eating back your exercise calories?

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jennyredfern
jennyredfern Posts: 94 Member
in Food and Nutrition
my doctor told me i don't need to log exercise calories or eat them back. he said that I'd just lose faster. but on a day like today, i probably burned 600/700 calories with my trainer for an hour...so following doctors advice that will leave me with a net of about 500/600 for the day. that seems too low to me...what do you all think?
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  • laursey
    laursey Posts: 307
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    I have always eaten my exercise calories, at least most of them. There's no race, right? Why not enjoy the process.
    You're doing awesome!
  • neverstray
    neverstray Posts: 3,845 Member
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    We assume doctors know about such things.

    They should stay in their own sandbox.
  • susannamarie
    susannamarie Posts: 2,148 Member
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    Up to you really.

    But I can't exercise the way I want to if I don't eat them. So I eat most of them.
  • knuckleswife
    knuckleswife Posts: 32 Member
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    I don't do any heavy exercising yet, so I try not to eat back my exercise calories. However, I do use them as extra calories available to me when I do strength training or extra cardo... Like today. I have lost 4 lbs in the past two days but I am worried what the scale will say tomorrow after eating back some of those calories. I think your body will tell you if you need to consume those calories or not. Take it day by day.
  • kazzari
    kazzari Posts: 473 Member
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    How do you feel? If you're famished and weak, eat. If you feel good, don't worry about it. It also depends on your weekly weight loss goal. If your plan is set for 2 lbs. a week, you probably don't want to get carried away with your deficit. If you're shooting for 1 lb. you have a little more of a buffer. My goal is 1/2 lb. so I never need to eat back those calories.
  • minou2068
    minou2068 Posts: 5 Member
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    My trainer says not to log your exercise because you end up eating over your 1200 Calorie goal (or whatever is your goal). makes sense as you will end up using many more calories than you are eating and will lose weight faster :)
  • sixisCHANGEDjk
    sixisCHANGEDjk Posts: 243
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    Up to you really.

    But I can't exercise the way I want to if I don't eat them. So I eat most of them.

    This is very true. If you're planning on running, etc. you're going to need more than 500-700 calories a day. I do not believe that one will lose weight faster just because they don't eat sufficient calories. I always eat mine and I'm still losing the 1/2 lb. a week I have my settings set for. At 1200 calories per day you should have no problem losing if you're exercising and eating your calories back.

    As other said, Enjoy the Journey, don't starve yourself.
  • domsmoms
    domsmoms Posts: 174 Member
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    I think I do it backwards, instead of eating back my exercise calories, I usually exercise to get rid of the calories I overate. Either way, it seems to be working fine, I've lost at least a pound a week every week since I started MFP.
  • Hezzietiger1
    Hezzietiger1 Posts: 1,256 Member
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    I don't eat back my exercise calories.. in my mind that sort of defeats the purpose.. if 3500 calories is 1 lb, I want to get rid of them, not eat them back. I eat my 1300ish calories a day and that's it. If I go over I don't stress it because I know I burned 500-600 at the gym.

    It's a great question tho, because I read about people eating them back and I always wondered how it worked. Do you still lose 2 lbs each week?

    Heather
    sw 225
    cw 185
  • Maverick0216
    Maverick0216 Posts: 5
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    I am so confused on the calorie count thing...its driving me nuts, literally.

    Where can I learn about the right foods and portions to eat, like before and after exercising? I heard from a friend that after exercise she drinks a huge glass of chocolate milk because that is what her nurtitionist recommended. Last time I checked, chocolate milk on my couch potato diet worked well with oreo's and a twinkie...but with my spinach and strawberry salad, I didn't think it was one of those things that belonged with the others. According to her information, it is a complex carb that your body needs/requires after a workout. What other options for complex cards are out there?

    If you have a website ideas for nutrition/meal planning can you share, or please will you share!

    Thank you all for your contributions to the thread, and the site in general. You are making a difference! :)
    Kim
  • StephWinder
    StephWinder Posts: 2
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    i just started this journey so i am not an expert but i usually eat a few of them and leave the rest. :)
  • hiker282
    hiker282 Posts: 983 Member
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    I have always eaten my exercise calories, at least most of them. There's no race, right? Why not enjoy the process.
    You're doing awesome!

    Listen to what the awesomely muscly back, shoulders, and arms are saying. They know what's up!
  • neverstray
    neverstray Posts: 3,845 Member
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    If you eat 1200, but burn 600, you've only effectively eaten 600 calories. That is not enough. It is important to watch your net calories.

    MFP is not like a traditional diet. In a traditional diet, your cals are set, and you exercise. But, in the set cals, it is assumed that you will exercise.

    MFP does not do that. MFP says, if you want to lose weight, eat x calories. Because there is already a calorie deficit built in...-250 cals for 1/2 lb per wk, -500 cals for 1 lb per week, etc. so, there is a deficit, in case you don't exercise. So, when you do exercise, you are supposed to eat those calories back.

    Not eating your calories on this plan is basically harming you more than it is helping.
  • jennyredfern
    jennyredfern Posts: 94 Member
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    Yes! I cut back to 1000 to 1200 a day Net in March and stopped losing. So I met with a nutritionalist and decided to bump my calories NET up to 1200 to 1400. Since then I've been back to losing 1 to 2 pounds a week. So probably going to stay with what I've been doing. Just very surprise to hear a healthy care professional tell me not to count them!
  • neverstray
    neverstray Posts: 3,845 Member
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    Yes! I cut back to 1000 to 1200 a day Net in March and stopped losing. So I met with a nutritionalist and decided to bump my calories NET up to 1200 to 1400. Since then I've been back to losing 1 to 2 pounds a week. So probably going to stay with what I've been doing. Just very surprise to hear a healthy care professional tell me not to count them!

    If you don't explain how MFP works, they won't understand and think that you might be eating too much without fully understanding what's happening here.
  • boggsmeister
    boggsmeister Posts: 292 Member
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    I'll bet that same doctor prescribed fen/phen too. Maybe you should fire this person, and get a good doctor instead.
  • ladyace2078
    ladyace2078 Posts: 460 Member
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    My TDEE is around 2500 and my BMR is around 1600. I want to lose weight so I eat less than my TDEE and more than my BMR. This usually means somewhere between 1900 and 2200 calories for me. If I were to eat my exercise calories as well then I would be eating for maintenance. In fact I tried this very thing for 3 weeks and my weight didn't budge. I dropped it to around 2200 calories and I've lost 1/2 lb as expected.

    My recommendation is to figure out your TDEE and BMR and then decide how much you need to eat. And maybe do some trial/error to see what works for you.
  • loves_jc
    loves_jc Posts: 86 Member
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    Calories are energy, if we see it that way, How can we have enough energy to do intense workouts if we do take in energy? what you dont need to lose weight is already subtracted. That is just my thought.
  • heybales
    heybales Posts: 18,842 Member
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    I don't eat back my exercise calories.. in my mind that sort of defeats the purpose.. if 3500 calories is 1 lb, I want to get rid of them, not eat them back. I eat my 1300ish calories a day and that's it. If I go over I don't stress it because I know I burned 500-600 at the gym.

    It's a great question tho, because I read about people eating them back and I always wondered how it worked. Do you still lose 2 lbs each week?

    Heather
    sw 225
    cw 185

    Because MFP ALREADY put a deficit in your daily goal for that 2lbs weekly - with no accounting for your as yet unperformed exercise.

    That way, you lose 2lbs weekly without exercise.

    Exercise, you just created a bigger deficit, most likely an unwise deficit.

    So just thinking a minute about your math you just gave.

    Ate 1300, perhaps 1400.
    Burned 500-600.

    Your body is left with 700-900 calories for metabolism.

    Ever hear of BMR - basal metabolic rate? Google it, what it means. Calculate it on MFP - Tools - BMR calc.

    If your body could accomplish those BMR functions on 1500 calories each day - what do you think is the result when you only gave it 700-900?

    http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17260010
    As described in this paper, this limited therapeutic success may depend on adaptive thermogenesis, which represents in this case the decrease in energy expenditure (EE) beyond what could be predicted from the changes in fat mass or fat-free mass under conditions of standardized physical activity in response to a decrease in energy intake. This issue has been documented in recent studies that have shown in obese individuals adhering to a weight reduction program a greater than predicted decrease in EE, which in some cases was quantitatively sufficient to overcome the prescribed energy restriction, suggesting a role for adaptive thermogenesis in unsuccessful weight loss interventions and reduced body weight maintenance.

    In other words, the slowing down of the metabolism was greater than expected for the weight lost, in fact reaching state where weight was no longer lost.

    If studies don't move ya, might Search MFP for "plateau" and "stall", and see the advice of those that got out of it - before you get into it.
  • HonkyTonks
    HonkyTonks Posts: 1,193 Member
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    I wouldn't worry overly about a low net every now and then.. but..

    Large calorie deficits over a sustained period of time can lead to your body using protein from your muscle rather than using fat for energy. The end result is potentially a lower BMR due to a lower lean body mass and higher body fat %. Your metabolism is influenced by how much lean mass you have. So, muscle loss often leads to plateau's - your metabolism will slow and you'll have to eat even less to keep losing. So in the end, creating large deficits can sometimes counteract that hard work you're doing. I personally think weight loss should be sustainable, because when you get there you want to keep it off right? And I am sure you'd prefer to be leaner rather than flabbier at the end - plus you can eat more when you're leaner, how cool is that!


    MFP sets your goal up to not include calories. So when you exercise, it adds those calories back to your goal for you to eat. If you want, you can set your MFP up to INCLUDE calories burnt whilst exercising and not log them.

    You might want to include some strength training to help with the above point.

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