daily exercise vs daily calorie goals

loriloftness

I know this topic has been discussed here somewhere, but I couldn't find it. My dr/NUT gave me a goal of 600-800 calories per day. If I burn 300 calories during exercise, am I supposed to eat extra calories to make up for the ones I burned off? I would think that if I didn't eat them back it would help my weight loss, but someone else told me my body may think it is starving and actually hinder my weight loss. I will call my dr office to ask them about this, but wondering if anyone else knows the answer?

rpyle111

I don't regularly eat my exercise calories back. I have adjusted my exercise to be more weight training and less cardio, because I don't need to burn the calories as much as minimize muscle loss. I eat more if I feel weak or dizzy (which has happened a couple of times), and i don't stress if I eat at the top or over the top of my range on days I exercise.

Rob

SibylDiane

My bariatric team told me to estimate calories burned very conservatively and never count calories for basic daily activities (I see people giving themselves lots of "calories burned" for things like housecleaning, for example). And then only actually credit myself with half the number of calories in my MFP journal. So if MFP or my running app tells me I burned 250 calories, I enter 125 calories for my exercise in MFP. You may want to check with your doctor or nut for their guidance -- but I will say that I think that MFP gives very high estimates for burned calories. I would never use their numbers without adjusting them somehow. But that may just be me being paranoid!

bikrchk

I didn't eat back my exercise calories until I entered maintenance. Then again my intake was much more than yours during my loss phase... about 1000-1200 calories per day. I lost steadily, but not speedily.

loriloftness

I talked to my clinic. They said that when they give the 600-800 calorie range they do so with the assumption that I am going to be exercising 3-4 days per week, so I should not eat back my calories. SibylDiane, I don't use MFP's calorie estimates for any of my exercise because I agree, I don't find them to be very accurate. I use what the actual treadmill/eliptical machine say. Since I have programmed them to my actual weight, I think they are more accurate.

grim_traveller

I never ate back exercise calories. People do that to rationalize eating more, in my opinion. For months early out, MFP told me I was in negative calories almost every day.

MFP is not really set up with WLS patients in mind. We have more than enough fat stored to supply all our energy needs.

Don't listen to any of that starvation mode bull. It's 99% crap.

Thaeda

I have seen many different responses to this question. My suggestion? Eat when you are hungry. Stop when you are satisfied. Eat nourishing foods. Some days you might "eat" your exercise cals- other days you might not. But everyday you will be listening to your body's cues and taking great care of YOU!!

2BeHappy2

Like I was telling Lori, people in the main forum always talk about eating back 1/2 their exercise cals (not what MFP already has you down for as those are your every day cals).
Like others have said, if you are hungry and you know you've got the extra "in the bank" cals, then eat and don't feel bad!
When I go run my errands, that can be an all day event...walking throughout the stores etc.
If my husband wants to eat somewhere, I don't stress so much about eating my protein chips for 120 cals vs having a steak (for example) for an extra 87 cals because I know Ive been more active running around.
Theres not been a single day that Ive gone into 1/2 of my "bank" cals.
Its usually just a small amount so that I can have something I may not have when Im at home, w/out stressing so much about how many cals Im going to go over for that 1 meal!
I don't exercise more just to have them but I know theyre there if I wanted/needed them w/out feeling guilty about using them!