If you eat back your calories are you going to not lose weight vs. if you don't your body may store
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movegrooveandwatchthefood
Posts: 28 Member
I had someone recently post that mfp assumes that you burn a certain amount of calories even before it calculates your activity level (sedentary, lightly active, very active, etc.) from walking. Mfp has me on a 1500 per day intake before exercise. What I want to know is Is my body going into starvation mode from not eating back all of my calories from exercise I deliberately do during the day ie treadmill, aerobics, walking, recumbant bike etc. or should I continue to not eat back all of my calories. Does anyone know?
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Starvation mode is a myth.0
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Starvation mode is a myth. If you're eating 1500 cal you're not starving. As long as you're eating at a deficit you'll lose weight. If you exercise you want to eat enough to fuel your exercise but still remain in a deficit. I think you're just over thinking it.0
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movegrooveandwatchthefood wrote: »I had someone recently post that mfp assumes that you burn a certain amount of calories even before it calculates your activity level (sedentary, lightly active, very active, etc.) from walking. Mfp has me on a 1500 per day intake before exercise. What I want to know is Is my body going into starvation mode from not eating back all of my calories from exercise I deliberately do during the day ie treadmill, aerobics, walking, recumbant bike etc. or should I continue to not eat back all of my calories. Does anyone know?
Starvation mode is a myth as to the ordinary dieter. For your body to be in starvation mode, you have to be emaciated and have lost a certain amount of muscle and fat.
The reasoning behind eating back exercise calories is because (1) MFP gives you a weight loss number that does not include exercise and (2) you want to adequately fuel your body for your activities.
MFP way overstates exercise calories, as do most gym machines, phone apps, and internet calorie burn calculators, so eating back only a portion of your cardio exercise calories is a good idea. Don't count the calories for everyday activities or for weight lifting or other activities of daily living (cleaning house, walking down the halls at work, etc) because those are already included in your base calories.0 -
1500 is good i work out 2 hours everyday and eat 1200 still
Why do you work out 2 hours a day? That seems excessive.
If you are working out that much, you need to eat more than 1200. You probably need to eat more than 1500, for that matter, since you are only trying to lose 10 more pounds. You need to change your deficit to lose a half a pound a week, as well. I really sounds like you are overdoing everything.0 -
Here's an interesting study on starvation mode. You can fast for 48 hours and your BMR will actually increase. It will decline after 60 hours of not eating anything.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/m/pubmed/10837292/0 -
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Oops, deleted as posted in wrong topic
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Everyone's metabolism is VASTLY different, both in the number of calories they burn at rest but also the number of calories (and fuel type) they burn during "exercise". Unless you go to a metabolic laboratory and get your INDIVIDUAL levels tested either by indirect spirometry or in a metabolic chamber both at rest AND exercising you can't KNOW your numbers. MFP uses basic formulas for the "typical" or "average" person but that doesn't apply to everyone because of genetics. We can't change our genes. But we CAN learn our own bodies, and it is really via trial and error that you find out what YOUR body does in certain scenarios. "Eating back your calories" has NEVER worked for me, has ALWAYS resulted in subsequent weight GAIN (I'm a post-obese person so I have to eat about 20% LESS than the person who has never had a weight issue simply to maintain my weight) and I simply don't recommend it for people who have been overweight or obese. You have to find what works for YOU and for YOUR body, and while MFP may provide a good place to start learning about your own body and how it responds, it is NOT the gold standard "for everyone". IMHO.0
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This should be taught in high school. Taking a nutrition class at a high school and college level has done so much more for me than calculus. Regardless of being in actual starvation mode, when you are depriving your body from the necessary nutrients to function on a daily basis, you start to break down muscle, your brain and red blood cells are fueled by fat, your body will hold on to fat. If you know your Resting metabolic rate, ALL activities are included to calculate your caloric needs. Depending on the intensity of your desired weight loss, you calculate from there. In my experience, EATING enough helps with actual fat loss, not restricting enough.0
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JessiBurtnett wrote: »This should be taught in high school. Taking a nutrition class at a high school and college level has done so much more for me than calculus. Regardless of being in actual starvation mode, when you are depriving your body from the necessary nutrients to function on a daily basis, you start to break down muscle, your brain and red blood cells are fueled by fat, your body will hold on to fat. If you know your Resting metabolic rate, ALL activities are included to calculate your caloric needs. Depending on the intensity of your desired weight loss, you calculate from there. In my experience, EATING enough helps with actual fat loss, not restricting enough.
I hope you didn't pay for that nutrition class.0 -
Here is an interesting thing about starvation mode and how it being a myth can really be damaging.
When I was getting my MSW I was running a group for women with mild to moderate eating disorders. Now mild to moderate eating disorders don't actually exist because one cannot be classified with an eating disorder until it is at a very severe level. My dissertation was on focusing on treatment when people are showing the mild to moderate symptoms and having a clinical/therapeutic intervention at that point.
Anyways, the idea of starvation mode and it's complete falsehood ended up becoming a huge problem with the women in our group. I brought someone in from the health center one week when we were discussing the topic of healthy and pro-social eating behaviors. Unfortunately I made a huge error in not vetting the woman from the health center before I had her come in. She started talking about starvation mode and how if these girls have been eating at a lower level that they have ruined their metabolism and they will probably have problems for the rest of their lives if they don't STOP IT RIGHT NOW.
One. Untrue. Yes, almost every girl in the group was under-feeding, but they were not in starvation mode. Secondly, do you know what every single girl in that group heard? They heard that if they want to stay thin they need to eat less forever. They heard that if they eat more they will gain weight and get fat.
I confronted the woman in group and asked her to share her information in a science based way. It got pretty brutal. I ended up asking her to leave. I had to spend weeks and weeks confronting that bad science and information. I had a doctor from the health center come in and talk about metabolism and how reactive and responsive our bodies are. He talked about the negative long term effects of underfeeding on our organs and lean muscle mass, etc. He also confirmed that they did not ruin their metabolisms and that if they effectively feed their bodies they will grow stronger and burn more calories per day.
Still. This starvation myth business is not only not accurate, in my experience it was dangerous.
Excellent testimony to support this damaging myth and good work on your part re-educating these young women.0
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