eat it back?????? I don't get it

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ninabaz
ninabaz Posts: 75 Member
in Food and Nutrition
Honestly without sounding like I'm a nit wit I honestly don't understand the concept. Can someone explain to me why I would eat back calories burned? I know hashed out many many times....I just want to do this right this time.
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  • surruhehlizabeht
    surruhehlizabeht Posts: 9 Member
    edited February 2015
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    My doctor told me not to worry about "eating back" calories burned--just focus on your regular calorie goal, regardless of how much you burned.

    I think the idea is to make sure your body has enough nutrition so it doesn't go into starvation mode. I've lost 40 pounds so far and I personally don't really notice a change to my metabolism whether or not I eat back what was burned. Everyone is different though, so maybe it does affect some people.
  • BeTheChange352
    BeTheChange352 Posts: 253 Member
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    your daily calorie goal on MFP does not factor in how many calories you burn from exercise, it only calculates how many you burn a day from just existing and your normal day to day activities. eating back exercise calories rewards you for being more active and ensures you're not eating too little.
  • erickirb
    erickirb Posts: 12,293 Member
    edited February 2015
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    surruhehlizabeht wrote: »
    My doctor told me not to worry about "eating back" calories burned--just focus on your regular calorie goal, regardless of how much you burned.

    I think the idea is to make sure your body has enough nutrition so it doesn't go into starvation mode. I've lost 40 pounds so far and I personally don't really notice a change to my metabolism whether or not I eat back what was burned. Everyone is different though, so maybe it does affect some people.

    It appears your doctor does not understand how MFP works. MFP gives you a calorie goal assuming you don't do any exercise. You eat that in order to meet your weekley weight loss goal. If you exercise your deficit is larger so you eat the cals back so you are at your original deficit to lose your goal amount of weight.

    OP: As an example say MFP gives you 1450 calories to lose 1 lb/week, and you plan on exercising 5x/week for an average of 400 cals per workout. well MFP will tell you to eat 1450 on the days you don't workout and 1850 on the days you do whereas a "professional" or TDEE calculator may tell you to eat 1700 everyday regardless if you workout.

    So for the week MFP will have you eat 12,150 (1450*2+1850*5) whereas doing it the other way will have you eat 11,900 (1700*7) almost the same number of cals for the week (250 dif). The issue in not following MFP is if you don't workout the full 5 days or burn more or less than planned. If that is the case you may lose more or less than your goal, whereas MFP will have you lose your goal amount regardless how much you actually workout.

    What many MFPers do is take the low 1450 and not eat back exercise calories which is wrong, if you are not eating them back then your daily activity level should reflect the higher burn with would be covered in the 1700/day above.
  • blankiefinder
    blankiefinder Posts: 3,599 Member
    edited February 2015
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    ninafoster9 wrote: »
    Honestly without sounding like I'm a nit wit I honestly don't understand the concept. Can someone explain to me why I would eat back calories burned? I know hashed out many many times....I just want to do this right this time.

    If you really want to do it right this time, some of the best knowledge, put the most succinctly, with answers to all your questions, are stickied at the top of the various forums. I would suggest starting with these posts

    A guide to get you started on your path to sexypants

    Calorie Counting

    Logging Accuracy
  • Of_Monsters_and_Meat
    Of_Monsters_and_Meat Posts: 1,022 Member
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    Think of your body like a car. You just raced it 100 miles. Do you refill the tank or try for another 50?

    It also helps to separate work out ideas from weight loss ideas. Eat less to lose weight. Work out to be awesome.
  • kismea
    kismea Posts: 45 Member
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    I typically don't eat them back but when I do it's because I exercised loads above and beyond my normal exercise to earn extra wiggle-room to eat something I wouldn't allow the calories for on any given day (like the meal out to a restaurant on the weekend etc).

  • Deena_Bean
    Deena_Bean Posts: 906 Member
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    The idea is to lose weight at a safe and sustainable rate - eating back exercise calories allows your body to receive the proper nutrients to avoid muscle loss in the process of fat loss. I personally set my MFP to sedentary and use a HRM for calories burned - then I add 80% of the calories burned into available food calories. It's a little slower this way, but makes me less hungry (or starvalin' as my 3 year old niece would say) :) Make sense?
  • radmack
    radmack Posts: 272 Member
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    MFP does let you factor in your activity level in your calorie goal.
  • blankiefinder
    blankiefinder Posts: 3,599 Member
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    radmack wrote: »
    MFP does let you factor in your activity level in your calorie goal.

    MFP factors in your daily normal activity level outside of working out. That way you can log your exercise and see calories burned.
  • ninabaz
    ninabaz Posts: 75 Member
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    So essentially its there in case you go over by a bit its not going to kill your progress....just don't go overboard?
  • oneloopygirl
    oneloopygirl Posts: 151 Member
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    Here's my best attempt:

    Let's say you told MFP you were sedentary when you set up your goals, it's going to calculate recommended daily calories to achieve your weight loss goals based on that, whether you said you want to lose 0.5, 1, or 2 pounds a week. That number doesn't factor any exercise and puts you at the calorie deficit estimated to help you meet your goals if you didn't exercise. This is also true if you told MFP you were lightly active or active. The idea is that is based on your general routine, not including the exercise.

    Now, add in exercise... That's more calories burned. So now you're thinking, okay, good more deficit = more loss... Not always true. Your body needs fuel to perform, including exercise.

    Let's say MFP put you at 1200 daily calories and that's all you ate ever, including days you exercised. I'd be pretty confident in saying eventually, you're going to feel tired and burnt before long on that.

    Here comes the theory of eating back exercise calories. Now, in my opinion and that of many others, MFP over-estimates calorie burns. My general practice is to average out over the course of a week eating back about 50% of the calories burned. Sometimes on a Saturday if we're hanging out with friends, I might eat back more, but on other days, I might not eat back any. It generally averages out. You could also use a fitbit, garmin, etc to track activity and base on those calories burned as well. I wouldn't go by what you see on a treadmill or elliptical machine however, for example. Those burns are generally higher than what MFP comes up with.
  • ErikThaRed
    ErikThaRed Posts: 139 Member
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    I'm not very knowledgeable on the eating back of calories concept, but I believe that it means that since your calorie goal is already set less than your BMR (calories to maintain your current weight), you should eat back some workout calories so that you do not go too far into a deficit that is safe. Plus the site over estimates calories burned on exercise tasks and even when following the packages, you can never be completely accurate on how much calories are in something you eat. I don't bother eating back my calories burned.

    And there is no such thing as starvation mode... its a myth.
  • erickirb
    erickirb Posts: 12,293 Member
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    ninafoster9 wrote: »
    So essentially its there in case you go over by a bit its not going to kill your progress....just don't go overboard?

    No, that isn't right, it is there as you are supposed to eat them in order to meet your weekly weight loss goal.
  • ninabaz
    ninabaz Posts: 75 Member
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    I use a garmin. So far I'd say pretty accurate
  • erickirb
    erickirb Posts: 12,293 Member
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    ErikThaRed wrote: »
    I'm not very knowledgeable on the eating back of calories concept, but I believe that it means that since your calorie goal is already set less than your BMR (calories to maintain your current weight), you should eat back some workout calories so that you do not go too far into a deficit that is safe. Plus the site over estimates calories burned on exercise tasks and even when following the packages, you can never be completely accurate on how much calories are in something you eat. I don't bother eating back my calories burned.

    And there is no such thing as starvation mode... its a myth.

    BMR is what you would burn in a coma to maintain weight. maintenance calories will always be higher, even if you stayed in bed all day.
  • takeflightwren
    takeflightwren Posts: 16 Member
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    I am not eating it back and am determined to use those calories burned to add up to the magic 3500 cal / lb of fat to melt this stuff off. My lofty goal....lose 10 lbs a month for 5 months, develop good habits of healthy eating and increased exercising so when I transition into maintaining I am ready to shift over to new maintenance strategies. So far I am ahead of my goal 11 lbs in 25 days. The month is not over yet. I celebrate all of the extra exercise cal's burned and fat lost from my body and am careful to consume good nutritional food every day. Try it for a week and see how it feels.
  • ninabaz
    ninabaz Posts: 75 Member
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    erickirb wrote: »
    ninafoster9 wrote: »
    So essentially its there in case you go over by a bit its not going to kill your progress....just don't go overboard?

    No, that isn't right, it is there as you are supposed to eat them in order to meet your weekly weight loss goal.

    Oh OK. Yup I'm a nit wit lol
  • jessicapk
    jessicapk Posts: 574 Member
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    oneloopygirl wrote: »
    Here's my best attempt:

    Let's say you told MFP you were sedentary when you set up your goals, it's going to calculate recommended daily calories to achieve your weight loss goals based on that, whether you said you want to lose 0.5, 1, or 2 pounds a week. That number doesn't factor any exercise and puts you at the calorie deficit estimated to help you meet your goals if you didn't exercise. This is also true if you told MFP you were lightly active or active. The idea is that is based on your general routine, not including the exercise.

    Now, add in exercise... That's more calories burned. So now you're thinking, okay, good more deficit = more loss... Not always true. Your body needs fuel to perform, including exercise.

    Let's say MFP put you at 1200 daily calories and that's all you ate ever, including days you exercised. I'd be pretty confident in saying eventually, you're going to feel tired and burnt before long on that.

    Here comes the theory of eating back exercise calories. Now, in my opinion and that of many others, MFP over-estimates calorie burns. My general practice is to average out over the course of a week eating back about 50% of the calories burned. Sometimes on a Saturday if we're hanging out with friends, I might eat back more, but on other days, I might not eat back any. It generally averages out. You could also use a fitbit, garmin, etc to track activity and base on those calories burned as well. I wouldn't go by what you see on a treadmill or elliptical machine however, for example. Those burns are generally higher than what MFP comes up with.

    ^THIS!!! It's about sustainability. If I exercise, I don't like to eat back all my calories but I know they are there so I can splurge every now and then. And that's human. We need those rewards so we don't go insane counting every calorie of every day.
  • ErikThaRed
    ErikThaRed Posts: 139 Member
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    erickirb wrote: »
    ErikThaRed wrote: »
    I'm not very knowledgeable on the eating back of calories concept, but I believe that it means that since your calorie goal is already set less than your BMR (calories to maintain your current weight), you should eat back some workout calories so that you do not go too far into a deficit that is safe. Plus the site over estimates calories burned on exercise tasks and even when following the packages, you can never be completely accurate on how much calories are in something you eat. I don't bother eating back my calories burned.

    And there is no such thing as starvation mode... its a myth.

    BMR is what you would burn in a coma to maintain weight. maintenance calories will always be higher, even if you stayed in bed all day.

    Gotcha... thanks.
  • erickirb
    erickirb Posts: 12,293 Member
    edited February 2015
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    ninafoster9 wrote: »
    erickirb wrote: »
    ninafoster9 wrote: »
    So essentially its there in case you go over by a bit its not going to kill your progress....just don't go overboard?

    No, that isn't right, it is there as you are supposed to eat them in order to meet your weekly weight loss goal.

    Oh OK. Yup I'm a nit wit lol

    No you are not. MFP just works different than other sites. If MFP gives you a goal of say 1200 cal another site might say 1450 to lose the same amount of weight, but what the other site did was average say 4 days of exercise over the 7 days, whereas MFP may have you eat 1200 for 3 days and 1800 for 4 (assuming you burn 600 cals/workout), which at then end of the week would be almost the same intake.

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