success not eating back exercise calories

Good, that's what I figured.

Fingers crossed it works this time, I've got my first holiday in 10 years coming up and I want to lose at least some of the lard before the bikini comes out of the wardrobe.

Thanks for the input, there's so much conflicting information on losing weight - it's nice to get other peoples opinions.

Just make sure you understand, guys. BMR is what your body needs simply to run it's basic life functions, not to be a concious, active (even sedentary) person. You need more than your BMR just to be awake and moving around (or even thinking, yes the brain burns a LOT of calories when you think).

BMR is not what someone without a lot of weight to lose should be shooting for, that's pretty low. It's all about reaching maintenance.

If you have a lot of fat, then your body will generally give you more energy from that fat for making up the difference between what you eat and what you burn in a day, your body ALWAYS wants to try to reach maintenance whether by just calories eaten, or eaten plus fat (and plus protein too if that's what it takes). if it CAN'T reach maintenance, that means your deficit is to large. That's not a problem in the short term because glycogen in the liver will make up the difference, but once that goes (you have about a 48 hour store of glycogen during normal daily activity, assuming no other incoming energy) your body will recognize the gap and start slowing down metabolic functions to reach that goal via hormone production. it will simultaneously attempt to use both fat and/or protein to make up the difference as well.

When i started my weightloss journey January 2011, I was eating 1300 cals a day, and burning about 400-800 cals a day doing a different types of excercises. And the weight dropped offf! As i actually stuck to it - and not ate 1 excercise calorie back!

But last couple of months, - i have been really naughty and eating about half of my excercise cals back, and the weight is comeing offf mega slow now :sad: I need to stop doing this! As i am only halfway to my weight goal - and its going to take me years and years if i keep on at this!

It different for everyone though - it might work for you if you eat some or all of your excercise calories back. Or it might not, only you will find that out by trying it out for a few weeks and seeing what works best.

Thank you so much for your post! I am gonna try this. I have been struggling the past 2 days because the scale says I gained 2 pounds. The thing is I have added more exercise this week so MFP says that I should be eating about 1900 calories. I have been eating back the 700 calories and I don't think it is working. I remember before when I was eating Jenny Craig food and going to Curves for 30 min a day. I started on the 1200 calories plan and then went up to 1500 since I was doing more exercise. It worked. So MFP has me confused and frustrated. Not gonna give up yet Thanks for the renewed motivation.

I understand the theory behind it so I try to do it as much as I can. That being said, I lost my first 40lbs largely without the help of MFP, just calculating calories burned and taken in on my own and I never ate back my exercise calories. I followed a strict 1200-1300 cal a day diet.

Now, I try to eat back some of them. I find that I disagree with what MFP says I burned doing certain exercises (only I can know how intensely I worked out, they can't do everything for me!) so I'm hesitant to eat back everything they say I burned. Basically, I eat 1200 -1300 calories a day + half of my exercise cals and if I'm full by then, I stop eating. If I'm still hungry, I assume my body knows best and I'll eat a bit more.

This is what works for me, but I think that everyone is different and you just have to play around with it

All the information I have read about this topic is very gray. The only thing that made a little sense to me is that if you eat 1200 a day and excerise 5 times a week burning say 300-450 calories each day after awhile your body will get used to it. I say eat like you are willing to eat for the rest of your life and do the same with excerise. Ajust accordingly eat less, excerise more based on how your body works. if you dont, your body will get used to it or you wont be able to maintain this lifestyle. This isnt a race, or even a marathon, this is your life.

People gain weight by doing, or not doing, different things so it stands to reason that it can take different things to lose that weight. I have never eaten too much. I have had no problem staying UNDER my calories. My problem is eating ENOUGH each day. By doing that I am now 300lbs. Before finding this site I never had energy to do anything and would eat almost nothing but salads all the time. Now that I am trying to reach my calorie limit each day I have already, in just 3 weeks, had a major boost to my energy and my clothes are fitting much better.

My body was so used to saving all possible calories for the next time I starved it that I had to "teach" it that I wouldn't be doing that anymore. So now that I actually feed my body, everyday, I can not suddenly send it back to such a calorie deficit. MY BODY would go right back to holding on to everything and I would gain again. This is not the case for some people. But it is exactly what has happened to me personally. So if you are doing fine while not eating your exercise calories, then great! But it is not something that works for everyone.

I would also add that I don't eat back all of my calories because I don't feel the number calculated is accurate. I try to stick to eating about 30-50% back. Good luck!

I have never ate any of my calories back and ive lost 60lbs in four months. Obviously the more weight you lose the harder it is but I am still losing the average amount of weight (most importantly FAT) that should be lost each week which is 1-2lbs
I had never even heard of eating back your exercise calories until i joined this site. I work out everyday and can sometimes burn between 700-1500 calories depending...
I think if your like me and work out often then maybe up your calorie intake to around 1500 maybe. That seems to work perfectly for me. I think eating back your calories counteracts the whole point of doing exercise which is to bun fat, to eat the calories back you might as well not exercise that's how I see it!

You do realize by running high caloric deficits (by not eating your exercise calories back or a big portion of them) you are also sacrificing muscle (when the body gets large caloric deficits it will burn the fasted source of energy to replenish what you aren't giving it, so it will attack muscle and break it down) it is not all fat that you are burning up which is counterproductive and will actually start slowing down your metabolism..... You can get away with it for awhile if you have a large quantity of weight to come off but eventually your going to hit the plateau wall, not to mention the muscle loss on top of it all... Just food for thought.......

Question: I am not so sure about your statement that "when the body gets large caloric deficits it will burn the fasted source of energy to replenish what you aren't giving it, so it will attack muscle and break it down". I thought that muscle was the last thing your body targeted for energy metabolism? And that is during extreme starvation mode. Glucose is the fastest available energy source in your body, then fat, then protein. That is why marathon runners eat carbs during their race which takes minutes, not a steak which would take hours to break down. Can you elaborate? Thanks.

I'm confused. So I lost weight not eating back my exercise calories. It says my BMR is 1,355 - how accurate is that? If I was trying to lose 0.5lb/week do you subtract 250 calories from that number? If so, that goes below 1,200. MFP shows my daily goal of 1,440 - where does that number come from? If I burn 500 calories a day, am I correct in that I should be eating 1,940?

Please see my prior reply in this topic about BMR. BMR is NOT what you should base your deficit on.

I'm confused. So I lost weight not eating back my exercise calories. It says my BMR is 1,355 - how accurate is that? If I was trying to lose 0.5lb/week do you subtract 250 calories from that number? If so, that goes below 1,200. MFP shows my daily goal of 1,440 - where does that number come from? If I burn 500 calories a day, am I correct in that I should be eating 1,940?

BMR is what you need to survive, what they would feed you if you were in a coma, based on your height/weight/age/gender. They take that number and factor in daily activity, to get your Total Daily Energy Expenditure (TDEE). Or "maintenance calories", how much you need to maintain your current weight at your current activity levels. You need to create a calorie deficit off of that number, not BMR.

I guess I find it strange - biggest loser people dont eat theirs back, and also people on very low calories diets are also under the daily 1200 a day anyway, how come their metabolisms keep going?

I have met three people who were on The Biggest Loser. Not only have each of them gained back some of the weight they lost, none of them look healthy to me. They all have a bit of a saggy look. From what I have learned here on MFP and other informative websites/books/etc., I think this is because:

1. They lost weight so quickly that they lost a higher percentage of LBM (lean body mass) and their metabolism are operating at a slower rate which makes it easier to gain back the weight lost vs. someone who lost the weight more slowly. To put it another way, because they had lost the weight eating a VLCD (very low calorie diet), this also contributes to easier weight regain because their bodies have become used to eating that lower amount and are operating more efficiently. In laymen's terms, their metabolisms are trashed.

2. They all also had lots of loose skin after their weight loss. All have had to have some surgery to excise the loose skin. While genetics plays a part in this and, for some people, even slow weight loss will leave them with some loose skin, a slower weight loss is more likely to keep your skin firming up to match your shrinking body.

So the question is: Do you want to lose weight slowly retaining as much LBM as possible in order to look healthier and more fit at your goal weight AND be able to eat a higher amount of calories each day for the rest of your life while maintaining your weight loss?

If yes, follow MFP's guidelines and eat back at least 50-75% of your exercise calories. (The reason why I don't say to eat 100% is because of human error and potential miscalculations for amount of calories eaten and burned.)

If no, do whatever you want but don't be surprised if you end up skinny-fat and eating restricted calories for the rest of your life to maintain it.

I suppose a third choice is to lose it fast, end up skinny fat with a trashed metabolism, and then try to fix it later but I think that would end up being a more difficult way to do it.

And eating more while losing makes the weight loss process more fun and enjoyable without feelings of deprivation. I helped a friend move today and carted boxes back-and-forth to the moving truck for about 3 hours. I'm also doing a spin/abs class later today and then taking a 1 hour dance class with my husband tonight. This translates into a burn of about 1200 extra calories today. Because of that, I happily enjoyed the big yummy cinnamon roll she had there for us helping her move. While not the healthiest choice, a splurge like that doesn't hurt my weight loss as long as I exercise to counteract it. Isn't that better than never splurging and depriving yourself along the way? I think so.

All I know is this:

I ate 1300 calories and ate back my exercise calories (according to HRM) = no weight loss (for a year)

I ate 1200 calories and didn't bother exercising = no weight loss for months

Eating 1200 calories and exercising (ending up at 1000ish) net calories = 15 lbs loss since mid-December

Everyone is different. Do what your body needs, not what a text-bookish answer says to do.

In theory you will lose more by not eating them back. The problem is it is unhealthy to have an extremely large caloric deficit >1000, and MFP already has you in a deficit if you eat 100% of the calories including exercise calories.

If you don't eat them you will end up losing more lean muscle as you lose weight, have less energy everyday, not progress as fast in cardio or strength building, not to mention the possibility of slowing your metabolism, losing hair, becoming malnourished etc.

Agree with this! I've always eaten my exercise cals back however, I have always claimed a 'conservative' amount as I think some of the exercise cal stats are overcalled. Also agree that the best indicator is if you are experiencing hunger pangs (which I usually am if I exercise when only on 1200 cals per day). And for those who are saying why bother exercising if you eat your cals back, exercise offers more than just calorie burn - it makes you feel good (endorphin high), it's beneficial to your heart, it helps tone you up as you lose weight, it can improve the rate at which you lose as you continue to burn calories for (I think) up to an hour after you've finished exercising

MFP already builds in your deficit when you set up what you want to lose each week so any calories burned during exercise should be consumed to fuel you body for your workouts. My BMR is 2450 and I set my MFP to lose 1 lb. a week.. I consume 3200 calories a day (that is with eating my exercise calories back) and am still losing 1 to 2 lbs. a week after 31 months and 295 lbs. lost on this journey.....
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Wooowww!!! 295??!! Good for you!! ]

Also don't forget that exercizing helps you build muscle. The more muscle you have in your body, the more calories you will burn doing anything,..or nothing :-)