Advise from MFP Peeps. on eating back exercise calories burned

Losing weight relies on a calorie deficit... in order to lose one pound of fat you need to eat (or work off) 3500 LESS calories than your maintenance calories. MFP already has you at that deficit... so you would eat 500 less calories a day than maintenance to lose 1 pound a week. If you exercise, you increase that deficit. Which you would THINK is a good thing... BUT... if that deficit gets TOO big, it's actually detrimental to your health and can and WILL mess up your metabolism in the long run. There have also been studies that show that an average female should not eat LESS than 1200 calories in a day (a male, 1500) or your body will believe it is starving and will refuse to release the fat... and will begin burning muscle instead... bad. THAT is why MFP wants you to eat back those calories. Even eating them, you will be at enough of a deficit to lose weight. At a HEALTHY rate. To those on a 1200 calorie diet, I usually suggest that you reset your goals to 1250 or 1300 so that you can eat TO or just above the 1200 NET so that MFP doesn't tell you you're over. I've been doing it since Feb and I'm very close to 25 pounds down... You really can't argue with success. :)


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MFP calculates your calorie allowance using your BMR (the calories your body burns each day at rest), daily activity level and your weight loss goals (the calorie deficit needed each day) .

So, the calorie allowance you see has the calorie deficit already accounted for. Once you add exercise, it creates an even larger calorie deficit. If you have a LOT of weight to lose, it's not that big of a deal if you are spreading your food out and eating your daily allowance. You're still going to lose weight.

BUT, if you're getting close to your goal weight and you're finding that the pounds aren't coming off, even though you've created a great calorie deficit... try eating those "extra" calories. Your body is looking for fuel and balance. You have to find your calorie "sweet spot" so to speak. Sometimes that means eating more.

Hope that made sense. :)


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eat back or not eat back the calories???

One issue that seems to be related to MFP more than any other forum I post on is the question of "to eat or not to eat" the calories one expends exercising. I'm assuming it has something to do with the logging and calculations used on MFP, which I am admittedly unfamiliar with. However, suffice it to say that I get this question in my inbox a few times each week, so it's obviously worth mentioning on the forum.

First, let it be known that there are no universally accepted rules regarding eating them back or not. The reason being is because there's no magic to it - it comes down to energy balance. Nothing more. Let me explain...

Let's try to make this real simple:

Maintenance calorie intake is where calories in = calories out, right?

We know that a calorie deficit is required if fat is to be lost, so calories in < calories out.

Large deficits can have negative effects such as increased cravings, muscle loss, irritability, unsustainability (I made that word up), etc.

So we want a moderate deficit, which I'd label as 20-35% off of your maintenance. There's latitude here, mind you.

So if your maintenance is 2000 calories, anywhere from 1300 to 1600 calories would be realistic for fat loss.

That's a deficit of 400-700 calories per day.

Said deficit, in theory, could come from a number of combinations.

On one end of the spectrum you could simply eat 400-700 calories less per day. This assumes the energy out side of the equation stays reasonably static.

On the other end of the spectrum you could keep eating 2000 calories but increase calories expended via exercise to 400-700 calories per day.

If you went with this latter scenario, you wouldn't have to eat back your exercise calories because the expended calories from exercise put you in the sweet spot, calorically speaking.

Now if you cut calories by 400-700 AND increased activity by 400-700, then you'd be running too large a deficit unless you ate back your exercise calories. I can't express how general this is, but it's something many should listen to. Obese folks, on the contrary, can run much larger deficits than thinner folks for reasons we won't get into here today. But all of these relatively thin folks who are trying to "beat their bodies into submission" by blitzing it full force with calorie deprivation and massive amounts of exercise should probably heed this advice.

In real terms, most people establish their deficits partly by cutting calories and partly by increasing activity. But for those of you wondering whether you should be eating back your calories expended exercising, you need to look at your calories in net terms. Where does your deficit stand without eating back your exercise calories?

I'll note that personally I don't worry about any of this with my own training or my clients. I set what I consider sane and productive volumes of various exercise (strength training, energy system development, conditioning for fat loss, etc.). From there, there's really not a lot of variability in energy expenditure since I know, by and large, what volume of exercise is required to drive the adaptations I'm shooting for.

Therefore, the only thing to really manipulate is calorie intake. It's a much cleaner approach but to each his own. Do what you're happy with and what makes the most sense for you

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Myfitnesspal.com AWESOME!!

http://www.myfitnesspal.com/

Calories Burned Calculator!

This is a Great Calories Burned Calculator! It takes your weight and mins spent working out..then you go find the activity you were doing..even house work!



http://www.primusweb.com/fitnesspartner/calculat.htm

Ok Peeps! I'm At It AGAIN!

Yes.. I am back to 147! And I actually feel as my gutt is bigger than last time at this weight! WEIRD! I better take my measurements...

I have a new thing to help me this time.. an App on my iPod called myfitnesspal. It's pretty cool! they have a webpage by the same name.. check it out!

So ok..My STARTING WEIGHT this time is 146 lbs.

I actually started yesterday..and with that app discovered that I'm supposed to eat more if I exercise.. so now I'm all confused. But I am going to go back over all of the really neat posts and articles I c=shared last time I did this.. I have already read the one on when to eat.. so great!

Anyway! I also have a new problem..that somehow fit in to all of this, and it's an Autoimmune Disease called Sjogrens... it's tear duct thing.. it can be a problem for sure..it is actually. But we shall see...

LUVS!

Gail