficit exact, not increase it to potentially unsafe and unsustainable levels.0 -
I don't know why you should have a "0" at the end of the day. Isn't the point of losing weight to burn more calories than you consume?0
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I have tried not eating my caloroes and eating them. I lose inches more than weight when I eat them back...I love the results I am getting. BUT, what works for me may not work for you. You will need to use trail & error to see what your body responds to. See the link in my signature, maybe it will help. Good Luck!
Loved your link...LOL0 -
I try to eat mine but since the bulk of my workouts are in the evenings I never know what my totals are gonna be. I can't always eat all of them so I try to eat back as many as I can that late in the day!
Barb0 -
MFP already has calculated the deficit for you.
You want to have your net calories be "0"
Partially correct. MFP does create a built in deficit. But the NET calories (on home page) should match or be close to your initial daily goal - they should never be 0 or a negative number.
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I guess it is what works for you.
MFP tells me to eat 1200 calories a day for my weight loss. I do not eat my exercise calories at all. I been losing and feel fine as well.0 -
The 1200 is already a deficit. That's why you lose. Click on "TOOLS" listed up top and find the calculator for BMR. That will tell you what your Basal Metabolic Rate is (approximately). That's how many cals you'd burn if you just laid around in bed all day. You'll see that even that is higher than 1200.
I think that is what you were asking.0 -
I think I may have confused things. Your goal - your net should = 0I don't know why you should have a "0" at the end of the day. Isn't the point of losing weight to burn more calories than you consume?
Your goal will increase when you add calories to compensate for what you burned.
Absolutely the goal is to consume less than you expend, but MFP has already done that calculation for you in creating your calorie goals based on the information you input when you started.0 -
I don't know why you should have a "0" at the end of the day. Isn't the point of losing weight to burn more calories than you consume?
Yes, but when most people think of it this way, they forget to include ALL of the numbers. You need to consider all of the cals you burn, not just what you burn in exercise. You're burning cals all day, every day, even if you never get out of bed - in fact the majority of most people's cals are burned just maintaining bodily functions such as circulation, breathing, brain functions, etc.
Your daily "burn" includes BMR (what you burn just being alive, as if in a coma) + activity level + exercise. And exercise is not included in MFP's initial daily cal goal. So you need to eat enough to replace the cals burned in exercise to keep the built in deficit stable.0 -
I don't know why you should have a "0" at the end of the day. Isn't the point of losing weight to burn more calories than you consume?
The point of losing weight is to be healthy and look good. You do that in one of two ways, or a combination of the two: eat less, burn calories. MFP builds in a deficit for you, so this program is designed to have you eat back your exercise calories. As such, you could do no exercise whatsoever and lose weight following the MFP guidelines. I know this is true, for I lost my first 30 doing just that. Once I started exercise, I ate back my calories burned, and my rate of weight loss has been relatively unchanged.
That being said, EVERYTHING involved is an estimate, and as such, there is lots of room for error. If you mis-estimate your daily activity level, mis-estimate the calories you consume, and mis-estimate your calories burned working out, you will not be very successful. Thus, if you are finding you are not being successful, tweak something and give it a couple of weeks to see if things improve.0 -
May help some folks to read these threads that explain how MFP works and how it gets the numbers it gives you.
http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/186814-some-mfp-basics
http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/61706-guide-to-calorie-deficits0 -
I questioned the exact same thing when started, but I have actually lost more weight by eating my exercise calories rather than not! It’s easier to stay on track because I can eat more! If I know I will be going out to dinner, I simply spend more time at the gym! The average person generally eats somewhere between 1800-2200 a day (depending on height, weight, age, sex, etc). Which means MFP has already factored in your weight loss goals when they suggested 1200 cals a day. All those calories you are burning are just icing on the cake… literally!
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You all said pretty much the same thing, but it still sounds like you're eating all the calories you worked so hard to burn off. That still doesn't make sense to me.
I guess I use MFP a different way. I don't count the exercise as more food I can eat, just more calories that I burn.0 -
The working out increases your metabolism so that you burn at a higher rate for several hours. You activate muscles which burn more calories than fat does or dormant muscles do. And you keep (or get) your body in tip top condition so that once you've lost the weight you desire, your form is good, not just the same as when you were fat, but smaller (ie: skinny-fat).0
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You all said pretty much the same thing, but it still sounds like you're eating all the calories you worked so hard to burn off. That still doesn't make sense to me.
I guess I use MFP a different way. I don't count the exercise as more food I can eat, just more calories that I burn.
The thing is though once you log on to MFP and put in your info you basically have to do no more. You can sit on the couch and lose weight as long as you stay at your calculated calories. People add exercise to stay healthy and be fit. When you add exercise you have to thing of food as fuel and your body NEEDS fuel to run. If you are allowed 1200 calories and burn 1,000 you are only leave your body 200 calories to survive on and that just isn't enough.
Here is a post I made when I finally realized how it all worked...lol with pictures that show MFP has already built in a deficit.
http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/202392-a-visual-about-mfp-and-net-calories
If you go to any other site then ya your burn is your burn and you probably don't have to eat them back but MFP is just different that it creates a deficit right from the start.0 -
You all said pretty much the same thing, but it still sounds like you're eating all the calories you worked so hard to burn off. That still doesn't make sense to me.
I guess I use MFP a different way. I don't count the exercise as more food I can eat, just more calories that I burn.
Here's a reply I wrote on another thread addressing that question....It does make sense ladyhawk but it makes me wonder what the point of exercising for weight loss is at all. I mean I know all the health benefits and stuff but, let's be honest, that is not the primary reason for exercise for many many people. Is MFP not including exercise as a weight loss factor at all? It seems like you should lose the same amount of weight whether you exercise or not according to that explanation.
Well, clearly the main reasons are for the overall health benefits. Yes, MFP is designed for you to lose with or without exercise. And part of the reason for that is that most of us, at some point, fall off the exercise wagon - whether for a few days or a few months. Also, some people are quite limited in the amount of exercise they can do (because of physical limitations, time limitations, whatever.)
But if you want to look at it solely from a weight loss standpoint, there are two main reasons you still want to exercise at least some. First is that by exercising (especially strength/resistance training) you help to maintain the muscle mass. You won't generally increase your muscle mass (VERY difficult to do while in a caloric deficit), but it can decrease the percentage of muscle lost. And the more muscle you have, the higher your metabolism. And obviously, when trying to lose weight you want your metabolism at an optimal level.
Second, is that by maintaining that muscle mass you also help to avoid the dreaded "skinny fat". If you do no exercise, you will tend to lose more muscle mass. And frankly, skinny but flabby isn't a particularly attractive look. We want lean and strong.
Two smaller reasons: By maintaining the muscle mass you also help to decrease the risk of excess loose skin. Not as much of an issue for people trying to lose just a little bit, but very important for those with a lot to lose.
And...let's be honest here. We all like to eat. That's the major reason most of us are here. And burning more cals allows us to eat more, while maintaining the deficit that allows for weight loss. I don't know about you, but sometimes I'm pretty darn hungry and wouldn't make it through the day on my initial daily goal. So it allows me to handle weight loss better psychologically, because I don't feel deprived. I get plenty to eat and never feel starved. And I can have my little indulgences, because by burning more cals they fit into my daily goals AFTER I've met my nutritional needs for the day. And I don't have to feel guilty about having them. And when I get to maintenance levels, I'll be ready for them, without having to make a huge adjustment to my eating habits.
Remember, a whole lot of weight loss is about the mental game and doing it in a way that you can continue long term. Yeah, most of us can (and have) try the route of eating very little, exercising a ton and losing weight quick. But that doesn't change the reasons why you were overweight in the first place - it doesn't change your eating habits and help you learn balance. Losing slowly and steadily, while developing healthy eating habits AND good exercise habits mean you're much more likely to keep the weight off. If it's not habits you can maintain long term, you'll end up back where you started (or worse.) Which is why extreme diets rarely work for long term weight loss.
Also I would add: I know it sounds great, but a larger deficit (which is what happens if you don't eat any of the exercise cals) isn't necessarily a good thing -
If you don't eat the extra cals once in a while (or if you have a large amount to lose, 100 lbs or more), it's not a huge issue. But if done on a consistent basis (3-4 days/week or more) over weeks, your body begins to adjust your metabolism to deal with what it considers to be too little fuel to support your organ functions and activity level. It figures there isn't enough fuel coming in, so it needs to conserve where possible. So your metabolism begins to drop. The larger the deficit, and the lower the Net intake, the slower your metabolism gets. So this means that you begin burning less calories.
If done for a long enough period, this will also change the ratio at which your body burns fat and muscle. Again, someone with larger fat stores will always burn a large amount of fat and just a tiny bit of muscle. But as you get leaner, even if you are eating enough, you will burn a little bit more muscle along with the fat. Each person's body has a range of deficit in which the body feels comfortable accessing fat stores, without using too much muscle for fuel and the range is dependent on the amount of body fat (and some other factors).
The body (especially for women) prefers to have a cushion of fat. So when you make the deficit higher than that "comfort zone", the body starts to compensate, trying to preserve the fat stores. It lowers metabolism and eventually starts using more muscle as fuel (because it is easier to access than fat). So instead of burning 80% fat and 20% muscle, you start burning 60% fat and 40% muscle (just an example). And the more your muscle mass decreases, the lower your metabolism goes... It creates a vicious cycle where you can eat less and less, and still maintain weight. And it results in being "skinny fat" - being thin but having little muscle mass and a high body fat percentage.0 -
This gets asked 5 times a day, just read this:
http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/10589-for-those-confused-or-questioning-eating-your-exercise-calo0 -
I'm really confused on this. Maybe someone can msg me to help me out.
My daily calories I can eat is 1870. My usual workout burns about 400 calories. There is no way I can eat nearly 2300 calories in a day, I have a hard enough time eating 1870. Only way I can do it is if I eat something bad and I don't want to do that. I have a hard enough time allowing myself a treat meal once and a while.
Yesterday I was helping someone move and I burned about 2500 calories. I just barely ate my 1870 and there was no way I could eat another 2500. I've also always heard it's better to burn more than you eat. I know people's bodies are different but what should I do when I literally cannot eat that many calories?0 -
You are not eating back calories you worked so hard to burn off, you are totally missing the point here. MFP has a BUILT IN deficit, so you are already eating less than you burn, when you work out you are burning more to raise your metabolic rate, and by not eating them back you are starving your body of the calories needed for recovery and muscle building, so you are actually doing more damage than good to your body. The only ppl on here whom can get away with that are those whom have a lot to lose, 50 pounds or more, as soon as you get into that lower weight loss range of say 30 or less you will start losing muscle if you do not eat them back and thereby slowing down your metabolic rate and totally wasting any time that you spend in the gym. If you do not feed the muscles the body will burn them up in an attempt to keep pace, so if you work out 4 hours a day 7 days a week you are just spinning your wheels and not getting any benefit from that if you are not eating back the calories from exercise.You all said pretty much the same thing, but it still sounds like you're eating all the calories you worked so hard to burn off. That still doesn't make sense to me.
I guess I use MFP a different way. I don't count the exercise as more food I can eat, just more calories that I burn.0 -
I'm really confused on this. Maybe someone can msg me to help me out.
My daily calories I can eat is 1870. My usual workout burns about 400 calories. There is no way I can eat nearly 2300 calories in a day, I have a hard enough time eating 1870. Only way I can do it is if I eat something bad and I don't want to do that. I have a hard enough time allowing myself a treat meal once and a while.
Yesterday I was helping someone move and I burned about 2500 calories. I just barely ate my 1870 and there was no way I could eat another 2500. I've also always heard it's better to burn more than you eat. I know people's bodies are different but what should I do when I literally cannot eat that many calories?
One day is not a huge issue if you have a really high burn. Just replace what you can and maybe add a bit more the next day.
As for every day, you don't necessarily have to increase the volume of food a lot to increase cals.
Use more healthy fats -
Cook with natural oils like olive/canola
Nuts - almonds, pistachios, walnuts
Avocados
Drink some cals, as it's often easier to drink something even when you aren't that hungry -
Milk
Protein shake
Fruit smoothie
Spread cals out throughout the day -
Have 2-3 small snacks
Increase each meal/snack by just 50 cals - it adds up
Usually it takes just a few days to a week for your body (and stomach) to adjust to a higher intake. 0 -
Okay, yeah I'm not reading all that, sorry. I need a short simple explanation in no more than 3 sentences.
I'm trying to understand this, but posting a scientific journal on the matter isn't going to help me get it any sooner.
My BMR is around 1200. I eat less than that and burn over 1000 calories a day and that is THE ONLY way I can lose weight. I've been discussing this with my doctor since the fall.
I've never heard anywhere that you're supposed to eat the calories you burn to lose weight. I don't see how eating what you burn is creating a calorie deficit, even if your metabolism goes up. Maybe I just don't get it because it doesn't work for me, it's really just hard for me to grasp this.
Your body resorts to using fat when it cannot get enough fuel from the food you eat. If you think I'm wrong, then how the hell are the people from The Biggest Loser losing all that weight when they only eat 1200 calories a day and probably burn over 3000 a day? They aren't eating back all those calories in food.0 -
Okay, yeah I'm not reading all that, sorry. I need a short simple explanation in no more than 3 sentences.
I'm trying to understand this, but posting a scientific journal on the matter isn't going to help me get it any sooner.
My BMR is around 1200. I eat less than that and burn over 1000 calories a day and that is THE ONLY way I can lose weight. I've been discussing this with my doctor since the fall.
I've never heard anywhere that you're supposed to eat the calories you burn to lose weight. I don't see how eating what you burn is creating a calorie deficit, even if your metabolism goes up. Maybe I just don't get it because it doesn't work for me, it's really just hard for me to grasp this.
Your body resorts to using fat when it cannot get enough fuel from the food you eat. If you think I'm wrong, then how the hell are the people from The Biggest Loser losing all that weight when they only eat 1200 calories a day and probably burn over 3000 a day? They aren't eating back all those calories in food.
What is your height, weight and goal set for ( how many pounds a week is it set to)0 -
5'5'', 192.5 lbs, and 2.7 lbs a week.0
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bump0
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Okay, yeah I'm not reading all that, sorry. I need a short simple explanation in no more than 3 sentences.
I'm trying to understand this, but posting a scientific journal on the matter isn't going to help me get it any sooner.
What ladyhawk wrote was very well written and easy to understand. I'd urge you to go back and read it. If you're not up to reading the whole thing, at least read this part:Also I would add: I know it sounds great, but a larger deficit (which is what happens if you don't eat any of the exercise cals) isn't necessarily a good thing -
If you don't eat the extra cals once in a while (or if you have a large amount to lose, 100 lbs or more), it's not a huge issue. But if done on a consistent basis (3-4 days/week or more) over weeks, your body begins to adjust your metabolism to deal with what it considers to be too little fuel to support your organ functions and activity level. It figures there isn't enough fuel coming in, so it needs to conserve where possible. So your metabolism begins to drop. The larger the deficit, and the lower the Net intake, the slower your metabolism gets. So this means that you begin burning less calories.0 -
Okay, I read that and I partially agree, but if I eat like that everyday, I gain...
I try to only eat more calories only one day a week.0 -
Ok when I calculate your BMR I get 1696 not 1200.
based on your info I plugged it in here: http://nutrition.about.com/od/changeyourdiet/a/calguide.htm
These calorie calculator results will help you understand how many calories you need to maintain your current weight, and the number of calories needed per day to achieve your goal weight in a healthy, steady manner.
You need 2221.7 calories per day to maintain your current weight without exercise.
You need 1911.2 calories per day to reach your goal weight slowly and maintain that weight without exercise.
If you reduce your current caloric intake to 1721.7 calories per day you will lose one pound per week without exercise.
If you increase your current caloric intake to 2721.7 calories per day, you will gain one pound per week.
Exercise and Calorie Needs
If you exercise for 30 minutes each day, you may increase your caloric intake to 2464.1 calories per day and still maintain your current weight.
If you exercise for 60 minutes each day, you may increase your caloric intake to 2767.1 calories per day to maintain your current weight.
If you exercise for 30 minutes each day, you will be able to reach your goal weight with 2116.3 calories per day.
If you exercise for 60 minutes each day, you will be able to reach your goal weight with 2372.6 calories per day.0
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