Finding it hard to eat back exercise calories...

Hi,

I have only just realised I need to eat back my exercise calories too, but Im only just managing to eat the 1200 set as it is?
It must work better if you do though so Im really going to give it a try now.

Perhaps snacks like snack a Jacks and things throughout the day?

Good luck x

All of these suggestions are fine, but remember, it's better to go to McDonald's and eat french fries than to NOT eat back your exercise calories.

Let's not make this into some kind of drama like we suddenly forgot how to eat.

DISCLAIMER: my advice presupposes you are logging in correct info...lol

Good luck to you.

I have found that if I eat back, I stop losing weight... I am not hungry, but I find it impossible to eat back all of the exercise calories.

100 snack ideas from www.sixsistersstuff.com

(Some are better than others)


1. Frozen Grapes (I used to eat these in college all the time- they are amazing)
2. String Cheese
3. Banana
4. Frozen Banana (peel it first, stick in the freezer overnight- it's like a yummy popsicle)
5. Low-fat Yogurt
6. Sugar-free or fat-free pudding
7. Apple dipped in Peanut Butter (or spread peanut butter on top of apple slice and top with pecans . . . so good!)
8. 100-calorie bag of popcorn
9. Applesauce
10. Raw veggies with hummus (my new favorite!)
11. Almonds
12. Apple
13. Skinny S'more (two graham crackers with one roasted marshmallow and one small square dark chocolate)
14. Smoked Beef Jerky (about 1 oz- look for low-sodium!)
15. Chocolate Milk
16. Hard Boiled Egg
17. Sunflower Seeds
18. Cottage Cheese
19. Sliced Cantaloupe
20. Raisins
21. Pita Bread and Hummus
22. Rice Cakes
23. Sugar-free Jello
24. Dried Fruits
25. Frozen Yoplait Whips Yogurt (these seriously taste like ice cream when they are frozen!)
26. Air-Popped Popcorn
27. Pistachios
28. Clementines (we call them Cuties or Clemmies)
29. Fruit Smoothie (or Kristen's Green Smoothie- it's actually delicious!) 30. Handful of olives
31. Pickles
32. Handful of blueberries with 2 tablespoons fat-free Cool-Whip
33. Ants on a Log (celery with peanut butter and raisins)
34. 1 cup mixed berry salad (raspberries, strawberries, blueberries, and/or blackberries) tossed with one tablespoon fresh-squeezed orange juice.
35. Peanut Butter and Bananas on whole wheat bread
36. Trail Mix (make your own! Throw in dried fruit, sunflower seeds, nuts, low-sugar cereals, and even the occasional piece of candy for something sweet.)
37. Orange Slices
38. Cherry Tomatoes
39. Graham Crackers
40. Small Green Salad with light dressing
41. Mango smoothie (frozen mango, mango Greek Yogurt, and a small amount of orange juice)
42. Kabobs (thread low-fat meat, low-fat cheese, pineapple and cherry tomatoes onto a stick- my kids love anything on a stick!)
43. Half of a Cinnamon-Raisin topped with peanut butter and banana slices
44. Grilled Pineapple (throw them on the grill or a skillet on med. heat for two minutes or until golden)
45. Baked Apples (one tennis ball-sized apple, cored, filled with 1 teaspoon brown sugar and cinnamon, and baked until tender)
46. Animal Crackers
47. Strawberries dipped in fat-free Cool Whip
48. Low-fat tortilla topped with egg salad, shredded carrots and cucumber slices
49. Parfait (build your own with Greek yogurt or plain yogurt, fruit, and granola)
50. Bowl of bran flakes with 1/2 cup skim milk and berries
51. Guacamole with veggies
52. Triscuit's Thin Crisps dipped in cottage cheese or hummus
53. Cashews
54. Pretzels
55. Sun Chips (portion control! Read the serving amount on the side!)
56. Cheesy Breaded Tomatoes: Two roasted plum tomatoes sliced and topped with 2 tablespoons breadcrumbs and a sprinkle of Parmesan cheese.
57. Sugar Snap Peas
58. Steamed Veggies (steam non-starchy vegetables in a microwave safe bag and sprinkle with 1 tablespoon of Parmesan cheese or 1/4 cup pasta sauce)
59. Apricots
60. Laughing Cow Light Cheese Wedges
61. Any 100 calorie pack
62. Snack/Granola bar (around 150 calories or less, like Kellogg's All-Bran, Kashi TLC Trail Mix, or Fiber one Bar)
63. Baked chips (about 7-10) with salsa
64. Soy Chips
65. Protein Bar
66. Sweet Potato Fries (one light-bulb sized sweet potato sliced, tossed with 1 teaspoon olive oil, and baked at 400° for 10 minutes)
67. Wrap (I like a slice of turkey, Swiss cheese, baby spinach leaves, and cranberry relish wrapped up in a tortilla)
68. Pumpkin Seeds (2 tablespoons pumpkin seeds, sprayed with oil (just a spritz!) and baked at for 400° for 15 minutes or until brown. Sprinkle a tiny amount of salt on top)
69. Bean Salad
70. Broccoli Florets
71. Peaches and Cottage Cheese
72. Chopped Red Peppers (dipped in fat free ranch)
73. V8 Vegetable Juice
74. Tuna with Triscuit crackers
75. Cooked and Cubed Chicken Breast
76. Homemade Popsicles (puree watermelon, strawberries, mango, banana, etc and freeze in popsicle molds)
77. Dates with almond butter or rolled in coconut
78. Quesadilla (whole wheat (or corn) tortillas w/cheese (or not) melted in microwave - adding on tomatoes, beans, corn, olives, avocado or guacamole or whatever sounds good)
79. Watermelon
80. Cubed Apples and Cubed Cheese (this was my husband's favorite after-school snack when he was little)
81. Craisins (I love to eat these with almonds- it's a good combo)
82. Goldfish Crackers
83. Edamame
84. Cheesy Roasted Asparagus (four spears (spritzed with olive-oil spray) and topped with 2 tablespoons grated Parmesan cheese, baked for 10 minutes at 400°)
85. Turkey Roll-Ups (Four slices smoked turkey rolled up and dipped in 2 teaspoons honey mustard)
86. Strawberry Salad (1 cup raw spinach with ½ cup sliced strawberries and 1 tablespoon balsamic)
87. Oatmeal
88. Banana Smoothie (½ cup sliced banana, ¼ cup nonfat vanilla yogurt, and a handful of ice blended until smooth)
89. Lime Sherbet (1/2 cup serving) with sliced kiwi
90. Apple Chips (dehydrated apples- they are so good!)
91. Black Beans (mix 1/4 cup black beans with 1 tablespoon salsa and 1 tablespoon Greek yogurt for an added twist!)
92. Lettuce wrap (try two slices honey-baked ham with 2 teaspoons honey mustard rolled in a lettuce leaf)
93. Pecans (try five pecans roasted with 2 teaspoons maple syrup and 1 teaspoon cinnamon)
94. Chocolate Covered Strawberries (dip 5 strawberries in 2 squares of dark chocolate- that is still good for you, right?!)
95. Honeyed Yogurt (½ cup nonfat Greek yogurt with a dash of cinnamon and 1 teaspoon honey)
96. Blackberries (so good mixed with plain yogurt)
97. Frozen Mangos
98. Tropical Juice Smoothie (¼ cup pineapple juice, orange juice, and apple juice, blended with ice)
99. Healthier Banana Bread
100. Peanut Butter Yogurt Dip with fresh fruit

Yesterday for me was very hard to eat back my exercise calories. I went to the gym mid-day so I was barely hungry the whole rest of the day! I had a morningstar veggie burger with guacamole to get my calorie count back up (Wholly Guacamole has 100 calorie snack packs that you can dip celery or crackers). Sometimes I will grab a Larabar also that will be filling (each different flavor bar has 9 or less natural ingredients and is between 190-230 calories)

I have found that if I eat back, I stop losing weight... I am not hungry, but I find it impossible to eat back all of the exercise calories.

this is where I struggle, I can't eat for the sake of eating if Im not hungry?

Nuts, advocados, olive oil, truffle oil, salmon, bananas....all excellent for you, healthy and high in calories!

You could also eat more rice and pasta to bulk out your diary if you are struggling.

:-)

The most important skill we can learn is to listen to our body and eat good healthful food when hungry and not eat when we aren't. If you are forcing yourself to eat, something is wrong with that picture. You want to aim to eat until just satisfied and not over full. It can take awhile to even know what that feels like

I don't worry about eating back my exercise calories each day if I am not hungry. Because sometimes the hunger doesn't catch up with me until the NEXT day when I am not exercising. So I aim to average out over time.

Also, it is very common to overestimate one's calorie burn. So if you are trying to eat all the calories back, and you have overestimated what you burned, you aren't going to lose like you'd like to.

Listen to your body!!!

Try eating a static intake that a little higher than the MFP goal (assuming you are at 1200), try for 1500-1700 (this is guessing without knowing your stats).

For example, instead of eating 1200 + exercise cals to lose 1 lb per week, I just work out 5 days a week and eat 1700 calories a day (exercise or not)

If you know you're going to burn a lot of calories with exercise, eat a little bit more at each meal so you're not trying to play catchup "eating them back." Have an extra half a cup of cereal in the morning, or a hard boiled egg. Use full fat milk instead of skim. Have an extra piece of fruit as a snack. Have an extra ounce of protein with your lunch. Cook with olive oil and have another extra ounce of protein with your dinner.

Add an extra 100 calories to each meal and an extra 50 to two snacks, and you've got 400 calories.

Try eating a static intake that a little higher than the MFP goal (assuming you are at 1200), try for 1500-1700 (this is guessing without knowing your stats).

For example, instead of eating 1200 + exercise cals to lose 1 lb per week, I just work out 5 days a week and eat 1700 calories a day (exercise or not)

Think this is the best way for me actually.

Omg, I have been doing MFp for 3 weeks now and did not know I had to eat back my exercise calories?

In fact, I have been about 150-200 cals UNDER my recommended cal intake everyday and it does say I'm eating too little blah blah.

Does MFP only work if you stick to the cals EXACTLY then? Why would NOT eating back your exercise cals matter?

To lose weight you need to be in a healthy caloric deficit. There are 2 ways to accomplish that:

1) Set your daily caloric intake at a deficit
This is what most people do, and is how MFP is designed to work. You figure out your daily caloric need (BMR), then set your calorie goal lower than that. For example.. if your BMR is 1800, you might set your daily calorie goal to 1400. That puts you in a caloric deficit and you will start to lose weight**. When you exercise you burn additional calories. These burned calories are not accounted for in your BMR or the calorie goal you set based on your BMR. So exercising increases that caloric deficit. The thing to watch here is how big that deficit gets. Every body responds differently, but the larger the deficit the worse it is for your body (the assumption is that the larger the deficit gets the harder it is to properly fuel your body). And this is why people recommend eating back exercise calories.

2) Use exercise to create the deficit
With this method you set your daily caloric intake to equal your BRM. Then you exercise and burn calories. Those burned calories are not accounted for when you set your daily goal equal to your BMR, and thus you end up in a deficit. The size of that deficit is dependent on your workouts. You burn 75cals walking the dog and your deficit is 75 cals. You burn 500 cals running and the deficit is 500.



**This is VERY simiplified and makes A LOT of assumptions, but is good enough for this conversation.

Okay thanks. Well I want to lose half a stone and MFP has recommended I eat 1300 cals a day in order to achieve this. I've been doing it for 3 weeks and have been about 150 or so cals under that most days, probably because of the exercise. But I've been quite glad as when I click on 'complete today's entry' it then tells me I'll be 110lbs in 4 weeks 'if everyday was like today' which would be great as my goal is 112 lbs so if I can lost an extra couple then brilliant.

I haven't lost much so far though after 3 weeks on it, I'm starting to feel a bit disheartened. Has anyone else had a slow start?? Also, if you stick to the calorie amount everyday but don't exercise everyday (I only exercise 4-5 times a week) will you still lose the weight? Or does MFP work by sticking to the agreed cal amount everyday AND doing say an hour of exercise everyday? I'm a bit clueless about it all!

MFP will tell you how many calories to eat a day to get to your goal weight by the time you want to hit it. So, if you don't exercise, just eat the recommended number of calories. If you exercise, it adds in the exercise calories as though you should eat them. So, as example: Say your body needs 2,000 calories a day to stay the same. If you eat 1,500 calories a day that's a 500 calorie deficit. In one week you have a 3,500 calorie deficit and a loss of 1 pound. If you eat a 500 calorie deficit + you workout and burn 500 calories, you have a 1,000 calorie deficit for the day. That means you have only left 1,000 calories for your body to function. That might show some initial weight loss, but eventually your body will slow down it's metabolism and adjust to only having 1,000 calories a day without losing weight -- you are in starvation mode.

So, if you don't eat back all your calories, at least don't drop below 1,200 calories. Just drink a nice protein drink after your workout and have a tablespoon of peanut butter. That should do it.