I'm confused.... Why up the calories??????

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luv2scrapbook
luv2scrapbook Posts: 29
in Health and Weight Loss
I went to see a nutritionist yesterday who told me NOT to eat back all the calories I burn. Every thread here, everyone says to up your calories. That seems to be the answer for everything. I'm so confused right now. Am I eating to few calories? I seem to be doing great with an average of 2 lbs lost a week.

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  • douglasmobbs
    douglasmobbs Posts: 563 Member
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    I would go with the advice of a professional who has seen you in person and knows your situation.
  • applekoko19
    applekoko19 Posts: 85 Member
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    Calorie burns can be big overestimation's maybe the nutritionist is just trying to protect you against calories estimation errors that might be made. Sounds like good advice to me. :)
  • hiker282
    hiker282 Posts: 983 Member
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    Well, the gist I got from the New Rules of Weight Lifting is that when you decrease your calories and up your exercise, you're actually setting yourself up to slow down you metabolism. Whereas if you increase your activity, you should increase your calories so your body can focus on the muscle repair that will come from working out. (If you're doing some form of strength training, that is. If you're just doing cardio you'll lose the weight, but a greater volume of it will be muscle than if you incorporated strength training in there too.)

    Just remember; everything works, but nothing works forever.
  • erickirb
    erickirb Posts: 12,293 Member
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    Most likely the nutritionist included exercise in your caloric intake. MFP ignores your planned exercise and only takes it into account when you do it. If you don't eat back the cals then your initial caloric intake goal should be higher, this can be done by choosing the active or very active activity level, if you are sedentary or light active most likely you intake is too low for when you do exercise.

    As an example say MFP gives you 1450 calories to lose 1 lb/week, and you plan on exercising 5x/week for an average of 400 cals per workout. well MFP will tell you to eat 1450 on the days you don't workout and 1850 on the days you do whereas a "professional" (doctor, nutritionist etc) may tell you to eat 1700 everyday regardless if you workout.

    So for the week MFP will have you eat 12,150 (1450*2+1850*5) whereas doing it the other way will have you eat 11,900 (1700*7) almost the same number of cals for the week (250 dif). The issue in not following MFP is if you don't workout the full 5 days or burn more or less than planned. If that is the case you may lose more or less than your goal, whereas MFP will have you lose your goal amount regardless how much you actually workout.

    What many MFPers do is take the low 1450 and not eat back exercise calories which is wrong, if you are not eating them back then your daily activity level should reflect the higher burn with would be covered in the 1700/day above.
  • kak2m4
    kak2m4 Posts: 167 Member
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    Every person is different. For some (like me), if I eat the majority of my exercise calories back (66 percent of MFP's estimate), then I lose weight consistently. If I don't do this, my weight loss stalls. For others, they need to keep their calorie count low and exercise in order to lose weight. You can try different methods to see what works for you.
  • inetgirl
    inetgirl Posts: 174 Member
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    Hopefully he or she gave you a preset number for calories. Did you let her know that MFP automatically puts in a deficit? Nutritionists are educated and would follow their advice.
  • Samerah12
    Samerah12 Posts: 610 Member
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    MFP ALREADY sets you at a calorie deficit. As in whether or not you work out that day MFP will tell you to eat less than the number of calories you need to maintain your weight. Therefore you should eat back your exercise calories on MFP to avoid having too big a deficit and causing other problems. That's why the advice on here is different from advice you may get from other sources. It is tailored to the program you are using.
  • erickirb
    erickirb Posts: 12,293 Member
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    Calorie burns can be big overestimation's maybe the nutritionist is just trying to protect you against calories estimation errors that might be made. Sounds like good advice to me. :)

    I think it is more likely that the nutritionist does not know how MFP works (does not take into account planed exercise when assigning a caloric intake), which is different then a lot of other sites.
  • CMmrsfloyd
    CMmrsfloyd Posts: 2,383 Member
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    Did you explain to the nutritionist that the way MFP is designed, it creates a deficit *without* needing to exercise? The reason people on here say to eat back your exercise calories is that MFP builds in the deficit assuming that you are not going to exercise. Then when you *do* exercise, MFP tells you to eat those calories back so that your deficit will not be too large. (a too-large deficit leading to faster weight-loss may also contribute to a person losing a larger percentage of muscle mass, which is *not* desireable b/c muscle mass drives your metabolism).

    That being said, a lot of people feel that when a person has a lot of weight to lose (in the obese category or higher) it may benefit them to get out of the obese category more quickly and that not eating the exercise calories (or not eating all of them) may be okay until they get closer to a healthy weight. The closer you get to your ideal weight, the smaller you want the deficit to be and the slower the weight needs to come off. Since you have 88 lbs left to lose, that might explain why the nutritionist would advise you not to eat the exercise calories (even if they do understand the way MFP sets calorie goals) b/c they may want to help you get closer to a healthy weight range more quickly.
  • ariant23
    ariant23 Posts: 161 Member
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    If whatever you are doing is working (and the average person would find it reasonable), keep doing it. Follow your professionals' advice. Or, better yet, call her up and ask her why... rather than relying on know-it-nothings like us on the web. :-)
  • ShaSimone
    ShaSimone Posts: 276
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    Go with what your nutritionist says since they know you personally not just through an MFP forum. Height, weight, pounds needed to lose are all factored in.

    My experience is the only thing I can attest to so...When I ate close to or less than 1200 calories I was cranky, lethargic, and unable to workout effectively. As a result I upped my calories.

    The closer I get to my goal weight the harder it is for me to drop pounds like I did before, so my weight loss goal is no longer 1-2 pounds a week it is more like 0.5 pounds a week, which increases my daily calorie goal.

    You may still be at the beginning of your weight loss journey and have more to lose so what works for me may not work for you at this time. Also, your calorie goal on here may or may not be already factoring in your activity level depending on if you selected sedentary or active, etc. So like I said in the first sentence, listen to the nutritionist that knows your personal situation.
  • Musikelektronik
    Musikelektronik Posts: 739 Member
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    If whatever you are doing is working (and the average person would find it reasonable), keep doing it. Follow your professionals' advice. Or, better yet, call her up and ask her why... rather than relying on know-it-nothings like us on the web. :-)

    ^^^^This. Besides, a nutritionist is a trained professional, and has evaluated you personally. Follow his or her advice.
  • BaconMD
    BaconMD Posts: 1,165 Member
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    Am I eating to few calories?
    How would we know? Your diary is closed and you haven't said anything about yourself, such as height, weight, body fat percentage, goal weight...

    Talk to your nutritionist again and ask her to explain the numbers to you. If you don't understand the numbers, you're just pretty much picking a random target and aiming for it, which doesn't make much sense no matter who you get the target from. There must be some reasoning behind a calorie target.
  • erickirb
    erickirb Posts: 12,293 Member
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    If whatever you are doing is working (and the average person would find it reasonable), keep doing it. Follow your professionals' advice. Or, better yet, call her up and ask her why... rather than relying on know-it-nothings like us on the web. :-)

    ^^^^This. Besides, a nutritionist is a trained professional, and has evaluated you personally. Follow his or her advice.

    But is the caloric intake that she is using MFP's or her nutritionist suggestion, this makes all the difference, see my fist reply above comparing MFP to "professionals" suggestions.
  • applekoko19
    applekoko19 Posts: 85 Member
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    Calorie burns can be big overestimation's maybe the nutritionist is just trying to protect you against calories estimation errors that might be made. Sounds like good advice to me. :)

    I think it is more likely that the nutritionist does not know how MFP works (does not take into account planed exercise when assigning a caloric intake), which is different then a lot of other sites.

    I would be surprised if the nutritionist was telling a client to use MFP and not know the way it works? Does the nutritionist set the calories and the op just uses MFP as the counting tool??
  • dreawest
    dreawest Posts: 208 Member
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    I went to see a nutritionist yesterday who told me NOT to eat back all the calories I burn. Every thread here, everyone says to up your calories. That seems to be the answer for everything. I'm so confused right now. Am I eating to few calories? I seem to be doing great with an average of 2 lbs lost a week.

    If you are "doing great" keep doing it provided you get enough net calories. As other posters noted it is hard to know where you are at with so little info.
  • luv2scrapbook
    luv2scrapbook Posts: 29
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    Most likely the nutritionist included exercise in your caloric intake. MFP ignores your planned exercise and only takes it into account when you do it. If you don't eat back the cals then your initial caloric intake goal should be higher, this can be done by choosing the active or very active activity level, if you are sedentary or light active most likely you intake is too low for when you do exercise.

    As an example say MFP gives you 1450 calories to lose 1 lb/week, and you plan on exercising 5x/week for an average of 400 cals per workout. well MFP will tell you to eat 1450 on the days you don't workout and 1850 on the days you do whereas a "professional" (doctor, nutritionist etc) may tell you to eat 1700 everyday regardless if you workout.

    So for the week MFP will have you eat 12,150 (1450*2+1850*5) whereas doing it the other way will have you eat 11,900 (1700*7) almost the same number of cals for the week (250 dif). The issue in not following MFP is if you don't workout the full 5 days or burn more or less than planned. If that is the case you may lose more or less than your goal, whereas MFP will have you lose your goal amount regardless how much you actually workout.

    What many MFPers do is take the low 1450 and not eat back exercise calories which is wrong, if you are not eating them back then your daily activity level should reflect the higher burn with would be covered in the 1700/day above.

    ok, that makes sense. i do believe im not eating enough. I am swimming for an hour 5 days a week and burning 700-800 calories a day. but i was put on a 1200 calorie diet. i have never eaten 2000 calories in one day (well not since i started this diet) haha. I didnt have a problem consuming that much before. instead i eat about 1400-1600 on exercise days. so i should eat more.
  • erickirb
    erickirb Posts: 12,293 Member
    Options
    Most likely the nutritionist included exercise in your caloric intake. MFP ignores your planned exercise and only takes it into account when you do it. If you don't eat back the cals then your initial caloric intake goal should be higher, this can be done by choosing the active or very active activity level, if you are sedentary or light active most likely you intake is too low for when you do exercise.

    As an example say MFP gives you 1450 calories to lose 1 lb/week, and you plan on exercising 5x/week for an average of 400 cals per workout. well MFP will tell you to eat 1450 on the days you don't workout and 1850 on the days you do whereas a "professional" (doctor, nutritionist etc) may tell you to eat 1700 everyday regardless if you workout.

    So for the week MFP will have you eat 12,150 (1450*2+1850*5) whereas doing it the other way will have you eat 11,900 (1700*7) almost the same number of cals for the week (250 dif). The issue in not following MFP is if you don't workout the full 5 days or burn more or less than planned. If that is the case you may lose more or less than your goal, whereas MFP will have you lose your goal amount regardless how much you actually workout.

    What many MFPers do is take the low 1450 and not eat back exercise calories which is wrong, if you are not eating them back then your daily activity level should reflect the higher burn with would be covered in the 1700/day above.

    ok, that makes sense. i do believe im not eating enough. I am swimming for an hour 5 days a week and burning 700-800 calories a day. but i was put on a 1200 calorie diet. i have never eaten 2000 calories in one day (well not since i started this diet) haha. I didnt have a problem consuming that much before. instead i eat about 1400-1600 on exercise days. so i should eat more.

    Either eat more on exercise days, or eat the 1400-1600 everyday, and average for the week will workout about the same, just like my example (or thereabouts).

    So you can eat 1900 on days you workout and 1200 on days you don't or you can average your workouts out for the week which would give you 5 days *700 cals then divide that into 7 days and add to your 1200 for a total of 1700/day (700*5/7+1200)
  • luv2scrapbook
    luv2scrapbook Posts: 29
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    Calorie burns can be big overestimation's maybe the nutritionist is just trying to protect you against calories estimation errors that might be made. Sounds like good advice to me. :)

    I think it is more likely that the nutritionist does not know how MFP works (does not take into account planed exercise when assigning a caloric intake), which is different then a lot of other sites.

    She has NEVER heard of MFP. I just told her and she said would check it out but it sounded like i was doing great. i printed out my food diary for the week and she did say that I should be eating more than 1200 calories but again I was doing great. I really appreciate everyones feedback on this. I understand now what people are saying.

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