Help! To eat exercise calories or not????

Getting_Fit_4_Life
Getting_Fit_4_Life Posts: 401 Member
edited September 29 in Health and Weight Loss
I know that this is not a new question on MFP, but hope ya'll don't mind me asking it again :) A wonderful MFP friend of my has seen great result increasing her calories and eating her exercise calories. I have been using MFP for about 3 weeks, I was losing initally, but all of a sudden I feel that I may have stoppled losing. I was wondering if this is because I haven't been eating my exercise calories back. I want to try eating back my exercise calories back, but still not sure if it will work for me or against me. I can get over putting back the calories that I just worked my butt of to get off. Beside, I tried to eat by my calories yesterday and boy it was hard to find something good to eat especially since I was alread over on sugar from the fruit I ate earlier. In addition I was already over on sodium by 50 mg.

I would love to get feed back on MFP people who have has result one way or the other.

Thanks so much :)

Replies

  • lstnlondry
    lstnlondry Posts: 1,794 Member
    i'm starting to think that I personally shouldn't eat back the calories...but I am curious to read the feedback given to you.
  • mistyb47711
    mistyb47711 Posts: 861 Member
    everyone is different....Alot on here do and still lose....Myself I cant eat ALL them....and still lose.....if your using a HRM then Id try to eat 1/2 back and see if you still lose.....to me eating back is gonna come in handy when the last bit of weigh needs to come off....Just play with the calories and see what results you get from eating back
  • dez_yaoichan
    dez_yaoichan Posts: 454
    when you have finished your food diary and are too under your calories, it will tell you (mine says under 1200) that you are putting your body into starvation mode. you don't have to eat back ALL your calories, but make sure you have enought that you aren't putting yourself into starvation mode because that can actually make you gain weight- your body will store the fat.
  • lizinspain
    lizinspain Posts: 8
    To be honest, it depends how I feel! Some days I use them some days I don't! Mind you I never use all of them as I think the estimation on here is way too high. In a nutshell I would say if you feel hungry, eat some of them, if you feel fine without them, don't eat them. Probably not too helpful, but good luck anyway!
    X
  • innerfashionista
    innerfashionista Posts: 451 Member
    How many calories are you at after exercise calories are subtracted? What are your weight loss goals? How hard are you working out? Do you zig zag your calories? All of these factor into whether you should eat the calories.

    The answer? It's up to your body.

    After a few weeks, your weight loss will slow. Your body has figured out what you're doing and is working to hold onto your weight. If you eat/exercise the same every day, change it up. If you eat at the same time every day, change that up. What works for one may or may not work for you. I always feel compelled to answer this question, but the real answer, as crap as it is, is "It Depends."

    If you're not eating at least 1200 calories a day after exercise, you may want to increase. If you're already getting that, you may need to eat more. Just because I believe (for my body) that eating more = losing more, doesn't mean it'll work for you.

    My recommendation is to play around with it. Try changing how often you eat, what you're eating, the intensity of the workouts. If you're using MFP to calcualte your calories burned, it's probably an estimation. When you do decide to eat or not eat the calories, keep it for at least a month.
  • AmeChops
    AmeChops Posts: 744 Member
    I find it hard to eat back my calories sometimes and I really don't want to start eating when I'm not hungry - it's taken me too long to get out of that habit lol!! I try to eat them back but I don't worry about it if I can't.
  • ChantalGG
    ChantalGG Posts: 2,404 Member
    I was wondering the same last week so i looked at all my friends diary's and notice the ones that are losing calories every week dont eat all their calories back. So I tried last week and didnt eat my calories back unless i needed to, I only burn 100 to 400 a day extra. and i lost 2.5lbs this past week. I wasnt losing for a few weeks before that.
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