"earning" calories through exercise

its not a dumb question....many people ask this...search the topics...you will be amazed at all the opinions...

I feel like it really depends on the person. Listen to your body and give it what it needs. I usually eat back 1/2 the calories burned and it works well for me. I know people who eat them all back and get great results.

I'm not here to anger people, but I hear the words "starvation mode" gets tossed around this site a lot and for the most part, unless your body fat percentage is in the 4% or lower, I doubt anyone here has really ever reached it. You're body stores fat for energy that's used up when your eating at a deficit. Right now I'm eating below my bmr to lose the last bit of fat, and I have not "reached" starvation mode. I never eat back my calories I burned from working out. Also I'm pushing the same amount of weights that I did when I was eating in excess, I'm not getting stronger from the deficit, but I'm definitely not getting weaker at all. Another thing is when people eat back their workout calories, they tend to overestimate on exactly how many calories they burned. At the end of the day, you probably end up being in surplus instead of a deficit. Eat your allotted daily calories and if you notice you're losing more than a lb a week, then up it a bit by like 50-100 cal a day til you get your numbers right

I asked my trainer the same question, and she said to NOT eat back the calories. She said if we are eating and exercising we will not slow our metabolism, BUT if we were to eat too few calories and NOT exercise, we would slow our metabolism.
I'm not sure of the science of this. Does anyone have an explanation?

I don't know about "Starvation Mode" but I can definitely attest to "Conservation of Energy Mode". I have been struggling with weight loss for years and when I joined MFP I thought the 1200 and skip eating back folks had it right, followed their rules, didn't lose a thing, now after much reading of the forums I realize many of those folks, if not most are not "Obese" and near their goal, perhaps I too will someday have that happy problem. After I upped my calories to my BMR I started to lose, yay, and I will adjust my BMR periodically as MFP apparently doesn't automatically shift it for you. I think every single person on here has a unique metabolism including you, so you have to just keep tweaking until you find a combo that gets you a pound a week and hold there till it doesn't work anymore then adjust it again. Take care of yourself and your body will take care of you and don't let anyone tell you that their way is the only effing way to lose weight. You are unique so find your rhythm and have fun losing the weight.

I'm not here to anger people, but I hear the words "starvation mode" gets tossed around this site a lot and for the most part, unless your body fat percentage is in the 4% or lower, I doubt anyone here has really ever reached it. You're body stores fat for energy that's used up when your eating at a deficit. Right now I'm eating below my bmr to lose the last bit of fat, and I have not "reached" starvation mode. I never eat back my calories I burned from working out. Also I'm pushing the same amount of weights that I did when I was eating in excess, I'm not getting stronger from the deficit, but I'm definitely not getting weaker at all. Another thing is when people eat back their workout calories, they tend to overestimate on exactly how many calories they burned. At the end of the day, you probably end up being in surplus instead of a deficit. Eat your allotted daily calories and if you notice you're losing more than a lb a week, then up it a bit by like 50-100 cal a day til you get your numbers right

starvation mode doesn't necessarily mean you are below 4% body fat and actually starving. What it means is you are not eating enough calories to maintain human life. If you do this for too long your body will just store the fat so you can function.

bingo!!
Your body needs a minimum to keep all the functions. Not just muscle, but there is a required amount of different fluids you need to have. Just saying.

Should I eat all my calories?

Yes. MFP is already figuring a deficit for you to lose weight. This deficit is based on what you need to eat based on your everyday activity, not counting exercise. In the end, it's all about "net calories" (you can view yours under reports)

Example: you need to eat 2,000 calories to maintain your current weight (random number)
MFP will tell you to eat 1,500 to lose one pound per week (500x7=3500=one pound loss).

Let's say you exercise, and burn 500 additional calories.
UH-OH, now you are at a 1,000 calorie a day deficit. You need 2,000 calories to maintian, are already restricted to 1500, so now your net calories are a 1,000 a day. This is starvation central. Your body, which is very good at keeping you alive, will store and save calories. You WILL stop losing weight. You WILL want to throw your scale out the window.

Eat your exercise calories. At least eat most of them

http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/6556-the-answers-to-the-questions


Hope that helps.. U keep up the great work.... Oh I wondered the same thing 2... find this!

so, working on the bike for an hour, I can get 500-600 calories burned. I'd be good, then, if I ate maybe 300 of those back? That would increase the speed of weight loss (I only set it up for 1 lb per week, trying to be realistic and not get discouraged) while keeping me out of starvation mode, right?

(and starvation mode sounds bad, mmkay.

you will not go into starvation mode unless you stop eating all together for several days

That is not true at all.

If you're "Close" to your goal, then eat back the calories to maintain hormone levels/ not put so much stress on your body's metabolism, energy balance.. ect. If you're not so "close" then don't eat it back so you have a higher calorie deficit

I agree with this!

Should I eat all my calories?

Yes. MFP is already figuring a deficit for you to lose weight. This deficit is based on what you need to eat based on your everyday activity, not counting exercise. In the end, it's all about "net calories" (you can view yours under reports)

Example: you need to eat 2,000 calories to maintain your current weight (random number)
MFP will tell you to eat 1,500 to lose one pound per week (500x7=3500=one pound loss).

Let's say you exercise, and burn 500 additional calories.
UH-OH, now you are at a 1,000 calorie a day deficit. You need 2,000 calories to maintian, are already restricted to 1500, so now your net calories are a 1,000 a day. This is starvation central. Your body, which is very good at keeping you alive, will store and save calories. You WILL stop losing weight. You WILL want to throw your scale out the window.

Eat your exercise calories. At least eat most of them

http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/6556-the-answers-to-the-questions


Hope that helps.. U keep up the great work.... Oh I wondered the same thing 2... find this!

I dont believe in eating back the workout calories because everyone tends to under report what we eat and at the same time over report our workout calories

Should I eat all my calories?

Yes. MFP is already figuring a deficit for you to lose weight. This deficit is based on what you need to eat based on your everyday activity, not counting exercise. In the end, it's all about "net calories" (you can view yours under reports)

Example: you need to eat 2,000 calories to maintain your current weight (random number)
MFP will tell you to eat 1,500 to lose one pound per week (500x7=3500=one pound loss).

Let's say you exercise, and burn 500 additional calories.
UH-OH, now you are at a 1,000 calorie a day deficit. You need 2,000 calories to maintian, are already restricted to 1500, so now your net calories are a 1,000 a day. This is starvation central. Your body, which is very good at keeping you alive, will store and save calories. You WILL stop losing weight. You WILL want to throw your scale out the window.

Eat your exercise calories. At least eat most of them

http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/6556-the-answers-to-the-questions


Hope that helps.. U keep up the great work.... Oh I wondered the same thing 2... find this!

I dont believe in eating back the workout calories because everyone tends to under report what we eat and at the same time over report our workout calories

While I would agree with you in general, and in terms of people who guess at their calories, many people here are very careful in the amount of calories they log, down to weighing slices of bread and the like rather than depending on the estimate for the weight of a slice of bread on the nutrition information on the bag. These people are not under reporting calories eaten, and many are very careful with the reporting of calories burned as well. While the OP could probably get away without eating their exercise calories while using the calories MFP gives them at this point since it looks by their ticker they have a lot to lose, doing so for a prolonged period of time, especially when getting closer to the final goal, will ultimately be counter productive.

Depending on how much fat a person has to lose, their body will tolerate a certain caloric deficit. The less fat you have to lose, the smaller your caloric deficit should be. By not eating ones exercise calories, or adjusting their calories higher than MFP does, they will move into much to large a deficit. In response their body will slow down fat loss as much as it can. The number of people I have seen post here with that exact problem who then found their weight loss start again after increasing their calories is frankly amazing to me.

In summary, a large deficit for a short period of time will not do this, but a large deficit over a prolonged period of time will. The OP's fat loss will not likely be hurt by eating at least part of their exercise calories long term, but it is likely that over the long term having too large a calorie deficit will hurt his fat loss, resulting in excessive muscle loss.

The number of people I have seen post here with that exact problem who then found their weight loss start again after increasing their calories is frankly amazing to me.

^^This. Because of this I recommend eating back exercise calories...

BUT I think it depends on the individual. There are some people who are also very successful at losing weight with a very large deficit. When I was trying to lose, I almost never ate my exercise calories back and I only ate 1200 calories in food. I did have a day or two a month where I probably ate double or triple that though. I have always credited that to why I never plateaued with such a low calorie intake (as so many seem to do).

As I said, in my first post, most calculations are inaccurate. Eating your exercise calories back or not, doesn't matter, what matters is that you're losing weight at a decent pace, which varies from person to person.

If you're eating your calories back and not losing weight, it's because you just "think" you're in a deficit, you're not in one. If you eat them back and you're losing weight, you're in a deficit. What element determines if you're in a deficit or not? The human element, inaccurate calculations, in accurate calculators, over or underestimating food/exercise caloric balance.

I couldn't agree more. I have been saying this all along. In all the exercise calorie debates, no one hardly ever takes this into account.

"earning" calories through excersize is like painting an armadillo. You can use latex, but Walmart is open 24/7. Does this help?