to eat or not to eat

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wicklessgal
wicklessgal Posts: 56 Member
in Food and Nutrition
Trying to figure if I am or am not supposed to eat my exercise calories? Can someone help.

Replies

  • sleepytexan
    sleepytexan Posts: 3,138 Member
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    yes, please do.

    this is a fantastic explanation:

    http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/196502-for-the-people-who-work-out-like-crazy-and-are-not-losing?hl=for+people+who+work+out+like+crazy

    beware of people who tell you not to eat them. I mean, who ya gonna ask, Lance Armstrong or Jack Black?

    blessings.
  • kadoodle76
    kadoodle76 Posts: 234
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    This is my unprofessional opinion,but I would say to eat when you are hungry like you normally would and just know that those extra calories you burn with exercise are not going to end up on your body. If you are trying to maintain a healthy weight, go ahead and eat more when you burn more, but if it's weight loss you are looking for, I would just eat healthy and forget eating what you burn. It seems to me that if you eat what you burn, your body stays the same, eat less than you burn and you lose weight. You want to make sure you are eating regularly and that it is healthy food of course.
  • elliecolorado
    elliecolorado Posts: 1,040
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    I gained weight when I ate them all back. If you are using MFP to get the numbers for your calories burned I would be extra cautious, because the calorie estimates tend to be really high for some things (walking/running is the only thing they seem to estimate the correct amount of calories on, at least for me). I eat back about 1/2 (or less) of the calories burned and started losing weight consistently.
  • sleepytexan
    sleepytexan Posts: 3,138 Member
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    This is my unprofessional opinion,but I would say to eat when you are hungry like you normally would and just know that those extra calories you burn with exercise are not going to end up on your body. If you are trying to maintain a healthy weight, go ahead and eat more when you burn more, but if it's weight loss you are looking for, I would just eat healthy and forget eating what you burn. It seems to me that if you eat what you burn, your body stays the same, eat less than you burn and you lose weight. You want to make sure you are eating regularly and that it is healthy food of course.

    sorry this is incorrect.

    please read:
    http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/196502-for-the-people-who-work-out-like-crazy-and-are-not-losing?hl=for+people+who+work+out+like+crazy

    blessings.
  • JNick77
    JNick77 Posts: 3,783 Member
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    This is my unprofessional opinion,but I would say to eat when you are hungry like you normally would and just know that those extra calories you burn with exercise are not going to end up on your body. If you are trying to maintain a healthy weight, go ahead and eat more when you burn more, but if it's weight loss you are looking for, I would just eat healthy and forget eating what you burn. It seems to me that if you eat what you burn, your body stays the same, eat less than you burn and you lose weight. You want to make sure you are eating regularly and that it is healthy food of course.

    sorry this is incorrect.

    please read:
    http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/196502-for-the-people-who-work-out-like-crazy-and-are-not-losing?hl=for+people+who+work+out+like+crazy

    blessings.

    This is such a loaded question already and can be argued either way. This link says to eat them back, I've read from various PhD's that say do not eat them back to set a healthy starting point. I suggest you read her post and read elsewhere outside of this website and make a decision on your own.
  • ChantalGG
    ChantalGG Posts: 2,404 Member
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    I ate mine back and guess what, i lost what i should of only eating 1200 calories for a month 3.5 lb. I could of not worked out at all and lost that much. I am not going to eat back my calories now and only eat more if i need to. I have been talking to lost of people and so many are not doing it even though this site tells you too. If I am doing heavy weights I will "eat back" Meaning have a snack of protein afterwords but doesnt mean i am going over in my calories for it.
  • JNick77
    JNick77 Posts: 3,783 Member
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    I ate mine back and guess what, i lost what i should of only eating 1200 calories for a month 3.5 lb. I could of not worked out at all and lost that much. I am not going to eat back my calories now and only eat more if i need to. I have been talking to lost of people and so many are not doing it even though this site tells you too. If I am doing heavy weights I will "eat back" Meaning have a snack of protein afterwords but doesnt mean i am going over in my calories for it.

    Right, we can aruge this both ways. Me, I don't use any of the sites recommendations for calories and macro nutrients. I set my total calorie intake higher than what MFP says and I don't eat my calories back. At least this site is flexible enough to let you adjust your own.
  • wicklessgal
    wicklessgal Posts: 56 Member
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    yes, please do.

    this is a fantastic explanation:

    http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/196502-for-the-people-who-work-out-like-crazy-and-are-not-losing?hl=for+people+who+work+out+like+crazy

    beware of people who tell you not to eat them. I mean, who ya gonna ask, Lance Armstrong or Jack Black?

    blessings.

    Thanks, I read the post. A great wealth of information! Thanks again!
  • wildon883r
    wildon883r Posts: 429 Member
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    Something that needs to be established is that generally speaking food calorie nutrition labels are at best fairly accurate at worst not very accurate. Secondly no two bodies burn calories the same no matter what sort of exercise they do. Third. People that died do to starvation were not fat. My BMR is almost 2000 calories a day and my TDEE is just over 3000. I eat between 1900-2200 a day and maybe once a week hit 27-2800 on my Friday drinking night. I'm 6'1" at 203 lbs. I'm moderately active and exercise 7 days a week as my job is physical (strength) and i ride a motorcycle around 8+ hours a week, I work in the garden 2-3 hours a week swinging a weed hoe lol. which is exercise as well. I haven't really lost anything in 5 weeks but i'm not worried about it. Where am i leading?

    I eat about 6 times a day and i have to push calories at days end to hit 2000-2200. I'm not starving by any means and i'm very strong from a muscle perspective. According to my TDEE vs my MFP calorie goals i should be losing 2lbs a week. With that being said i can't buy into the thought that i need to eat more just for the sake of eating. In order for me to eat 3000 calories a day i would have to eat a horrible diet. I refuse to do that. The thread that everybody gets pointed to about eating exercise calories back is not scientifically backed it's somebodies personal opinion.

    Sorry but there is more to eating healthy and weight loss then number quota's.. I refuse to eat more then i already do if i'm not hungry. I would like to see alot more common sense on these message boards tbh.
  • sleepytexan
    sleepytexan Posts: 3,138 Member
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    Something that needs to be established is that generally speaking food calorie nutrition labels are at best fairly accurate at worst not very accurate. Secondly no two bodies burn calories the same no matter what sort of exercise they do. Third. People that died do to starvation were not fat. My BMR is almost 2000 calories a day and my TDEE is just over 3000. I eat between 1900-2200 a day and maybe once a week hit 27-2800 on my Friday drinking night. I'm 6'1" at 203 lbs. I'm moderately active and exercise 7 days a week as my job is physical (strength) and i ride a motorcycle around 8+ hours a week, I work in the garden 2-3 hours a week swinging a weed hoe lol. which is exercise as well. I haven't really lost anything in 5 weeks but i'm not worried about it. Where am i leading?

    I eat about 6 times a day and i have to push calories at days end to hit 2000-2200. I'm not starving by any means and i'm very strong from a muscle perspective. According to my TDEE vs my MFP calorie goals i should be losing 2lbs a week. With that being said i can't buy into the thought that i need to eat more just for the sake of eating. In order for me to eat 3000 calories a day i would have to eat a horrible diet. I refuse to do that. The thread that everybody gets pointed to about eating exercise calories back is not scientifically backed it's somebodies personal opinion.

    Sorry but there is more to eating healthy and weight loss then number quota's.. I refuse to eat more then i already do if i'm not hungry. I would like to see alot more common sense on these message boards tbh.


    Um, I don't think we're talking about dying of starvation, here. . .

    No one debates anyone's right to eat any way they please. OP just asked for advice and people offer her the best possible advice they have. If it were really so easy to understand, we wouldn't have MFP and we wouldn't have a gazillion overweight, yo-yoing people here in America.

    BTW, the poster's thread IS backed by scientific evidence -- he just did a fantastic job of explaining in layman's terms.

    Also, if a person is so unfit and overweight that they are counting things like doing laundry and steps across a parking lot as exercise -- that is not really the kind of "exercise" that one would need to eat back calories for.

    blessings.

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