Anyone not losing weight eating ALL their calories?

Nishka09
Nishka09 Posts: 33
edited September 29 in Food and Nutrition
I mean eating your excercise calories in addition to your daily ones. Just curious.

Replies

  • TAMMY_76
    TAMMY_76 Posts: 199
    i dont cause i gain
  • thetrishwarp
    thetrishwarp Posts: 838 Member
    Nope. I've always eaten all my calories (within 100-200 for mistake room) and have still lost.
  • jrich1
    jrich1 Posts: 2,408 Member
    How are you calculating your calories burned, sounds like your numbers might be off
  • douladebbie
    douladebbie Posts: 2 Member
    Ok, I am new here. If I don't eat all my calories will that slow me down. It seems like a lot of calories. I am doing the right amount of exercise everyday and still have calories left over.
  • erickirb
    erickirb Posts: 12,294 Member
    If you are not losing when eating all your calories, the issue maybe one or more of the following:
    - A slow metabolism (could be due to thyroid issue or prolonged under eating)
    - Over estimating caloires burned (Machines and MFP tend to over estimate caloric burn)
    - under estimating the amount you eat (if you are not measuring and weight this is quite likely)
    - Have the wrong activity setting on MFP (either to high or to low)
    - Have the wrong weekly weight loss goal set based on your current condition (usually set too aggressive i.e. set at 2lbs when should be 1 lb)

    If you don't have a slow metabolism and are doing the rest correctly then you will lose, on average, your weekly weight loss goal amount.

    If you have 15-40ish pounds to go a 1 lb/week goal should be doable, with 40-75 a 1.5 lb/week, 75+ 2lb/week and 15 or less you should have a goal of no more than 0.5 lbs/week. and on top of these goals all exercise calories, if properly calculated should be eaten to meet these goals.
  • tarapin
    tarapin Posts: 169
    Nope. I've always eaten all my calories (within 100-200 for mistake room) and have still lost.

    Same here!
  • Sigra
    Sigra Posts: 374 Member
    I exercised and ate all my calories for a solid 3months without losing :|
  • zml_mom
    zml_mom Posts: 270 Member
    I usually never eat my exercise calories, I eat around 1200 a day sometimes not even that (I am just not hungry enough to eat a lot)
    if I am having a cheat day then I will eat my exercise calories but thats it
  • Gary6030
    Gary6030 Posts: 593 Member
    I haven't purchased one yet, but the general consensus on MFP is to buy a HRM(Heart Rate Monitor) the ones with the watch and chest band. They are under $100 and they will measure your true caloric burn. As stated earlier your calories may be off due to guessing or inaccurate measuring or....wrong exercise caloric burn. You might surprise yourself and find that you are burning more calories than you think and need to eat more. Wouldn't that be great. I had a friend that had this problem. He started losing like crazy.
  • kellyscomeback
    kellyscomeback Posts: 1,369 Member
    Nope. I've always eaten all my calories (within 100-200 for mistake room) and have still lost.
    Same here.
  • erickirb
    erickirb Posts: 12,294 Member
    I usually never eat my exercise calories, I eat around 1200 a day sometimes not even that (I am just not hungry enough to eat a lot)
    if I am having a cheat day then I will eat my exercise calories but thats it

    If you are not hungry and not eating 1200 you probably already have metabolism issues, and it is difficult to get the required nutrition, Macros and micros, on so few calories. Also hunger is not the best indication of nutrition requirements, as after a prolonged period of not eating enough, you brain will not send the hunger cues properly.
  • MCEVITTS
    MCEVITTS Posts: 8
    You shouldn't eat all of your exercise calories back, but you should eat some of them....if you are eating too few calories, your body may be storing your fat instead of burning it.
  • lisseth82
    lisseth82 Posts: 28
    I met with a personal trainer and a nutritionist and they advised that you do NOT have to eat your "work out calories". I gain when I eat my calories back, so I usually range from 1200 Monday-thursday then Friday-Sunday 1400. They advised to rotate your calorie intake, I save mine for the weekends.
  • erickirb
    erickirb Posts: 12,294 Member
    You shouldn't eat all of your exercise calories back, but you should eat some of them....if you are eating too few calories, your body may be storing your fat instead of burning it.

    If calculated correctly you should eat all of them, if you use mfp calculation I would eat 50-75% of them.
  • fujax2005
    fujax2005 Posts: 5
    I'm fairly new here, but I find 1200 calories really hard to stick to. I do exercise and need those extra calories just to not feel hungry. Pretty much I eat the same about 1500 cal regardless of if I exercise or not. So I try to always get at least 300 calories of exercise in each day (which isn't hard because I have been biking to and from my office .... lots of hills!). Most days I have some left over calories from exercise and rarely go over my daily allotment. On the weekends I typically take a long (and strenuous hike) which burns about 2000 calories.... I never eat all of these calories. In 2 weeks I've only lost 2 lbs.... but I figure it will go slowly. I guess what I'm saying is that you don't want to be hungry, but try not to eat all of your exercise calories.
  • tikitanna
    tikitanna Posts: 15 Member
    I usually eat back about half of my exercise calories, and I've lost my 2lbs+ per week since I've started. If I go more than a few days without losing anything, I realize that I haven't been drinking enough water and that usually fixes the problem. Since I exercise usually after supper, I tend to end up with extra calories left over.
  • LorinaLynn
    LorinaLynn Posts: 13,247 Member
    I aim for around 1500 a day, and with exercise calories average around 1800 a day, and I'm losing steadily. I have normal fluctuations, and some weeks I lose more than others, but my progress report graphic shows a pretty steady downward trend, even when I increased calories.
  • BerryH
    BerryH Posts: 4,698 Member
    Nope. I've always eaten all my calories (within 100-200 for mistake room) and have still lost.
    Same here.
    Thirded.
  • Nishka09
    Nishka09 Posts: 33
    I usually never eat my exercise calories, I eat around 1200 a day sometimes not even that (I am just not hungry enough to eat a lot)
    if I am having a cheat day then I will eat my exercise calories but thats it

    If you are not hungry and not eating 1200 you probably already have metabolism issues, and it is difficult to get the required nutrition, Macros and micros, on so few calories. Also hunger is not the best indication of nutrition requirements, as after a prolonged period of not eating enough, you brain will not send the hunger cues properly.


    so if this would be the case, how would you fix it? If you are eating healthy and excercising already, how else do you fix a slow metabolism?
  • janbottorf
    janbottorf Posts: 12
    I haven't yet decided what to do about these "exercise calories." I never heard of eating them back before. I teach Zumba twice a week, and it is two 1-hr classes back-to-back. So on Tuesdays and Thursdays I easily burn an extra 1,200 calories. There is just no way I am eating an additional 1,200 calories on those days! That's huge.
  • erickirb
    erickirb Posts: 12,294 Member
    I usually never eat my exercise calories, I eat around 1200 a day sometimes not even that (I am just not hungry enough to eat a lot)
    if I am having a cheat day then I will eat my exercise calories but thats it

    If you are not hungry and not eating 1200 you probably already have metabolism issues, and it is difficult to get the required nutrition, Macros and micros, on so few calories. Also hunger is not the best indication of nutrition requirements, as after a prolonged period of not eating enough, you brain will not send the hunger cues properly.


    so if this would be the case, how would you fix it? If you are eating healthy and excercising already, how else do you fix a slow metabolism?

    To my knowledge you would have to eat maintenance calories for 3-4 weeks or until you stop gaining weight, then go back on a small caloric deficit. you may put on a few pounds in that 3-4 weeks, but it is for the greater good of your health and well being.
  • Dragonwolf
    Dragonwolf Posts: 5,600 Member
    I usually never eat my exercise calories, I eat around 1200 a day sometimes not even that (I am just not hungry enough to eat a lot)
    if I am having a cheat day then I will eat my exercise calories but thats it

    If you are not hungry and not eating 1200 you probably already have metabolism issues, and it is difficult to get the required nutrition, Macros and micros, on so few calories. Also hunger is not the best indication of nutrition requirements, as after a prolonged period of not eating enough, you brain will not send the hunger cues properly.


    so if this would be the case, how would you fix it? If you are eating healthy and excercising already, how else do you fix a slow metabolism?

    As counterintuitive as it sounds, you eat more. Check out the stickies in the various sections here. There's one that talks about a person who only ate something like 800 calories a day and couldn't figure out why she wasn't losing weight. Once she started eating more, she started seeing the changes she was expecting.
  • Dragonwolf
    Dragonwolf Posts: 5,600 Member
    I haven't yet decided what to do about these "exercise calories." I never heard of eating them back before. I teach Zumba twice a week, and it is two 1-hr classes back-to-back. So on Tuesdays and Thursdays I easily burn an extra 1,200 calories. There is just no way I am eating an additional 1,200 calories on those days! That's huge.

    The reason MFP advocates eating the exercise calories is because it already calculates in a deficit on your goal calories. So, for example, if you're 200 pounds, want to lose 2lbs a week, and have a lightly active lifestyle, it might tell you to eat 1600 calories. If you eat only 1600 calories, you should lose weight, because it calculates your daily caloric needs to maintain at something like 1900 calories or so and subtracts the caloric deficit needed to lose weight. If you don't eat back calories you burn, you potentially run the risk of eating too little, which can be counterproductive to your weight loss.
  • erickirb
    erickirb Posts: 12,294 Member
    I haven't yet decided what to do about these "exercise calories." I never heard of eating them back before. I teach Zumba twice a week, and it is two 1-hr classes back-to-back. So on Tuesdays and Thursdays I easily burn an extra 1,200 calories. There is just no way I am eating an additional 1,200 calories on those days! That's huge.

    The more often you do the same exercises the more efficient your body gets at doing it, so for most they may burn 1200 but where you do it so ofter you may only be burning 700-800 over the same time frame.
  • teamnevergoingback
    teamnevergoingback Posts: 368 Member
    I exercised and ate all my calories for a solid 3months without losing :|

    Same here! But I can feel a little bit of toning. I'm putting more emphasis on cardio than weight training now and seeing how this works out for me.
  • YukonJoy
    YukonJoy Posts: 1,279 Member
    I always feel like MFP is over calculating what I am burning. :huh:

    So I usually only eat back around 30% of what they say I burned.
  • janbottorf
    janbottorf Posts: 12
    The more often you do the same exercises the more efficient your body gets at doing it, so for most they may burn 1200 but where you do it so ofter you may only be burning 700-800 over the same time frame.

    I have a pretty good feel for what I actually burn because I wore a BodyBugg for almost 3 years. :) When I very first started doing Zumba I was burning about 800 calories per class. After a few months, my burn was in the high 500's or low 600's, and that's where it still was when I took my bugg off not too long ago. Plus I figure with all the other miscellaneous running around involved in my Zumba nights....I leave the house at 5:00, get to the place and get set up, teach 5:30 to 6:30, meet n' greet the people coming and going, teach again 7-8 and then load up all my stuff...I have a good 3 1/2 hours of general activity including 2 full hours of Zumba. So I'm pretty sure about the 1,200 total extra burn that day.

    I think I will just listen to my body and "eat back" just enough calories for me to feel satisfied and just well in general. haha
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