Should I Eat Back the Calories?

Options
Panda_Poptarts
Panda_Poptarts Posts: 971 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
Hi Guys,

So this is becoming quite the learning journey. I've discovered through MFP message boards that I have no idea what I'm doing. :-) Help a girl out?

At this point, I am shooting for around 1200 calories a day (and probably eating way more than that, who knows? I'm buying a food scale shortly). I log my exercise, but don't eat back any calories. So, if I am actually eating 1200 calories (for the sake of mathematics, let's say I am), and then I burn 250, my net is at 950 for the day.

Could this be a part of why I'm not losing ANYTHING? I lost 10 pounds, then I hit a standstill. It kind of sucks, considering the mass amount of weight I have left to lose...

Insight, advice, tips, and what-the-heck-should-I-be-eating is appreciated! :smile:
«1

Replies

  • Azexas
    Azexas Posts: 4,334 Member
    edited February 2015
    Options
    You may have hit a stall because you are eating more than you think you are. The food scale will really help.

    Side note- if you are unsure of how many calories to eat back after exercise, some people (myself included) find it easy to use the TDEE-20% method of calorie counting that already has adjustments for exercise calories built in.
  • Out_of_Bubblegum
    Out_of_Bubblegum Posts: 2,220 Member
    Options
    Ok.. the quick answers (sorry, I'm at work.. not much time).

    Stalls are normal, and are sometimes followed by a weight-loss "whoosh".
    The scale lies - at least in the short-term.
    Not eating back calories will not prevent you from losing weight.
    If your stall is less than 8 weeks... exercise patience, and keep going!
    If more, then re-evaluate your eating/logging (that food scale will definitely help).

  • littleaudrey85
    littleaudrey85 Posts: 45 Member
    Options
    Eat them back. At 1200 calories you can lose weight without even exercising. It is important that you eat back those calories so that you NET 1200 calories. When I was really overweight I lost over 50lbs on a 1350 calorie diet and I was eating to a net of 1350.
  • slittle80
    slittle80 Posts: 80 Member
    Options
    You're not eating enough... unless you're a midget. :)
  • Panda_Poptarts
    Panda_Poptarts Posts: 971 Member
    Options
    bwmalone wrote: »
    Ok.. the quick answers (sorry, I'm at work.. not much time).

    Stalls are normal, and are sometimes followed by a weight-loss "whoosh".
    The scale lies - at least in the short-term.
    Not eating back calories will not prevent you from losing weight.
    If your stall is less than 8 weeks... exercise patience, and keep going!
    If more, then re-evaluate your eating/logging (that food scale will definitely help).

    We're at about 2 weeks.

    I just want results, darnit! Slow and steady, eh?
  • Panda_Poptarts
    Panda_Poptarts Posts: 971 Member
    Options
    slittle80 wrote: »
    You're not eating enough... unless you're a midget. :)

    If 5'11 and 300 pounds is a midget, count me into the fun-sized club.

    Lol.

    So, what exactly is a healthy caloric intake? I have no idea. 1200 just seems to be a number that is pretty common for weight loss, and I really, really, need to lose 100 pounds.
  • cwolfman13
    cwolfman13 Posts: 41,867 Member
    Options
    It all depends on how you set things up. If you set your activity as per the MFP descriptors to only include your day to day hum drum then yes...because any exercise would be unaccounted for activity.

    That said, people tend to underestimate their food intake...they guestimate on servings and just log whatever is clever so they really don't have a true idea of their intake. If you're not measuring and weighing then I can pretty much guarantee you're eating more than you think you are. To boot, most people overestimate burn as well...

    The MFP method...and really calorie counting in general requires quite a bit of precision. It's all estimates, but you want to be as precise with those estimates as possible...little things here and there can easily wipe out what you thought was a deficit....it's really not that hard to eat 500 + calories more than you think you are.

    Also, when you say you hit a standstill...how long are we talking here? One of the other issues people have is a complete lack of patience and completely unrealistic expectations in RE to how much weight they should be losing and how fast. This isn't the Biggest Loser...this isn't some phony *kitten* t.v. show. Your weight loss isn't going to be a linear function and it's going to be slow...there's really no getting around that.
  • WayneBradt
    WayneBradt Posts: 69 Member
    Options
    Unless it's medical, and I'm not a doctor no one here is going to be able to answer that. These tools, MFP, food scales, activity trackers, heart rate monitors etc. are just that tools. And they are only as good as the person entering the data, they are not magic. You have to be completely, 100%, accurate with how much is going in and how much is going out, you do that and live in the deficit consistently, you will succeed. If you live in this weight lose world with approximations, your results will be very inconstant at best. Garbage in, garbage out, and I don't mean the type of food you're eating.
  • slittle80
    slittle80 Posts: 80 Member
    Options
    jessicaesqueda0409 wrote: »
    slittle80 wrote: »
    You're not eating enough... unless you're a midget. :)

    If 5'11 and 300 pounds is a midget, count me into the fun-sized club.

    Lol.

    So, what exactly is a healthy caloric intake? I have no idea. 1200 just seems to be a number that is pretty common for weight loss, and I really, really, need to lose 100 pounds.

    It's easy enough to do, just takes dedication and time. I choose to set my calorie goal a little higher and not eat back my workout calories. That way it doesn't matter how accurate my burned calorie estimates are, I will still lose weight without killing my metabolism. At your height, depending on how much you're truly ingesting, you need more than 1200 calories baseline.

  • Panda_Poptarts
    Panda_Poptarts Posts: 971 Member
    Options
    cwolfman13 wrote: »
    It all depends on how you set things up. If you set your activity as per the MFP descriptors to only include your day to day hum drum then yes...because any exercise would be unaccounted for activity.

    That said, people tend to underestimate their food intake...they guestimate on servings and just log whatever is clever so they really don't have a true idea of their intake. If you're not measuring and weighing then I can pretty much guarantee you're eating more than you think you are. To boot, most people overestimate burn as well...

    The MFP method...and really calorie counting in general requires quite a bit of precision. It's all estimates, but you want to be as precise with those estimates as possible...little things here and there can easily wipe out what you thought was a deficit....it's really not that hard to eat 500 + calories more than you think you are.

    Also, when you say you hit a standstill...how long are we talking here? One of the other issues people have is a complete lack of patience and completely unrealistic expectations in RE to how much weight they should be losing and how fast. This isn't the Biggest Loser...this isn't some phony *kitten* t.v. show. Your weight loss isn't going to be a linear function and it's going to be slow...there's really no getting around that.

    Where to start? Haha.

    1. Standstill is about 2 weeks-- not a ton, but enough that I'm being pretty darned hard on myself.
    2. I have 100 pounds to do, and would like to do it in a year (2 being tops). I think that's fairly realistic?
    3. I am buying a food scale. I realized yesterday that I logged 2 portions of pita chips, and when I actually counted, it was likely way more than that. Eek.
    4. I'm not so much going for linear function. I'm just... pushing my body as much as it wants to be pushed when it comes to exercise, and trying to not starve whilst making major changes. I've cut out soda, excess sugar, lots of processed crap. I'm on the right track. I just think this is... harder than I thought it was going to be. (who knew? Lol)
  • Lissa_Kaye
    Lissa_Kaye Posts: 214 Member
    Options
    My advice, ditch the 1200 calorie thing unless you are around 120 lbs. Go to this site: http://www.fitnessfrog.com/calculators/tdee-calculator.html and enter in your stats. Take that number and multiply by 0.85 and eat that amount. Make sure you choose the correct activity level. If you have a significant amount to lose like you are in the morbidly obese category don't worry about eating back exercise calories for regular workouts. If you are doing very long and/or hard strenuous workouts like hiking all day, long sessions of P90x you want to eat back some.
    This is how I calculate what to eat back for me. My TDEE is 2200. So I normally burn around 80 calories an hour without exercise. I did a 2 hour hike yesterday, my burn for it was 870. I subtract 160 from that total (2 hours @ 80 calories). That gives me 710 calories burned from exercise. I will eat back 1/2 to a 3rd of that. I will eat that back with high protein and nutritionally dense food. I don't think of it as "yay I am gonna stuff on some chocolate cake and McD's". Also as you lose weight you will need to recalculate your calorie amounts. Do it every 15-20 lbs. Hop this helps.
  • Khukhullatus
    Khukhullatus Posts: 361 Member
    Options
    I base whether I eat the calories back or not on how many calories we are talking about. If I go for a thirty minute run, I probably won't eat the calories back, but if I"m doing something very active the entire day, like a snowboarding trip or something, I'll eat a portion of those calories back. I don't have a set number. I sort of go off of whether or not I thought today's activity level was exceptional in some way.
  • jessupbrady
    jessupbrady Posts: 508 Member
    Options
    I recommend you start here:

    http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/1080242/a-guide-to-get-you-started-on-your-path-to-sexypants/p1

    It is very educational and will help you understand the answers to your questions. There are additional links in that article that will point you to further knowledge. Keep reading. You'll be glad you did.
  • cwolfman13
    cwolfman13 Posts: 41,867 Member
    edited February 2015
    Options
    jessicaesqueda0409 wrote: »
    slittle80 wrote: »
    You're not eating enough... unless you're a midget. :)

    If 5'11 and 300 pounds is a midget, count me into the fun-sized club.

    Lol.

    So, what exactly is a healthy caloric intake? I have no idea. 1200 just seems to be a number that is pretty common for weight loss, and I really, really, need to lose 100 pounds.

    Have you seen a doctor at all? Many people in your weight situation have other things going on medically that jack with your hormones and your metabolism. At 300 Lbs you should be able to lose weight easily eating way more than 1200 calories per day.

    I'm not sure of your age but I just generically put in your stats into the scooby workshop calculator with no exercise whatsoever and it is saying you should be able to lose about 1 Lb per week eating 2000ish calories which means you should be able to eat around 1500 calories to lose 2 Lbs per week (which at your size is perfectly acceptable). Mind you, that's without any exercise at all. Given your size, those seem very reasonable figures to me.

    I will tell you this as well...the whole "starvation mode" stuff as it gets thrown around her is BS...but when you severely under-eat and restrict calories, it is a major stress on the body...this can really jack around with your hormones and it can slow your metabolism to some extent...and it most definitely can cause you to retain a *kitten* ton of water that can certainly mask short term scale losses.

    At any-rate, I would make sure to net 1200...at your size you can afford to be more aggressive than many...just be careful not to overestimate your burns...and definitely get that food scale...it's a game changer for many.
  • TimothyFish
    TimothyFish Posts: 4,925 Member
    Options
    If all you're burning in exercise is 250, no, I wouldn't eat them back. But if you think you're eating 1200 and you aren't losing weight, then you're probably eating more than you realize.
  • donamari7
    donamari7 Posts: 20
    Options
    jessicaesqueda0409 wrote: »
    slittle80 wrote: »
    You're not eating enough... unless you're a midget. :)

    If 5'11 and 300 pounds is a midget, count me into the fun-sized club.

    Lol.

    So, what exactly is a healthy caloric intake? I have no idea. 1200 just seems to be a number that is pretty common for weight loss, and I really, really, need to lose 100 pounds.
    If you are 5'11" 300 lbs 1200 calories a day is just not going to be enough, especially if you are working out on a regular basis. Are you using the MFP food calculator to determine your estimated daily nutritional intake? I am 5'10 and 278. I work out 4 days a week using a combination of strength training and cardio. My daily caloric intake is set at about 1600 a day. I have lost 11 lbs in 3 weeks so far. I have my goal set for 1.5 to 2 lbs a week.
  • Jhingerz
    Jhingerz Posts: 1 Member
    Options
    i am new to this, can someone please help me understand, everyone keeps saying that we have to eat the calorie goal say (1200), and eat back what ever is burned correct? so how will i create a deficit if i eat 1200 + the calorie burned?
  • Liftng4Lis
    Liftng4Lis Posts: 15,150 Member
    Options
    Yes MFP is designed to eat back your exercise calories. Most stalls come from miscalculating consumption. Can you open your diary?

Categories