Eating back exercise calories? Do I need to do this?

2

Replies

  • Pebble321
    Pebble321 Posts: 6,423 Member
    Are you using MFP to calculate your daily calorie allowance? If so, yes you should eat those calories.

    Ae you using another system to determine your daily calorie allowance? If so, probably not.

    EVERY calculator I've seen to calculate your required calories suggest that you eat more if you exercise more. The difference with MFP is that those extra cals don't get added on until you actually exercise, instead of a generic estimate up front. The end results going to be around the same nmber of calories, it's just a different method of working it out.

    But hey, it's your body and your life, if you don't want to eat them, don't.
    Some people do really well not eating them, many others find that it works for a while but isn't sustainable for the long term.
    Lots of good info here: www.shoulieatmyexercisecslories.com

    For the record, I DO eat more when I exercise - I don't see the point in depriving my body of nutrition when it is working hard.
  • albayin
    albayin Posts: 2,524 Member
    I started following Bob Harper on Twitter and asked him this very question today in a live chat. He replied, "If your goal is weight loss, do not eat the calories you burn. You will need that deficit."

    Right and MFP ALREADY includes that deficit into your day. You DO NOT need to increase it. Go ahead and starve yourself but when you plateau, remember this thread.

    Calm down. :) I think most of us here might need a trial and error process to figure out what really works and what not...I wish weight loss WERE as simple as saving/spending money...in greater than out, then money in the bank...
  • rubyduby123
    rubyduby123 Posts: 12
    This is so 100% correct!!!!


    if you are following MFP's guidelines you should be eating your exercise calories... Otherwise you are undereating! MFP does not take in to account your exercise goals when calculating your daily calorie goals, I've been adjusting my exercise goals and it has no impact because of your calorie goal being NET calorie goal NOT gross calorie goal! Therefore anyone that is at a plateau should consider trying to eat their exercise calories and see if you aren't plateauing just because your body is in starvation mode and has cut back on burning fat to make up for it. I'm switching modes and see what happens because currently MFP is showing me at a 990 calorie per day defecit to lose 2 lbs a week, when really I've been trying to eat under 1600 calories which means on the days I'm exercising I'm really at about a 1200-1300 calorie defecit, that means I'm only eating about 50% of my calories needed on my exercise days... your body will adjust to the lack of calories and will STOP burning fat and go in to preservation mode because you are starving yourself (EVEN IF YOU DON'T FEEL HUNGRY, YOU STILL AREN'T GIVING YOUR BODY WHAT IT NEEDS!). There are a lot of people who will disagree with me and that's fine, I'm just telling you what I was told a couple years back when I was working with a physical trainer and a dietician... and through following what they said I was able to lose 30lbs over a 3 month period... then I quit keeping track of my food and quit working out and put it all back on. So you can do what you want, just keep in mind that MFP is setting your NET calorie goal, so if you are plateauing or hungry know that you can, and should be eating your exercise calories (look at professional athletes, Michael Phelps when training for the olympics had to eat 8,000+ calories a day because of how many calories he would burn working out... you should be eating whatever you burn to stay healthy as MFP already set your defecit with the goal of 2lbs per week... you can try to lose more than that, but anyone in the health industry will caution you that 2lbs a week is the max recommended for healthy weight loss, and if you're eating too few it will actually cause you not to lose anything....)
  • Pebble321
    Pebble321 Posts: 6,423 Member
    I don't necessarily believe what MFP puts in - My wife's recommendation was 1200 calories per day. Her nutritionist told her that 1200 was too low considering she exercises 3 days a week. Too low will slow down and/or stop weight loss and is also bad for your nutrition levels.

    I'm sorry, but all this illustrates is that you have missed the point of how MFP works.
    Of course 1200 is too low if you exercise, that's why you add in extra calories when you exercise! Then it wouldn't be too low!

    I repeat: if you use MFP to calculate calories, you should eat your exercise cals, they aren't a "bonus" or a "reward", they make up part of the total calories which are recommended for you to lose weight but still stay healthy.

    If you use another system to work out your cals, that already estimates your exercise and gives you the total number up front, so you don't eat extra.
  • zenart1
    zenart1 Posts: 7 Member
    Thank you ALL for the information! I'm exercising intensely right now...burning around 700-800 cals/day (thanks boot camp)....so you can see why this question is important to me. I'm just starting to learn about all this calorie stuff (funny, I always thought I "knew" enough - boy was I wrong). I'm still reading all the replies, but get the general idea. Thanks again.
  • addict3
    addict3 Posts: 48 Member
    So if the deficit is built into your daily goal .... why exercise for say 500 calories only to eat them back? I understand most people here will tell you that you need to eat them but if I'm going to eat them back and net the same as if I hadn't exercised then I see no point in exercising.

    Exercise, particularly strength training, helps preserve your muscle mass. If you lose weight by cutting calories alone you will lose muscle in addition to fat, and you will end up with a higher body fat percentage than you probably want.



    Ok, I know i'm going to get hammered here and usually stay away from these threads, but what the hell, I can't take it...lol.
    Before I start, I want to say that I believe in exercise and do so myself. Now, with that said, PROTEIN preserves muscle mass and with exercise can build it. No, you do not have to eat back exercise calories if you do not want to. Yes, your body will go into starvation mode if the deficit is too great, BUT, that is temporary. You will start losing again if you remain the same, especially if you remain active. To keep energy and remain active, keep the protein up and eat some at every meal and snack throughout the day. I'm not saying everyone should starve themselves, just stating a fact. A deficit will only cause you to stall for a short while, you have to lose weight, intake vs output. I have been in deficit for a while. The last 36 weeks I have averaged 3.5 lbs per week loss and I have tons of energy and have lost no muscle. In fact, according to my Body Composition Analysis, I have added just a bit. It can be done, just sayin... My meals are closelytracked, measured and spread out throughout the day. My protein, fat and carbs monitored closely with my protein at around 95-100g per day. Ok, that should be enough, here comes the bashing... Oh, I forgot to say, my bloodwork is perfect now as well. I take a daily bariatric vitamin as well.
  • albayin
    albayin Posts: 2,524 Member
    So if the deficit is built into your daily goal .... why exercise for say 500 calories only to eat them back? I understand most people here will tell you that you need to eat them but if I'm going to eat them back and net the same as if I hadn't exercised then I see no point in exercising.

    Exercise, particularly strength training, helps preserve your muscle mass. If you lose weight by cutting calories alone you will lose muscle in addition to fat, and you will end up with a higher body fat percentage than you probably want.



    Ok, I know i'm going to get hammered here and usually stay away from these threads, but what the hell, I can't take it...lol.
    Before I start, I want to say that I believe in exercise and do so myself. Now, with that said, PROTEIN preserves muscle mass and with exercise can build it. No, you do not have to eat back exercise calories if you do not want to. Yes, your body will go into starvation mode if the deficit is too great, BUT, that is temporary. You will start losing again if you remain the same, especially if you remain active. To keep energy and remain active, keep the protein up and eat some at every meal and snack throughout the day. I'm not saying everyone should starve themselves, just stating a fact. A deficit will only cause you to stall for a short while, you have to lose weight, intake vs output. I have been in deficit for a while. The last 36 weeks I have averaged 3.5 lbs per week loss and I have tons of energy and have lost no muscle. In fact, according to my Body Composition Analysis, I have added just a bit. It can be done, just sayin... My meals are closelytracked, measured and spread out throughout the day. My protein, fat and carbs monitored closely with my protein at around 95-100g per day. Ok, that should be enough, here comes the bashing... Oh, I forgot to say, my bloodwork is perfect now as well. I take a daily bariatric vitamin as well.

    Congratulations on all that loss and the success...I am not bashing you by any means but just one question:with all this tracking. calculating, watching...do you still enjoy your day-to-day life? Just curious...to me it requires lots of hard work diligence and concentration...
  • I've read every single entry in this thread, and my brain is about to explode. =/ I am so confused. I adjusted my settings to be "lose 1 lb/week" with "semi-active lifestyle" working out 7 days/week, 30 min/day - and now it says I'm supposed to eat 2050 calories per day?! I'm so so SO confused. This is up from before I adjusted it, when I was supposed to eat 1760 cals/day.

    I understand the concept of MFP having the deficit built-in, the concepts of eating or not eating your exercise calories, but what I cannot understand is why I'm NOT losing weight! I've been at this %&*# for 42 days and I've only lost 6 lbs! I did lose 9, but I gained three back. WTF?!

    I just saw that 42 days = 6 weeks = 6lbs. Nice, self, nice.

    That being said, 2050 seems like an awful lot of calories to me. It's hard for me to hit 15-1700 GROSS unless I hit up the taco bell or eat a few grilled cheeses. Sure there are some days when I can put down 2000+, but it's only maybe 2-3 times per month.

    The exercise is also realistic - if anything I undercut myself - I ride my bike every day, also go to the COSI at least once per week and walk around for 3-5 hours, and do 90% of the house/yard work. Sometimes I just feel really fat and I get on the Wii Fit Plus for 30-45 minutes.

    Anyway, I'm starting to feel very very discouraged, as I think I am working very hard and yet I have nothing to show for it. I've seen some people say that they see a difference in their clothing but I, on the other hand, feel that my pants are tighter than ever. I am eating my recommended calories, drinking a gallon of water every day, exercising every day, and... nothin'.

    Advice? What to do?!
  • addict3
    addict3 Posts: 48 Member
    So if the deficit is built into your daily goal .... why exercise for say 500 calories only to eat them back? I understand most people here will tell you that you need to eat them but if I'm going to eat them back and net the same as if I hadn't exercised then I see no point in exercising.

    Exercise, particularly strength training, helps preserve your muscle mass. If you lose weight by cutting calories alone you will lose muscle in addition to fat, and you will end up with a higher body fat percentage than you probably want.





    Ok, I know i'm going to get hammered here and usually stay away from these threads, but what the hell, I can't take it...lol.
    Before I start, I want to say that I believe in exercise and do so myself. Now, with that said, PROTEIN preserves muscle mass and with exercise can build it. No, you do not have to eat back exercise calories if you do not want to. Yes, your body will go into starvation mode if the deficit is too great, BUT, that is temporary. You will start losing again if you remain the same, especially if you remain active. To keep energy and remain active, keep the protein up and eat some at every meal and snack throughout the day. I'm not saying everyone should starve themselves, just stating a fact. A deficit will only cause you to stall for a short while, you have to lose weight, intake vs output. I have been in deficit for a while. The last 36 weeks I have averaged 3.5 lbs per week loss and I have tons of energy and have lost no muscle. In fact, according to my Body Composition Analysis, I have added just a bit. It can be done, just sayin... My meals are closelytracked, measured and spread out throughout the day. My protein, fat and carbs monitored closely with my protein at around 95-100g per day. Ok, that should be enough, here comes the bashing... Oh, I forgot to say, my bloodwork is perfect now as well. I take a daily bariatric vitamin as well.

    Congratulations on all that loss and the success...I am not bashing you by any means but just one question:with all this tracking. calculating, watching...do you still enjoy your day-to-day life? Just curious...to me it requires lots of hard work diligence and concentration...


    Yes, it does take lots of hard work and commitment, but that's what I need. I have actually adapted and enjoyed my journey so much that I can't imagine my day without it. It has become part of me, my life. I have gotten so good at logging and tracking that it really takes very little time to do it and I find myself looking up recipes, inventing smoothies and planning my grocery list. It takes much less time than I used spend watching tv and stuffing my face. I am now VERY active and loving life!!!
  • sniperzzzz
    sniperzzzz Posts: 282 Member
    I've read every single entry in this thread, and my brain is about to explode. =/ I am so confused. I adjusted my settings to be "lose 1 lb/week" with "semi-active lifestyle" working out 7 days/week, 30 min/day - and now it says I'm supposed to eat 2050 calories per day?! I'm so so SO confused. This is up from before I adjusted it, when I was supposed to eat 1760 cals/day.

    I understand the concept of MFP having the deficit built-in, the concepts of eating or not eating your exercise calories, but what I cannot understand is why I'm NOT losing weight! I've been at this %&*# for 42 days and I've only lost 6 lbs! I did lose 9, but I gained three back. WTF?!

    I just saw that 42 days = 6 weeks = 6lbs. Nice, self, nice.
    That being said, 2050 seems like an awful lot of calories to me. It's hard for me to hit 15-1700 GROSS unless I hit up the taco bell or eat a few grilled cheeses. Sure there are some days when I can put down 2000+, but it's only maybe 2-3 times per month.

    The exercise is also realistic - if anything I undercut myself - I ride my bike every day, also go to the COSI at least once per week and walk around for 3-5 hours, and do 90% of the house/yard work. Sometimes I just feel really fat and I get on the Wii Fit Plus for 30-45 minutes.

    Anyway, I'm starting to feel very very discouraged, as I think I am working very hard and yet I have nothing to show for it. I've seen some people say that they see a difference in their clothing but I, on the other hand, feel that my pants are tighter than ever. I am eating my recommended calories, drinking a gallon of water every day, exercising every day, and... nothin'.

    Advice? What to do?!
    Way to much complication on these forums!
    Let me make it really easy for you, forget mfp calculator.
    Multiply your bodyweight by 15
    If your very overweight, multiply your "Goal" Body weight by 15. The resulting figure will be your estimated maintenance
    calories. Now subtract 500 calories from this figure, eat this amount everyday for a 2 weeks.
    If you don't lose any weight drop 200kcals from that figure and try again. Keep doing this until your losing a pound a week,
    Be sensible if your losing too much increase them. its as simple as that.
    Forget the eating back of exercise calories you wont need to worry about that.
    Still use mfp to log your cals food and "drink"!
  • BrunetteRunner87
    BrunetteRunner87 Posts: 591 Member
    I think you are supposed to because a calorie deficit is already built into your goal for the day, and you don't want to create too much of a deficit.

    But I wouldn't worry about it if you're not hungry. If you're hungry, go ahead and eat them or some of them back like you're supposed to. But if you're not hungry, don't force yourself to eat them back.
  • addict3
    addict3 Posts: 48 Member
    I've read every single entry in this thread, and my brain is about to explode. =/ I am so confused. I adjusted my settings to be "lose 1 lb/week" with "semi-active lifestyle" working out 7 days/week, 30 min/day - and now it says I'm supposed to eat 2050 calories per day?! I'm so so SO confused. This is up from before I adjusted it, when I was supposed to eat 1760 cals/day.

    I understand the concept of MFP having the deficit built-in, the concepts of eating or not eating your exercise calories, but what I cannot understand is why I'm NOT losing weight! I've been at this %&*# for 42 days and I've only lost 6 lbs! I did lose 9, but I gained three back. WTF?!

    I just saw that 42 days = 6 weeks = 6lbs. Nice, self, nice.

    That being said, 2050 seems like an awful lot of calories to me. It's hard for me to hit 15-1700 GROSS unless I hit up the taco bell or eat a few grilled cheeses. Sure there are some days when I can put down 2000+, but it's only maybe 2-3 times per month.

    The exercise is also realistic - if anything I undercut myself - I ride my bike every day, also go to the COSI at least once per week and walk around for 3-5 hours, and do 90% of the house/yard work. Sometimes I just feel really fat and I get on the Wii Fit Plus for 30-45 minutes.

    Anyway, I'm starting to feel very very discouraged, as I think I am working very hard and yet I have nothing to show for it. I've seen some people say that they see a difference in their clothing but I, on the other hand, feel that my pants are tighter than ever. I am eating my recommended calories, drinking a gallon of water every day, exercising every day, and... nothin'.

    Advice? What to do?!


    I had the same problem. After years of diet-gain, diet-gain, My body became so sensitive to it that it would shut down to protect itself from losing. As long as I kept eating that many calories my loss was nearly non existent (I was doing weight watchers). For people like us ( and i'm assuming you are like me) sometimes it comes down to deficit, deficit, deficit. If you have no problems eating less and have trouble eating more, by all means, DON'T eat it. Like many, that is my opinion, everyone has one. My advice would be, if you can comfortably eat less, DO IT! Make sure you get your protein, balance that , carbs (low) and fat (lower) throughout the day. Don't eat one or two big meals, even if it's the same cals etc as more, smaller meals, it doesn't work the same. I eat 3 meals and 3 snacks per day. All of them are small. Try to eat some form of protein with every meal/snack to keep up your energy and keep your metabolism moving. Take a good multivitamin. I take a bariatric vitamin intended for gastric bypass patients, but take one per day instead of the 2 they are supposed to have, since I don't have the malabsorption they do. I hope this helps, good luck.
  • Way to much complication on these forums!
    Let me make it really easy for you, forget mfp calculator.
    Multiply your bodyweight by 15
    If your very overweight, multiply your "Goal" Body weight by 15. The resulting figure will be your estimated maintenance
    calories. Now subtract 500 calories from this figure, eat this amount everyday for a 2 weeks.
    If you don't lose any weight drop 200kcals from that figure and try again. Keep doing this until your losing a pound a week,
    Be sensible if your losing too much increase them. its as simple as that.
    Forget the eating back of exercise calories you wont need to worry about that.
    Still use mfp to log your cals food and "drink"!

    By your calculations, I should be eating 2500 cals/day. That's even more than MFP says to eat. If I eat 2500 cals/day for two weeks, I'm going to GAIN weight!!! That's ridiculous!!! Even if I subtracted 700 cals from the number, I'd still be eating 2300 per day!
    No no no no nooooo.

    Anyone else have advice/suggestion/insight?
    Please, no more telling me I need to eat the caloric equivalent for a teenaged football player. It doesn't help.
  • sniperzzzz
    sniperzzzz Posts: 282 Member
    So how heavy are you and how over weight are you?
    Edit: never mind i cant be assed to help you. Your attitude stinks people are trying to help you here!
    Good luck!
  • monty619
    monty619 Posts: 1,308 Member
    no it defeats the point of doing cardio if you eat back the calories you burn.
  • NoAdditives
    NoAdditives Posts: 4,251 Member
    no it defeats the point of doing cardio if you eat back the calories you burn.

    Not if you're already eating at a calorie deficit.
  • Hi Great question. I am no way an expert but I look at it like this.

    If you are at the beginning of your weight loss don't eat back the deficit.
    If you are at or near the end do eat back the deficit.

    The reason being is, once you are near your goal your body's metabolism would have been slowly changing to be more efficient to not burn as much when you are close to your ideal weight. I bet everyone here can attest to the fact that once we are near our goal weight we have to work really, extra hard and really watch what we eat to get that last 2 or three pounds off...
    When we are in the beginning our weight is higher so our body burns more because we need to burn more so at that stage we don't have to eat our deficit.

    I hope that this helps.

    PS..cheat at least one day a week. Its good for you on more than one level.

    db
  • So how heavy are you and how over weight are you?

    I'm pretty sure you can use your magical calculations to figure that out. Just do it in reverse.

    PS - Didn't your mother ever teach you it's rude to ask a woman her weight?
    :huh:
  • addict3
    addict3 Posts: 48 Member
    Way to much complication on these forums!
    Let me make it really easy for you, forget mfp calculator.
    Multiply your bodyweight by 15
    If your very overweight, multiply your "Goal" Body weight by 15. The resulting figure will be your estimated maintenance
    calories. Now subtract 500 calories from this figure, eat this amount everyday for a 2 weeks.
    If you don't lose any weight drop 200kcals from that figure and try again. Keep doing this until your losing a pound a week,
    Be sensible if your losing too much increase them. its as simple as that.
    Forget the eating back of exercise calories you wont need to worry about that.
    Still use mfp to log your cals food and "drink"!

    By your calculations, I should be eating 2500 cals/day. That's even more than MFP says to eat. If I eat 2500 cals/day for two weeks, I'm going to GAIN weight!!! That's ridiculous!!! Even if I subtracted 700 cals from the number, I'd still be eating 2300 per day!
    No no no no nooooo.

    Anyone else have advice/suggestion/insight?
    Please, no more telling me I need to eat the caloric equivalent for a teenaged football player. It doesn't help.


    Ummm, I did....lol
  • sniperzzzz
    sniperzzzz Posts: 282 Member
    So how heavy are you and how over weight are you?

    I'm pretty sure you can use your magical calculations to figure that out. Just do it in reverse.

    PS - Didn't your mother ever teach you it's rude to ask a woman her weight?
    :huh:
    Lmao im sure your gonna do just fine with that attitude :yawn:
  • monty619
    monty619 Posts: 1,308 Member
    no it defeats the point of doing cardio if you eat back the calories you burn.

    Not if you're already eating at a calorie deficit.
    if ur already eating in a caloric defecit then there is no point to do cardio for weight loss purposes.
  • toysbigkid
    toysbigkid Posts: 545 Member
    bump
  • heleine28
    heleine28 Posts: 34
    Most people who are trying to lose weight to include myself think that we are spinning are wheels if we just eat back those calories. That is not the case, ecspecially if your like me workout right before dinner. Your body just like an engine must have the right fluid (food) to run smoothly. Proper Nutrition is the key to losing weight, not starving yourself.

    I always try to eat my calories back and it has worked for my weight loss goals. Just like already said on here, if you put your body into starvation mode- it will negatively affect your weight loss and the more likely a person is to fall of track and start gaining weight back.

    I have learned to eat more on the days my workouts are heavy so I am not left eatting alot for dinner to make up for calories I have just burnt. But with that being said it is very important to refill the tank just don't overfill it.
  • HealthyNFit4Life
    HealthyNFit4Life Posts: 185 Member
    Listen to your body!! If you aren't hungry at the end of the day, you don't need to eat back your exercise calories. If you feel hungry or week, then eat them back. Everyone is different. Some people lose weight more efficiently by eating them back, others don't. Some days you may eat then back, other days you may not. Your body will tell you if you should be eating more.
  • saracatherine89
    saracatherine89 Posts: 291 Member
    I usually don't unless I am super hungry (like I was today).

    I will 'bank' my leftover calories for days when I can't hit the gym or eat my best. Like if I am under 400 one day, I won't feel awful for going over 400 during the weekend.
  • One of my friends told me to forget about all the eating back or not thing, just multiply your weight by 12 to 18 (depending where you are at weight loss process). It will take out all the guess work.

    I don't think that gives an accurate amount of calories. I'm assuming that 12 is for weight loss and 18 is for maintenance. If so, it has me eating way too many calories. It's far easier to simply eat the number of calories MFP tells you to eat. There are a lot of reasons this system (MFP) was set up the way it was. The main one is that it helps people lose weight while keeping them healthy.

    I'd agree, the 12 to 18 has no basis behind it (unless its directed at one particular person/weight), if I ate 12 times my weight I'd be eating over 2800 calories a day, 18 times my weight would be over 4200 calories. My basal metabolic rate is between 2000 and 2100 calories a day (how many calories I'd burn laying in bed all day doing absolutely nothing)... so 2800 is on the high side (depending on activity level) and 4200 I'd be gaining weight like crazy (unless I was an athlete that my life revolved around working out, but it doesn't... I think MFP does an OK job with setting up goals, the only thing that would help is if it took more information in to consideration (i.e. body fat %, lean muscle weight etc.) but it is just making an assumption based on your weight which isn't the most accurate way, but its good enough...

    For someone 230 pounds 2800 calories is not unheard of for weight loss--at 4'11 and ~100 pounds i frequently eat that much when training vigorously
  • principessang
    principessang Posts: 6 Member
    MFP calculates your deficit for weight loss just by your diet. If you add exercise, you increase the deficit and need to replenish. No different than weight watchers points....workout, get more points. Every trainer I have EVER been to has told me to consume more calories on the days I workout.

    so, lets say you have 1200 calories of food a day, and burn 600 calories at the gym...Your body has only 600 calories remaining fueling your body (simple math, right???) That is unrealistic, and no doctor is going to tell you to live off 600 calories a day. Bob Harper may be a trainer (for a television show in a controlled environment with doctors on site), but he is certainly no doctor.

    If you starve your body, you will see the benefits of the numbers on the scale....but once you reach your goal and move to maintenance calories, you will gain.

    I have lost 30 pounds logging on MFP. I workout 5-6 days a week, and eat almost ALL of my exercise calories every one of those days. I've been right on target losing over the 2lbs a week estimate. Log accurate calories of your exercise. Don't just hop on the machine and let MFP guess how many calories you burned. Enter your weight in the cardio equipment, and it will give you a more accurate calorie burn for your output. THEN enter that amount of calories burned in MFP.

    IF you are really in doubt or confused of what to do, talk to your doctor. I know mine always knows best :)
  • jenniejengin
    jenniejengin Posts: 784 Member
    bump
  • Sarauk2sf
    Sarauk2sf Posts: 28,072 Member
    I started following Bob Harper on Twitter and asked him this very question today in a live chat. He replied, "If your goal is weight loss, do not eat the calories you burn. You will need that deficit."

    He does not understand that a deficit is already set up in the base number MFP gives you (unless that was made clear to him)
  • JBott84
    JBott84 Posts: 268 Member
    MFP calculates your deficit for weight loss just by your diet. If you add exercise, you increase the deficit and need to replenish. No different than weight watchers points....workout, get more points. Every trainer I have EVER been to has told me to consume more calories on the days I workout.

    so, lets say you have 1200 calories of food a day, and burn 600 calories at the gym...Your body has only 600 calories remaining fueling your body (simple math, right???) That is unrealistic, and no doctor is going to tell you to live off 600 calories a day. Bob Harper may be a trainer (for a television show in a controlled environment with doctors on site), but he is certainly no doctor.

    If you starve your body, you will see the benefits of the numbers on the scale....but once you reach your goal and move to maintenance calories, you will gain.

    I have lost 30 pounds logging on MFP. I workout 5-6 days a week, and eat almost ALL of my exercise calories every one of those days. I've been right on target losing over the 2lbs a week estimate. Log accurate calories of your exercise. Don't just hop on the machine and let MFP guess how many calories you burned. Enter your weight in the cardio equipment, and it will give you a more accurate calorie burn for your output. THEN enter that amount of calories burned in MFP.

    IF you are really in doubt or confused of what to do, talk to your doctor. I know mine always knows best :)


    I agree with everything you said...plus a HRM will help immensely!

    to understand easier watch your NET calories, your NET calories should be what MFP set you to...mine is set to 1200...so everyday my NET calories are 1100-1200...depending on how much exercise I do that day...my net may be less, but YES eat back most of your workout calories. I have lost 23lbs in 4 months doing this. I have about 30 left to go. Also the more you have to lose the more of a deficit you can have...That's why people are asking...

    *Edit: So to say it in an even simpler way... you can lose weight just by eating the 1200 (or whatever) that MFP has told you to eat with no exercise, but you will be losing weight in a healthier manner if you do it with the addition of exercise....
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