Weight Loss

So My Question Is That Once I Exercise And Then Eat My Calories For The Day I’m I Gaining Back The Calories I Lost And Not Making Any Progress

Replies

  • GwendolynRoseO
    GwendolynRoseO Posts: 2 Member
    Hi Grace, I totally understand what you're saying! What I would recommend is trying to exercise a little while after you eat instead of before or try exercising harder and eating a little less. Those are some things I would try.
  • nsk1951
    nsk1951 Posts: 1,291 Member
    Just my take on it ... given that all calorie predictions are actually averages for a particular food item, that most calorie expenditure stats for exercise are also averages plus count total expenditure and not from the added expenditure of doing the exercise, and that there could be a significant miss in the food data base or the portions reported ... my guess is that if you eat back all the calories you 'earned' from exercise that you could be eating enough to not only halt weight loss but have a gain. ... So my suggestion would be to only eat back, at most, half of those exercise calories if you want to eat back any of them at all. ... my own approach is to ignore exercise calories completely and set my calorie limit at a high enough level that I will lose a small amount of weight even if I don't exercise at all. ...

  • lynn_glenmont
    lynn_glenmont Posts: 9,950 Member
    If you're using MFP the way it was designed to be used, you already have an appropriate sized calorie deficit before you exercise, so you're supposed to eat back the calories you expend on exercise so that your calorie deficit will remain the appropriate size.
  • cwolfman13
    cwolfman13 Posts: 41,879 Member
    So My Question Is That Once I Exercise And Then Eat My Calories For The Day I’m I Gaining Back The Calories I Lost And Not Making Any Progress

    No, you don't lose progress. Your calorie target is a weight loss target WITHOUT exercise. Exercise is unaccounted for activity in your activity level if you've set things up as MFP has designed. If I have a calorie target of 1900 calories to lose 1 Lb per week, that means MFP is estimating my NON-EXERCISE maintenance requirements to be around 2,400 calories. If I go exercise and burn 400 calories I can eat 2,300 calories and still be in the same deficit because my maintenance requirement of 2,400 would also increase by 400 calories to 2,800 calories. 2,800-2,400 = 500 calorie deficit still.

    Burning additional calories with exercise is a nice by-product...but there are numerous health benefits from regular exercise than just burning calories. Don't make that the sole reason you exercise. MFP is trying to teach you something here...pay attention. You will need to understand these things for maintenance.