to eat back calories burnt off or not to
wilkin_rebecca
Posts: 51 Member
I am not understanding if we are supposed to eat back the calories we burnt off, i am thinking that if i did that i won't lose anything but if thats the case than why when i submit my cardio does my calorie intake go up again? I am so confused. Does anyone have any insight into this please? Also my husband who just joined MFP works all day on his feet walking and lifting that would make him burning off more calories than he is supposed to consume. Confused again. Any help to my question would be appreciated thank you in advance.
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MFP sets your calorie goals at an automatic deficit, so that you'd lose weight even if you just sat still all day. When you work out, you're burning more calories, so you can eat them back to get to your original deficit. IE: 1200 calories is your goal, you burn 300, you can eat back those 300 to get you back to 1200.0
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i spent a long time researching and reading about this. what finally worked for me was to NOT eat my exercise calories. i eat 1400 cal per day and while i will log-in my exercise, i do not "add" these earned calories to my intake. i eat 1400 regardless of what exercise i do. this has helped me lose. good luck PS everyone is different, you might have to play around with it for a while to find what works for you.0
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I don't add my exercise, instead I have increased my overall daily intake to accomodate for my regular activity and 1550 calories per day works for me and is much less fussy and subjective. However, that being said, I have some friends and have seen other's who work out heavily, burning 700+ calories in a work out regularily and not eat back their calories, and they don't lose weight, likely because they are not eating enough and have a major calorie deficit and their bodies hoard any calories they do have ( a starvation impulse) so I would say find your balance.0
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Did you see that button just to the left of the button that you hit that said "New Topic"? It's called the search function. Give it a whirl.0
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you will get all kinds of answers on this topic here, but i personally do not eat the exercise calories back, i cant say thats the right thing for everyone but it works for me.0
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Thank you! Thats how i have been doing it since i started last week, but looking at it today because i was doing my husbands food diary for him today and i was going to add in his walking at work which is an 8 hr. day well that puts him like almost triple the amount of calories burnt off, so i don't know how this is going to work for him.0
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Eat them. A deficit is already built in. If you don't eat them, you may be undermining your ability to stay healthy and stick with the plan. Eat.0
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Did you see that button just to the left of the button that you hit that said "New Topic"? It's called the search function. Give it a whirl.
im pretty sure that buttons invisible cause no one ever uses it.0 -
I don't typically eat them back right now. I'm doing the 30DS and my HRM isn't working correctly so I have no clue how many cals I'm burning. The days I run along with doing the shred I'll sometimes eat back some of the running cals, but not all of them. You get the eat back cals so your body has enough fuel to keep going.0
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MFP sets your calorie goals at an automatic deficit, so that you'd lose weight even if you just sat still all day. When you work out, you're burning more calories, so you can eat them back to get to your original deficit. IE: 1200 calories is your goal, you burn 300, you can eat back those 300 to get you back to 1200.
This is the correct answer, but everyone is different...0 -
This website is designed for you to eat them back. Unlike most sites that are here to help with weight loss, this one already figures in a deficit for you. So, in theory yes.. eat them back. However, some people find they have better success NOT eating them back and others find success ALWAYS eating them back.
So. To answer your question - it is best to figure out what works for YOUR body.0 -
I was just talking about this with one of my mfp's. She said she does not eat earned calories back. She eats 1500 calories instead of 1200 on high exercise days. But like missikay say's "everyone is different". I think I'm going with 1400 - 1500 calories depending on exercise.0
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I don't. I just eat 1400-1600 cals a day and I don't log exercise because I wasn't losing weight eating the extra calories.0
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Oh my... Another post.
Honestly, tweak what works best for you. If you are doing it one way and having success then yea! If not, then try something new. Everybody is different.0 -
Oh my... Another post.
Oh come on...It must have been at least..oooh....3 days since this thread appeared!0 -
When you look to right of the page you can see the topic before you click. When I first joined, I didn't know how to do everything on this site. Why are people taking the time to click the topic just to make a sarcastic rude comment? And thanks for the people that did give some useful advice, really answered my question as well0
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Oh my... Another post.
Oh come on...It must have been at least..oooh....3 days since this thread appeared!
Why respond??? These posts come up a lot but they don't bother me. But why not just bypass if you're sick of seeing it? LOL0 -
"So often people personal message me asking me if I think their calories are correct. It seems that people think there is some magical formula that only a very few can figure out. I see so many people on here just popping in numbers and following them heedless of what the numbers mean. I feel it's ULTRA important to know why MFP (and me, and a few others) gives you certain numbers. To that end I will try to empower YOU to be able to understand the basics about calories, calorie deficits, and why we recommend eating exercise calories. With this knowledge you should be able to easily figure out what your calories should be at for reasonable, healthy weight loss. So without further ado, lets get started.
1st things first, a few givens must be stated:
-Everyone's body is slightly different. ALWAYS keep in mind your numbers may not be exactly what MFP thinks simply because everyone's bodies all burn energy at a different rate. Tweaking may be needed.
- MFP's goals wizard is a "dumb" tool. That means it doesn't care whether a specific goal is healthy and/or right for you, it just subtracts the goal deficit from projected maintenance calories. This means that even if you shouldn't be trying for a 2 lb a week loss, MFP won't care, it will still try to help you get there.
-1200 calories is a generic number. It's not right for everyone. It's a baseline minimum given out as a floor by MFP based on prior research by the medical community. NOT everyone will need a minimum of 1200, very small people can go under, and bigger people need more.
OK with those facts firmly set in your mind (please go back and re-read the givens until you have them firmly planted in your skull!), we can continue. Figuring out your perfect deficit isn't magic, it's a few simple formula's base on some basic, worldwide standards, and generally with slight modefication, will work for just about anyone who (besides weight) is generally healthy.
Here's what you need:
Height, weight, age, activity level, sex
NOTE: activity level isn't as mysterious as it sounds. If you have a desk job, and do very little walking throughout the day and don't really perform any sports or physical activities, then you are sedentary, if you do some walking every day (or at least 4 days a week) or other light activity for at least 30 minutes cumulative at least 4 times a week, you are lightly active. If you do 60 minutes of light activity 5 days a week or do some kind of sport that requires walking or light jogging (say swimming or mailman or warehouse employee) then you are active, If you do a physically demanding activity (one that makes you sweat) for 4 days a week or more and for more than 1 hour a day, you are very active (like a coach that runs drills or you play volleyball). When in doubt, go down 1 level, you'd rather burn more than you think than less.
With all these numbers you can generate your BMI. Now I realize BMI is flawed, but for what we're doing it's good enough. After years on here, and doing lots and lots of research, I've been able to associate general BMI ranges with approximate goal levels. This works for about 80 to 85% of people out there (there's always a few that are outside the curve).
So now we can figure out where your goal should be.
Go to the tools section and figure out your BMI:
Generally someone with a BMI over 32 can do a 1000 calorie a day (2 lbs a week) deficit
With a BMI of 30 to 32 a deficit of 750 calories is generally correct (about 1.5 lbs a week)
With a BMI of 28 to 30 a deficit of 500 calories is about right (about 1 lb a week)
With a BMI of 26 to 28 a deficit of about 300 calories is perfect (about 1/2 lb a week)
and below 26... well this is where we get fuzzy. See now you're no longer talking about being overweight, so while it's still ok to have a small deficit, you really should shift your focus more towards muscle building, and reducing fat. This means it is EXTRA important to eat your exercise calories as your body needs to KNOW it's ok to burn fat stores, and the only way it will know is if you keep giving it the calories it needs to not enter the famine response (starvation mode).
With this quick guide you can figure out your goal rather easily. I know many people will say "I can't eat my exercise calories, I gain weight when I do". Well I have news for you, that's not correct. I submit this, if you eat your exercise calories and gain weight 1 of 3 things happened:
1 you were previously in starvation mode, and you upped your calories, and had an immediate weight gain, that's normal, to be expected, and necessary to get your body on track. Give it a month, that will stop, and you, once again, will begin to lose, but this time, in a healthy manner.
2 you incorrectly calculated something, either your exercise calories, your calorie intake, or you put in to large of a goal. Go back and check all your numbers.
3 you haven't given it enough time to work. This site promotes HEALTHY weight loss people. Healthy weight loss doesn't happen in days or weeks, it takes months and years. Each change you make in how you eat needs a month or more to work, be patient, give it time. It will happen.
And to everyone who has a trainer that doesn't agree with eating your exercise calories. I also submit this: In 90% of the cases (and I have talked to a LOT of trainers about this exact topic) they actually DO agree with this method, you just explained it wrong.
Just saying to a trainer "should I eat my exercise calories?" isn't enough, you have to explain to them that MFP already generates a deficit prior to any exercise, therefore the deficit will remain whether you exercise or not. Once you give them that idea, and you are relatively sure they understand the concept then I'll bet they change their tune.
I hope this helps, it's pretty straight forward if you've been here a while, and to you new guys, I recommend going to the message boards link, clicking on the "general diet and weight loss" area, and clicking on those first few posts that have the little mouse trap next to them, they are sticky and will always be there, and are a wealth of knowledge about this site, exercise calories, starvation mode...etc. "0 -
Did you see that button just to the left of the button that you hit that said "New Topic"? It's called the search function. Give it a whirl.
If old topics being asked by new users bother you, why did you take the time to read the post and comment?0 -
With some trial and error, I've found that when I don't eat my exercise calories back - I don't lose weight! So eat them all back. Last week was the first week I let myself go slightly over my net calories and I lost more than I ever have in one week (2.4 lbs).
I also don't count every bit of activity I do as calorie burning. If I spend half an hour cleaning, or walking around for work I don't log it. Instead, I only log what I consider to be a workout - and so far it's worked for me.0 -
Oh my... Another post.
Oh come on...It must have been at least..oooh....3 days since this thread appeared!
If this bothers you, why did you take the time to read it and post? No need to beat up a new user just because they haven't learned the ins and outs of MFP yet. Give them time.0 -
Oh my... Another post.
Oh come on...It must have been at least..oooh....3 days since this thread appeared!
So why click it? Way to be an *kitten*. and reknob.0 -
When you look to right of the page you can see the topic before you click. When I first joined, I didn't know how to do everything on this site. Why are people taking the time to click the topic just to make a sarcastic rude comment? And thanks for the people that did give some useful advice, really answered my question as well
Thank you - I could not agree more with what you are saying. I guess some people just like to be rude.0 -
Thank you! Thats how i have been doing it since i started last week, but looking at it today because i was doing my husbands food diary for him today and i was going to add in his walking at work which is an 8 hr. day well that puts him like almost triple the amount of calories burnt off, so i don't know how this is going to work for him.
Since you said he walks a lot at work then that's something that would have been taken into consideration when he first created his account. Go back to the settings area in his account and look at which "label" he falls under. You might be considered "sedentary" (spend most of the day sitting, limited walking etc), while he might be labeled as "slightly" or "moderately" active. The reason for this is like someone else said before, MFP sets it's recommended calories for YOU personally based on weight, height, how much you want to lose, and most importantly, how active you are on a daily basis (this is of course NOT including exercise you do). Your husband's walking around at work is considered an EVERY DAY activity, not exercise. Going out for a walk, run, going to the gym before or after work is considered actual exercise.0 -
When you look to right of the page you can see the topic before you click. When I first joined, I didn't know how to do everything on this site. Why are people taking the time to click the topic just to make a sarcastic rude comment? And thanks for the people that did give some useful advice, really answered my question as well
Thank you - I could not agree more with what you are saying. I guess some people just like to be rude.
Or maybe they are frustrated @ work and need to take it out on somebody? That has to be it b/c why get angry over something so trivial?0 -
Thank you to all that gave me useful advice, that is the support and encouragement i am after. I am new to this site and still working on learning it, and value your time and patience with me.0
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I did'nt understand it either when i first started MFP in the beginning of the year. I thought i was able to eat more, i was real happy and content. I wont eat the calories i burned, staying at my 1200 per day so far so good. :flowerforyou:0
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