What the hell ?

try only eating 25% of your excercise calories. for 4 weeks i ate about 85% of mine and didnt lose a pound, so i decided to only eat 25% and i have started losing again!! good luck!!

I like all about me's illustration.

right on!

Figuring out how to lose weight is a challenge for many of us, particularly considering that the quickest path to weight loss is different for everyone. Of course, the common denominator is always proper diet and exercise.

I guess what I see is that everyone wants to lose the weight and keep it off. You don't want to go off the "diet" and gain the weight back. So if you do it slowly with some reduction in calories and some exercise, it is going to come off slower than if you go for your 1000 calories deficit.

The question then becomes when you reach your goal weight, and want to eat "normal" have you trained your body to sustain the loss or did you lose it so quickly that your body still isn't sure what is going on and starts hoarding calories again? Because most people cut their calories to the absolute minimum when they decide they want to lose weight, it is highly recommended that exercise calories also be eaten because by expending those exercise calories, you can put your body into starvation mode, and although you will initially lose, and may lose quite a bit, when you reach your goal, if you do without plateauing, and start living without the 1000 calorie deficit that your body is used to, you will gain again and any time you give your body more calories than it is used to, it will store them, because it has been hungry, and even though it was forced to give up the fat, it had no choice, it knows it is in danger of starving, so it still wants to store everything you eat, until it builds up its store again, maybe even more this time.

Even though eating your exercise calories takes longer to lose, chances are when you reach your goal, you will be there and stay there because your body has learned that you will feed it what it needs, when it needs it, and there is very little you need to change in your diet now, now you eat maintenance calories and workout regularly, not excessively and maintain your weight loss. There won't be any 1000 calories changes to your diet.

I think the reason people don't want to eat their exercise calories is because they don't see results fast enough, and people are very impatient. When you only have 20 pounds to lose, when you lose it properly, with proper nutrition and exercise, you are only looking at about a 300 calorie deficit per day before you go under the 1200 calories that your body needs to survive. A 300 calorie a day deficit would take 12 days before you would lose a pound, and that is in a perfect world, remember, up to this point, we have been treating our bodies badly, it needs a while to adjust and accept that we will feed it regularly before it willingly gives up its reserves, so even after 12 days, it still might not be ready to drop the pound. The problem is, that isn't fast enough for most, so they chose to get a little less healthy and lose weight a little faster by cutting out the exercise calories. Now their deficit is up to 600 calories per day, for 1 pound every six days. I don't know about other people, but if I am only eating 1200 calories and burn 300 of those in exercise, I am now only consuming 900 per day, I don't function well on 900 per day, and I don't like to exercise when I do, oh I will for a while, because I am committed to this journey, but after a while, 900 calories a day seems quite torturous for the results I am getting, so I give up.

Maybe it will take me longer to get to my perfect weight, but when I get there, that is where I will stay and I won't be hungry or weak.

Everyone does have to find what works for them I agree, but I beleive a lot of it has to do with their mindset and how patient they can learn to be. The suggestions on here are to help people lose and maintain that loss forever, not for a quick fix, we have all had our share of those. Take it off and keep it off is the goal of MFP, not just get it off quickly. The more you have to lose, the bigger deficit you can have and the faster you can lose. It is 10 times harder when you are only talking about 20 pounds. Your body likes it extra padding and sees no reason you shouldn't keep it, and when you start sending your calories below what it needs to function, it says "see, told ya, I need to keep it, she won't feed me" and slows the metabolism down.

This is just my take on the posts I have read on calories in v. calories out and how the body and the metabolism works. It is a very logical approach to the whole concept of losing weight. I know it isn't how everyone looks at it, but it works for me and it has worked for others. :happy:

Hey that was pretty good aab. makes me happy to see people understanding.

I think part of the issue out there is that a lot of "dieting" half truths and myths so permeate our society that when ever we get a new batch of recruits that haven't heard our rantings on eating calories, we get more and more impatient with them (I know I have to catch myself 10 time a day).
When in reality, it's not their fault, they haven't had the opportunity yet to hear our theories and see the stuff that we have all researched and experienced. Ultimately that was a part of the reason I took my little "Break" from MFP back in the fall. I just have to keep reminding myself that there are new people on here every day, and most of them have never even heard of eating their exercise calories before. So for us what seems like common knowledge, to them sounds like heresy.

:laugh: :drinker:

Why does everything have to be so sarcastic?!! Banks, I'm glad that you put up with the same questions from all of us newbies... And still manage to be supportive. Everyone has their own opinions, and I'm glad that we're allowed to post multiple questions, suggestions, and alternatives. I just don't think that this "discussion" needs to turn heated...

Why does everything have to be so sarcastic?!! Banks, I'm glad that you put up with the same questions from all of us newbies... And still manage to be supportive. Everyone has their own opinions, and I'm glad that we're allowed to post multiple questions, suggestions, and alternatives. I just don't think that this "discussion" needs to turn heated...

It doesn't have to turn heated. But it gets tiring whenever someone posts an alternative view, one that has worked for them for a while, and a bunch of people jump all over you for it.

People need to realize that not everyone's body works exactly the same way. There are differences, and while they may be subtle, some people can eat all their exercise calories and lose weight, and some can eat some, and some are best eating none.

It would be nice if during a discussion when someone posts something that they have done people don't jump down their throats for it.

:drinker: Ah wouldn't that be pretty awesome!:flowerforyou:

Excercise cal discussion often seem to get a bit heated when their are strong personalities involved... I eat 1/2 back because that's what works for me, before coming here I had never heard of the concept, neither has anyone I know off this board, professionals I deal with etc., that got quite confusing to me to figure out who to listen too at first.

It does make sense if your cals are at the low end such as 1200, makes a whole lot of sense but I agree Drew, each of our bodies is very unique and we are entitled to do what is best for ourselves, least that's what I've drawn the conclusion of since I began my journey back in 2007.:flowerforyou:

Cheers:drinker: :happy:
FC

Try some destressing. Here I found a link to hypnotherapy you can download for free and I have found it very calming and very helpful.


http://www.davidpye.com/index.php?page=hypnosis

Melisa back to your original post..... you said in there that you had been starving yourself before. Sorry if I missed this but how long have you been eating the right calories? If your body was used to getting less than it's needed calories you may have set your metabolism there and now it may take a little longer to reset it to where your body knows it is going to get the needed food so it does not keep hanging on to every morsel you eat. Hope that makes sense.:flowerforyou:

Amy:bigsmile:

Created by MyFitnessPal.com - Free Calorie Counter

My favorite post for answers:
http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/23912-links-in-mfp-you-want-to-read-again-and-again

What is your carb/protein/fiber intake? It should be at about a 40/30/30% of your total calorie intake. Also, I stick to a 1600 calorie diet give or take. I never eat the extra calories from exercise on purpose. I guess my question with eating your exercise calories is, why? You have to burn more calories than you take in to lose weight so if you eat the extra calories from exercise you might as well not have exercised at all. Try sticking to a set number of calories. Check your carb/protein/fiber intake with what you are eating and try to stick to the 40/30/30 principle. I do P90X as my routine for exercise so I'm working out 6 days a week for between 45-75 minutes. I burn anywhere from 450-800 calories with my workouts. I've lost 11 pounds since I started my routine in the first week of January. I don't know if this will work for you but it is worth a try. Hang in there, you sound determined so I'm sure you can do this.

You're doing P90X on 1600 calories per day? Read your nutrition guide that came with it please!

1600 calories for P90X is fine, as long as you're maintaining a net above 1200 per day. This is if your goal is to lose weight. The nutrition plan for P90X is for people who are already at or very close to their ideal weight but trying to drop body fat%. Obviously, if you're trying to drop weight (not just body fat), you create a deficit. Many people have used this and if you hop over to the beachbody message boards there are many people who have used this system as a weight loss program and have had great success.