Hypothyroidism and Hyperthyroidism

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Eating back your exercise calories

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bethanylaugh
bethanylaugh Posts: 237
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Hi all - I know in the normal forums everyone is adamant about eating back your exercise calories.

I've had bad experiences with this, typically resulting in weight gain. I haven't done it for more than a week or so, though, because of the gain, so I guess it's possible that it would balance out eventually.

What do other hypothyroid people do? I can't help but think we're in a special category and perhaps eating back the calories doesn't have the same effect as it would with someone with a normal, and natural, metabolism.

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  • nspink
    nspink Posts: 65
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    I myself do not eat back calories burn. It definitely did not work for me. I ended up gaining instead. But there was another topic about that and there were a few people trying it. Hopefully you can find the topic and see what results they had.

    But I think it is good to do when you need to break a platueu. It's going to mix things up so even if you gain at first when you stop eating back you may end up losing more faster. Confuse your body.

    Good luck!
  • shvits
    shvits Posts: 249 Member
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    I eat back some or all of the calories and am VERY slowly loosing.
  • kagero1976
    kagero1976 Posts: 19 Member
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    I figured out what I burn a day with exercise and I subtract 500 calories a day from the total amount that I use. That is my calorie goal. That enables me to lose a pound a week, in theory. So far it has been working. I don't know if you would consider that eating back exercise calories or not. If I wasn't exercising, I would have to eat less to have the same deficit.

    I found it much easier with MFP to not enter in my exercise and just manually set my calorie "goal" with the assumption that I am exercising each day. It was very confusing to me to have x amount of calories left, enter in some exercise, and then have more calories to use. I just want to know from the beginning of the day what I have for calories. I find that much more clear cut.
  • Daydreams406
    Daydreams406 Posts: 249 Member
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    I have been eating back most of the calories. But think I may only do 1/4 of them. I have been losing so slowly. Too slow for me it is so frustrating!
  • TXBelle1174
    TXBelle1174 Posts: 615 Member
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    I do not eat back my calories. When I do, my weight loss stalls out. I make sure that I hit my calorie limit every day, or very close to it but even if I get a BIG burn, I dont eat them all back. I may treat myself to something small, but dont do that often.
  • tecallahan
    tecallahan Posts: 732 Member
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    In the past, I had my base calories at 1200 and I rarely ate back exercise calories. Now I have my base calories at 1350 and I eat back most or all of my exercise calories. Funny thing is I haven't lost or gained any weight in a couple of months. So, I'm on a hiatus from trying to lose weight right now -- just trying to be healthy and I think my body needs more calories/nutrition to do what I ask it to do.

    Be careful of intense exercise without enough calories - you are inviting Reverse T3. I had it and it is hard to get rid of.
    http://thyroid-rt3.com/ -- this site says the only way to get rid of it is to get on T3 only meds. But I didn't do that -- so there are other ways to get rid of it.

    Terri
  • moejo3
    moejo3 Posts: 224 Member
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    I don't eat back all of the carlories. What seems to work for me is I try to eat around 1350-1450 calories on non work out days and 1500-1650 on heave workout days. If I am just walking or cleaning house I don't eat them back. I really just listen to my body if I am hungry I eat (mindfully!). If I ate too much I work out a little harder that night or the next day
  • debbylee22
    debbylee22 Posts: 456 Member
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    Hi,
    I have been following a physique transformation style diet (body builders)... it helped me fix a very slowed-down metabolism about 6 years ago. (I was gaining weight on less then 1000 calories a day).
    It is a very high protien/low carb diet (mostly no bad carbs), and fairly low fat also.
    It brought my metabolism up tremendously (this was before becoming hypothyroid). But I used it this year to take off 35 lbs, so it still works for me.
    Four different days... (which would obviously alter with your own BMI, I'll show you mine)
    Monday - 1151 calories - Friday too
    Tuesday - 1351 calories - Saturday too
    Wednesday - 1551
    Thursday - 1751 - Sunday too
    Friday- 1151 calories
    Saturday - 1351 calories
    Sunday - 1751
    Their suggestion was to do cardio on Monday & Friday before eating... the low days are the only days you feel hungry, and the highest days can be difficult... Also, with the real PTDiet... you have a conditioning that gets you eating up to 2400 calories or more before starting this weight-loss stage... but I was able to skip that this time.

    I am repetitive in my eating habits, so I use a basic plan, then when I need to eat more I add a rice cake or 2, some rice, or something to make the higher days.
    This really works, and keeps the body very happy, lets the weight come off...

    That is till the last few lbs, and then you have to figure out a way to get through it... which is where I am now. I have just added Virgin Coconut oil to my diet & have begun losing weight again... however, I am still kind of scared to add any more calories, since the oil added so many to every day.
  • tecallahan
    tecallahan Posts: 732 Member
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    That is interesting, debbylee!! Its sort of a calorie confusion so your body doesn't get used to a certain number of calories and store it incorrectly. And I know what you mean about the last 5 pounds. That's where I am - but I'm a happy camper to not be gaining.

    And ditto on the repetitive eater - LOL - my husband can't believe I am perfectly content to eat the same things every day. He feels sorry for me and wants to give me different types of food.
  • debbylee22
    debbylee22 Posts: 456 Member
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    LOL! we must be two of a kind! :flowerforyou:
  • whutzup1
    whutzup1 Posts: 128 Member
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    I don't eat back my exercise calories, I tried and gained weight. I gain weight by looking at food it's terrible. Wish my metabolism worked better for me. Good luck:flowerforyou:
  • kristy6ward
    kristy6ward Posts: 332 Member
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    I eat back my calories up to a point. On a non workout day I'll eat around 1650-1800, on lifting days it could go up to around 2100. I'm losing slowly, but consistently. My biggest problem is water retention, mainly from too much sodium.
  • SweatpantsRebellion
    SweatpantsRebellion Posts: 754 Member
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    I used this site to figure my calorie goal:

    www.fat2fitradio.com/tools/

    So I eat 2300 (plus 300 breastfeeding calories) calories a day, more if I have a higher burn. I'm careful to always net at least 1800. My BMR is in the 1700ish range depending on the online calculator used, so I net at least 1800 every day to be on the safe side. I'm losing at a slow and steady rate of about 1 -1.5 pounds a week.

    I'd be careful doing low cal. I think with hypo more nutrition is better. We don't need our metabolism to slow any more than it already has!
  • bethanylaugh
    bethanylaugh Posts: 237
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    a little history -

    My BMR usually lands somewhere around 1400 a day, so:
    - I went a very long time (like, months & years) eating 1200 calories a day and was gaining despite "normal" thyroid numbers (this is pre-Armour)
    - I got fed up and went to see a weight management doctor who wanted me to go on phentermine and eat 1000cals a day. i really didn't want to take phentermine but he convinced me to do it for about 3 weeks until i got used to such a small amount of food
    - after stopping the phentermine, i stayed on 1000 calories a day - this was the first time in years that i was finally losing weight. i did that for a few months.
    - during that time, i had been working out 2-3 times a week (mostly P90X routines)

    - Recently I upped my calories to 1150 - which was totally terrifying for me due to my history, but I had started taking armour and thought it was a good time to do it. I've also started working out every day with a heart rate monitor, with a goal of burning 600-800 calories through exercise a day.

    I know, I know - trust me, I know... this leaves me at like -950 calories a day (1400BMR, 1150 calories, average 700 burned) BUT whenever I try to eat more I gain (take the last 2 weeks, for example - tried eating around 1450 calories a day and managed to gain 5 pounds. it's been too long to just be bloat!). Funny how much easier it is to gain, isn't it?

    My doctor (well, not really *my* doctor - a fellow in his office) said that this is explained by me "just not needing that many calories" - because i don't typically feel hungry/underfed, and have a mostly normal sleeping pattern. I'm sure, though, that if i wasn't eating protein, veggies, and whole grains all day, I would be a lot hungrier.

    I am absolutely going to have them check my reverse T3, on Wednesday in fact (my first set of bloodwork since starting armour! yay!), but I'm wary because I haven't had low body temperature (checked 3x daily for a few days in a row) and i'm not exceptionally tired, so chances are that isn't the issue.

    SO - anyone else remotely near this situation? Or has anyone been in this situation before and fixed it? I like the idea of different calorie levels everyday, but I'm VERY nervous about it and to be honest, I'm not typically hungry after eating what I eat all day and i feel like I would just be padding my calories with carbs and fat.

    And how accurate is BMR, really? I know the numbers apply to something like 70% of the population, but how much of an outlier could I possibly be? Is it possible to even have a BMR of 1000?
  • SweatpantsRebellion
    SweatpantsRebellion Posts: 754 Member
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    I recommend reading through some of the stuff on this group.

    http://www.myfitnesspal.com/groups/home/3817-eat-more-to-weigh-less

    If you are doing low cal and increase your calories, you will gain weight at first. You might have to spend a month just resetting your metabolism, but you WILL lose. We are hypo, but ultimately when our thyroid is properly treated, we will lose weight like everyone else (unless there are other issues that need to be addressed). I really don't believe your BMR could be that low. Personally I think that doctor doesn't know enough about this issue. Hunger and satiety is heavily influenced by so many things including past and current eating habits. If we're used to low cal, we don't necessarily feel hungry enough to eat a higher amount. That doesn't mean we're eating the right amount. If that were true, why don't we lose weight when we only eat to hunger? Another thing that's true of most people is that eating low cal, especially under BMR, jacks up hormones - something we don't need.

    That being said, you will have to decide what you feel most comfortable with. I highly recommend reading up and making an informed decision. The people in that group are really really nice if you want to join for a bit even if it's just to ask some questions. Good luck!
  • moopity
    moopity Posts: 54 Member
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    hi,

    this is something i debate a lot, and i'm not sure what to do yet. i'm new to the site and trying to figure this out, among other things :)

    here's a link to a trainer's blog that helped me:

    http://body-improvements.com/resources/eat/

    right now, i eat back about 50 - 200 of my exercise calories. really depends on the day and how hungry i am. yesterday i ate 1100 and the day before it was much higher. i'm kind of following my body...

    good luck and please keep us posted!
  • shakybabe
    shakybabe Posts: 1,578 Member
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    I went very low carb and wheat free and lost loads of water.. eating wheat makes me put water on but sometimes I miss pasta & pizza so what I do is I treat myself once a month when I have gained water anyway from monthlies. As soon as they start and water starts coming off.. I go back to really low carb, drink loads of water to help the water come off with the excess this usually works and lose an extra 2-3 lbs this week.

    I also exercise intensely the week before they start and stop as soon as they do and have a break whilst water is coming off (plus I usually get bad stomach cramps anyway) once all excess water is off and I can see what lowest weight is that I've got down to.. I go back to the exercise for rest of the month as I'm still trying to tighten tummy up.

    My tummy has stayed biggest area even though its shrunk from what it was originally (48" around abdomen... now 34") but was hoping it would be smaller as problem is if still trying to lose all over my wrists are already thin, can see outline of collarbone and ribs and lost loads of chest (from 40" to 34 ") and face. My thighs are alot leaner but still around abdomen is biggest and still have that slightly doughy abdomen which I was told I can't do anything about cos its cos of my thyroid.. anyone else been told this? At minute I can't get below a size 14 (UK) cos of tummy area.

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