Do you always eat the calories you earn??

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  • CallmeSbo
    CallmeSbo Posts: 611 Member
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    My understanding is that it really depends on how much you have to lose. If you are overweight then you can have a higher deficit and so not eating them back is an option as your body has the fat to feed off, if you are close to your target weight, say 20lbs or less, then you should eat them as you need to maintain a smaller deficit to ensure you are losing fat and not lean mass.

    I only have 10lbs to lose and when I wasn't eating them back I lost NOTHING, now I am eating them all back I am steadily losing.
    @Lisa you deserve an award :-). I agree with you COMPLETELY. This is the ONLY theory that makes sense to me. I am 30kg overweight. There is no way my body will starve while i carry all this weight around me.

    There s really lots of things to consider before one eats back their calories. Its definately a not one size fits all. I wont be eating mine back for a long time. Maybe when im left with 10kg or so, i might consider. But for now, i am VERY happy with my 0.5kg weekly loses.
  • lisakyle_11
    lisakyle_11 Posts: 420 Member
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    My Endo has given me a guideline to follow.

    You may receive a flood of responses, yea or nay. Then you will also receive responses from die-hards that say YOU HAVE TO EAT THEM BACK! Then there are those who just dont...

    What is the guideline that your Endo has given you to follow? That sounds like a reputable source.

    yes...what did he/she suggest?
  • Raydiance
    Raydiance Posts: 6 Member
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    The most important thing is to listen to your body. Don't eat them just because they are there, but don't not eat them if you are truly hungry and need to replenish your body.I listen to my body and eat then when I am hungry. Your body needs fuel, so if you worked hard and are hungry afterward, feed it with something nutritious, so you do not feel guilty. I don't care what anybody says, it is never good to starve yourself! Plus, you need more calories if you are more active. I lost 26 pounds, and I have kept it off for almost two years, and I ate my extra calories if I needed to.
  • bcampney
    bcampney Posts: 5 Member
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    bump
  • Raydiance
    Raydiance Posts: 6 Member
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    It also depends on how hard you work out. If you burn less than 500 calories, it may not be worth it. I used a Polar Heart Rate Monitor, so I could be sure exactly how much I burned.
  • bitofawobble
    bitofawobble Posts: 13
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    I do because my daily calorie goal is pretty low (1200) and if I've exercised it just doesn't seem enough! I try to stay under by a little bit though :)
  • mooglysmom
    mooglysmom Posts: 319 Member
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    I do, my goal is.pretty low (only 1200), and I feel like I am starving - not bored hungry, actually hungry, if I don't. I only have about 20lbs to lose, and it makes sense to.feed my body. If I am hungry, I eat! On Sat I didn't exercise, and stayed close to my goal anyway. Today, I did, and I had a deficit after working out. I don't worry about eating every single calorie back, but if I am hungry, I will eat.
  • cramernh
    cramernh Posts: 3,335 Member
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    My Endo has given me a guideline to follow.

    You may receive a flood of responses, yea or nay. Then you will also receive responses from die-hards that say YOU HAVE TO EAT THEM BACK! Then there are those who just dont...

    What is the guideline that your Endo has given you to follow? That sounds like a reputable source.

    yes...what did he/she suggest?

    I posted this reply on page three:
    I wont share what she has recommended because, the medical advice was constructed only for me, and my individual medical circumstances. I have a metabolic disorder that they cant even put a name to it....Im pretty much a lab-rat and have become a medical study...


    What people SHOULD be doing is consulting with an Exercise Physiologist, Sports Medical Doctor, or a specialist who has the necessary nutritional/exercise-related education. Granted, finding a specialist with this is difficult as there arent many around, but I was fortunate to find one that did
    I stand by only the real professionals - not MFP, not the Food Pyramid, not the die-hards who post on MFP to the point their fingers bleed proclaiming they are right (too many of them to begin with)....

    We are all different from one another. Taking ONE STANDARD and applying it to everyone is like trying prescribe ONLY one antibiotic to the whole world. You will get people who are allergic to it, people who dont respond to it, respond well but get sick again, and then those who dont need further treatment. Everyone is different.

    Whether you eat them back or not depends on the individual - plain and simple.

    The recommendations given to me by my Endo (who has the necessary dietary background to help her metabolic-related patients), are like a prescription: its information given to me because its created as a result of her medical findings of tests, labs and reviewing my health history. What is prescribed to me, will definitely NOT work for you - she cant even diagnose the type of problem I have, but is giving me a synopsis to follow.

    I work in healthcare and I cant tell you how many patients that come in, just like ALL OF YOU, who think the minute they find that ONE ARTICLE, it is taken for fact, hard evidence and THAT is the way to go. People.. its not.

    Seriously... try both scenarios out, see what works for you. If after trying both scenarious (give them a good 6 weeks each), look for an Exercise Physiologist who will work in conjunction with your PCP, or your Endo, or whomever you are currently seeing for your healthcare/weight loss needs...
  • thickmomma0519
    thickmomma0519 Posts: 34
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    I don't eat every single calorie back, but I do eat something or drink a protein shake after I workout to give my body back what it's lost. I figure that if I'm on a 1200 calorie diet, and work out daily, then I should be able to compensate for some of what has been lost. Exercise increases appetite in a lot of people.
  • monkeyriley
    monkeyriley Posts: 51 Member
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    I do.

    I eat them back because I figure I am refueling my body. I also view it as a reward for working out. I know that the overall reward is to get healthy, but it is nice to have little benefits along the way.

    I also have found that some days by dinner I have already ate too many calories due to having a meeting in a restaurant, etc. I then get to go "burn" some of those calories off and still enjoy a more reasonable dinner.

    I like what was said about we all need to do what works for us. I think just because that works for me, doesn't mean it would work for the next guy. I also have had some plateaus in my journey of weight loss (longest was 2.5 weeks). I figure if I plateau for 3 weeks straight, I should maybe go back and cut my calories overall or re-evaluate what I am eating, but I first need to reach that plateau.

    I view this as a long term problem that requires a long term solution. My goal is to be realistic and take a plodding course to weight loss because I know that I have put the weight on over a period of years, and yet it is amazing to see the weight come off in a period of months.
  • mamitosami
    mamitosami Posts: 531 Member
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    This was bad timing responding to this thread I guess! I have started a new eating program, a new lifestyle of eating (just to keep me interested--I've been doing this for a lonnnng time, so I was getting a little careless with my eating and I have overeating/bingeing tendencies). Because I started the program midweek, it's not a typical week. So my calories have been really low this week (I will be making up for it over the next few days and week. If you take a weekly average of my calories it will be normal (with a deficit built in so that I can lose some body fat--I'm trying to reduce my body fat %, I may lose some weight, but that's not my ultimate goal at this point).

    Normally, and in the next week I will be eating all of my exercise calories because my deficit is already built in. When I finally reach maintenance I will also eat my calories. When I don't, I cannot run, I cannot train for my races and my lifting really suffers. So I use the calories as fuel and fuel my muscles and body adequately. I DO NOT want to lose any precious muscle that I've worked so hard for!

    Thanks to those of you who came to my defense--I do really appreciate it.
  • Pamtwist
    Pamtwist Posts: 14
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    if you are allocated say 1300 calories per day and you eat 1300 then you exercise and earn another 300 that means you have only eaten 1000 cals. you have already stated how much you want to lose per week say 2lb so they have given you less calories to eat in order to do this. if you don't eat the proper amount of calories allocated, your body will go into starvation mode and you will not lose weight, it might work for the first few weeks but you will eventually hit a wall. eat as much of your exercise calories as you can but eat healthy. good luck with it :)
  • Pamtwist
    Pamtwist Posts: 14
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    if you are allocated say 1300 calories per day and you eat 1300 then you exercise and earn another 300 that means you have only eaten 1000 cals. you have already stated how much you want to lose per week say 2lb so they have given you less calories to eat in order to do this. if you don't eat the proper amount of calories allocated, your body will go into starvation mode and you will not lose weight, it might work for the first few weeks but you will eventually hit a wall. eat as much of your exercise calories as you can but eat healthy. good luck with it :)

    I agree with this!!
  • ThisisMiss
    ThisisMiss Posts: 187 Member
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    I add in my breastfeeding calories and I HAVE to eat those. As for the exercise ones, sometimes I do, but I try to keep it healthy and nutrient rich..sometimes I feel guilty eating them!
  • HartJames
    HartJames Posts: 789 Member
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    I will be eating back weekends only and only 75%. As my weight drops into the high end of normal range I will begin to do that daily and eventualy switch to maintenance calories. For now, all the research I have done has told me that eating back cals is not something useful for people 40+ pounds overweight or more so I'm sticking with that.
  • tmfpartyof4
    tmfpartyof4 Posts: 125 Member
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    This is why you should eat them back...

    First off, you should know your BMR (Basal Metabolic Rate). That's the amount of calories your body needs just to keep all your organs functioning... your lungs breathing, your heart beating, your kidneys and liver filtering, your spleen doing... whatever it is spleens do. It's what you'd burn if you were completely at rest, as if you were in a coma. The second you wake up, the second you get out of bed, you burn more than that. Your BMR plus the amount of calories you burn in a normal day, is your TDEE (Total Daily Energy Expenditure).

    You need to eat less than your TDEE to lose weight. If you go into your "goals" page - http://www.myfitnesspal.com/account/my_goals - it will tell you what your body burns from normal daily activity. As a lightly active, 5'5" 39 year old weighing 133#, my BMR is only 1,279, but my TDEE is 1730.

    Generally speaking... If you have 75+ lbs to lose 2 lbs/week is ideal (1000 calorie deficit). If you have 40-75 lbs to lose 1.5 lbs/week is ideal (750 calorie deficit). If you have 25-40 lbs to lose 1 lbs/week is ideal (500 calories). If you have 15 -25 lbs to lose 0.5 to 1.0 lbs/week is ideal (500-250). If you have less than 15 lbs to lose 0.5 lbs/week is ideal (250).

    If I wanted to lose one pound a week (in theory... I know I can't lose that much now and it would put me below my BMR), I'd eat 1230. That's 500 calories less than 1730. If I exercise like I did Friday, burning about 400 calories, my TDEE for the day is 2130. If I only ate 1230, my calorie deficit for the day would no longer be 500 calories, it would be 900, and that's way, way, way too much.

    With too large of a calorie deficit, your body thinks, "Hey! What the hell are you doing to me?" It might decide to hold onto your fat. It might decide to slow down your other body functions as a way to preserve energy (ie, slow your metabolism). It might decide to use your muscle for fuel.

    That's what happened to me when I ate low calorie and didn't understand that increased activity demands increased calories. Years ago, at 130#, I was skinnyfat with a muffin top and backfat rolls, and wore a size 8. This time around, eating enough to preserve my muscle mass, I'm a little more than 130# (133# at last check) and in a size 2 or 4. And as you can tell by my photos, there's no backfat or muffin top. http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/449570-mfp-mythbusters-losing-weight-fast-exercise-calories-girl

    so far, this has been the BEST and EASIEST way to understand this "eating back calorie" issue, that I have seen.

    THANK YOU. :flowerforyou:
  • desda
    desda Posts: 15 Member
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    Yeah was wondering as when you put your exercise in your track exercise it gives you more calories you can eat,do you eat them lol x


    ~ Do the research ... your body needs fuel, in order to maintain muscle mass vs fat loss ... you have to be wise. The estimated calories on MFP are " slightly " exaggerated. Get an HRM or go to other sources to get more accurate burn numbers for your exercise. When dealing with true numbers ... you should be eating as close to that number as possible back.

    People will tell you no ... But I have learned that in the beginning you will lose quickly by not eating those calories back ... but it is not healthy and eventually you will hit a plateau that can be devastating. Save yourself the disappointment and start off on the right track !

    Best of luck !

    Thank you, this is really helpful infomation. I was wondering about the earned calories as well. I did think MFP's earning count was rather high, so I've modified my calorie count to a few below the total earned. An HRM is fab suggestion. Again, thanks for posting!:smile:
  • Alicia_Monique
    Alicia_Monique Posts: 338 Member
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    I don't always eat what I earn, but sometimes I get very, very hungry if I worked out pretty hard, and it's difficult not to just go ahead and eat the extras! I
  • Msaip
    Msaip Posts: 482 Member
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    When i started out on here I ate all of them back. Lost about 20 pounds....than left for two months...gained 6 back. My first week being back I didn't eat them back every night but on occasion...I lost 4.6 pounds this week.....So I will continue to only eat them back If I feel I can't make it through the day without the extra cals
  • vixxy1971
    vixxy1971 Posts: 6
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    hey wot the heck is an ENDO?

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