Do you eat your exercise calories ??
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Commander_Keen wrote: »rileysowner wrote: »Commander_Keen wrote: »I try not to, the bigger deficit, the bigger the weight loss
And depending on how much you have to lose, the bigger the deficit, the more muscle mass you will lose. Your body can only oxidize so much fat in a day. The less total fat you have, the less percentage of that fat you can burn off. Once your body has burned off the amount of fat it can in a day, it takes the rest from other sources, meaning a bigger deficit is not always a better deficit as the goal is to lose fat not muscle and other lean mass.
Can't you prevent that, by eating, drinking additional protein and lifting weights?
That's only two of the three things that guard against muscle loss - the third being NOT HAVING an excessive and prolonged deficit.
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Commander_Keen wrote: »rileysowner wrote: »Commander_Keen wrote: »I try not to, the bigger deficit, the bigger the weight loss
And depending on how much you have to lose, the bigger the deficit, the more muscle mass you will lose. Your body can only oxidize so much fat in a day. The less total fat you have, the less percentage of that fat you can burn off. Once your body has burned off the amount of fat it can in a day, it takes the rest from other sources, meaning a bigger deficit is not always a better deficit as the goal is to lose fat not muscle and other lean mass.
Can't you prevent that, by eating, drinking additional protein and lifting weights?
My target with MFP to lose a Lb is 1900 calories...during cycling season I can routinely burn 1,000 - 1,500 calories on a training ride which would leave me at 400-900 net calories...I don't think protein and lifting are going to do much in that scenario.
Even when I'm not training, I routinely burn 600 calories per day with exercise...so I'd be netting 1,300 calories...sorry...I'm not a little old lady. Beyond that, I have about 10 - 15 Lbs to lose that I put on while injured so a bigger deficit would pretty mush ensure I'm losing muscle mass as I don't have the body fat to mobilize for that kind of deficit.
Also, fueling your training is important to performance as well as recovery and improved fitness.1 -
I eat them because I can't mentally survive on 1200 calories a day.5
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I try not to.
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Being here 4+ years, I'm still amazed that people have zero clue how this tool actually works...I know I shouldn't be, but I am...8
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Measuring exercise and food calories is approximate. If hungry I'll eat 25% earned by exercise...0
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Mfp is designed for you to eat your exercise calories. If you used a TDEE calculator to get your calorie goal then do not eat the exercise calories. But if you are using mfp's goal then you should be eating at least a portion of the exercise calories. If you start out eating 50% of them then in about 4 weeks you can reevaluate. If you are losing faster than your goal then you should eat back more, if you are losing slower than your goal then eat back less.4
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Yes! I eat my exercise calories. Well, sort of...
I use a fitness tracker (w/chest strap heart rate monitor) for my calorie burn. I find to be extremely accurate. I use my calorie burn to gauge how hard I'm working (compared to my average burn) and supplement extra calories based on the type of my workout. On heavy/intense weight lifting days, I use exercise calories to add lean protein. On days I run, I use calories for nutrient-dense carbohydrates. I agree with others that I still try to end the day with an overall calorie deficit but you need to put back what you take out, so I allow some extra calories, eaten responsibly, on workout days!
I TRY not to use exercise calories as an opportunity to eat more cookies but I will say the holiday season was difficult. Every day is a new day. Happy to get back on track!0 -
Im not sure if you should eat your exercise calories???
Let's do the math...
MFP gives me a calorie target of 1,900 to lose about 1 Lb per week (as that is my stated goal)...that target assumes zero exercise...you will note that there is no mention of exercise in the activity level descriptors...and if you play with the app you will note that your exercise goals have no impact on your calorie targets...the calorie target you get with MFP is your target (goal...everyone should look that word up) without any exercise.
So in my scenario, MFP is estimating my maintenance without exercise to be 2,400 calories. Now I go on a nice ride and burn around 600 calories...do I eat them back? Yes...yes I do...otherwise my deficit is too large and beyond the scope of my goals. Will I still lose weight? Yes...yes I will...I can eat those 600 calories earned and still lose 1 Lb per week because my maintenance requirements would have moved up by 600 as well to 2,400 + 600 = 3,000 calories...so I could eat 1,900 + 600 = 2,500 and still lose 1 Lb per week given 3,000 - 2,500 = 500 calorie deficit still.
There are two issues people often have though...these are overestimating energy expenditure and underestimating calories in...in cases where "it's not working" it is generally because the user has at least one, and usually both of those issues going on and thus they aren't actually tracking things accurately.5 -
DavidRocketts wrote: »Measuring exercise and food calories is approximate.
My Garmin only credits me with 87 to 89 % of the calories I burn on the bike. Every time.
That reminds me, I need to pick up new batteries for my Vectors.0 -
Scanning through this, I see many of the people who say they do not eat them back seem to be newer users with few posts. While post numbers don't really tell if a person knows what they are talking about, they at the very least show they have some experience using this tool. I think it is notable that those who have used it for a substantial amount of time pretty much all say eat at lease half of your exercise calorie if not more. I started here opposed to eating them back, and learned after a while that not eating them back not only resulted in excessive muscle loss, but in lack of energy, moodiness, and the like. Eat at least half of them back. If you are then losing on average faster than you intended goal after 3-4 weeks, eat more of them back. If you are losing slower on average after 3-4 week, eat less of them back.9
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I've noticed that on exercise days, I often don't feel hungry enough to eat them all back - my appetite isn't much different than a non-exercise day. So I don't force myself to hit the mark. If I'm a couple hundred calories shy of my goal, I will just lose weight a little bit faster than my goal pace. Since my goal pace is moderate, I'm not worried about having too high a calorie deficit on the exercise days.2
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Absolutely! I've been doing this 4 years and having the extra calorie allowance is part of what makes it easier to keep going.0
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cchhiipp22 wrote: »I've noticed that on exercise days, I often don't feel hungry enough to eat them all back - my appetite isn't much different than a non-exercise day. So I don't force myself to hit the mark. If I'm a couple hundred calories shy of my goal, I will just lose weight a little bit faster than my goal pace. Since my goal pace is moderate, I'm not worried about having too high a calorie deficit on the exercise days.
The problem with saying let your hunger be your guide is that if a person has struggled with weight for a long time, like me, their hunger and satiated sensations are messed up. Experience tells me that means there are times I feel like I am full, when I have not eaten nearly enough to get the nutrients I need, and other time, I feel I am hunger when there is no way I need any more calories or nutrients. Part of the process of getting to a healthy weight is retraining the minds and bodies of people like me to have proper hunger/satiation sensing. Whether that is possible, I am not sure, but I am guessing that it is, but will take a long time since the disordered patterns have been set for many many years. So suggesting, eat only if you are hungry, doesn't do anything to deal with that disordered pattern many of us struggle with. I say eat the appropriate amount of calories even if you are not hungry. It is part of the retraining process.2 -
It really depends on the day. I usually eat about half of them on average.0
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On days that I exercise, I try to close the gap a little, but my stomach is very sensitive to volume changes so I have to be careful. See, I plan to eat at my deficit level. If I've already had breakfast and lunch before I exercise, at dinner time I'm left with quite a few extra calories! While I *could* eat them all back, it would be at risk of giving myself an upset stomach from eating so much in one sitting. So on days I exercise, I let myself have an indulgence like ice cream and generally leave it at that even if I'm still under. It'll give me leeway for the future.0
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struggling to eat my calorie allowance let alone exercise calories0
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rileysowner wrote: »Scanning through this, I see many of the people who say they do not eat them back seem to be newer users with few posts. While post numbers don't really tell if a person knows what they are talking about, they at the very least show they have some experience using this tool. I think it is notable that those who have used it for a substantial amount of time pretty much all say eat at lease half of your exercise calorie if not more. I started here opposed to eating them back, and learned after a while that not eating them back not only resulted in excessive muscle loss, but in lack of energy, moodiness, and the like. Eat at least half of them back. If you are then losing on average faster than you intended goal after 3-4 weeks, eat more of them back. If you are losing slower on average after 3-4 week, eat less of them back.
This was a great post.
Another thing I've noticed is that people get into trouble with this "more is better" thinking. If eating a small side of fries is yummy, then two plates full of them is even better. After a while, people don't like the results, and they change their ways, but underneath it all, a lot of people think the same way. If a moderate deficit means losing weight, then a huge deficit means losing it even faster. If a walk around the block is good, "HIIT" must be great. This is the type of thinking that got people in trouble in the first place.8 -
As a rule I don't, but they're there if something yummy but unplanned comes along
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