eating back your exercise calories?
jennyredfern
Posts: 94 Member
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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Replies
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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!0 -
We assume doctors know about such things.
They should stay in their own sandbox.0 -
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.0 -
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.0
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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.0
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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
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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.0 -
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.0
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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 1850 -
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!
Kim0 -
i just started this journey so i am not an expert but i usually eat a few of them and leave the rest. 0
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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!0 -
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.0 -
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!0
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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.0 -
I'll bet that same doctor prescribed fen/phen too. Maybe you should fire this person, and get a good doctor instead.0
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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.0 -
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.0
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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/17260010As 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.0 -
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.0 -
I never eat my exercise calories.. I normally burn around 800 everyday, and I eat around 1200-1300.
I feel great that way, dont feel dizzy at all and im losing weight.. so i guess thats the way it works for me0 -
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.
That was well explained 0 -
MFP already includes your weight goal deficit. If you are looking to lose 1 pound per week, MFP already has a 500 cal/day deficit built in.
If you have large calorie expenditures routinely (I do), then you must eat back your expenditure. Otherwise you have some very bad effects (muscle consumption). As someone above said...this is not a race because you should be thinking about this as something you'll be responsible for managing for the rest of your life.0 -
Personally, I'd find another doctor!
Really though, it depends how you have calculated your exercise calories, I think this is where most people get confused.
Most OTHER calorie calculators (ie. not MFP) ask about how much exercise you are going to do each week and then work out your calories goal including this information. This means that it includes the calories you need just to stay alive, plus an extra amount for working out.
MFP works out your calories without including exercise and assumes that you will add them in as you do them (so you don't get credit for the exercise until you have actually done it!). This means that your calorie allowance includes the calories you need just to stay alive, plus an extra amount for working out. It's just a different method to get to the same end point.
So, if you are using MFP to calculate your daily calorie allowance, then you should be adding in and eating your exercise calories.
If you are getting your daily calories allowance figures from somewhere else, then you should check with them, most likely you won't add in exercise calories.
It's realy pretty simple!0 -
i eat most of mine back. I really do find that I feel overall better when I eat most of them back vs not.
I concur with the sentiment that you need to enjoy the entire journey to your goal weight.0 -
Your deficit is already built in so your exercise calories are exactly that calories that should be eaten to sustain (fuel) your workouts. I am a firm believer in eating them back and have lost alittle weight in the process. I would recommend getting a good heart rate monitor ( I have a Polar FT60) to better track your calories burned. I then only consume 85-90% of them leaving 10-15% for error in logging or estimated calories burned.... Best of Luck to you.......0
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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
Yes - I have been losing 2+lbs per week, and I try to eat back a good amount of my exercise calories (although on days where I'm burning 2,000 calories+, it's a little hard but I try). The whole point is to give your body the sustenance it needs, as well as to prepare yourself for maintenance after you reach your weight loss goal.0 -
Always eat some back, that's fuel for the next day!0
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I eat them if I feel I need to. If I don't feel weak/lethargic/actually hungry, I don't.
Also, try not to go up to the total you've exercised off. Maybe 50-75% only, which gives a margin for error in the calories eaten and burnt.0 -
Funny I've only been on this site for about a week and I hear this question soooo frequently. I believe the answer is to eat the calories back IF YOURE HUNGRY...don't force it. Very high deficits don't necessarily yield faster results. The body needs fuel and if you starve yourself especially after working out intensely, the body doesn't just only grab fat and burn it up...tends to eat muscle, hold fat stores...you feel like dirt....you get me? Hope this helps! Cheers!0
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