Eat back your exercise calories?

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  • NicoWoodruff
    NicoWoodruff Posts: 369 Member
    latoyabooker said: i think, in my opinion, it depends on where, u are in your journey...if u have a lot to lose..lets say over 25 pounds...its probably not crucial you eat them back...if you have less to lose, lets say less than 25 pounds, it is important to. Food is fuel and eventually you will need to eat them back to fuel your body for the exercise. It seems counteractive, but you eventually will have to do it. Your calorie allowance will get smaller the more you lose. So when you get down to an allowance of 1300 a day to lose weight and then you burn 500 calories, if you dont eat them bach you will net 800 calories which is not enough energy to function properly off of, therefore, eating those calories back will become more and more important. You will still lose just at a slower pace, which happens the closer you get to goal.

    ^^ This. Thank you, you said it better than I could. How old you are/short, small framed etc can make some differences too. Studies show that every year we age, we need less calories to maintain.
  • 2hungariangirls
    2hungariangirls Posts: 220
    http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/3047-700-calories-a-day-and-not-losing

    http://shouldieatmyexercisecalories.com/


    Try these links.
  • tessiemay04
    tessiemay04 Posts: 13
    I use mine to top up what I can eat in a day. 1300 cals barely seems anything when you like to snack!
    Thankfully I cycle to and from work every day which gives me a nice 250cal boost to my diet :)

    I have only been on here a week, so far lost 3ib, so I'll have to wait and see whether this tactic continues to work for me!
  • TheNaturalNanny
    TheNaturalNanny Posts: 27 Member
    Heres my theory on it... If i burn an extra 1000 calories in a day (which is normal for me) I am not going to stuff my face with 1000 more calories worth of food just to eat back the difference. If I am hungry I will eat, which often when i workout hard I am hungry. However if Im not hungry im not going to force myself to eat purely to make the numbers match. Somedays I eat back my excercise calories and somedays I dont. So far Im still losing weight.

    Weight loss works differently for every body, what works for some doesnt work for others. Some have to eat back the calories because the body can go into starvation mode and start slowing the metabolism thus holding on to your fat. some people are the opposite. everyones chemistry is different.

    i just say eat when your hungry and always make healthy choices.
  • Rinny_D
    Rinny_D Posts: 80 Member
    im new here and I don't understand this eat back thing? Can you explain. Thanks,

    MFP sets you calorie target at the appropriate deficit for the weight loss you have set it to (without going below 1200), if you burn calories you are in excess of this deficit (eg you burned 200 through exercise and you are set to loose 1lb a week = -700)
    I wasn't eating my calories back when I started my weight loss (I had no idea about this concept before joining MFP) and 2 months in I plateaued, now eating most, if not all, and losing again.

    Just keep in mind a plateau is completely normal, natural and required to tell you and you're body that your body has become accustomed to what you were doing and to tell it to change, increase speed, endurance, , intervals, reps & sets in order to progress, become fitter, go further and continue/increase your weight loss if that continues to be a goal :)
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