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

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  • ninabaz
    ninabaz Posts: 75 Member
    blankiefinder wrote: »
    @Juliet3455 another great link!

    If you want a quick fix, post on the forums and get answers from random strangers who may or may not know what they are talking about.

    If you want to learn from the respected experts, start with reading the stickied posts, they are there for a reason. Then ask questions when you have enough of a knowledge base to filter out the garbage from the pearls.

    Wow! First of all I already knew I may have bad answers second of all I didn't know there were posts pinned on here. Yes already knew I was a moron for asking so thank you for making me feel even dumber than I already did. I'm so glad you got amusement from my question. I'm trying real hard to lose the weight and now thanks to you a simple question has made me want to rethink this. Thank you so much for your support!
  • blankiefinder
    blankiefinder Posts: 3,599 Member
    I have no idea where you think I called you a moron, but I am very sorry that you thought I did. However, there are a few pretty silly replies in here. I was only trying to help. If you think my replies were mean, though, you may want to stay away from the forums in general.
  • erickirb
    erickirb Posts: 12,294 Member
    Primolite wrote: »
    My dietitian has said don't eat back the workout calories as long as I am getting the right nutrition. She has focused more on the nutrients than the calories eaten. ( We wish we could hide the calories column in MFP). It is all about balance and if you want this to work long term you need the balance. Don't go hungry. Eat right and healthy, and exercise.
    She also says it is important to eat within an hour of getting up in the morning and to eat plenty of protein with every meal.

    Did she set your goals or do you go by MFP? that is the difference. If you follow MFP caloric intake suggestions then eat back exercise cals, if you override with your own goals accounting for exercise then don't eat them back.
  • cwolfman13
    cwolfman13 Posts: 41,865 Member
    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.

    For one thing, it's the way the MFP tool is designed. MFP calculates your calorie goal based on your stats, desired rate of loss, and your activity level. With MFP, your activity level is only supposed to be your day to day hum drum...so if you have a desk job, for example, you would put sedentary. Note that your exercise and fitness goals on MFP have NO bearing on your calorie goals...these goals are just for you.

    So let's say you are sedentary and MFP estimates your maintenance calories to be 2000 and you say you want to lose 1 Lb per week. That's a 3500 calorie per week deficit from your maintenance so MFP will give you a 500 calorie per day deficit to meet that goal...MFP would give you a calorie goal of 1500 calories. You hit that goal consistently and accurately and you will lose weight without any exercise whatsoever.

    Now let's say you burn 300 calories during a workout. MFP gives you those calories to eat back because that activity is unaccounted for...so you get 1800 calories but you still have a 500 calorie deficit because now your maintenance is 2300 vs 2000...your maintenance increases by those same calories.

    This is important because a big part of being healthy and fit is understanding how to fuel your activities. This also becomes increasingly important when/if you really get into fitness and your workouts get more intense and vigorous...while moderate and vigorous exercise can be good for you, it is also a stress on the body and breaks the body down...this requires energy (calories) to recover and build the body back up.

    The biggest issue with the MFP method is that people tend to underestimate their intake and overestimate their burn, so you need to make sure you're leaving yourself some kind of margin.

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