"It's too hard to eat exercise calories back"

I am one of those people that you find so irritating in this post.

I'll explain to you why I have trouble getting all my workout calories in.

1. I no longer eat the way I used to and no longer find that eating copious amount of food is easy for me. If I overeat, even with calories to spare, I feel bloated and tired.
2. I easily burn 600-1000 calories per workout 6 days a week and I do not eat pasta, potatoes, breads, nor do I eat any processed junk foods. Eating 600 calories in quality healthy foods requires a lot of volume for me that I am not interested in.
3. I have tons of energy and feel amazing without eating my exercise calories back. I do not get hungry nor do I feel lethargic.
4. I am maintaining a 2lb per week loss and have been for two straight months without eating them back in full.

I hope that makes sense to you now...

YES! All of this, but especially #2. I'm certainly not going to eat when I'm not hungry just to eat back my exercise cals.

Amen! We all do what works for us.

MFP works so well for me that I'm much more in tune with my body. If I burn X amount, I'm hungry for almost exactly that amount!

True dat.

I've had days where I'm just not hungry, but most of the time I have to hold myself back from eating my young. I don't think they are in the database anyways.

AMEN! That said, if I were one of the people on this site that do simply amazing workouts (like running marathons, or burning over 1000calories reguarly) I would find it quite difficult to eat my calories back without resorting to unhealthy foods. I generally try to eat clean, but if I've burnt a lot of calories I'll eat a chocolate bar - not to directly aim to eat my calories back, but because I want one - and it's a *safe* time to eat it when I have the calories spare and am not comprimising good nutrition (because I've already eating 1600 calories or whatever of healthy, nutritious food, rather than 900 cals of it or whatever).

I also find it interesting when people say that healthy foods aren't particulary high in calories. Yes, most aren't, but there are quite a few higher calorie *healthy* foods out there - healthy oils, certain fruits / carbs, nuts, avocados... that you don't need to *gorge* on to get your calories up.

Eating peanut butter off the spoon is a habit which made me fat in the first place. Its full of sugar and fat and not a healthy habit for me personally to return too just to eat back my calories.
Yesterday I only ate 880 cals and my daily target after my exercise was 1900. I had 3 meals and a couple of snacks. Its hot as hell here, well for the UK anyway, and I just don't feel like eating much. Just a banana for breakfast, a light lunch and a reasonably sized dinner, and a small bit of candy and a kiwi as a snack.. I didn't go hungry, I was full pretty much the whole day.. and by the evening time I had over 1000cals to eat. I wasn't even going to attempt to eat more food, all I wanted to do was to drink water and lay on my bed in the nuddie in front of a fan! Eating more would have made me feel sick.

Sometimes, for some people, it is hard to eat back the calories they have burnt off, it is difficult to ignore your body signals which are clearly saying 'full..satisfied..no more'.

I gained my weight through poor eating and eating too much at one time. Even before I came to the website and started logging everything,I don't think that I ate back my exercise calories. I always viewed exercise as burning off what I ate.. not an excuse to eat more or to eat junk.

Now that I'm planning my meals, I plan to eat enough that I get to my goal(give or take a hundred calories) and then exercise. That way I'm eating my goal and my net for the most part never dips below 1000. So far that has worked for me and I have been losing weight steadily. When I try to eat my exercise calories, all I do is maintain my weight.

Most of the time I never have this problem and have to earn my dinner. The only times are when I have a 1000 calorie burn day.

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LMAO!! Perfect comment!

I like this thread and actually understand both sides. Sometimes i'm not that hungry (which boggles my mind as a small meal like I enjoy now used to just "wake the beast").

That being said.. I do an average of net calories each week. I read about the zig/zag of ups and down calorie days and how it keeps your metabolism working and I liked the idea so I tried it 1) BECAUSE ITS WORKING FOR ME 2) because it fits my lifestyle and I believe this time I can live this way of life instead of just dieting ..

So.. when i'm not that hungry I choose to save my calories for a weekend or a night out to dinner or or or.. as long as I average each week a daily net of 1400 (which is my set point) I am totally happy with MFP.

I love having the extra calories- I don't always feel hungry enough to eat every single one back but last night for example, I had 1300 cals left for eveing after exercising.

I had a huge portion homemade chilli with sweet potato and guacamole, with a massive salad in olive oil dressing- then I had a healthy dessert followed by two squares of chocolate. I didn't eat 1300 cals but it was at least 1000, I enjoyed every mouthful and what I did eat wasn't what I would call unhealthy food. I also have a couple more snacks during the day if I know I am going to exercise in the evening. I mean, even having a few pieces of fruit can add an extra 200 cals to your day - I know this because when I am trying to stick to my calorie goal WITHOUT exercise I can't even indulge in that or I will go over!

so why do some people always act like it's SO difficult to eat 1200 calories? I mean really? This is a diet--- it's hard to eat that little.

Because calorie level is not a direct indicator of the satiety or volume of food eaten. A diet filled with healthy, fresh produce will be more satisfying and contain a much higher volume of food than a diet consisting of junk.

Lets take a look at the typical person who comes here looking to diet down. I will bet that one of the first things they do will be to reduce carbs or more specifically refined, simple sugars. They replace them with complex carbs / fibrous carbs, including fruit and veg. They will also increase protein levels and sometimes good fat levels. Their food has a much higher level of nutrient density (more nutrients for less amount of calorie cost) as a result.

Protein and fat have higher satiety levels. Fibrous carbs also keep people fuller for longer (due in part to the fibre content) and you can eat much more of them and stay in deficit than refined / processed foods. Ironically then volume of food goes up but calorie levels go down.

Now. lets look at glycogen levels. On a low calorie diet, especially coupled with exercise, glycogen levels will be generally low for a lot of the time. When glycogen stores eventually get depleted the body starts using fat and muscle for energy producing ketones which suppress appetite.

On the flip side most people will start eating more fruit when they snack which obviously contains fructose. Fructose is the preferred source for topping up liver glycogen when it runs low. Once liver glycogen stores are topped up it sends a "full" signal to the brain giving a "stop eating" signal. So you have double whammy going on.

I haven't even spoken about the psychological aspects. However, it's not surprising that some people have difficulty eating their calorie allotment. It's perfectly understandable.

Well, some people might be like me who ate too LITTLE before. I was constantly under eating and that's why I gained weight, because my body was holding onto everything that went into my mouth! So for people like me, it was hard adjusting to eating 1200 or more calories per day. I literally had to stretch my stomach out a bit.

And you actually lost weight by eating more than you did before? I find that so hard to understand... I mean, thermodynamics and that, if you don't get enough energy, your body HAS to use your fat stores. How can you get fat by undereating?

Candi - do an MFP search on "starvation mode" and you will see discussions about it. Basically, your body has a defense mechanism that if it is not getting enough nutrients, your metabolism actually slows down in your body's attempt to become more efficient and expend less energy to survive.

Well, some people might be like me who ate too LITTLE before. I was constantly under eating and that's why I gained weight, because my body was holding onto everything that went into my mouth! So for people like me, it was hard adjusting to eating 1200 or more calories per day. I literally had to stretch my stomach out a bit.

And you actually lost weight by eating more than you did before? I find that so hard to understand... I mean, thermodynamics and that, if you don't get enough energy, your body HAS to use your fat stores. How can you get fat by undereating?

Candi - do an MFP search on "starvation mode" and you will see discussions about it. Basically, your body has a defense mechanism that if it is not getting enough nutrients, your metabolism actually slows down in your body's attempt to become more efficient and expend less energy to survive.

Metabolism slowing is one thing. Metabolism slowing to the point of adding more fat while in a calorie deficit doesn't make sense to me. How slow does a metabolism have to go to be burning less than 1000 calories a day :S

Beg to differ but it ain't that easy for me.

I've been on a low calorie diet since December and really gotten into the habit of not eating much. At one point, I put the 23 almonds back in the bag 'cause I didn't want the 100 or so calories.

Now that I'm getting toward my goal and training for a half marathon, I need to increase my calories and my carbs. That means I have to change my dietary habits that I've followed for almost 7 months. It's a significant change for me. Sure, I'll do it but "sit there, don't eat that" is now a habit and I've got to change that habit.

ILookthetype stated my perspective on this pretty clearly. I am one of those who has a hard time eating 1200 calories per day and an even harder time eating calories I exercise away. Prior to having my son I didn't eat enough. I was on migraine medication that suppresses appetite and literally had reminders on my phone for eating. After my son, I swapped migraine headaches for fibromyalgia, which put me on a medication that can cause water retention and weight gain.

I was always too skinny before and now I am too fat. Being too skinny first did not help, since it meant my body was in "starvation mode" and would hang onto excess calories as much as possible. I have been working my way up to eating 1200 calories per day. I get to make time to eat, eat five or six meals a day, and I look more closely at the sugar and sodium content of my food than I do at the calorie number. I can (and will, dangit) succeed, but it takes just as much time to learn to eat more as it does to learn to eat less. Either way, both the habits and the size of the stomach have to adjust.

i have no junk food in my house. I'm lactose and gluten intolerant so I don't have dairy or bread in my house. I'm sensitive to soy so that cuts out a lot of processed food. When I do a good day at the gym I have to eat back a lot of my exercise calories. When what is in the fridge/freezer is fish, chicken, fruit, veggies and eggs it can be hard. Especially if you work out at night. I tend to eat a 'big' lunch, it's a salad with lots of stuff on it (chicken, fruit,veggies, eggs...) but I usually can only eat half and then I've got to eat a couple hundred calories when I get back from a two hour run at 9? I can't do it. But i'm not going to eat high calorie foods just to do that. I don't want that food in my house and most of it makes me sick...what is a girl to do? Run/exercise less? I eat when I'm hungry. I never go to bed hungry and I always wake up hungry.

People are different.

Some of us "got fat" for reasons other than eating too much. I had Celiac's disease. Which prevented my body from digesting and absorbing nutrients properly, so it held on to everything I hate because it wasn't getting anything from my meals at the time of eating. My body was in starvation mode while I was eating a normal amount of food. Now that I've been diagnosed and my body can absorb and use nutrients properly I'm less hungry and I'm losing weight, but I'd suggest that people keep in mind people gain weight for all kinds of reasons.

YES!!! I KNOW! put some butter on your food that's about 100 calories easy or drink some juice!! I absolutely do not understand how people say they cannot eat X amount of food when a few months ago they were eating X + 1000!

In many cases it may just be psychological, and in some cases it may be a warning signal that someone's really overestimating exercise calories. I've read a lot of time complaints that it's hard to eat back an extra and unplanned-for 1500, 1800 or 2000 calories after an evening gym session. I'll WELL believe that it is if you aren't exceptionally hungry. Even more so as many forms of exercise can cut appetite. But I much doubt that they SHOULD be eating back that many. With moderate exercise for weight loss I've never eaten back more than 500 calories (from a base of 1450 or so, that is, I also never went down to extremes like 1000-1200).

I am having a slightly different issue right now related to that. I've decided to move to maintenance temporarily and a little prematurely (I feel good with my body but wanted to lose another 10 pounds or so -- BMI right now is 26, down from 38). The reason is that it looks like I need some surgery within the next 4-6 weeks, unexpectedly, and think I should just level off the weight loss before that. But it's hard to do it in a controlled way: even though it should be easy to add another 300 or so calories daily, I find the calorie counts of the last 6 months easier to manage. The extra calories likely come from holding myself back less when having lunch outside the house, and these are guesswork anyway. So... once you stop clamping down quite so hard, doing it right has some extra challenges. Small ones, granted, but real ones.