New here with a question

lilheis
lilheis Posts: 4 Member
in Introduce Yourself
Hello,
I just found this website. I wish I'd found it before. I have a question about the calories earned for exercising. If I eat those calories that I "earned", isn't that defeating the purpose? Wouldn't it be better to stick to my calorie goal and exercise more to get the weight loss?
Thanks

Replies

  • janeite1990
    janeite1990 Posts: 671 Member
    You'll hear lots of discussion on this, but imo the best response is

    Eat back your exercise calories. MFP calculates a calorie deficit into you calorie goal already. If you don't eat back your calories, you are likely to lower your metabolism and slow the whole process.

    I have days when I'm under on calories by a couple hundred and at 9:30 pm, there is no way I'm eating them. I just respond to my hunger the next day. Don't cut your calories too severely or you'll mess with your metabolism and either not lose or gain it all back as soon as you slack off.
  • jbelfit
    jbelfit Posts: 1
    I just started doing this too and I think they set your calorie intake low enough so you should lose weight based on that intake. When you exercise you earn those calories in food. You may consume more but you burned off the extra. For example I can eat 1200 calories a day. If I burn off 200 I can eat 200 more but at the end of the day I still only have 1200 calories in me that I haven't burned off through exercise. Make sense? And I recommend eating what you burn off or you may go into starvation mode or just feel lousy and give up.:wink:
  • jealous_loser
    jealous_loser Posts: 395
    I have seen a few posts with people wondering why they are not losing (I have to admit, I was in the same kind of boat) when they are only eating 1200 cal but working out for 700 cal. Your body decides it is going to hoard the calories then and you end up maintaining kind of. Try to keep it level throughout the week. Spread out your extra calories.
  • katharineshalia
    katharineshalia Posts: 243 Member
    Good question and hotly debated here, I'm sure your post will get tons of responses. From my own experience the answer is somewhere in between. When I ate back all my calories burned I maintained my weight for two weeks. So I adjusted to eating back half my calories burned and have lost 2 pounds, give or take .5 in the last two weeks. Good luck.
  • tryinghard71
    tryinghard71 Posts: 593
    I just started doing this too and I think they set your calorie intake low enough so you should lose weight based on that intake. When you exercise you earn those calories in food. You may consume more but you burned off the extra. For example I can eat 1200 calories a day. If I burn off 200 I can eat 200 more but at the end of the day I still only have 1200 calories in me that I haven't burned off through exercise. Make sense? And I recommend eating what you burn off or you may go into starvation mode or just feel lousy and give up.:wink:

    ^^^^^

    Exactly. It actually motivates me to work out more so I can eat more! Plus if you don't eat them back then you will feel like crap and won't have the energy you need. Fuel the body for weight loss. It really works.
  • RunsForFood
    RunsForFood Posts: 110 Member
    There are a lot of different opinions on this topic. I think, eat if you are hungry. If you earn an extra 200 cals from working out, but aren't hungry at all, don't eat them. If your body needs the energy it will tell you, you will be hungry. There are some days I work out that I am starving and eat back all my cals, then there are others days I work out the same but I'm just not hungry. I'm not going to eat if I'm not hungry, even if I have extra calories left. The reason I am here is from eating when I wasn't hungry!! haha
    Good luck, I hope you find your answer :)
  • autumnk921
    autumnk921 Posts: 1,374 Member
    Try this...It will explain some of what you need to know!! HTH!!


    http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/539912-why-eating-exercise-calories-is-so-important?
  • bluefox9er
    bluefox9er Posts: 2,917 Member
    Hello,
    I just found this website. I wish I'd found it before. I have a question about the calories earned for exercising. If I eat those calories that I "earned", isn't that defeating the purpose? Wouldn't it be better to stick to my calorie goal and exercise more to get the weight loss?
    Thanks

    not really defeating the purpose. it depends on how often you exercise and the intensity. I say eat back about half of the calories you exercise and see how that goes..or more if you are hungry. don't make it scientific...

    eat less and move more. thats it!!!
  • korygilliam
    korygilliam Posts: 594 Member
    You eat back what you exercise. Reason is that your net calorie goal that is given is to give you a weight loss without exercising, and some research says that you shouldn't eat less than 1200 cals to prevent muscle consumption (which will slow down your overall weight maintanance ability, since muscle burns cals at rest).

    So, when you start exercising, it gives you more calories that you can eat thru the day, but ultimate goal is that net amount. It is how MFP was developed, it tells you to eat your cals in the instructions to the site.

    Good luck! Search and read other threads on this if you want more info.
  • StarkLark
    StarkLark Posts: 476 Member
    MFP calculates a calorie deficit into you calorie goal already. If you don't eat back your calories, you are likely to lower your metabolism and slow the whole process.

    This is the key. MFP already calculates a deficit into your calorie goal. So if you eat your goal, and your exercise calories, you will still have a deficit in reality. At least that's how I understand it.
  • TrailRunner61
    TrailRunner61 Posts: 2,505 Member
    First of all, welcome to MFP! Good luck on your new lifestyle. You can do this!

    I do both. Sometimes I eat ex. cals, sometimes I don't. If I'm hungry, I definately eat some but I 'try' to eat something healthy, not a piece of cake or other junk. Usually I'll have a handfull of trailmix. I wont eat them just because they are there, or because someone says I 'should' eat them back. I have days where I will have breakfast, lunch and no snacks because I'm busy, then have a huge dinner and end up with over 1,000 cals to 'eat back' and here I sit, stuffed from dinner. I refuse to stuff myself so I don't.

    I'd suggest to just eat if you're hungry but don't eat them when you're not! If you don't eat enough, your body will tell you. For me, if I can't eat them after a huge workout, I'll wake up starving the next morning, eat my normal breakfast of oatmeal and I'm good.

    Yesterday, and it's not usually this extreme, I worked in my garden for 6 hours, then walked 4.5 miles. I ate dinner and went to bed and had 1,808 calories earned from exercise! I ended up eating 1,275 total for the day. There is NO WAY I could have eaten 1808 more calories before bed.

    Try different things and see what works for you. Let your body guide you and good luck! <hugs>
  • BenChase
    BenChase Posts: 169
    i agree with the "eat if your hungry" way (as long as you don't go over your calories) if you have calories left to eat and your hungry then eat them, if your not hungry don't eat them. there are days i have ended with my number (after excercise) being negitive for the day, but i wasn't hungry, and other days i have eaten over 3,000 calories and i lost 45 lbs and over 20% of my 33% body fat in 5 months. but the thing to really remember here is EVERYONE is different, just because something works for me,doesn't mean the same thing will work for you, you basically need either trial and error like i started off with, or a professional body composition test (not cheap but very helpful) like i recently had, to tell you exactly for YOUR specific body the perfect ammount of calories to eat a day, excercise, what your metabolism actually is instead of a website giving you a ballpark figure ( websites say my BMR is around 1800, the test said it's 1964) and helpful info from a professional on exactly what to do for the best results. i can tell you as a generalization its probably best to end your day with a net of just over 1200 calories for best results, but like i said, no one is the same so this could work wonders for alot of people and be counter-productive for others, test out several ways and find whats right for you,or shell out the money and have a professional tell you ;)
  • tasiamere
    tasiamere Posts: 233
    Hello,
    I just found this website. I wish I'd found it before. I have a question about the calories earned for exercising. If I eat those calories that I "earned", isn't that defeating the purpose? Wouldn't it be better to stick to my calorie goal and exercise more to get the weight loss?
    Thanks

    I had the same question when I started. My approach is try to eat 1/2 to 3/4 of my exercise calories back. This way I stay under but not too under.
  • lilheis
    lilheis Posts: 4 Member
    Thank you all so much for the great responses. You guys are so smart! I REALLY wish I had found this site a long time ago, but I'm very glad to be here now. I finally feel some hope and empowerment to do this!
    Thanks again!
  • jessicakate329
    jessicakate329 Posts: 7
    This is exactly how I feel about the subject! Eat when you're hungry. If you're not hungry don't eat just because you "earned it".
  • sharhappy
    sharhappy Posts: 7
    Hi I just joined the group also but started My Fitness Pal in january. I thought eating my excercise calories also defeated the purpose. Now I understand that my body needs the nutrition that I excercised away. I've lost 24 pounds on a 1200 cal diet but now they say to increase my calories to 1350. Now that scares me because I'd like to lose a little more weight! I'm glad I joined because I sometimes can use the incouragement.
  • apparentl3
    apparentl3 Posts: 1
    Great question! I am glad you decided to ask because I was wondering the same thing. I am new and just started using MFP this past Wednesday and I am loving it so far.

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