To eat back or not eat back that is the question.

I used to only eat 50% of my exercise calories but I could've gone right up to 75% because I lost, on average, 750g a week as opposed to the 500g a week I was gunning for.

madameb80 wrote: »

on my first week last week lost 5lbs. (Hope it isn't a fluke)

It's not a "fluke", but it's a typical first week. Don't expect that kind of loss every week. It wasn't fat, it was mostly fluid. Fat loss shouldn't be more than 1-2 pounds per week. And even when that happens, it's an average over time. Fat loss can be mostly linear. Weight loss (which includes water weight) is far from it.

As to the rest of your post, it is for your health that you should eat exercise calories back if you are using MFP. If you don't you run the risk of increasing your deficit, which sounds good at first (bigger is better right?), but it can be bad for your health in other ways, like loss of muscle and lean body mass - which is something that you want to preserve in this process.

I try to eat 50-100% of them back. It keeps me right on target. If you are doing this for a scale number, you'll be tempted to "be safe" and go for the biggest deficit possible. If you are doing this for your overall health, why not do it in the most healthy way possible? Keep it steady with your calorie deficit under control.

madameb80 wrote: »

Lillymoo01 wrote: »

I doubt that you have burnt 1200 unless you spent several hours at the gym. Check what online calculators give you for your workout and eat at least half of them back. More if you are still hungry.

I have my fit bit linked to MFP I did 2 HIT classes first burnt over 260 second 560 which by the time I got home I'd burnt more cals than I had consumed. MFP is adjusting my intake as the day goes so I've got to trust it I guess. Lost 5lbs last week so fingers crossed this week.

What's your height, current weight, and goal weight?

You are just looking at the adjustment you get on MFP, yes? Not the numbers on the fitbit? (Numbers on the fitbit include your BMR so do not reflect just calories burned, unless yours has a separate item for that.) What kind of FB do you have?

Unless you have hundreds of pounds to lose, going forward you should not expect 5 pound losses per week. In fact, if the exercise is new you could retain some water from that, which would mask your progress. My own scale went up 7 pounds when I started lifting weights again. Took a few weeks to come off.

But to answer your question, to use MFP correctly you do eat back exercise calories. However, sometimes HRM activity trackers give inflated calorie counts. So does MapMyHike. So you have to experiment with what percent of exercise calories will give you your target weekly rate of loss.

Coco_Camm wrote: »

ComptonSkyhawk wrote: »

I went for a couple of walks today, 30 mins on a treadmill, then just a jaunt with my wife and her friend. Total calories burnt was 1004. I seriously am not hungry tonight. I pre-plan meals and just trying to choke down my night time snacks is a chore. Total consumed today is 1800 calories and change. My daily target is 1760 cal. I don't want to force any more down, its bed time soon.... Little advice?

I eat back calories when Im hungry and dont when Im not. Listen to your body.

ComptonSkyhawk wrote: »

Simple answer, perfect. You are very wise, thank you!

Although I suggest starting you're own thread for more personalized answers so you're not hijacking Op's, but I will say this. Hunger is a terrible indicator on whether you are getting the nutrition you need. Although one day of this won't hurt you, it's not something you want to get in the habit of.

vespiquenn wrote: »

Coco_Camm wrote: »

ComptonSkyhawk wrote: »

I went for a couple of walks today, 30 mins on a treadmill, then just a jaunt with my wife and her friend. Total calories burnt was 1004. I seriously am not hungry tonight. I pre-plan meals and just trying to choke down my night time snacks is a chore. Total consumed today is 1800 calories and change. My daily target is 1760 cal. I don't want to force any more down, its bed time soon.... Little advice?

I eat back calories when Im hungry and dont when Im not. Listen to your body.

ComptonSkyhawk wrote: »

Simple answer, perfect. You are very wise, thank you!

Although I suggest starting you're own thread for more personalized answers so you're not hijacking Op's, but I will say this. Hunger is a terrible indicator on whether you are getting the nutrition you need. Although one day of this won't hurt you, it's not something you want to get in the habit of.

^^this.

Not to mention for that reason, 'listen to your body' is how some of us became overweight/obese to begin with!

DX2JX2 wrote: »

dragon_girl26 wrote: »

vespiquenn wrote: »

Coco_Camm wrote: »

ComptonSkyhawk wrote: »

I went for a couple of walks today, 30 mins on a treadmill, then just a jaunt with my wife and her friend. Total calories burnt was 1004. I seriously am not hungry tonight. I pre-plan meals and just trying to choke down my night time snacks is a chore. Total consumed today is 1800 calories and change. My daily target is 1760 cal. I don't want to force any more down, its bed time soon.... Little advice?

I eat back calories when Im hungry and dont when Im not. Listen to your body.

ComptonSkyhawk wrote: »

Simple answer, perfect. You are very wise, thank you!

Although I suggest starting you're own thread for more personalized answers so you're not hijacking Op's, but I will say this. Hunger is a terrible indicator on whether you are getting the nutrition you need. Although one day of this won't hurt you, it's not something you want to get in the habit of.

^^this.

Not to mention for that reason, 'listen to your body' is how some of us became overweight/obese to begin with!

I would suggest that not listening to our bodies was how most of us got here. We listened to our emotions instead. If we listened to our bodies, they would have told us "you're full and don't need to eat".

Recently read a research article that found people who had lost weight & kept it off for a year had not only reported increased appetites as compared to pre-weight loss, but had appetite-regulating hormone levels (leptin, I believe) that had not yet adapted to their new body weight. In other words, they felt hungry even when caloric & nutritional needs were adequately met. Researchers theorize this may be contributing to the difficulties people have maintaining their weight loss.


My apologies for the odd wording in summarizing that research. If I can find the original article, I'll edit & add the link.

I don't eat them back unless I'm hungry. I try to do my workouts in the evening then have dinner after I get home even if it's later etc I've lost 1.6kg in the last week.