I don't understand the whole eating back calorie's that you'

Cathnger
Cathnger Posts: 72
edited November 8 in Fitness and Exercise
I don't understand the whole eating back calorie's that you've burned from exercise and netting 1200. Ok I am probably being really thick here but can someone that knows what their talking about explain tell me why??? I'm doing the exercise to lose weight so if I eat say 1,000 calorie's (normally it's a bit less but at most 1100 and I burn 500 calorie's - I should eat another 600 calorie's to net the 1200????? WHY

Like I said I'm probably being really stupid here but surely by not eating the extra I'm going to lose more weight. Can some people please explain all of this. (yes I get that if you exercise you burn more energy so you should try and replace some it)

me=confused.com lol

Replies

  • danascot
    danascot Posts: 100 Member
    hi - you will get a lot of replies, I'm sure. Basically, MFP has already set your daily caloric intake at a defecit to lose weight based on what you set as your goal (1#/week for example). When you exercise, you will need some fuel - hence eating back some of your exercise calories. You want to make sure you are netting what was set as your daily goal. everyone is different however, so you will have to figure out what is the best for you. hope this helps and good luck!
  • dls06
    dls06 Posts: 6,774 Member
    http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/3047-700-calories-a-day-and-not-losing

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

    http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/9433-expectations

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

    Read these
  • grinch031
    grinch031 Posts: 1,679
    I think the idea is to maintain a small caloric deficit, such that if you try to create too large a deficit, you will slow down your metabolism. So that might mean adding 800 calories back because you burned 1200, to avoid a caloric deficit of say 1200 calories in a single day. Instead a 400 calorie deficit will preserve your metabolic rate.
  • lunaluna671
    lunaluna671 Posts: 23
    No matter what your goal is to not go over 1200. Which means that You dont have to eat those 600 cals that you burned from the workout just to reach 1200.. The point of it is to allow you to eat more cals so that your body has more fuel to function.
  • ArroganceInStep
    ArroganceInStep Posts: 6,239 Member
    search 'exercise calories', there's a ton of information on the forums already.
  • engineman312
    engineman312 Posts: 3,450 Member
    http://shouldieatmyexercisecalories.com/
  • jacksonpt
    jacksonpt Posts: 10,413 Member
    To lose weight you need to be in a healthy caloric deficit. There are 2 ways to accomplish that:

    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 (total daily energy expenditure: TDEE), then set your calorie goal lower than that. For example.. if your TDEE 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 TDEE or the calorie goal you set based on your TDEE. 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.

    Use exercise to create the deficit
    With this method you set your daily caloric intake to equal your TDEE. Then you exercise and burn calories. Those burned calories are not accounted for when you set your daily goal equal to your TDEE, 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.
  • jacksonpt
    jacksonpt Posts: 10,413 Member
    I think the idea is to maintain a small caloric deficit, such that if you try to create too large a deficit, you will slow down your metabolism. So that might mean adding 800 calories back because you burned 1200, to avoid a caloric deficit of say 1200 calories in a single day. Instead a 400 calorie deficit will preserve your metabolic rate.
    The idea behind this is correct.

    However, it's very difficult to have such a high deficit that you slow down your metabolism. This can be the case for people with long term eating disorders, but isn't generally the case for people who simply don't eat back their exercise cals.

    The potential downside to not eating them back is creating a large caloric deficit. The problem with this could be a slowed metabolism if it's taken to extreme, but for most people it's more along the lines of fatigue, longer recovery times, low vitamin/nutrient levels, etc.
  • EngiAli
    EngiAli Posts: 83 Member
    So on a typical day you eat 1000-1100 cals and burn 500 doing exercise. This gives your body a mere 500-600 calories to do regular daily activities (walk, stairs, work, housework, chase kids, stand, sit, sex etc) as well as breathe, beat your heart, fuel your brain, maintain/grow muscle, operate organs, digest food, grow hair, skin and nails.
    Because 500-600 calories isn't enough your body will using lean muscle as fuel. Over a long period of time, undereating can mess with your heart, circulation, temperature, immune system, moods, concentration, sleep, sex drive, fertility, digestion, hair, nails, skin.
  • KareninCanada
    KareninCanada Posts: 962 Member
    me=confused.com lol


    You might find it easier to just set yourself a healthy calorie goal for the day based on your age, gender, height/weight and activity level (mine is currently 1800) and not worry about adding back extra calories for exercise. I don't try to use MFP's guide, because I know that I would always end up with a high number of calories needing to be eaten at night, and I don't want to do that. I just set the calorie goal, adjusted the protein/carb/fat/fiber goals as well, and I don't worry about the red numbers staring at me. :smile:
  • Shanna_Inc86
    Shanna_Inc86 Posts: 781 Member
    http://shouldieatmyexercisecalories.com/

    :laugh: :laugh:
  • bodyjammin85
    bodyjammin85 Posts: 34 Member
    I don't understand the whole eating back calorie's that you've burned from exercise and netting 1200. Ok I am probably being really thick here but can someone that knows what their talking about explain tell me why??? I'm doing the exercise to lose weight so if I eat say 1,000 calorie's (normally it's a bit less but at most 1100 and I burn 500 calorie's - I should eat another 600 calorie's to net the 1200????? WHY

    Like I said I'm probably being really stupid here but surely by not eating the extra I'm going to lose more weight. Can some people please explain all of this. (yes I get that if you exercise you burn more energy so you should try and replace some it)

    me=confused.com lol

    You need to have an overall 1200 for your body to lose weight safely and not stop your metabolism based on your everyday living, not exercise. If you exercise you are burning extra calories thus leaving your body coping with less calories to get it through the day. 1200 is already a deficit so creating a bigger one will only have negative effects, including 'starvation mode'.

    Starvation mode is when your body starts storing fat because it's not getting the fuel in food to function properly. It will start to breakdown muscle as a fuel source which is not what you want.

    Calculate your BMR (one of the site tools), this number is the amount of cals you body needs to get through the day even if you never get out of bed, probably about 1500 - 1600 cals. The difference between this number and your 1200 is your calorie deficit.

    1200 consumed cals - 600 burned cals = 600 cals for body functions = not high enough
    1800 consumed cals - 600 burned cals = 1200 cals for body functions = safe deficit for weight loss

    Exercise isn't to burn even more calories to increase the deficit, it's to help you to speed up your metabolism in order to burn fat instead, build muscle tone and strength and keep your heart and lungs healthy, burning calories is a side effect.

    I hope you can understand this, it's a hard one to put down in writing as it makes more sense to workout more and lose more but eat the same, but the science tells us otherwise!
  • heybales
    heybales Posts: 18,842 Member
    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.

    Close, but no cigar!

    You do not want to eat below your BMR, which is the suggested calories for healthy body that is just sleeping or in a coma. Basic body functions. Do that for long enough, your body will just lower the BMR to compensate, you'll be chasing a downward spiral you'll never win.

    You want to eat below your maintenance, or TDEE, or AMR, calories. Which is BMR plus normal avg daily activity.
  • Shanna_Inc86
    Shanna_Inc86 Posts: 781 Member
    My base is 1400

    Not eating back my cals = plateau

    Eating back most my cals = steadily losing again
  • Cathnger
    Cathnger Posts: 72
    Ok everyone I'm being honest - I'm really upset by all of this - I've just looked at my last 7 days and my BMR is 1,747 and daily allowance is 1,230.
    Goal
    1,230 x 7 = 8,610 - Actually Ate 6,403 means I was -2,207 BUT that is not including my exercise which for last 7 days was 4,084.
    So in the last 7 days where I only consumed 6,403 Calorie's it should have been nearly double that 12,694.

    If I ate all of that I would have in theory still lost 1lb last week - but I want to lose more than 1lb a week anyway but I can't believe what I've been doing to my body - I've been thinking doing more exercise has been benefiting me but I've actually been damaging my body because I havent been eating enough. :sad:
  • engineman312
    engineman312 Posts: 3,450 Member
    My base is 1400

    Not eating back my cals = plateau

    Eating back most my cals = steadily losing again

    :heart:
  • KareninCanada
    KareninCanada Posts: 962 Member
    Ok everyone I'm being honest - I'm really upset by all of this



    You did the best you could with the information you had. Now you know more, and you're ready to move on!! :happy:
  • panduhburr
    panduhburr Posts: 40 Member
    bump
  • frugalmomsrock
    frugalmomsrock Posts: 1,123
    My base is 1400

    Not eating back my cals = plateau

    Eating back most my cals = steadily losing again

    Me too! I was not just plateaued. It was the plateau from hell. I was at a freaking stalemate for MONTHS! I finally re-evaluated, upped my overall calories AND started to eat exercise calories, and VOILA! Like magic, I'm back to dropping a pound a week or more. :)
  • cmriverside
    cmriverside Posts: 34,453 Member
    http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/186814-some-mfp-basics
    http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/61706-guide-to-calorie-deficits
    http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/175241-a-personal-view-on-exercise-cals-and-underfeeding


    http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/173853-an-objective-look-at-eating-exercise-calories
    http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/12250-1000-calorie-deficit-not-for-people-with-healthy-bmi
    http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/208407-how-to-repair-a-damaged-metabolism-stavation-mode?page=1#posts-2752820


    That's all I have to say about that. . .actually, I have 100 more of those.....
  • NoAdditives
    NoAdditives Posts: 4,251 Member
    Ok everyone I'm being honest - I'm really upset by all of this - I've just looked at my last 7 days and my BMR is 1,747 and daily allowance is 1,230.
    Goal
    1,230 x 7 = 8,610 - Actually Ate 6,403 means I was -2,207 BUT that is not including my exercise which for last 7 days was 4,084.
    So in the last 7 days where I only consumed 6,403 Calorie's it should have been nearly double that 12,694.

    If I ate all of that I would have in theory still lost 1lb last week - but I want to lose more than 1lb a week anyway but I can't believe what I've been doing to my body - I've been thinking doing more exercise has been benefiting me but I've actually been damaging my body because I havent been eating enough. :sad:

    If you've only been at this for a short time you haven't done any damage to your body. You'll be just fine if you start eating more. I was eating 400-700 net calories a day (without realizing I was eating so little) for about 6 months and didn't lose a single pound. Once I started eating around 1500 net calories I started losing immediately. I didn't do any long term damage to my body and even though I still have 30-40 pounds to lose I'm healthier than I've ever been.
  • Cathnger
    Cathnger Posts: 72
    I've been losing weight I lost 3lb last week I weigh on a Sunday so with my figures quoted only the Wed-Sat were included in that loss, I had done barely any exercise on the Sun, Mon, Tue of last week well I walked 18.5k in total nearly 4 hours of about 3mph.
  • jacksonpt
    jacksonpt Posts: 10,413 Member
    Ok everyone I'm being honest - I'm really upset by all of this - I've just looked at my last 7 days and my BMR is 1,747 and daily allowance is 1,230.
    Goal
    1,230 x 7 = 8,610 - Actually Ate 6,403 means I was -2,207 BUT that is not including my exercise which for last 7 days was 4,084.
    So in the last 7 days where I only consumed 6,403 Calorie's it should have been nearly double that 12,694.

    If I ate all of that I would have in theory still lost 1lb last week - but I want to lose more than 1lb a week anyway but I can't believe what I've been doing to my body - I've been thinking doing more exercise has been benefiting me but I've actually been damaging my body because I havent been eating enough. :sad:

    Ok... slow down... take a deep breath...

    I HIGHLY doubt you did any damage in just 7 days. As for the losing more than 1 lb per week... how much do you have to lose? Rulebof thumb is that if you have less than 50lbs to lose 1lb per week should be your goal. Success is about realistic goals and sustainable practices.
  • heybales
    heybales Posts: 18,842 Member
    Ok everyone I'm being honest - I'm really upset by all of this - I've just looked at my last 7 days and my BMR is 1,747 and daily allowance is 1,230.
    Goal
    1,230 x 7 = 8,610 - Actually Ate 6,403 means I was -2,207 BUT that is not including my exercise which for last 7 days was 4,084.
    So in the last 7 days where I only consumed 6,403 Calorie's it should have been nearly double that 12,694.

    If I ate all of that I would have in theory still lost 1lb last week - but I want to lose more than 1lb a week anyway but I can't believe what I've been doing to my body - I've been thinking doing more exercise has been benefiting me but I've actually been damaging my body because I havent been eating enough. :sad:

    Are you sure you are not confusing BMR with maintenance calories? You got goal calories right.

    Big difference in their meanings.

    Potentially small difference in the amounts.

    And the reason MFP didn't suggest more off your maintenance calories, is because it would have taken you below your BMR, which would only result in your metabolism slowing down and BMR going down.

    But if you exercise a lot, you may be causing that exact same thing anyway!
  • Cathnger
    Cathnger Posts: 72
    Ok everyone I'm being honest - I'm really upset by all of this - I've just looked at my last 7 days and my BMR is 1,747 and daily allowance is 1,230.
    Goal
    1,230 x 7 = 8,610 - Actually Ate 6,403 means I was -2,207 BUT that is not including my exercise which for last 7 days was 4,084.
    So in the last 7 days where I only consumed 6,403 Calorie's it should have been nearly double that 12,694.

    If I ate all of that I would have in theory still lost 1lb last week - but I want to lose more than 1lb a week anyway but I can't believe what I've been doing to my body - I've been thinking doing more exercise has been benefiting me but I've actually been damaging my body because I havent been eating enough. :sad:

    Ok... slow down... take a deep breath...

    I HIGHLY doubt you did any damage in just 7 days. As for the losing more than 1 lb per week... how much do you have to lose? Rulebof thumb is that if you have less than 50lbs to lose 1lb per week should be your goal. Success is about realistic goals and sustainable practices.


    I'm 5"3 and currently 231lb I want to lose 90lb
  • DestinyDarbi
    DestinyDarbi Posts: 260 Member
    So on a typical day you eat 1000-1100 cals and burn 500 doing exercise. This gives your body a mere 500-600 calories to do regular daily activities (walk, stairs, work, housework, chase kids, stand, sit, sex etc) as well as breathe, beat your heart, fuel your brain, maintain/grow muscle, operate organs, digest food, grow hair, skin and nails.
    Because 500-600 calories isn't enough your body will using lean muscle as fuel. Over a long period of time, undereating can mess with your heart, circulation, temperature, immune system, moods, concentration, sleep, sex drive, fertility, digestion, hair, nails, skin.

    +1
  • ironanimal
    ironanimal Posts: 5,922 Member
    Basically because a net calorie intake of 1200 a week is already as low as you can go without running out of energy for your body to actually metabolise the fat and excess water.

    If you eat 1200, burn 1000 you end up with a net of 200 which is barely enough to survive let alone perform a stressful process such as burning fat.
  • TXCountryChick
    TXCountryChick Posts: 16 Member
    My base is 1400

    Not eating back my cals = plateau

    Eating back most my cals = steadily losing again

    Thank you! That's what I've been looking for. :smile: I havent been eating back my cals and I've been at a plateau.
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