Eating back exercise calories

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  • Keffinger22
    Keffinger22 Posts: 100 Member
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    Okay so this is what I found. I put in on my settings that I was sedentary because I work a desk job, so in turn it set my calories at 1200. I work out 3 or 4 times for 1 hour each a week and each work out I burn 600-800. I was not eating back my cals because to lose weight you have to burn what you eat. If you eat it back, totally defeats the purpose.

    Anyways I asked the same thing on my status and found out that since 1200 cals is the minimum you should eat, if you workout, 1200 cals is not enough. What was happening to me is that what I did eat was getting stored (basically it puts your body in survival mode and resists to burn you fat) and I was not losing much weight at all, maybe .5 a pound here or .4 a pound there. So I changed my settings to very active 1/2 way through last week and it raised my cals to 1510 cals. I tried it last week and lost 2lbs. That seems more accurate because a year ago when I had a free personal trainer assessment he had set my cals at 1600 a day and 5 days of 30min cardio and 3 days strength training.

    Also setting your goals on MyFitnessPal of your workouts is not calculated into your daily cals. So if you plan on not working out then set it at sedentary or lightly active, it will probably put you at 1200 cals. If you plan on working out atleast 3 times a week or more set it at very active.

    Hope this helps!
  • Futureiznow
    Futureiznow Posts: 28
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    It's best to eat back the calories around exercise primarily ... solid up to an hour before, liquid during and anything after for up to 24 hours. This way they are less likely to be deposited as fat and more likely to be used for energy, glycogen storage and muscle repair and building, and much of the latter is not likely while dieting.

    It's true that exercising on an empty stomach will burn a tad more fat (1 tad to be exact), however that to me makes sense for only
    low intensity cardio. For anything high intensity or long duration (more than 45 mins) the benefit from the extra calories "outweighs"
    the risk of not getting enough :)
  • daisy82805
    daisy82805 Posts: 2
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    You absolutely need to eat those calories back. You should never eat under 1200 calories. That is how much the average body needs just to be alive. If you are excercising you need to eat those burned calories or your metabolism will slow down and you won't be burning anything and also you will be starving your body which can cause other health problems.
  • wackyfunster
    wackyfunster Posts: 944 Member
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    Great, another thead where overweight people advise someone to ignore their doctor's medical advise and eat more food. Doesn't that fall under the "encouraging eating disorders" section of the terms of service here?
  • myfitnessnmhoy
    myfitnessnmhoy Posts: 2,105 Member
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    Okay so this is what I found. I put in on my settings that I was sedentary because I work a desk job, so in turn it set my calories at 1200. I work out 3 or 4 times for 1 hour each a week and each work out I burn 600-800. I was not eating back my cals because to lose weight you have to burn what you eat. If you eat it back, totally defeats the purpose.

    Anyways I asked the same thing on my status and found out that since 1200 cals is the minimum you should eat, if you workout, 1200 cals is not enough. What was happening to me is that what I did eat was getting stored (basically it puts your body in survival mode and resists to burn you fat) and I was not losing much weight at all, maybe .5 a pound here or .4 a pound there. So I changed my settings to very active 1/2 way through last week and it raised my cals to 1510 cals. I tried it last week and lost 2lbs. That seems more accurate because a year ago when I had a free personal trainer assessment he had set my cals at 1600 a day and 5 days of 30min cardio and 3 days strength training.

    Also setting your goals on MyFitnessPal of your workouts is not calculated into your daily cals. So if you plan on not working out then set it at sedentary or lightly active, it will probably put you at 1200 cals. If you plan on working out atleast 3 times a week or more set it at very active.

    Hope this helps!

    Alternatively, set your lifestyle to "sedentary" and log your exercise, then eat the exercise calories back. But whichever way works for you.
  • myfitnessnmhoy
    myfitnessnmhoy Posts: 2,105 Member
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    Great, another thead where overweight people WHO ARE LOSING WEIGHT advise someone to ignore their doctor's medical advise WHICH WOULD CAUSE THEM TO NOT LOSE WEIGHT and eat more food THAT THEY NEED. Doesn't THE DOCTOR'S ADVICE fall under the "encouraging eating disorders" section of the terms of service here?

    Fixed that for ya.
  • Dimples1975
    Dimples1975 Posts: 65 Member
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    Ditto!
  • thaislcrd
    thaislcrd Posts: 76 Member
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    Asked my doctor today and she said 1200 calories is fine if you are healthy, and I am, and that if I eat back my exercise calories I defeat the whole purpose of exercising, unless I want to mantain and not lose.

    *I am eating around 1350 cal a day, but I do not eat all of my exercise calories back. I will not force myself to eat if I'm not hungry!

    For those out there who didn't quite get what I said, I did NOT say I set my calories to 1200, exercise and don't eat them back. Is is higher than that and if I do exercise and I'm not hungry, I will only eat some calories back if it is below 1200. Other than that, I really don't. But I always make sure I ate at least 1200 calories!
  • wackyfunster
    wackyfunster Posts: 944 Member
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    Great, another thead where overweight people WHO ARE LOSING WEIGHT advise someone to ignore their doctor's medical advise WHICH WOULD CAUSE THEM TO NOT LOSE WEIGHT and eat more food THAT THEY NEED. Doesn't THE DOCTOR'S ADVICE fall under the "encouraging eating disorders" section of the terms of service here?

    Fixed that for ya.
    So a medical professional with at least 10 years of experience in human health (med school+residency) who has access to her medical history, bloodwork, etc. and has probably supervised hundreds or thousands of similar cases gives her advice, and random person on the internet with no real knowledge of human health disagrees. Whose advice should probably carry more weight?

    Edit: I am all for a second opinion if needed, but the cavalier way people encourage others to ignore medical advice on this site is really disturbing.
  • lissaann22479
    lissaann22479 Posts: 163
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    Great, another thead where overweight people WHO ARE LOSING WEIGHT advise someone to ignore their doctor's medical advise WHICH WOULD CAUSE THEM TO NOT LOSE WEIGHT and eat more food THAT THEY NEED. Doesn't THE DOCTOR'S ADVICE fall under the "encouraging eating disorders" section of the terms of service here?

    Fixed that for ya.
    So a medical professional with at least 10 years of experience in human health (med school+residency) who has access to her medical history, bloodwork, etc. and has probably supervised hundreds or thousands of similar cases gives her advice, and random person on the internet with no real knowledge of human health disagrees. Whose advice should probably carry more weight?

    Edit: I am all for a second opinion if needed, but the cavalier way people encourage others to ignore medical advice on this site is really disturbing.
  • thaislcrd
    thaislcrd Posts: 76 Member
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    So here it goes:
    Ask your doctor, that knows your health and medical history, what is best for you. Remember, "One size does NOT fit all! "
  • TeaBea
    TeaBea Posts: 14,517 Member
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    Asked my doctor today and she said 1200 calories is fine if you are healthy, and I am, and that if I eat back my exercise calories I defeat the whole purpose of exercising, unless I want to mantain and not lose.

    *I am eating around 1350 cal a day, but I do not eat all of my exercise calories back. I will not force myself to eat if I'm not hungry!


    Wow! Incredible.

    To me the "whole purpose" of exercise is to KEEP existing muscle mass. I'm over 50 .... so I may need it more than others ... but seriously isn't muscle mass good for everybody no matter your age?

    If I eat every single exercise calorie back and lose a little more slowly .... that's fine by me as long as I keep existing muscle mass.
  • myfitnessnmhoy
    myfitnessnmhoy Posts: 2,105 Member
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    Edit: I am all for a second opinion if needed, but the cavalier way people encourage others to ignore medical advice on this site is really disturbing.

    Fair enough - but when you've experienced doing exactly what someone's doctor has recommended, and had it fail for you repeated times over decades, and have many friends who have suffered the same failure for the same reason, that's gotta count for something, I'd hope.

    Undereating is not a sustainable way to lose weight. I've worked with a number of doctors to try and lose weight, and had many of them give me the same advice - eat VERY LITTLE and exercise A LOT. I end up sick, tired, and disheartened at the prospect of losing more weight. I wasted 30 years trying to follow medical professionals' advice before I finally realized that my doctors were all very well trained at medicine, but not so much at nutrition.

    The tools provided by this site espouse a certain technique toward weight loss - setting a specific caloric deficit and maintaining that deficit to lose weight at a steady pace without discomfort. The people who have used this technique successfully are going to champion it.

    Anecdotal evidence is anecdotal, but there are enough people here who have lost weight without misery using the technique this site was built to support, I think it's appropriate to encourage that technique.
  • hbrittingham
    hbrittingham Posts: 2,518 Member
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    Great, another thead where overweight people advise someone to ignore their doctor's medical advise and eat more food. Doesn't that fall under the "encouraging eating disorders" section of the terms of service here?

    Actually, no it doesn't fall under that section. Doctors may have gone to medical school, but that doesn't automatically make them nutritionists. Matter of fact, nutrition is a very small part of what they learn in medical school. I personally believe that the doctor is the one who is "encouraging eating disorders" by telling a patient that eating 1200 calories and not eating back exercise calories is the way for them to lose weight.
  • thaislcrd
    thaislcrd Posts: 76 Member
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    Great, another thead where overweight people advise someone to ignore their doctor's medical advise and eat more food. Doesn't that fall under the "encouraging eating disorders" section of the terms of service here?

    Actually, no it doesn't fall under that section. Doctors may have gone to medical school, but that doesn't automatically make them nutritionists. Matter of fact, nutrition is a very small part of what they learn in medical school. I personally believe that the doctor is the one who is "encouraging eating disorders" by telling a patient that eating 1200 calories and not eating back exercise calories is the way for them to lose weight.

    I think what you are having is a hard time understanding what I wrote. My doctor didn't say set your daily goal at 1200 calories, exercise and don't eat them back. she said as long as I get 1200 calories I'll be fine. That means, if I set my goal to 1500, burn 300 exercising, I'll still have 1200. So if I'm not hungry, I don't have to eat. If I set it to 1400, burn 300 exercising, then I will need to eat at least 100 more.
  • hbrittingham
    hbrittingham Posts: 2,518 Member
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    Great, another thead where overweight people advise someone to ignore their doctor's medical advise and eat more food. Doesn't that fall under the "encouraging eating disorders" section of the terms of service here?

    Actually, no it doesn't fall under that section. Doctors may have gone to medical school, but that doesn't automatically make them nutritionists. Matter of fact, nutrition is a very small part of what they learn in medical school. I personally believe that the doctor is the one who is "encouraging eating disorders" by telling a patient that eating 1200 calories and not eating back exercise calories is the way for them to lose weight.

    I think what you are having is a hard time understanding what I wrote. My doctor didn't say set your daily goal at 1200 calories, exercise and don't eat them back. she said as long as I get 1200 calories I'll be fine. That means, if I set my goal to 1500, burn 300 exercising, I'll still have 1200. So if I'm not hungry, I don't have to eat. If I set it to 1400, burn 300 exercising, then I will need to eat at least 100 more.

    Well, I'm glad you clarified that. You are saying that she says you should net 1200 right? That's not how it read and what I, and many others, were responding to.
    Asked my doctor today and she said 1200 calories is fine if you are healthy, and I am, and that if I eat back my exercise calories I defeat the whole purpose of exercising, unless I want to mantain and not lose.
  • wackyfunster
    wackyfunster Posts: 944 Member
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    Wow, so the medical professional was right after all! Who could have seen that coming? My money was on the internet nutritional gurus :P

    P.S. There are many cases where low-cal is appropriate and commonly prescribed. Without going into detail, I've had a few morbidly obese friends who has been basically told "you are going to die within 5 years if you don't lose a ton of weight" who have done <1000 calories under medical supervision (and these are huge guys whose BMR has to be >2000), and had great results. One friend has gone from a 179/120 blood pressure (i.e. one point higher and he would have been sent to the hospital) and pre-diabetic to 125/85 and healthy blood sugar in 4 months on such a diet. He is now doing Crossfit, and, while still clinically obese, all his health measures are either normal or slightly elevated. I can't tell you how proud I am of him... he has made huge lifestyle changes, and is seeing unbelievable results. The fact that the same here would tell him "don't eat under your BMR" or "don't eat under 1500 calories if you're a guy" and "ignore your doctor, he doesn't know what he's talking about" and support the lifestyle that nearly killed him really bothers me. The fact that you think of yourself as more of an expert on healthy weight loss than a medical professional is also disturbing.
  • hbrittingham
    hbrittingham Posts: 2,518 Member
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    Wow, so the medical professional was right after all! Who could have seen that coming? My money was on the internet nutritional gurus :P

    The fact that the same here would tell him "don't eat under your BMR" or "don't eat under 1500 calories if you're a guy" and "ignore your doctor, he doesn't know what he's talking about" and support the lifestyle that nearly killed him really bothers me. The fact that you think of yourself as more of an expert on healthy weight loss than a medical professional is also disturbing.

    I am just going to have to assume that you are talking to someone else and not me since I never said for the poster to ignore her doctor. I said that I personally would find a new doctor if mine told me to only eat 1200 calories and not eat back exercise calories, which is what the poster actually said and then clarified. So, no, I didn't and wouldn't tell anyone to ignore their doctor.

    And I am really sorry that it disturbs you so badly that some of us realize that doctors are not the be all end all of nutritional needs and healthy eating. There are plenty of them out there that will whip out the prescription pad and write a prescription for appetite suppressants or meds that can be used as diet pills.
  • sa11yjane
    sa11yjane Posts: 491 Member
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    I love the way that threads always turn into 'debates'...for want of a friendly term!!! Thank you so much to each and every one of you who has responded to my query. I have upped my daily calories from 1200 to my BMR of 1350 and may or may not eat back some of my extra calories earned through exercising depending on whether or not I am hungry. If I don't lose weight then I will rethink!

    I love this site and I love you all for your helpful/thoughtful/provocative comments (read whichever one is appropriate!). Good luck with each and every one of you on your own personal journey and thanks again x
  • davegrs1
    davegrs1 Posts: 6
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    My doctor is the one that encouraged me to start using MFP and she said not to log the exercise at all. Calculating calories burned is a tricky business, and you can wind up "eating back" far more calories than you actually burn, thus negating any of the calorie deficets you generate.

    My $.02.

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