Another calorie intake question.

No.

When people starve, they are on starvation diets. These are defined as 50% of your calorie needs or less. No one who is eating 2000 calorie a day is starving. Well, Michael Phelps maybe.

The idea that people have to eat more to lose weight is a big misunderstanding of the science of dieting anyway. Anyone who reduces their calories will experience a slow down in their metabolism even if they are just operating at a small deficit. But it's not enough to stop weight loss. Weight loss stops when your calories in is the same (or greater) than your calories out.

OTOH, there is a point of diminishing returns. IOW, it's not a more is better kind of deal. For example, if you need 2000 calories a day to maintain and you eat 1500, you will lose about a pound a week. If you lower it to 1000 calories, you may lose 2 lb. a week, but you may only lose 1.75. But if you lower it to 500 calories, you risk malnutrition and you probably will only lose 2.25 lb. a week. So it really isn't worth it. It's a lot of suffering to lose an extra .25 lb. a week.

This assumes that you don't subconsciously (or even consciously) lower your energy expenditure as you lower your calories, of course.

Maybe drinking some Odwalla or Acai Berry Juice? They are good for your health, and if you have a few calories left to consum, it's worth to have all your vitamins and antioxidants!

http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/10589-for-those-confused-or-questioning-eating-your-exercise-calo


contrary to the previous post, so-called "starvation mode" aka "depressed metabolism" IS real, and will slow your progress if you eat too little.

your body is just like an engine, if it has no fuel, it will not run properly.
when your intake is too low, it becomes harder to lose weight because your body feels it must ration the remaining stored energy (fat) it has left.

EAT your exercise calories. if your burn off 400 in exercise, and your daily is set at 1200, you eat 1600 that day.

It should be noted that eating back exercise calories is not putting "junk back in your body" unless of course, you eat junk food.

BUT, once you start eating at a maintenance level, your body will convert everything you eat to fat because you've been in starvation mode and you will gain all that weight back again - and more. That's what creates the yo-yo dieting effect people see all the time. You eat too few cals, yes, you lose weight, temporarily... and you will gain it all back even on maintenance calories. Once in a while is not going to hurt you (to go under 1200 or whatever the number is for your body).

Also, if you have lots of weight to lose, you can get away with doing that much easier than people with not much to lose. Example, I can get away with a much lower cal diet because I have a lot to lose, like the PP who has 98 pounds to lose. But if you have 30 to lose instead, you will not be as successful.

There are some people on here who have been successful with eating back your exercise cals, and some claim you don't need to. Just be aware of the potential problems if you aren't putting the fuel into your body that it needs.

And to answer the PP question as to why eat what you've worked off - there are two things. FIrst, MFP creates a calorie deficit for you, it does not include working out. So by working off a bunch of cals you then have created a double deficit and you do need to fuel your body. You can change MFP to be maintenance instead for your calorie intake and then work off the cals you don't want to eat, staying above 1200.

You also need to be aware that your body will take the quickest, easiest fuel - and that's muscle. So you need to also build your muscles so that your body will take stored body fat for energy rather than muscle (another reason a starvation diet isn't going to do you any good, you'll lose muscle first over fat).

BUT, once you start eating at a maintenance level, your body will convert everything you eat to fat because you've been in starvation mode and you will gain all that weight back again - and more. That's what creates the yo-yo dieting effect people see all the time.

There is no clinical evidence to support this. Not only that, it completely defies the laws of physics! If you eat as many calories as you consume, you will not gain weight. Excess calories are converted to fat. If you have no excess calories, they can't be converted to fat.

The reason people gain the weight back is because our bodies were designed for famine times and every time we go on a diet, our bodies think there is a famine. Once the famine (diet) is over, they decide it's important to gain that weight back -- plus a cushion -- in case there is another famine (diet) again. So they increase our production of ghrelin (among other things). The ghrelin in particular gives people a voracious appetite.

In studies of ghrelin, it was shown that the morbidly obese had 3x as much ghrelin as normal people, btw. They also fed it to rats and the humans after they had eaten to satiety. Even though the people reported being full, once they got the ghrelin given to them, they went nuts trying to eat everything in sight. It's a very powerful hormone!

But I digress.... the important thing is... if you only eat as much as you use, you won't gain weight. Also, this effect -- of putting the weight back on -- happens with *every* diet, not just with starvation diets.

Oh, and in the Minnesota study, when the study was over, the men mostly went back to their normal weight. This has been shown time and time again, btw. There are many studies where they had people lose or gain weight (or both!) and the normal weighted people mostly all go back to their original weights when it was over while the overweight people put their overweight back on, plus a cushion. It seems that some people's bodies are entirely too efficient at processing calories and entirely too sensitive to "famine."

But again, not eating your exercise calories does not put most people into starvation mode so it's all moot. The men in the study didn't go into "starvation mode" until their body fat had dropped dramatically. Even those who believe in starvation mode, like Tom Venuto, say that it's not easy to get into and you don't drop into it just from not eating enough calories for a meal or even a few days.

It's really convenient to think that the key to losing weight is to eat more. But it's magic thinking. Most people who plateau do so because they are eating too much and/or exercising too little or because of temporary water weight gains as glycogen is remove and then put back into the muscles in response to diet and exercise.

BUT, once you start eating at a maintenance level, your body will convert everything you eat to fat because you've been in starvation mode and you will gain all that weight back again - and more. That's what creates the yo-yo dieting effect people see all the time.

There is no clinical evidence to support this. Not only that, it completely defies the laws of physics! If you eat as many calories as you consume, you will not gain weight. Excess calories are converted to fat. If you have no excess calories, they can't be converted to fat.

The reason people gain the weight back is because our bodies were designed for famine times and every time we go on a diet, our bodies think there is a famine. Once the famine (diet) is over, they decide it's important to gain that weight back -- plus a cushion -- in case there is another famine (diet) again. So they increase our production of ghrelin (among other things). The ghrelin in particular gives people a voracious appetite.

In studies of ghrelin, it was shown that the morbidly obese had 3x as much ghrelin as normal people, btw. They also fed it to rats and the humans after they had eaten to satiety. Even though the people reported being full, once they got the ghrelin given to them, they went nuts trying to eat everything in sight. It's a very powerful hormone!

But I digress.... the important thing is... if you only eat as much as you use, you won't gain weight. Also, this effect -- of putting the weight back on -- happens with *every* diet, not just with starvation diets.

Oh, and in the Minnesota study, when the study was over, the men mostly went back to their normal weight. This has been shown time and time again, btw. There are many studies where they had people lose or gain weight (or both!) and the normal weighted people mostly all go back to their original weights when it was over while the overweight people put their overweight back on, plus a cushion. It seems that some people's bodies are entirely too efficient at processing calories and entirely too sensitive to "famine."

But again, not eating your exercise calories does not put most people into starvation mode so it's all moot. The men in the study didn't go into "starvation mode" until their body fat had dropped dramatically. Even those who believe in starvation mode, like Tom Venuto, say that it's not easy to get into and you don't drop into it just from not eating enough calories for a meal or even a few days.

It's really convenient to think that the key to losing weight is to eat more. But it's magic thinking. Most people who plateau do so because they are eating too much and/or exercising too little or because of temporary water weight gains as glycogen is remove and then put back into the muscles in response to diet and exercise.

Please post the links to these studies. Thanks!!!

Mac Madame,
Thank you for taking the time to enter all the information on the use of calories. I was so confused by the extra calories I had at the end of the day when I entered my exercise and food for the day.
I was trying to eat the recommended 1200 calories for the day then after entering my food and exercise for the day it would tell my I had around 600 calories remaining at the end of the day. It just didn't make sense. I think I should stick to my allotted 1200 calorie a day regimine and ignore the extra calories I earn by working out. I mean really if we are allowed 1200 per day shouldn't that be offset by all the activities we do during the day including exercising?

I am not a large person I just want to burn the fat and build the muscle for a better physique.

Hey Lucky,

I just did and then I BUMPED the post because I think everone needs to read it!!!!!
We have all learned that we have to burn off more than we consume. However, we do not realized how much the body needs to just function normally on a day to day basis. Then when we add extreme exercise programs on top of that.... now I see why they add calories to the intake after exercising.

I will happily eat my extra calories throughout the day as well as spread them out into more even proportions by utilizing my snacks as mini meals.

Thanks for the recommeded reading Lucky!!!

But he also says that some of that fat stored is harder to get to when you do not have a lot of extra fat on your body, it gets harder and harder for the body to convert that fat as "quickly" and therefore it will burn the muscle before taking the time to convert the fat into a burnable substance and therefore it will take whatever is most easily accessible which is muscle unless you consume some complex carbs for it to feed on.