Dont want to eat back the calories I burned

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ItzShoTime
ItzShoTime Posts: 50 Member
edited August 2016 in Health and Weight Loss
I feel like I worked too hard to burn off all those calories during my workout, why would I want to eat them back? I really don't want to. I need the scale to move. Anyone else feel the same? What have your results been like?

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  • diannethegeek
    diannethegeek Posts: 14,776 Member
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    http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/818082/exercise-calories-again-wtf/p1
  • ItzShoTime
    ItzShoTime Posts: 50 Member
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    Great thread!!! Thanks
  • Elise4270
    Elise4270 Posts: 8,375 Member
    edited August 2016
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    I feel the same way. I don't want to eat them back. I usually try to listen to my body. Am I head hungry or stomach hungry? Inevitably, if I've been active and at a deficit my body wants thoes calories back and there's nothing I can do to stop that. :wink:

    My results are slower than I like. But I'm whittling away the last 10 and more focused on performance anyhow. I'm sure I've just experienced recomp. Photos at a similar weight look 20 pounds heavier.

    @diannethegeek nice link. Thanks
  • ItzShoTime
    ItzShoTime Posts: 50 Member
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    I'm getting results pretty quickly and I don't want to stop now. Eating them back I find slows down my progress. Yes Im impatient but I have over 130lbs to lose. I do try to add low cal foods if I'm still hungry. But to eat the cals back would just slow down the scale and my motivation
  • daniip_la
    daniip_la Posts: 678 Member
    edited August 2016
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    I have 140lbs to lose, so I know where you're coming from about wanting the weight off fast. But, I started with having 200lbs to lose, and I'm still going strong because I don't make the weight loss unnecessarily difficult.

    I lose 2lbs a week while eating back my exercise calories. My MFP is set to sedentary, but 6/7 days per week, I'm walking 5 or 6 miles a day, so I tend to have an exercise calorie adjustment (from my Fitbit) around 800kcal per day.

    If I didn't eat that adjustment, I'd be losing around 3.5 or 4 lbs a week instead of 2. And I would be miserable. I eat most (if not all) of my exercise calories back, enjoy the energy it gives me to continue being active, and accept my slower rate of loss. I find that, in the long run, it's helped me to stick with it much longer than I've been able to otherwise. (Also, I get lightheaded, have headaches, and just generally feel terrible if my deficit is much larger than 1000kcal on a regular basis.)
  • jenilla1
    jenilla1 Posts: 11,118 Member
    edited August 2016
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    Not sure how sustainable it is long-term to work out and not give yourself at least some of those calories back as fuel and for repair. You don't want to end up losing too much lean mass along with the fat. I personally think I would burn out if I did that over time. MFP is already giving you a deficit. No need to make it extreme and risk crashing and burning. Slow and steady tends to be more sustainable. I'm in this for the long haul, so I've never been in a rush. (I've been maintaining at goal for 5 years now and I eat most of my exercise calories back.)

    Now, if it works for you to not eat them back, then go for it. You know your body best. Be willing to make adjustments if you start to burn out, though. That could become more likely the closer you get to goal. Good luck! :)
  • tkdchick2016
    tkdchick2016 Posts: 38 Member
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    I guess some people just view it differently. MFP gives you your deficit built in to your daily amount, therefore, if you eat that plus calories you burned you are still going to lose at the rate you programmed into MFP. Keep in mind that this journey is 80% Food and 20% Activity (roughly). Exercise you do should be sustainable and something you love to do for your health not just for weight loss (even though that is for your health too, just in a different way). The calorie deficit is what is going to cause you to lose weight, the exercise helps to keep you more fit and healthy.
  • Eleanor_82
    Eleanor_82 Posts: 57 Member
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    I feel the same way sometimes but like the others say, losing more than 2lbs/ 1kg a week probably isn't sustainable and might lead to saggy skin or risk binge eating later. I do like my milestones though...

    What you might consider is measuring the impact of your workouts differently. Yes, the scales will hopefully keep dropping every week but what about your fitness improvements? Are you increasing workouts from twice a week to four times? Can you run 5k now compared to 1/2k before? Can you lift more? Do you use more diverse machines at the gym? Seeing the results this way- plus the clothes I can fit back into now- helps make me more patient with a steady, reasonable weekly loss on the scales.
  • trigden1991
    trigden1991 Posts: 4,658 Member
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    If you don't want to, then don't. Personally I look at exercise as a way to boost my caloric deficit and not "earn" more calories to eat.

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