Asked my Trainer re eating back calories

bookmarking this awesome post.... thank you

Not sure why everyone is so impressed with the trainer's reply, especially since the trainer believes in "starvation mode" which simply DOES NOT exist. Let me say it again - it does not exist - unless you are at a Nazi Concentration Camp and have been ritually denied basic sustenance for months and months on end. Even Weight Watchers acknowledges it doesn't exist.

That being said, "eating back" you calories does not have to be an all or nothing proposition. I work out 7 days a week and 5 of those days I work out twice. What I know is that I - along with 95% of other people - grossly underestimate their calorie intake and grossly overestimate their exercise calories. Which means that MOST people will gain if they try to exactly eat back their calories. For example, does everyone wear a heart rate monitor? I do, and when I ran 5 miles Thursday MFP told me I burned 592 calories. My HRM told me I burned 375 - quite a difference. If I was eating back what MFP told me, I would be consuming at least 200 more calories that day.

There is a simple middle ground. MFP wants me to eat 1200 per day, even with "active lifestyle" checked. I changed it to 1400, and I am to eat 1400-1600 per day, every day, no matter what exercise I do. This is what works for me. You may have to experiment with what works for you. 199 pounds gone forever for me so far.

P.S. Google "starvation mode myth" and "muscle burns more per day then fat myth" and you will find hundreds of pages - with dozens of studies showing why this is not true.

Thank you for the post. I wish I had known about this before I gained some weight back.
I stilll dont know if I believe in starvation mode, but I do know that while I did lose lots of weight eating only 1200 calories a day and exercising for hours a day, once I tried to maintain that weight, it didnt work. Worse I now have unhealthy food habits that I never had before. So now I am back on track trying to eat back my calories.

Thanks for the information. We really helped explain things.

AWESOME! Thanks!!!

Great post!:flowerforyou:

Thanks for sharing!

I think that this is something that we all are curious about. This is very informative! Thanks so much for sharing! I for one, really appreciate it! I want to be sure that I do this the right way and can make this a lifestyle change for life!

bump

This help me a lot!! I burn 500-800 calories a session. I try to not got over my 1200 even if I worked out! I am tired and I had no idea what net calories meant. Thanks

How do you have over 900 posts on here and not know what net calories mean? I'm really not trying to be an *kitten*, but I can hardly look at this forum or anything on this website without seeing the term several times.

perfect, thx for sharing )) ur trainer sounds awesome !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Glad to know I was correct to listen to that advice a while ago!

So YES, eat them back.
MFP was right all along......fancy that....

So well written, please pass along thanks to your trainer.

The answer she gives is right for the question asked HOWEVER you didn't tell her that MFP already sets you a deficit. I'm sure her answer would have been totally diferent then.

Ask again and this time give her the full story

How so? She's saying to eat most of them back. She acknowledges that 1200 is a deficit and probably too much for some people., then states that if you burn 600 and don't eat them back, you're asking your body to try and exist on 600 calories a day if your calories are set at 1200.

Translation, she DOES get that you're at a deficit and she DOES advocate eating most of the exercise calories back.

Hello-

I also asked my certified trainer who also her degree in nutrition. And she told me that eating back your exercise calories defeats a major part of exercising for weight loss. If I am exercising for strength and mental well being, then that's one thing.

The 1200 calorie goal (from clean foods--not junk) is intended to provide your body with the nutrients, vitamins and minerals to function while creating a caloric deficit. Your body IS getting the nutrients it needs and exercising does not take away these nutrients your body has taken in. It's already been ingested.

These "opinions" by trainers and critics and anyone who calls themselves experts will ALWAYS differ. Knowing that, I asked my trusted physician (M.D.) and he agrees that I do not have to eat back my exercise calories. That if I am feeding my body good clean food, and NOT starving myself (by not eating), my body will NOT go into starvation mode.

No, just follow the MFP recommendations, and if your trainer is ignorant of how deficits are factored, please don't take bad advice.

MFP calculates our total daily calorie intake WITHOUT exercise to lose 1 pound or so per week.
And after we log exercises, our daily calorie limit increases.
Why?
Because MFP telling us to eat our exercise calories.
Large deficits are unhealthy, because while you will lose weight, what's the quality of the weight loss?
In many cases you'll lose lean body mass - MUSCLE - which LOWERS your metabolic rate, making weight loss harder.
These crash diets work well for a season -- and sure enough, the pounds melt away. But when you eat so
few calories, you train your metabolism to slow down. Once the diet is over, you have a body that burns calories more slowly -- and you gain weight.
Be smart.
Exercise well both cardio and resistance, and eat back the calories.
The exercise will RAISE your metabolism and burn more fat at rest.