Can I eat more than I exercise?

sandrataylr

So I've read on a couple posts that the key to losing weight is burning more calories than you consume.

My calorie goal is 1,380 every day and most of the time I will exceed it a little bit and then go to the gym and work off a good portion of it. At the end of the day I am under my calorie goal. Will I still lose weight?

psuLemon

If you exercise, you are supposed to eat more calories. And since you have very little weight to lose, your goal from teh beginning should be either .5 lbs or 1 lb per week. You may be interested in looking into a TDEE calculator if you exercise regularly.

diannethegeek

When you talk about burning more than you eat you have to take into account all of the calories your body burns just keeping you alive and the calories you burn going about your daily activities. In the grand scheme of things, exercise is only a tiny portion of the calories your body is burning daily.

ILiftHeavyAcrylics

diannethegeek wrote: »

When you talk about burning more than you eat you have to take into account all of the calories your body burns just keeping you alive and the calories you burn going about your daily activities. In the grand scheme of things, exercise is only a tiny portion of the calories your body is burning daily.

^

For example, if I don't exercise at all I burn about 1600 calories just by living. Then I can add another 300 calories or so through exercise. So as long as I eat less than 1900 I'll lose weight.

Your calorie goal is what you should eat to lose weight with no exercise at all. If you exercise you need to eat back at least some of the calories, because you're creating too large a deficit otherwise. Since you're relatively light that means you're more prone to the negative effects of under-eating like losing muscle, which is bad news for bikini season.

shadow2soul

Lose weight - yes
Is it necessarily healthy - depends on how accurate the calorie burns are, I know for me it would be very unwise to not eat at least a portion of my exercise calories (and adjustments from activity tracker)

You need a deficit to lose weight. A deficit that is to large however can be unhealthy. It is recommended to lose up to 2lbs per week. If you are losing more than that, your deficit is too large and you are most likely losing more muscle mass than would be desired. Obviously, no muscle loss would be the ideal, but it's almost guaranteed that when your losing weight you are going to lose some. You can limit it with strength training, getting adequate protein, and having a modest deficit.
I mean if your actual calorie burn during a workout is 100-300 calories, there probably wouldn't be too much harm in not eating them.
If your like me, underestimated activity level on MFP which results in an adjustment from 50-100+ calories from an activity tracker and workout enough to end up burning 300-500....well then those calories become needed to be able to get through a high intensity workout and to not feel like crap a few weeks down the road.

However, the only way to know for sure which is the case for you is to try it for a few weeks and see what happens. If you lose more than planned, eat a bit more. If you lose less than planned, eat a bit less. That's the best way to gauge if the calorie burns you are logging are even accurate for you.

Lasmartchika

Just because your calories are 1380, it doesn't mean you're going to burn 1400 calories in exercise (I don't think that's possible anyways). As long as you eat the 1380 you should be losing according to the goal you chose when you first started.

SergeantSausage

Lasmartchika wrote: »

Just because your calories are 1380, it doesn't mean you're going to burn 1400 calories in exercise (I don't think that's possible anyways).

pffft.

I burn more than that on single runs, multiple times a week. Very possible.

Try a Sunday Morning 19-miler. 1400 won't get you within miles of the finish line.

shadow2soul

Lasmartchika wrote: »

Just because your calories are 1380, it doesn't mean you're going to burn 1400 calories in exercise (I don't think that's possible anyways). As long as you eat the 1380 you should be losing according to the goal you chose when you first started.

Unlikely, yes. Impossible, no. I doubt someone would be able to do it in an hour or 2 at the gym, but I can totally see it being possible for someone doing marathons or spending 3-4 hours working out.

EatPaleoStyle

sandrataylr wrote: »

So I've read on a couple posts that the key to losing weight is burning more calories than you consume.

My calorie goal is 1,380 every day and most of the time I will exceed it a little bit and then go to the gym and work off a good portion of it. At the end of the day I am under my calorie goal. Will I still lose weight?

What are you eating and how is your health will determine your weight loss, not how much (please don't come with thermodinamics or examples like "if I eat 400 calories I will be more fat).