Has anyone had success with eating half of their calories back?

Machka9 wrote: »

gabriellax92 wrote: »

According to MFP synced with my Fitbit, I was burning between 800-1000 calories a day.

Doing what?

An 800 calorie burn, for example, would be about a 4 hour walk.

I can burn 800 calories in a steep one hour hike, and I weigh less than she does and am older. She can burn 800-100 relatively easily if she makes an effort.

gabriellax92 wrote: »

kshama2001 wrote: »

gabriellax92 wrote: »

When I was eating around 1200 calories a day I wasn't seeing any weight loss. No I wasn't binging. And yes, some days I don't always complete my diary. I'm not perfect. Here's what I was doing.
My calories were set around 1200, I ate at or around, most of the time I went over 1200 by a couple hundred calories. According to MFP synced with my Fitbit, I was burning between 800-1000 calories a day. I was not eating anything of those burned calories back. This week I have upped my calorie intake according to MFP recommendation (as I did override it before). I am going to start eating back at least 50% or my calories burned. I am also going to start logging more accurately with my food scale(as I was a bit lazy before). I've lost about a pound within the past week, even having a bad day food wise so I'm starting to see improvement just increasing my calories. Thanks for all of your feedback

At 255 pounds, it's impossible to not lose weight while eating @1400 calories, let alone plus burning 800-1000 calories from exercise. Try weighing and logging scrupulously for a month and prepare to be astounded.

gabriellax92 wrote: »

mlinci wrote: »

I have had success with eating about 80-90% of my (Fitbit synced) calories back.

What concerns me is that you are saying 1,200 calories isn't working for you. You have to be more specific than that.

Is it not working for you because you are losing weight but you are massively hungry all the time? Yes, eat some/most/all of you exercise calories back, that's exactly what you should be doing.

However, if you by any chance meant that 1,200 calories wasn't working for you because you were not losing any weight, then we need more information before we can give you any useful advice, but the most likely starting point would be to take a careful look at your calorie counting and logging. At 255 pounds you should be losing significant amounts of weight at 1,200 calories, and you could almost certainly still be losing while eating significantly more.

Unfortunately I'm not losing a significant amount of weight. I had hoped to. My logging hasn't been perfect, but even so I think I should have lost more then I have by now.

Studies show that people are just awful at estimating their consumption. You'll get more accuracy and results if you put more effort into weighing and logging.

Well I guess I must be the impossible. I have changed my diet to be muuuuch more healthier then befoee, I log for the most part (and will start being more accurate with it). I weigh myself almost everyday and I fluctuate between 3-4 pounds. My gym routine includes strength training at first, I usually rotate muscle groups different days of the week. I walk/slow jog on the treadmill for 15-20 minutes then use the elliptical for 20 minutes. I have my Fitbit synced with MFP. According to it, that's how many calories I burn. I mean maybe I'm just that horrible at logging that it's causing me to not lose such a drastic amount of weight... But I doubt that. It's just coming off of me slow....

Thatd be why your not the impossible

gabriellax92 wrote: »

JaydedMiss wrote: »

gabriellax92 wrote: »

kshama2001 wrote: »

gabriellax92 wrote: »

When I was eating around 1200 calories a day I wasn't seeing any weight loss. No I wasn't binging. And yes, some days I don't always complete my diary. I'm not perfect. Here's what I was doing.
My calories were set around 1200, I ate at or around, most of the time I went over 1200 by a couple hundred calories. According to MFP synced with my Fitbit, I was burning between 800-1000 calories a day. I was not eating anything of those burned calories back. This week I have upped my calorie intake according to MFP recommendation (as I did override it before). I am going to start eating back at least 50% or my calories burned. I am also going to start logging more accurately with my food scale(as I was a bit lazy before). I've lost about a pound within the past week, even having a bad day food wise so I'm starting to see improvement just increasing my calories. Thanks for all of your feedback

At 255 pounds, it's impossible to not lose weight while eating @1400 calories, let alone plus burning 800-1000 calories from exercise. Try weighing and logging scrupulously for a month and prepare to be astounded.

gabriellax92 wrote: »

mlinci wrote: »

I have had success with eating about 80-90% of my (Fitbit synced) calories back.

What concerns me is that you are saying 1,200 calories isn't working for you. You have to be more specific than that.

Is it not working for you because you are losing weight but you are massively hungry all the time? Yes, eat some/most/all of you exercise calories back, that's exactly what you should be doing.

However, if you by any chance meant that 1,200 calories wasn't working for you because you were not losing any weight, then we need more information before we can give you any useful advice, but the most likely starting point would be to take a careful look at your calorie counting and logging. At 255 pounds you should be losing significant amounts of weight at 1,200 calories, and you could almost certainly still be losing while eating significantly more.

Unfortunately I'm not losing a significant amount of weight. I had hoped to. My logging hasn't been perfect, but even so I think I should have lost more then I have by now.

Studies show that people are just awful at estimating their consumption. You'll get more accuracy and results if you put more effort into weighing and logging.

Well I guess I must be the impossible. I have changed my diet to be muuuuch more healthier then befoee, I log for the most part (and will start being more accurate with it). I weigh myself almost everyday and I fluctuate between 3-4 pounds. My gym routine includes strength training at first, I usually rotate muscle groups different days of the week. I walk/slow jog on the treadmill for 15-20 minutes then use the elliptical for 20 minutes. I have my Fitbit synced with MFP. According to it, that's how many calories I burn. I mean maybe I'm just that horrible at logging that it's causing me to not lose such a drastic amount of weight... But I doubt that. It's just coming off of me slow....

Thatd be why your not the impossible

Nope, it's not perfect. I have guesstimated on things or used generic entries. But even so being around a 1200 calorie deficit if I have gone over that I don't see it being enough to cause me to stay stagnant. I'm not pigging out everyday and binging, I'm actually hungry and reaching for healthy options. I'm putting work in at the gym and waking up sore every morning. But besides the point, I just wanted to know if eating back excercise calories worked for people since I wasn't doing that

healthy sadly doesnt mean low calorie, And your right that defecit would cause weight loss. Which is why the most likely culprit is in your admitted generic entries and not 100% tracking. Its incredibly easy to eat alot more thn you realize sadly. Just go off your results if your not losing dont eat more..if your losing fine sure eat more. tighten up the logging though

gabriellax92 wrote: »

kshama2001 wrote: »

gabriellax92 wrote: »

When I was eating around 1200 calories a day I wasn't seeing any weight loss. No I wasn't binging. And yes, some days I don't always complete my diary. I'm not perfect. Here's what I was doing.
My calories were set around 1200, I ate at or around, most of the time I went over 1200 by a couple hundred calories. According to MFP synced with my Fitbit, I was burning between 800-1000 calories a day. I was not eating anything of those burned calories back. This week I have upped my calorie intake according to MFP recommendation (as I did override it before). I am going to start eating back at least 50% or my calories burned. I am also going to start logging more accurately with my food scale(as I was a bit lazy before). I've lost about a pound within the past week, even having a bad day food wise so I'm starting to see improvement just increasing my calories. Thanks for all of your feedback

At 255 pounds, it's impossible to not lose weight while eating @1400 calories, let alone plus burning 800-1000 calories from exercise. Try weighing and logging scrupulously for a month and prepare to be astounded.

gabriellax92 wrote: »

mlinci wrote: »

I have had success with eating about 80-90% of my (Fitbit synced) calories back.

What concerns me is that you are saying 1,200 calories isn't working for you. You have to be more specific than that.

Is it not working for you because you are losing weight but you are massively hungry all the time? Yes, eat some/most/all of you exercise calories back, that's exactly what you should be doing.

However, if you by any chance meant that 1,200 calories wasn't working for you because you were not losing any weight, then we need more information before we can give you any useful advice, but the most likely starting point would be to take a careful look at your calorie counting and logging. At 255 pounds you should be losing significant amounts of weight at 1,200 calories, and you could almost certainly still be losing while eating significantly more.

Unfortunately I'm not losing a significant amount of weight. I had hoped to. My logging hasn't been perfect, but even so I think I should have lost more then I have by now.

Studies show that people are just awful at estimating their consumption. You'll get more accuracy and results if you put more effort into weighing and logging.

Well I guess I must be the impossible. I have changed my diet to be muuuuch more healthier then befoee, I log for the most part (and will start being more accurate with it). I weigh myself almost everyday and I fluctuate between 3-4 pounds. My gym routine includes strength training at first, I usually rotate muscle groups different days of the week. I walk/slow jog on the treadmill for 15-20 minutes then use the elliptical for 20 minutes. I have my Fitbit synced with MFP. According to it, that's how many calories I burn. I mean maybe I'm just that horrible at logging that it's causing me to not lose such a drastic amount of weight... But I doubt that. It's just coming off of me slow....

http://archive.is/1xJpu#selection-1721.115-2131.111 (the article contains links to the studies):

1. Misreporting Intake

...the truth is: people are notoriously bad – no, really, like super bad – at reporting calorie intake. This isn’t an opinion, either: it’s fact. There are a plethora of studies that have shown this over and over and over and over and over, over, over, over again…and again.

Misreporting of food intake isn’t exclusive to the general public, either. Here’s a review of a study by James Krieger of Weightology finding that even dietitians misreport calorie intake.

“The results showed that the dietitians underreported their food intake by an average of 223 calories per day, while the non-dietitians underreported their intake by an average of 429 calories per day. Thus, while being a dietitian improves the accuracy of self-report of food intake, it does not eliminate the phenomena of underreporting.

Yes, even people whose job involves dealing with these things on a daily basis aren’t immune to the error.

Let me show you one more thing.

This British actress was adamant she had a slow metabolism, turned out she was simply misreporting calorie intake.
When she recorded her food intake via video journal, her intake, according to her, was 1100 calories. When they checked her actual intake [with doubly labeled water] it came to 3000 calories.

Even when she was keeping a food diary, she misreported by 43%.

Numbers are abstract. Let’s make this palpable.

Let’s say your calorie intake is 1500 calories: 43% is 645 calories. Maybe within the scope of a day or two, this wouldn’t make that much of a difference, but you misreport like this over a week? That’s an additional +3500 calories you ‘forgot’ about – enough to gain a pound of fat.

Suffice to say, I’ve made my point. People are terrible at tracking and reporting food intake accurately [1].

****

See also The Health Halo Effect of Food section about half way down.