Eating Back Exercise Calories...???

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  • smurfette75
    smurfette75 Posts: 853 Member
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    I was hoping for an answer to this too. I'm new to MFP and this is confusing. So I guess I'll see what happens. It's only my second week. But I have been eating most of my calories back. Only looking to lose 10-15 pounds.
  • mleipe
    mleipe Posts: 54
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    I try not to eat back my exercise calories either.

    Mind you, I have been known to do a ton of exercise during the day to buy myself some caloric headroom for a few pints or a good meal that evening!
  • JoyousRen
    JoyousRen Posts: 3,823 Member
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    I was hoping for an answer to this too. I'm new to MFP and this is confusing. So I guess I'll see what happens. It's only my second week. But I have been eating most of my calories back. Only looking to lose 10-15 pounds.
    Read the "NEWBIES PLEASE READ ME" topic under general diet and exercise. It's tacked to the top of the board
  • jah1165
    jah1165 Posts: 87 Member
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    I am as lost as you are...had been eating back my excercise cals but now have decided to stop and see what happens and this is the first week where I think I will have lsot weight and I did not eat back my excercise calories....
  • papastu
    papastu Posts: 737 Member
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    All these posts make me feel a whole lot better about my approach. And yes, the best advice is if it works FOR ME, than it is the right thing to do until it no longer works. But this makes me feel a whole lot better knowing this method is successful for many people.

    exactly , good luck

    Stu
  • papastu
    papastu Posts: 737 Member
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    I try not to eat back my exercise calories either.

    Mind you, I have been known to do a ton of exercise during the day to buy myself some caloric headroom for a few pints or a good meal that evening!

    lovin that
  • cmsiemsen
    cmsiemsen Posts: 78 Member
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    I make it a point to usually never eat back my exercise calories. To me it just seemed like breaking even, then. Once and a while I will exercise my butt off so as to enjoy a heavier eating day, but that is rare.
  • mom031344
    mom031344 Posts: 16
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    I try not to eat mine back. Sometimes I go over but only by a few.....Thanks for the POST it has really helped......
  • bbjlan
    bbjlan Posts: 6
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    So let me see if I got this right. If I eat say 1200 calories a day but I burn off 500 at the gym, then my net calories will be 700. Is that really enough? It just doesn't seem right.
  • Cookie22684
    Cookie22684 Posts: 585 Member
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    Bump
  • caitlin70433
    caitlin70433 Posts: 60
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    Even back in the early 1990s, when I was a 20-yr-old losing the "Freshmen 30" on her own with a calorie-counting book and a nutritional almanac, I was all about how much can I eat and still lose weight. I exercised. A lot. Most days, it was 2 hours. I shot for between 1500-1800 on those 2-hrs-of-exercise days. I lost the 30lbs in 3 months. I even ate snickers and McDonalds (albeit small hamburger and fries). Not a particularly healthy diet but I lost the weight. In short, eat your exercise calories.
  • ladyhawk00
    ladyhawk00 Posts: 2,457 Member
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    MFP is different than many calorie counters/weight loss programs, or the way that many trainers set up a plan. These other plans take your “intended exercise” and use that to create a deficit, keeping your daily cal goal static. Therefore, with other plans, you would not replace calories you burn through exercise. MFP is different and you CANNOT compare them, unless you’re prepared to do some calculations to get apples vs. apples and not apples vs. oranges.

    MFP was designed with the idea that many people can't exercise regularly, or at all, due to physical limitations or time. They also recognized that most people set up an exercise plan with good intentions, but as we all know, what’s planned is not necessarily what actually happens every day. So they built the site to allow for weight loss with or without exercise.

    MFP creates a BUILT IN CALORIE DEFICIT, based on your loss per week goal, regardless of exercise. So when you log exercise, cals are added back in to keep that deficit stable. If you don't replace those cals, you've made your deficit larger than you (presumably) intended. A larger deficit does not necessarily mean faster/more weight loss; it is usually unhealthy and unsustainable and most often backfires, leading to feelings of deprivation, binges, irregular blood sugar levels, lack of energy, slower metabolism, loss of muscle mass, quitting, and weight regain.

    People with little fat stores need a more conservative deficit to avoid decreasing metabolism and losing lean mass, and usually do better eating at least some of them back.

    For people with large amounts to lose, it is less critical to eat all of them, as their bodies can withstand a slightly larger deficit. However, there are other risks to consider, such as insufficient macros and micros, and the psychological impacts.
    http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/186814-some-mfp-basics

    http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/222019-60-lbs-in-60-days?hl=60+lbs

    http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/230930-starvation-mode-how-it-works

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