who and when came up with the idea of eating back cals?

i'm struggling with this concept. eating back excercise cals, i mean. see, i live in a country where noone suggests eating back exercise cals, dietitians, nutritionists, doctors, weigth loss forums all recommend eating 1000 or 1200 cals a day no matter how much you burn through exercise... the thing is people have great and stable results by doing this. i talk to my friends and noone eats back the worked off cals and their weight loss seems permanent... i used to live in the States for a while and there's where i first met the concept of eating back the cals - i loved it cause it allowed me to eat more :) and that's what i've been doing ever since, but haven't lost anything.... i have to lose 10lbs but 15-20 would be great. so i lost it once, about three yrs ago on south beach but a year later it was back, and then i lost it again by a three day juice fast, and again one year later it was back and that's when i was in the States and started my-food-diary, an cc and stuff like that and didn't lose any, so, ugh, what do i do?

is eating back the exercise cals is a more modern approach to weight loss?

thanks...

Where do you live?
Remember in the past the grapefruit diet was suggested
There's LOTS of sites and people who vouch for it
But note. You dont have to eat back every single cal. 75% is usually good enoguh. the thing is think of thiss
Your body MUST HAVE 1200 cals a day to pump blood etc. if you eat 1200 cals and do nothing, you're at equal. So if you go and do 1200 cals of exercise, your body uses that fuel for your heart etc on the exercise. Its like a car and petrol (except your body keeps going by burning muscle)

Also you may lose weight by only having juice but is it healthy? think of the stress your body is going through. just eat healthy and eat appropriate amount and it'll be fine unless you have a medical condition

hey, my mum was Polish, father Austrian (not in touch with him tough) i live in Poland now, spent my childhood in Australia, then i lived for a short while in Germany, and later in the US, where i felt great with my weight!!!! here everybody is so petite - women are mostly abuot 5'2 and weigh 110 lbs, i'm 5'5 and 137lbs, i know that's healthy but i feel heavy, guess it's social pressure or something. that's why i loved the US, you know, i just felt normal there and noone looked at me as if i was fat, cause i'm not! but here, ugh, i just want to scream at those people in the streets giving me those looks full of dissaprovement. strange things are happening inside my head with this kind of pressure. but i would never ovverride my body or do something harmful.

There's also a thread that talks about having plateaus b/c  you're not eating enough...so that's the danger if you have your calories set to 1200 every day and then exercise, you'll go below what you need (Women should not go below 1200).  You're height and weight does sound pretty reasonable.  I'm 5'4" and my goal weight is about 135. I think that's what "fits" me. 

If you calculate your BMI it's 22.8, which is in the normal range, so I'm glad to hear you know you're "normal".  Just keep eating healthy as much as you can.

I have to agree with you, eugrrrlll - I'm having difficulties understanding the "eating back cals burned in workout".  My best friend just took a nutrition class and no where in her text books/classes/notes did she find anything about eating back cals burned.  She's sending me some nifty software and her text books and notes so I can browse through.

I guess the reason I don't understand is that I want my body to use the energy it's stored as fat, I don't want to feed it more.  I eat at least 1300 cals/day, some days up to 1700 cals. so this whole concept is confusing for me. In fact - before I started trying to eat back the cals I've burned or just to get me back up to 1200 net cals/day - i was losing weight very well.  Since i've started eating back cals burned - my weightloss has stopped completely.  I managed to maintain the past few weeks at 228 (I went up 5lbs last weekend - prolly water weight, because as of yesterday I was back at 228). 

Honestly, I think i'm going to go back to how I was doing it before.

Okay...I am going to add my thoughts...I agree with you all...I was floored when I first was looking at this site and yes I posted many questions asking why in the hesk you eat back the calories...I thought one of the main reasons was for health and weight loss...BUT...I thought what the heck, I have nothing to lose but weight!

I only have 10 pounds to lose so it doesn't come off easy.  I have been trying to lose these 10 pounds for about 5 years now...I have tried weight watchers, nutrisystem, atkins, etc, etc, etc.  I abided by the 1200 calorie/day thing and exercised daily and could not for the life of me figure why I wasn't losing.  I would get so frustrated, quit, and then pick up with another diet.

I tried it...I religiously logged my calories in here, logged my activities, and kept my deficit between 400 and 500 calories/day.  Well wouldn't you know that after 5 days I lost 1.6 pounds.  I was so happy!  I was jumping around my house and everything (yes my kids looked at me as though their mother has just lost it).  I am now only 3 weeks in but I have lost just under 3 lbs...and that's 3 lbs that all those other diets couldn't give me. 

I don't deprive myself...I LOVE chocolate (just had a snickers), but I log everything and keep my deficit at the recommended interval.

I don't know who came up with this concept either and have never heard of this until a few weeks ago but it works and I'm not starving!!

Sunny

I also disagree with the "eating back calories" ..........as you said since you've been doing this you haven't lost weight!

Almost everyone over estimates the calories they burn in exercise and under estimate the calories they've eaten........not a good combination at all for weight loss.

If you go back to eating 1200 to 1400 calories a day and don't calculate your exercise into the mix you'll begin to lose weight again (although I don't see you needing to lose much weight at all.)

I think the "eat back" theory is what kills most diets and prevents weight loss.

I'm in the very beginning stages of weightloss.  I've lost 17lbs in the past 6 weeks and have another 53 lbs to go to meet my first goal of 175lbs by Christmas 2007 (this year).  This site says to eat no more than 1800 cals/day to meet that goal. 

I'm 5'7" tall, currently weigh 228lbs and am 25yrs old. Per this sites calculators I burn 2500 cals/day at a light activity level as I do get up through out the day and move around and I have been at least walking/riding the bike for 30min a day.  Before I started eating back my cals, I was losing weight left and right, now, I'm finding it hard to get the scale to budge and I've been doing as suggested here by eating back what I burned.  I think I'm going to keep myself at 1500 cals/day no more and just stick with the 30 min bike (burns about 365 cals) will keep me over 1200 net cal intake daily.

Any thoughts? any advice?

While I do agree with eating back some calories, I think that everyone is different.  You need to do what helps you to lose weight.  Eat and exercise so you lose 1-2 lbs a week.  The slower you lose it the more likely it is that it will stay off.

Like has been said in previous posts women's bodies need 1200 calories MINIMUM just to run your bodies.  Men need 1500.  If you eat less than this you will lose some weight to start, but it will stop because your body is not getting what it needs to just run your organs.  It will not use the fat as fuel, it will use muscle.

If you are eating a certain number of calories and are not losing weight try increasing your calories for a couple of days and see what happens.  You are not going to gain back 20 lbs in a couple of days from eating an extra 200 calories.

When you do log your food use a food scale.  Measure out everything.  You do underestimate how much you are eating without it.

Oh and most fad diets do not work because you are depriving yourself of something.  Eating a healthy balanced diet for a lifetime is the best way to make this work and continue to work.  You can still indulge in your favorite foods and still eat a healthy balanced diet.

What about maybe thinking of it a different way? I have my own daily log, where I put in the food and calorie amounts I eat, and I put in the exercise as a negative number... so if (when) my total is more than it should be, I can do more exercise to bring it back down to where it needs to be. Instead of "eating back" calories, I "undo" or "erase" the extra ones I've already eaten...

The past few weeks (that I've maintained 228lbs on the scale) I had tried increasing my daily intake and all it's done for me is maintenance.

GH-Ontario - I like that idea.  :)

Confused..................

okay, for me, my calculations say that in order to LOSE weight, (from 147 to 120) I need to consume 1,250 calories per day until September 22, 2007......

If I want to MAINTAIN my current weight, I need to consume between 1,400 and 1,450 calories per day.

So, this eating back calories.... I thought this meant -

consumed -       &n bsp;     1800

burned       -       &n bsp;      550

total NET calories - 1,250

Or should I be consuming 1,250 and burning the rest as extra -

consumed      & nbsp;      1,250

burned      &nb sp;                550

total NET calories       700

Let me know~~~~~~~~~~~~~

oh, it's got to be the first one, so NET is 1,250... the second option isn't enough calories in a day.

cjeka - Thanks! ;)

cjeka.....sounds like were in the same boat.  I'm trying to be patient because I have been on too many starvation diets because my friends would lose faster than  me.  I have a lot of will power and
so I would starve myself 3-6mths and get down to where I wanted ONLY to regain it 3-6mths later.  Did this for 20 years.  over and over.

I really want to find out how to eat healthy and lose.  I just have not figured it out yet in the month I've been here.

My first month I lost 7# eating about 1400 calories and exercising about an hour

My 2nd month I've lost nothing zero.  Eating about 1800 calories I even had 2000 one day.  I'm also exercising 2 hours a day. 

some told me I built muscle i've heard things......

I have lost some inches.  So, that's encouraging.  Have you measured yourslef?

I'm just going to keep on keeping on. 

Oh someone brought the idea of too many carbs to my attention so today I'm going to count carbs and present them to that person and see what they think.  Carbs never crossed my mind just calories.

See ya around :)))

I'm not sure where the "eating back calories" came from, but from everything I've read in emerging obesity research, it seems like prudent advice, particularly for those who, if they don't eat them back, would go under 1200 net intake.

There's overwhelming research that extreme, restrictive diets that create too great a deficit DO NOT WORK. People lose weight, only to regain it - rapidly. And then have a harder time losing. There are numerous theories why this is, and it's true we don't know for sure why it is. It seems that a complex interchange of hormones are at work (google the term "leptin resistance" for example). It is still debatable whether extreme diets permanently change metabolism or only temporarily.

So the advice emerging from expert after expert is to keep the deficit minimal. Shave only a 100 calories here or there - don't go too extreme. Weight loss takes a lot longer this way, but is more apt to be successful and permanent.

Then there's the body builder experts who've long recognized that you need to eat to build muscle mass, and that you can change your body composition completely - without dieting to create a deficit. The body needs calories to change its composition. It's at cross-purposes to reduce calories dramatically AND expect to build muscle and get fitter.

Jenmcc.....you gave me something to chew thanks. 

hey amyb

In that net amount you have to consider the cals you are burning just sitting around too.

Net cals should equal 1200 period.  this is what should be reserved for you body to function and not for exercise.

so your first calculations are correct. 

Even WebMD's health site doesn't mention eating back calories burned.  I'm so very confused and frustrated with this.

It's just common sense to me. My body needs enough calories to survive on..I don't want it to start eating away my muscles because I don't have enough fuel to sustain the workout.

Being that I don't spend hours at a time at a gym working out, I don't see that I should eat back what I burn.  If I eat 1600 cals and 30 mins on my stationary bike burns 365 cals, I'm still above my 1200 min. That's what I'm getting at - otherwise I end up eating just under 2000 cals and that's why I haven't seen a loss in the past two weeks.