eating back calories

lisamdavis84
lisamdavis84 Posts: 21
edited November 11 in Food and Nutrition
This seems very strange to me. I don't understand why you would eat back calories that you are burning off? Isn't the point of burning off calories to loose weight? And the more calories you eat the more weight you gain? I obviously am no expert at this and have only been doing this for a few weeks with only loosing 4 pounds, and all 4 of those pounds came off in the 3rd week and nothing since.

Replies

  • lisamdavis84
    lisamdavis84 Posts: 21
    anyone???
  • SCUBAMomofTwo
    SCUBAMomofTwo Posts: 189
    My philosophy: if I am hungry I will eat back all or some of my exercise calories; if I am not then I don't.

    I also don't believe you have to be always hungry to lose weight. I actually am RARELY hungry (physically) although I often have an appetite (or desire) to eat.
  • BrandyHeit
    BrandyHeit Posts: 25
    Read this:
    http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/506367-question-on-eating-back-calories-burned-during-exercise?hl=eating+back+calories#posts-7051481
  • sheinric13
    sheinric13 Posts: 4 Member
    Wondering the same thing?!
  • LorinaLynn
    LorinaLynn Posts: 13,247 Member
    Short answer: Unlike other calorie counting websites, MFP doesn't factor in any exercise you SAY you're going to do... they only factor it in WHEN you do it.

    So another site might suggest eating 1800 calories, assuming you'll burn about 300 calories a day doing 30 minutes of exercise. MFP would tell you do eat 1500 calories, then add that 300 calories you burned in 30 minutes, for the same total of 1800.

    Long answer: http://www.myfitnesspal.com/blog/LorinaLynn/view/exercise-calories-explained-206876
  • mickyjd
    mickyjd Posts: 97
    My philosophy: if I am hungry I will eat back all or some of my exercise calories; if I am not then I don't.

    I also don't believe you have to be always hungry to lose weight. I actually am RARELY hungry (physically) although I often have an appetite (or desire) to eat.

    This! :)
  • emisu2
    emisu2 Posts: 53 Member
    I'm jealous of you people who say you are not hungry. I am hungry every minute of every day. I never eat my calories back, though. But I feel the same way... How the heck are you supposed to lose any weight when your BMR is 1200 and your calorie goal is 1200? I never count my exercise calories. It is cool to wear a HRM, though, and see how many calories I actually am burning.
  • minnesota_deere
    minnesota_deere Posts: 232 Member
    lower your net calorie goal to what your comfortable with. i went to 800 net cal. and found this was to low and bumbed it to 1000 net cal. seems to be ok so far. i ignore the starvation mode message.
  • shivaslives
    shivaslives Posts: 279 Member
    There are a whole lot of threads on this topic in the forum so I would recommend a search. That said, here is the basic philosophy. When you set your goals with MFP, it includes a daily calorie deficit to help you achieve the weight loss. When you exercise, you increase the deficit between the calories you burn and those you take in. By eating back your calories, you keep your daily deficit and your weight loss consistent. If your deficit is too large, you can actually put your body into "starvation" mode which slows down your BMR and your weight loss.

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  • LorinaLynn
    LorinaLynn Posts: 13,247 Member
    I'm jealous of you people who say you are not hungry. I am hungry every minute of every day. I never eat my calories back, though. But I feel the same way... How the heck are you supposed to lose any weight when your BMR is 1200 and your calorie goal is 1200? I never count my exercise calories. It is cool to wear a HRM, though, and see how many calories I actually am burning.

    Because your BMR is what your body would burn if you were in a coma. The second you get out of bed, you burn more calories than that.

    My BMR is only around 1200, but I ate a total of 1800-2000 while losing, netting around 1500. I'm a 39 year old woman... it's not like I have a speedy metabolism.

    But it depends on your goal. If all you care about is a number on the scale, have at it. I care more about how I look and feel than what I weigh, because when I ate less than 1000 calories a day, I was a mushy size 8 at 130 pounds and now, eating twice as much, I'm a size 2 or 4 at 130 pounds.
  • AmyRhubarb
    AmyRhubarb Posts: 6,890 Member
    I'm jealous of you people who say you are not hungry. I am hungry every minute of every day. I never eat my calories back, though. But I feel the same way... How the heck are you supposed to lose any weight when your BMR is 1200 and your calorie goal is 1200? I never count my exercise calories. It is cool to wear a HRM, though, and see how many calories I actually am burning.
    If you're hungry all day long, that's your body asking you to please feed it! Especially if you are burning more cals through exercise every day - that will leave you with a pretty low net calorie count for the day, and would definitely explain why you're so hungry. Listen to your body, eat healthy foods until you're satisfied, log all your foods and your exercise. You don't have to eat all your exercise cals back, or any of them if you're not hungry, but try it - I bet your net calories for the day will still be around 1200. And I bet you'll still see results.
  • Onemoodycuss
    Onemoodycuss Posts: 95 Member
    It doesn't make any sense to me, either. I usually ignore it and try to stay under my calorie goal. I on the days that I workout, if I get hungry, I assume a have a few more calories to play with, so I don't feel too bad about eating an extra half serving of something or an extra snack. I still try to come in under the daily goal though.
  • roverrowe
    roverrowe Posts: 52 Member
    I'm new to this too, but I think the best thing I've done so Far is to get to grips with the concepts of BMR (basic metallic rate, or as has been said, the calories you'd need to maintain weight if you just lay in bed all day) and TDEE (total daily energy expenditure, or the calories you need to maintain wait as you go about your normal daily life, e.g. getting out of bed, maybe going to work or doing housework). If your total calorie target on MFP is less than your TDEE, then you should be losing weight. Every time the difference adds up to 3500 calories, you should use have lost a pound of fat.

    Hope this helps.

    Adam
  • funkycamper
    funkycamper Posts: 998 Member
    I'm 54 and new back to real exercise, instead of just walking, since August. One of the things I've learned by reading through all the threads here at MFP is that I had a damaged metabolism due to chronically eating too little. Through exercise and gradually increasing my calories, my metabolism is being fired up, I have more energy for exercise and daily living activities, and I'm still losing weight and inches. I'm now eating about 4,000 calories a week more than I was when I started in August and losing at the same rate.

    Sure, you can eat less and lose. But who would want to? I don't want to get to my goal weight and have to starve myself for the rest of my life to maintain it.

    BTW, hate the term starvation mode when it is really a metabolism slow-down. Yes, if you chronically under-eat, it happens. Best to avoid it in the first place. A slow weight loss is also more healthy as it retains the critical muscle mass you need to be healthy, fit and to help maintain your weight loss. It's much easier to retain that muscle than it is to rebuild it once you've lost it.
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