"Eating back your calories"- A New Approach

I read a lot of posts about "eating back your calories" and would like to suggest an alternate view for those that find that way of thinking difficult to understand.

Weight-loss (or -gain) is CUMULATIVE. What we eat today affects us today, tomorrow, and beyond. Just as the exercise/activities we do have on-going effects. While counting calories is effective (especially for those just beginning a weight-loss regimen or first trying to change eating habits) - it can be misleading to rely solely on the QUANTITY of calories. My suggestion may be easier said than done for some, but here it is: try to stop thinking about calories in vs. calories out on a daily basis, and think more long-term.

One pound = 3500 calories. If you manage to just create a deficit of 500 calories a day, you will lose 1 pound within a week (500 calories X 7 days). How are caloric deficits created? 1. By eating less. 2. By exercising more. 3. Through the thermogenic properties of foods (they require energy to digest and use). Most of you are using a combination of all three of these ways!

If you're being active and eating healthy (mostly fresh, raw foods = high QUALITY calories) and drinking lots of water, your body will do the work it's supposed to do. If you exercise and feel hungry after a workout, it's because your body has expended all the ready energy in your bloodstream, thus decreasing the amount of insulin in your blood...resulting in hunger. You need to keep fueling your body when it needs it!

Think of your metabolism like a campfire. If you put 2 or 3 giant logs on the fire, it dampens down and doesn't burn as brightly or as hot. (Think of this as 2-3 large meals or poor-QUALITY calories.) If you instead put a couple of medium-sized branches and more twigs and kindling, your campfire burns hotter, brighter and faster. (Think of medium-sized branches as lean protein; and twigs/kindling as complex-carbohydrates.) The campfire burns through the smaller wood very quickly, requiring more of it to keep burning at that rate!

Keep "stoking" that metabolic fire, my friends! Feed your body frequent, high-QUALITY calories and use exercise to train your metabolism to burn faster.

Feel free to add me as a friend. I'm a nutritionist, exercise coach and wellness counselor and am always eager to learn more and to meet new people - each of whom present new and interesting challenges!

"It makes sense: Eating early in the day keeps us from "starvation eating" later on. But it also jump-starts your metabolism, says Elisabetta Politi, RD, MPH, nutrition manager for the Duke Diet & Fitness Center at Duke University Medical School. "When you don't eat breakfast, you're actually fasting for 15 to 20 hours, so you're not producing the enzymes needed to metabolize fat to lose weight."

Finally, with the exception of a single study, there is no evidence that weight loss on hypoenergetic regimens is altered by meal frequency. We conclude that any effects of meal pattern on the regulation of body weight are likely to be mediated through effects on the food intake side of the energy balance equation.

The original post was written with the intent of helping those that are frozen with fear over whether or not to "eat back their exercise calories" by emphasizing the big picture, and the CUMULATIVE effects of their positive actions (not to argue starvation diets).

It is easy to read an OP and pick it apart (but I like to post anyway!). And it's difficult to succinctly say everything there is to say on this matter in one post (or even an entire thread). But I stand by my reference to 'stoking your metabolism', though the wording may ruffle some feathers. It's pretty simple, though others might like to complicate things:

Eat good fuel. Burn that fuel by remaining active throughout the day. Eat more good fuel as needed.

The more active you are, the more you'll burn. (I hope we can at least all agree on that, as a generality!) And I, for one, know I have more energy, am more active and therefore require more fuel when I start my day with a healthy breakfast. On days I don't eat breakfast, I actually feel a lower internal body temp and have less energy overall. If I hadn't had the personal experience of seeing this work for tons of people, I might be inclined to let you disuade me! (But then again, I'm a sucker for "conventional wisdom" - i.e. seeing the proof for yourself!)

i have only been using this a week or so and i am doing good, but everyday i am too hgh in sugar but I am not worried about that cause my sugar is fine. i have been drinking apple juice to get the potassium cause i have a low potassium level and i dont like bananas. any suggestions on something with high potassium that would be lower in sugar. i know potatoes have a lot of potassium too but too many carbs to eat those alot.

I read a lot of posts about "eating back your calories" and would like to suggest an alternate view for those that find that way of thinking difficult to understand.

Weight-loss (or -gain) is CUMULATIVE. What we eat today affects us today, tomorrow, and beyond. Just as the exercise/activities we do have on-going effects. While counting calories is effective (especially for those just beginning a weight-loss regimen or first trying to change eating habits) - it can be misleading to rely solely on the QUANTITY of calories. My suggestion may be easier said than done for some, but here it is: try to stop thinking about calories in vs. calories out on a daily basis, and think more long-term.

One pound = 3500 calories. If you manage to just create a deficit of 500 calories a day, you will lose 1 pound within a week (500 calories X 7 days). How are caloric deficits created? 1. By eating less. 2. By exercising more. 3. Through the thermogenic properties of foods (they require energy to digest and use). Most of you are using a combination of all three of these ways!

If you're being active and eating healthy (mostly fresh, raw foods = high QUALITY calories) and drinking lots of water, your body will do the work it's supposed to do. If you exercise and feel hungry after a workout, it's because your body has expended all the ready energy in your bloodstream, thus decreasing the amount of insulin in your blood...resulting in hunger. You need to keep fueling your body when it needs it!

Think of your metabolism like a campfire. If you put 2 or 3 giant logs on the fire, it dampens down and doesn't burn as brightly or as hot. (Think of this as 2-3 large meals or poor-QUALITY calories.) If you instead put a couple of medium-sized branches and more twigs and kindling, your campfire burns hotter, brighter and faster. (Think of medium-sized branches as lean protein; and twigs/kindling as complex-carbohydrates.) The campfire burns through the smaller wood very quickly, requiring more of it to keep burning at that rate!

Keep "stoking" that metabolic fire, my friends! Feed your body frequent, high-QUALITY calories and use exercise to train your metabolism to burn faster.

Feel free to add me as a friend. I'm a nutritionist, exercise coach and wellness counselor and am always eager to learn more and to meet new people - each of whom present new and interesting challenges!