HOW do you eat back burned calories??
eeyore9990
Posts: 8 Member
I am 2 months in on this and I eat "normal" foods (have cut way back on processed stuff and am avoiding "diet" foods). I eat 3 meals and at least 1 snack per day, but because I'm being very conscientious with regard to portion sizes, I'm eating right around 1200 calories per day.
And I'm FULL and satisfied.
(I used to eat MAYBE two meals per day, but very heavy on processed and fast food so high calorie/bad fats.)
Apparently I should eat back the 300-500 calories I burn exercising every day. (I just learned this, which explains why I've been losing more than 2 lbs per week the last several weeks.)
How do I do that when I'm already satisfied?
And I'm FULL and satisfied.
(I used to eat MAYBE two meals per day, but very heavy on processed and fast food so high calorie/bad fats.)
Apparently I should eat back the 300-500 calories I burn exercising every day. (I just learned this, which explains why I've been losing more than 2 lbs per week the last several weeks.)
How do I do that when I'm already satisfied?
2
Replies
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For starters what are you basing that number on? Fitness trackers and calorie burn meters on machines are well known to be overblown. What most people do is start out assuming that you're only actually burning half that amount and then slowly increasing how much you eat back until your weightless is at the desired rate. In terms of how to add them back when you're stuffed, go for low volume but calorie dense things like olive oil (I add it to salads or dips).2
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Peanut butter. Ice cream. Full fat dairy. Cook with oil. Avocado. Handful of nuts. Couple ounces of cheese. Wine. Chocolate.
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Calorie dense items. Peanut butter. Cheese. Even go for something processed if you want it.
Think about it this way...your body is basically running on 700-900 calories a day. You're running a greater risk of muscle loss, hair loss, hormonal issues, etc. from undereating. There's a popular saying on here: the one who eats the most and still loses wins.10 -
Ahh, okay. I am new to fitness trackers, lol, and I'm basing my burn on what my Fitbit tells me. I HAVE been losing 3-5 lbs per week for the last three measurable weeks (not including Thanksgiving, which was a flat week since I did not get many chances to exercise and apparently green vegetables are blocked at the borders of Texas).
Thank you for the olive oil suggestion! That's a great idea, since I tend to shy away from calorie-dense oils in cooking. I can do that easily without adding more "mouthfuls" of food.1 -
Even allowing for water weight your tracker is clearly not that off given your losses so far. So yeah, just add in calorie dense things, perhaps things you've restricted. If there's room for them and you can moderate then go ahead and eat all those delicious calories.4
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What are your stats? If you're losing 3-5 pounds a week you should probably be eating much more than even the extra 300-500 calories.4
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First, congratulations on the weight loss and realizing your actual results are too aggressive. So many seem to miss this.
If your 1200 calories are a good base of nutrients macros etc., then I'd splurge. Eat those things that people will criticize you for. Wine is good (if you like wine). Desert. Nuts are good to get a lot of calories with low volume (be careful and weight them out, they have a lot of calories). I've got mini Mars and Snickers bars and my exercise calories go to those.
But make sure your 1200 is filling your nutritional needs.5 -
Are you eating enough high quality protein? Often people on low calorie diets cut back on this. Extremely helpful in maintaining muscle as you lose weight. Make sure you are hitting this macro before adding ice cream, alcohol, etc.
Best of luck.6 -
I have been avoiding nuts because I work with several young children who have severe allergies. My meats/protein are basically chicken, beans, and greek yogurt because... my work schedule + crock pot meals= some form of boneless/skinless chicken breasts + beans every night.
I am NOT an egg eater (the texture is too gross for me). Tofu and fish are a no-go for my family. We eat red meat and/or pork once a week or so. Am I missing an obvious protein I could add to boost calories without boosting my chances for sudden heart failure?
My stats: 41 yo female, 220 lbs (currently, I have lost 18 lbs already), 5'7".
Background: I started tracking on Oct 1 and lost 6 lbs in Oct, then another 7 lbs in Nov (1 the first week, 3 the second week, 3 from Nov 13-17) by Nov 17. I had a zero sum week over Thanksgiving and lost 5 lbs this past week. It could be "normal" fluctuation, but I don't want to start down an unhealthy road. Technically it averages out to 2 lbs per week, but I am leery of too-fast weight loss.0 -
Tacklewasher wrote: »Wine is good (if you like wine).
I work with young children. I REALLY like wine!!
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Tacklewasher wrote: »First, congratulations on the weight loss and realizing your actual results are too aggressive. So many seem to miss this.
If your 1200 calories are a good base of nutrients macros etc., then I'd splurge. Eat those things that people will criticize you for. Wine is good (if you like wine). Desert. Nuts are good to get a lot of calories with low volume (be careful and weight them out, they have a lot of calories). I've got mini Mars and Snickers bars and my exercise calories go to those.
But make sure your 1200 is filling your nutritional needs.
To be honest though, there is little room on 1200 calories a day for splurges and still get appropriate nutrition.1 -
At your weight, you should not be losing over 2 lbs a week. More than 1% of total weight per week and you are in danger of losing muscle mass, hair, etc. More than likely since you just started, some of your weight loss was water weight, but do try to get some more protein and healthy fats.
Pork tenderloin is lean and inexpensive, as are certain cuts of steak. There's also no law that says you have to eat only boneless, skinless chicken breasts to lose weight. Ground turkey is another possibility, I love it in chili.
I understand about the family, but could you experiment with more variety of food for your lunches? There are a lot of fish in the sea, and they are very healthy and easy to cook!4 -
Well, your beans do have protein in them. If, at some point in the day, you can add some grains, potatoes, etc.; they'll give you a complete protein. Split peas, green peas, and lentils also contain it.
Full-fat dairy would also be a decent source.3 -
Fat, or fattier cuts of meat aren't going to give you heart problems, don't be scared of fat it's an essential macro that's important for hormone regulation and nutrient absorption.5
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After looking through the threads where people are trying to maintain/gain, I got some other ideas:
Replace sugar/fat free coffee creamer with the regular stuff. (I allow myself one cup a day of coffee and I LOVE creamer, so yay!)
Replace low dairy with full fat. If you drink skim, drink 2% or whole, etc. (I eat 80 cal Dannon Light & Fit Greek yogurt daily, this is an EASY switch.)
Add a nightly snack of raw nuts and dark chocolate. (I say at night because I don't want to trigger allergies.)
Cook with oil and butter! Bonus: things will taste better.
But now I'm worried I've got my activity level set too low. I'm on lightly active still (I'm a teacher, it fit in the beginning) even though I surpass 12,000 steps per day (~6k of which are from exercise). However, if I bump up a level, my base calories jump by 400+!
Should I stay where I am until I figure out the "eating back exercise" thing and then adjust or just do it now and get it over with?0 -
I would say your moderate activity with standing and chasing kids all day. I would just do one thing at a time so you know for sure which works for you.
FYI my favorite yogurt is a thick Scandinavian yogurt called Siggis. It's at many grocery stores now. It is About 130 calories but has 14g of protein in it and low carbs and only sweetened with the fruit. It's a bit more expensive but it's my favorite for flavor and nutrient profile. The next best would be Greek yogurt as it also has a lot of protein.2 -
eeyore9990 wrote: »I am 2 months in on this and I eat "normal" foods (have cut way back on processed stuff and am avoiding "diet" foods). I eat 3 meals and at least 1 snack per day, but because I'm being very conscientious with regard to portion sizes, I'm eating right around 1200 calories per day.
And I'm FULL and satisfied.
(I used to eat MAYBE two meals per day, but very heavy on processed and fast food so high calorie/bad fats.)
Apparently I should eat back the 300-500 calories I burn exercising every day. (I just learned this, which explains why I've been losing more than 2 lbs per week the last several weeks.)
How do I do that when I'm already satisfied?
.0 -
12'000 steps is highly active on MFP, in fact it's lower than that for the most active setting. So perhaps set it to active for now, weigh solids and semi-solids and measure liquids. Give it 6-8 weeks to see where you are (with the caveat that if you are losing too quickly after 3-4 weeks you bump up the calories then).2
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She's losing more than 2 lb/week, so is likely logging okay.
OP, you've gotten some good suggestions already, so I won't repeat them. I will say that before I started logging I was undereating like you are and felt great. When I saw how much I was eating, I added in some indulgences that I'd cut out -- having chicken roasted with the skin on, bones in, having a little cheese in an omelet or on a salad, eggs and not egg whites, allowing myself to have olive oil again (in moderation), nuts and seeds, occasional chocolate, more smoked salmon. Not saying yours will be the same as mine, but the result of this was (I think) that I remained happy and satisfied with my now more varied and interesting diet for the whole period of time (around a year) I planned to lose and could easily transition into maintenance. At first the excitement of weight loss can take over, but I think it can result in you getting bored and burning out especially if it stalls a bit if you are too restrictive or decide that dieting means nothing just a little indulgent.1 -
eeyore9990 wrote: »After looking through the threads where people are trying to maintain/gain, I got some other ideas:
Replace sugar/fat free coffee creamer with the regular stuff. (I allow myself one cup a day of coffee and I LOVE creamer, so yay!)
Replace low dairy with full fat. If you drink skim, drink 2% or whole, etc. (I eat 80 cal Dannon Light & Fit Greek yogurt daily, this is an EASY switch.)
Add a nightly snack of raw nuts and dark chocolate. (I say at night because I don't want to trigger allergies.)
Cook with oil and butter! Bonus: things will taste better.
But now I'm worried I've got my activity level set too low. I'm on lightly active still (I'm a teacher, it fit in the beginning) even though I surpass 12,000 steps per day (~6k of which are from exercise). However, if I bump up a level, my base calories jump by 400+!
Should I stay where I am until I figure out the "eating back exercise" thing and then adjust or just do it now and get it over with?
If your tracker is linked it will only add more calories when you go over your estimated burn. A lot of us leave it set as lightly active because of this and let our trackers figure out the rest.
Say you are lightly active with a base of 1500 calories but your tracker is saying you burned 2000 that day. You will get a 500+ calories adjustment. If you were set to moderately active and had a base of 1850 your adjustment from your tracker would only be 150+ calories earned. The end number of 2000 stays the same.3 -
Thank you to everyone here!! You've all done so much to help clear up my confusion. I was so worried I would have to find time and an extra stomach to have another meal or two!!3
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eeyore9990 wrote: »I am 2 months in on this and I eat "normal" foods (have cut way back on processed stuff and am avoiding "diet" foods). I eat 3 meals and at least 1 snack per day, but because I'm being very conscientious with regard to portion sizes, I'm eating right around 1200 calories per day.
And I'm FULL and satisfied.
(I used to eat MAYBE two meals per day, but very heavy on processed and fast food so high calorie/bad fats.)
Apparently I should eat back the 300-500 calories I burn exercising every day. (I just learned this, which explains why I've been losing more than 2 lbs per week the last several weeks.)
How do I do that when I'm already satisfied?
I wish I had your problem.3 -
300-500 calories isnt that much to eat back.
Have a glass of wine. 1-200 cal / glass
Or a snack bar. 200calories a pop
or a (small) packet of peanuts or cashews. ( can be up to 700calories per packet.
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For starters what are you basing that number on? Fitness trackers and calorie burn meters on machines are well known to be overblown. What most people do is start out assuming that you're only actually burning half that amount and then slowly increasing how much you eat back until your weightless is at the desired rate. In terms of how to add them back when you're stuffed, go for low volume but calorie dense things like olive oil (I add it to salads or dips).
Except when they state they have been losing over 2 pounds a week which is more than 100 calories in deficit.....1
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