I would like to see who eats all of their calories back

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  • stormieweather
    stormieweather Posts: 2,549 Member
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    If you are eating your exercise calories back (based on an accurate HRM) and not losing, then the issue is probably one of the following:

    You aren't being exact in logging your food. Most people underestimate their portions quite a bit and forget to add things like the cooking oil, a handful of nuts here and there, bites of their children's food or the dish their preparing.

    Or

    Your activity level isn't accurate in your setup. Maybe you put active, but you are really lightly active or actually sedentary. If this isn't correct and set too high, it will give you more calories than you need, which will reduce your deficit or even eliminate it.

    Or

    You are counting things as exercise things that are already included in your daily activity level. Exercise, as it pertains to eating back the calories on MFP, consist of purposeful, sweat-inducing, for fitness purposes, exercise. Daily living is already included in your activity level above. If, for example, you put down grocery shopping as exercise, you're double counting it, because it's not for fitness purposes and generally doesn't induce sweat.

    Check these things and then, be patient! It takes a couple of weeks for your weight loss to catch up to your changes.
  • quietlywinning
    quietlywinning Posts: 889 Member
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    I eat most of mine back - I'm usually within 50 calories. I have been at this almost a month and just weighed for the first time and have lost 5 pounds.

    The real issue, though, is how does YOUR body work? It takes time to figure that out. You are making good progress even before you know for sure what will be best for YOU, just in watching your food intake and becoming more active. You WILL lose weight!
  • evilbanks
    evilbanks Posts: 166
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    I guess this question confuses me. Why would you want to consume the same amount of calories that you just burned? If trying to lose weight, isn't the goal to have a calorie deficit at the end of the day?
  • Schraudt814
    Schraudt814 Posts: 496 Member
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    I eat most of my calories back- for me it's more a hunger thing than a counting calories issue. If I'm starving and faint, I'm going to eat- regardless of my calorie goal for the day
  • megansprague
    megansprague Posts: 57
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    I don't have time to respond to this now but I'm curious to read more of this thread later when I get out of work. Great topic! I really need advice on this
  • stormieweather
    stormieweather Posts: 2,549 Member
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    I guess this question confuses me. Why would you want to consume the same amount of calories that you just burned? If trying to lose weight, isn't the goal to have a calorie deficit at the end of the day?

    MFP already has a deficit built in. You don't have to exercise to lose weight on MFP, but if you do..you're putting additional strain on your body and it needs fuel to function. Not eating them back increases your deficit to potentially unsafe and unsustainable levels.
  • mitymex
    mitymex Posts: 10
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    I do this quite frequently, but I don't eat all of the calories back. Last night I burned 407 Calories walking and had almost 300 calories left to begin with so I had a total of 700 calories left to eat. I ate all but 101 calories. I ended up losing 3/4 of a lb from yesterday morning until this morning when I weighed. Remember you have to burn after 3500 calories to lose 1lb.
  • ghoztt
    ghoztt Posts: 69 Member
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    Not only do I eat them back but I eat pretty crappy foods, drink soda (non-diet often) and I'm still losing. Eventually I will hit a plateau and when I do I will change my eating habits further but until then I'll enjoy my food, stay under my calorie allotment and eat back my calories because it means more food! :tongue:
  • MrsRobertson1005
    MrsRobertson1005 Posts: 552 Member
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    I eat most of mine back, just depends on if I'm hungry or not, yesterday i think i had 400 left because i just wasn't hungry. Sometimes i only have 4 or 5 left, if any. Just depends
  • chevy88grl
    chevy88grl Posts: 3,937 Member
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    I do. Always have. Always will. I've found that I have to eat them back - if I don't, my body gets grumpy and starts to gain weight (not a lot of weight - like .5lbs over a week or so). Also, I've found I feel better when I eat them back. I can't imagine not eating them... I'd be so dang hungry! lol.
  • sarahbear1981
    sarahbear1981 Posts: 610 Member
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    I almost always eat mine back and haven't had a problem losing weight. I recommend taking into account your BMR, which your HRM doesn't do. For example, I burn about 49 calories an hour by simply existing. For the sake of simplicity, I rounded that to a calorie a minute, which I subtract from the number of calories my HRM says I burned. It said 111 for 22 minutes of playing soccer with my kids yesterday, so I logged it as 89. That way, you can still enjoy some extra food without eating back more than you should.

    You make a good point!
  • timtamslam
    timtamslam Posts: 86 Member
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    I usually try to eat back all the calories that I expend through exercise, and if for any reason I can't, I'll make sure I eat back half.
  • sweebum
    sweebum Posts: 1,060 Member
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    I eat half of mine back to err on the side of caution :smile:
  • LilLolo22
    LilLolo22 Posts: 229 Member
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    I was at a standstill for almost three weeks, then I started eating back mine and have dropped again. Not to mention that I feel MUCH better and I have the energy I need in order to do my workouts. Before I was always feeling tired. I did recently purchase a HRM so that I could better calculate what I'm burning. It seems like I have to eat a lot of calories when I work out, but I just make sure that after I subtract out the calories I've burned I'm staying above 1200. (I work a desk job). Good luck! :flowerforyou:

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