EATING BACK EXERCISE CALORIES......(if you burn a lot)

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  • MissMalinSara
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    Lol woww!
  • EllieMo
    EllieMo Posts: 131 Member
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    This is why I view my calorie consumption over a week rather than a day. I aim to have a 7,000 calorie deficit over a week, and i am aiming to achieve that by 3,500 calories in exercise (3 gym workouts and a long walk at the weekend are getting me roughly there!) and 3,500 calories through cutting down on food. If I viewed it on a daily basis, MFP would be telling me to eat 2000 calroies on the days i go to the gym and 1200 on the days i don't - I'd rather have 1,600 on both days :)
  • rajivdubey
    rajivdubey Posts: 382 Member
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    Let me give you one example: 2 weeks back I went for a 200 km Brevet bike ride wherein I burnt over 6600 calories...I had to eat back a lot of these..otherwise I would have lost muscle and body fluids.

    I guess if you want to lose weight you should have some deficit in calories..even during maintenance one must have deficit in order to counter unexpected binging or sodium overload on certain days.
  • MrsR0SE
    MrsR0SE Posts: 341 Member
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    Bump :)
  • lilojoke
    lilojoke Posts: 427 Member
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    You can and you SHOULD eat them back because you'll slow down your metabolism too much.
    Do you want a messed up metabolism?

    How do you know you will mess up your metabolism? Your metabolism actually does not change up all that much... Lifting improves it but not by much.

    The reason metabolism changes over time is because as we age we lose muscle and if you do not challenge the muscle with strength training your muscles do not grow. Food in a way does build muscle but lifting is where it counts while taking in protein.

    I think our minds mess up our metabolisms more then we think.

    Nelson,

    "No one can tell you what you need to do. Not me, not this coach, not that trainer, not your mom, nor your significant other, not this fitness pro and not that expert. This process is truly one of introspection. We always want someone to tell us the answer or rescue us somehow. The humbling truth is that ultimately, there is no one that can do that for us. No magical plan or diet or coach or system. The “right” system for you will be the one you develop over time, on your own, based on your own unique insights, experiences and growth opportunities. The good news is that you get to create it–and it truly becomes what you make of it." - Jill Coleman
  • MountainMia
    MountainMia Posts: 242 Member
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    You can still eat all your exercise calories and lose weight. I don't always eat mine back. Most days I eat some back. My general rule is: if I'm hungry or draggin' A, I eat. It's a lifestyle not a race to a number.
  • heybales
    heybales Posts: 18,842 Member
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    Dont eat them back. Your TDEE (total daily energy expenditure) takes into account calories burned during exercise already. Thats why it asks for your activity level.

    No it doesn't.

    Not on the MFP site, other sites, yes, include estimating your workout calories in there. You might go remind yourself at the Settings - Diet/Fitness Profile.

    But on MFP, you are intended to record your exercise activity, and since it is NOT in your daily maintenance, or non-exercise TDEE, and therefore eat them back.

    Gotta learn how MFP works.

    MFP is trying to give encouragement by you getting to log exercise, which includes calories, so you can visually see what you are doing.

    Probably because they know too many would just select sedentary, and even the higher activity levels would leave you rather short for some of the workouts being done.
  • 2012asv
    2012asv Posts: 702 Member
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    Hi! I know you guys get this question a lot, but if you exercise and burn off around 800 calories in one workout - can you eat those calories back? Because it just feels like I'm wasting my gym workout.. and i feel full and not hungry. When you're dieting arent you suppose to feel hungry :)

    You are not suppose to feel hungry when dieting. That being said, you need to determine your BMR and then factor your activity level in. If you're burning 800 calories per workout, I suspect your activity level is high. I also suggest your read this:

    http://www.bodyrecomposition.com/fat-loss/why-big-caloric-deficits-and-lots-of-activity-can-hurt-fat-loss.html

    THANK YOU, THAT WAS VERY HELPFUL.
  • monkeymouse74
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    Bump..:happy:
  • Di3012
    Di3012 Posts: 2,250 Member
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    If you burn 800 calories then eat 800 calories then youve probably just thrown away 90% of your fat loss.

    No, no, no!!!
    It's not the Biggest Loser! It's not a race, it's a lifestyle change! It's meant to be slow!

    Is it? Says who? How slow?
  • Di3012
    Di3012 Posts: 2,250 Member
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    To anybody asking about eating back their exercise calories, be very, very careful that you know exactly how many you burned.

    Many times calories burned are overestimated, sometimes severely so. Imagine thinking you had burned 800 calories, eat them all back and then find that in actual fact, your calorie burn was recorded wrongly and it was, in actual fact, just 400 to 500 you had burned.

    Do that over the course of three months and you will be seeing a rise in weight.

    Be wary of what you think you have burned.
  • hbrittingham
    hbrittingham Posts: 2,518 Member
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    Dont eat them back. Your TDEE (total daily energy expenditure) takes into account calories burned during exercise already. Thats why it asks for your activity level.

    Eating back exercise calories will just slow your progress. If you feel fine and your workouts arent lacking, dont eat them.

    The caloric burn on the cardio machines is a loose estimate at best. They can be very inaccurate.

    Oh geez.
  • Pebble321
    Pebble321 Posts: 6,554 Member
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    Dont eat them back. Your TDEE (total daily energy expenditure) takes into account calories burned during exercise already. Thats why it asks for your activity level.

    Eating back exercise calories will just slow your progress. If you feel fine and your workouts arent lacking, dont eat them.

    The caloric burn on the cardio machines is a loose estimate at best. They can be very inaccurate.

    Nope, if you are using MFP to calculate calories, it suggests that your daily activity level doesn't include exercise, then you log (and eat) exercise calories separately.
    However, if you've chosen to include your exercise in your daily activity level then you don't add (or eat) those calories, you don't want to count them twice.

    The numbers will work out about the same, so you need to choose which way you prefer.
  • jennifershoo
    jennifershoo Posts: 3,198 Member
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    If you burn 800 calories then eat 800 calories then youve probably just thrown away 90% of your fat loss.

    No, no, no!!!
    It's not the Biggest Loser! It's not a race, it's a lifestyle change! It's meant to be slow!

    Is it? Says who? How slow?

    Excluding the initial lost of water weight, you shouldn't lose more than 1% of you body weight per week. So, yes it's going to be slow. Let's say you're 250 lbs and want to be 150 lbs. For the first few weeks, you can lose 2.5 lbs at a healthy rate. Then, when you weight 200 lbs, you switch to 2 lbs a week. The closer you get to your ideal weight, the slower you can lose weight. I'm talking about losing it in a healthy way. So, losing 100 lbs would probably take up to a year.
    The Biggest Loser is a TV show. It's not based on health, it's a race to win some title and money. Those contestants lose a LOT of muscle mass and end up with a LOT of saggy skin. Then they have to get surgery (and yes, you can die from surgery). Most of them end up gaining back the weight they lost on the show.
  • beckylawrence70
    beckylawrence70 Posts: 752 Member
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    no doubt, that's a waste, not necessary
  • naastrodamus
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    This is why I view my calorie consumption over a week rather than a day. I aim to have a 7,000 calorie deficit over a week, and i am aiming to achieve that by 3,500 calories in exercise (3 gym workouts and a long walk at the weekend are getting me roughly there!) and 3,500 calories through cutting down on food. If I viewed it on a daily basis, MFP would be telling me to eat 2000 calroies on the days i go to the gym and 1200 on the days i don't - I'd rather have 1,600 on both days :)

    THIS. It seems to me that looking at things on a macro level is a little more helpful than being a calorie Nazi every day. The numbers for exercise calories burned are iffy at best... What I'm going to try to do is eat when I'm hungry and not stuff myself just because MFP tells me I burned 800 extra calories today. At the end of the week, if I have a significant deficit, I'll have a big ol' cheat day and eat myself stupid, with no exercise at all. That should keep me on schedule. I understand the principle of keeping a sustained level of caloric intake, but geez... does that have to include stuffing yourself with calories every day, even when you're not hungry?!
  • Maria052007
    Maria052007 Posts: 41 Member
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    Hi! I know you guys get this question a lot, but if you exercise and burn off around 800 calories in one workout - can you eat those calories back? Because it just feels like I'm wasting my gym workout.. and i feel full and not hungry. When you're dieting arent you suppose to feel hungry :)

    You are not suppose to feel hungry when dieting. That being said, you need to determine your BMR and then factor your activity level in. If you're burning 800 calories per workout, I suspect your activity level is high. I also suggest your read this:

    http://www.bodyrecomposition.com/fat-loss/why-big-caloric-deficits-and-lots-of-activity-can-hurt-fat-loss.html

    This post kinda made me wonder, then should you eat all of what you burned? I haven't lost any weight, but I haven't been eating my workout calories. Could this be why? Doesn't this seem... not intuitive? Shouldn't you just lose more weight?
    I don't understand?
  • heybales
    heybales Posts: 18,842 Member
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    This post kinda made me wonder, then should you eat all of what you burned? I haven't lost any weight, but I haven't been eating my workout calories. Could this be why? Doesn't this seem... not intuitive? Shouldn't you just lose more weight?
    I don't understand?

    Because you don't understand what your body does if underfed. Don't worry, most don't.
    And yes, food calories minus exercise calories could leave your body underfed for the most basic functions of life that must be provided energy from food, because they cannot be obtained through fat stores.

    http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/477703-why-bmr-should-be-known-as-an-important-figure
  • heybales
    heybales Posts: 18,842 Member
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    Many times calories burned are overestimated, sometimes severely so. Imagine thinking you had burned 800 calories, eat them all back and then find that in actual fact, your calorie burn was recorded wrongly and it was, in actual fact, just 400 to 500 you had burned.

    Do that over the course of three months and you will be seeing a rise in weight.

    Be wary of what you think you have burned.

    Exactly.

    In addition, if you have lowered your metabolism by underfeeding, those calorie calculations, especially HRM's, are based on studies of healthy metabolisms. Shoot, they calculate your BMR from the stats you provide.

    If you have forced yours to slow down, that calorie count on the HRM is over estimated too, it could be 20% less easily.

    Easy to fix though.


    Get your metabolism rev'd up again, burning as high as it can!
  • persistent33
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    Bump