Why eat exercise calories?

MissIrvine84

This may seem like a stupid question, but why do we get to eat our exercise calories, and what happens if we don't? To me, eating back the calories I worked so hard to burn seems...well confusing.

I'm on a 1500 calorie diet, and on the nights that I work out, I normally do not eat my exercise calories. Is this something I should be doing? Can somebody explain to me why we should be eating them?

LotusF1ower

I have to admit that I don't always eat my exercise calories and I don't seem to have any problems.

Some people worry about starvation mode, but I hardly think I will go into starvation mode when I have fat on my body, it has never happened before and I don't expect it to happen in the future.

If my weight loss were to slow down I would up my exercise from two to three times per week as I have done before - it worked that time and it will work again.

I'm with you on that one

jrich1

I figure that if I eat less than 1200 net cals a day it could put my body into a starvation mode, which means its not getting enough cals to function so it starts storing fat instead of burning, so If I do exercise and my net cals for the day are only like 600-700, I will eat my exercise cals back to get to around the 1200 cals (I get 2000 a day).

Chelsinicole63

Mfp already calculates a safe calorie deficit to lose weight without your body thinking its starving.. If you dont eat exercise cals you increase that deficit, which will help lose weight faster,( until your body adjusts) but once you eat normally you will gain that weigh back

TammySimon

It's confusing to me also, I very seldom eat my exercise calories!

ieatstickers

It confuses me, too. I never eat my exercise calories, even when other people tell me I should. I think it's pretty stupid, since that's what you just burned, and to eat them back seems ridiculous. I say, do what works best for you honey. If not eating them is working, by all means do it. Everyone's body works differently.

pinbotchick

As a general rule, I try to have a 1200 cal plus exercise calorie intake. I weighed a lot when I stared and that often meant that for my goal of 1 pound loss, I was under the MFP intake goal... I think it really depends on your goal and weight. If you don't have much to lose, you really need to evaluate how much you expect to lose and maybe you need to adjust your goal. If you are really over-weight, you may be able to get away with not eating your exercise calories. From my understanding, if you have less than 20 pounds to lose, you may need to set a lower goal and eat some of your exercise calories as weight lose will be much slower.

knittygirl52

It's certainly up to you. I don't think MFP puts anyone on a calorie deficit so low that they would literally run into starvation mode. It's my understanding that for women that doesn't really happen unless you go under 1200 calories or so.

That being said, if you have exercised strenuously, it can sometimes make you feel hungrier. I view the exercise calories as something I can utilize if necessary. It's not permission to cheat, but it is good to know that I may not need to completely deprive myself either in order to reach my goals. Remember that it isn't good to crash diet. If you are really burning a lot of exercise calories, perhaps you are trying to lose more than a pound or two per week, and that is not healthy.

shell1205

In the forum section under "General diet and weight loss help" check out the first topic titled something like links you want to read again. there is a link to a topic about eating exercise calories... very helpful post!!

funkyspunky871

Honestly it's all too confusing. I don't eat my exercise calories. Before websites like MFP were created, people kept food diaries and ate to 1200 or 1500 or wherever and exercised without worrying about eating back calories.

Like i said, I don't eat my calories, but when the times comes and I hit a plateau, I might give it a try.

KatieM7

When you exercise you are burning all those calories. You need to refuel your body with some of those calories so that your body properly functions. I don't think that it is a way to cheat. MFP already does a deficit and if you don't eat some of those back you will have too much of a deficit.

snowangel1975

1.) Eating exercise calories- there has been tons of debate on this subject. Let me explain it to you the best I can. You body needs 1200 cals just to live. This 1200 cals is what is used if you sit on the couch all day without moving it is also roughly what your body needs to function properly. Now if you move around example going for a 30 min walk to the store and back you will roughly burn ( depending on how fast you move) 200 cals( just an example). So now your body needs 1400- to prevent it from thinking it's not been starved. Because you took this walk and burned 200 cals you have just tapped into the cals your body needs. Hence, now your body only has 1000 cals to live on for this day. It's is medically proven to be not enough!
2.) Starvation mode- is your bodys way of storing energy. It's not getting the required cals to live on. It will make it harder to lose weight because now your body is storing some "extras" just to make sure. Do you know where it stores it? In your fat cells. Therefore; turning it into Hydrogenated fat. The jiggly stuff that we are all trying to get rid of.

When I started on this site it required that I eat 1480 cals a day. I did, I eat all my excersise cals. I've lost 25 pounds. Now it has me only eating 1280 cals a day, and I still do eat my excersise cals. < ALL of them.
I don't want my body to be defied of anything anymore. I have been cruel enough to it for 10 years.
Hope this helps...if you have any questions just message me!:drinker:

Alleghany

In the forum section under "General diet and weight loss help" check out the first topic titled something like links you want to read again. there is a link to a topic about eating exercise calories... very helpful post!!

I think this is the link:

http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/10589-for-those-confused-or-questioning-eating-your-exercise-calo

It really makes sense. Hope this helps you!

tkrall

1.) Eating exercise calories- there has been tons of debate on this subject. Let me explain it to you the best I can. You body needs 1200 cals just to live. This 1200 cals is what is used if you sit on the couch all day without moving it is also roughly what your body needs to function properly. Now if you move around example going for a 30 min walk to the store and back you will roughly burn ( depending on how fast you move) 200 cals( just an example). So now your body needs 1400- to prevent it from thinking it's not been starved. Because you took this walk and burned 200 cals you have just tapped into the cals your body needs. Hence, now your body only has 1000 cals to live on for this day. It's is medically proven to be not enough!
2.) Starvation mode- is your bodys way of storing energy. It's not getting the required cals to live on. It will make it harder to lose weight because now your body is storing some "extras" just to make sure. Do you know where it stores it? In your fat cells. Therefore; turning it into Hydrogenated fat. The jiggly stuff that we are all trying to get rid of.

When I started on this site it required that I eat 1480 cals a day. I did, I eat all my excersise cals. I've lost 25 pounds. Now it has me only eating 1280 cals a day, and I still do eat my excersise cals. < ALL of them.
I don't want my body to be defied of anything anymore. I have been cruel enough to it for 10 years.
Hope this helps...if you have any questions just message me!:drinker:

I agree with the above! When I first started I thought, "Why eat everything I just burned off", I lost a couple of pounds doing this. Not much maybe 1/2 - 1lb every two weeks or so. Then I realized I was still hungary and binge eating, because my body wasn't getting enough. Because I was only set at 1200 calories and burning around 300 a day. I started eating my exercise calories back a little at a time. And it started taking the weight off alot faster. 1 - 2 pounds a week. Now that I eat about 90% of them back, I am losing every week and I'm at a pretty good pace. I always leave around 20 calories or so, incase of miscalculation. Eating them back has worked well for me.

Families_R_Forever

I try to eat mine and honestly at 1200 cals a day that mfp gives me if I don't earn some exercise cals then I am STARVING! Most days I have to exercise just to get to eat dinner!!! So most of the time I eat them...Just do what your body feels. If you are hungry and you have them, eat them...

MissIrvine84

Thanks for the help guys, I think I figured out what my problem is. When I first set up MFP It suggested a diet of like 1350 calories. I was afraid that would be too low, so I changed it to 1500 manually, but find myeslf not eating that many calories and exercising on top of it. I think I might just readjust it to 1350 and then eat my exercise calories, which range from 200-400 calories a few times a week. I certainly don't want to go into starvation mode, but with a 1500 calorie diet, and then adding like 200+ calories to it, It feels like I'm eating way too much. Thanks for all the posts, very helpful!

I was on Sparkpepole.com before I joined this website and there was no such thing as eating your exercise calories, and it had put me on a diet of 1550 calories a day. and I was exercising on top of that, but not eating anymore. I guess that is where most of the confusion is coming from!

keithinphilly

I agree with ieatstickers reply, i never eat my burned calories, it works for me, on april 1st i was 203 lbs, and now as of yesterday i'm 168 lbs, and am excited, but i figure if i'm at , say1000calories, and burn off 1000, i'd be were i was in april, so i figure what i'm going eat for that day, and say i was eating 1000 calories, then i work off 2000 calories, i feel great and really can do more exercises and longer than i could before..

LisaKC

I love my exercise calories, though I don't eat them all everyday. I do eat them so I can still enjoy stuff I love. Tomorrow I'll burn about 1000 cal on a long bike ride, so I plan to have pizza, and I'll still end up under my calorie goal. Yay!

maccabeth

I love my exercise calories, though I don't eat them all everyday. I do eat them so I can still enjoy stuff I love. Tomorrow I'll burn about 1000 cal on a long bike ride, so I plan to have pizza, and I'll still end up under my calorie goal. Yay!

This is what I do, too. Of course, yesterday, I had like 500 cals left over. Today (after a cookout at my family's for Father's Day and no exercise), I went about 500 over! I sure do hope it averages out! Oops.

blockeramanda

The way I look at it is...when you first start MFP it tells you how many calories you need in order to maintain your current weight...look under 'goals'........ but since you're trying to lose weight( i'm assuming) you need to eat less than that.

So say your maintaining calories is 2800 and in order to lose say 1lb a week you'll need to eat 1500 calories. Those 1500 are to be eaten if you don't exercise at all...

So say you workout and earn 300 calories from your exercise so instead of eating 1500 you now have to eat 1800 total. You are still eating the right amount of calories though it may feel like you are eating too many. You need to eat the calories you earn back otherwise according to some you will stop losing weight because you're body will go into starvation mood.

I hope I explained that well enough.

TGranneman

I ate my extra calories at first, but I haven't for the last week. It didn't make sense to me either. Why go through the trouble to burn calories, if I'm just going replace them with more calories?

MissIrvine84

I'm trying to stick with a 1500 calorie diet because on average I was probably eating close to 2000 or more every day without tracking and exercising. MFP wants me to eat 1200 a day and that is very low for me because I'm not really a meal person, I'm a grazer. I eat a million times during the day, whenever I'm hungry or at work and have a break or lunch or something.

I can understand eating them if I was eating only 1200 calories a day, then turning around and working off 200, because that would equal out to only 1000 which is too low. Since I'm on the 1500 plan I'm doing myself, at least until I get used to things, I think I'm going to continue to avoid eating them when I can because I tend to overeat on the weekends and I'd like to have them equal out.

When I track calories I become OBSESSEd with them. I've become so obesessed that I track most of the food I think I'm going to eat all at one sitting, then eat what I can if I have the calories. Becoming obesessed with calories is messing with me though. I feel like I can't eat anything and there were a good 3 days in a row where I was eating between 500-1000 calories and working out. I need to stop that

DeeJayTJ

i too am obsessed with counting calories.

i think i may have finally hit a plateau but im not for sure. ive been stuck bouncing around between 179lbs and 182lbs. its driving me crazy!

i count calories like crazy though, but for the last 2 months ive only been taking in 900-1200 calories a day.

Punktorian

The generic number thrown around to burn a pound of fat is 3500 calories. So over a short period of time your body will lose that pound if it has 3500 fewer calories than it takes to maintain your current weight. So to lose 2 pounds a week it has me at a 1000 calorie deficit per day, 1000x7=7000 so there is the 2 pounds. The workout calories burn add onto that initial estimate of how many calories you need to maintain current weight. Listen to your body, if you are tired you may need more calories, if you are not loosing the weight you might want to cut back on how many exercise calories you use.

KatieM7

You said that you feel like you are eating too much. Is that you are feeling over full or is it you mentally feel like you are eating too much? Something that has helped me get in calories when I need to get them up and not feeling really that hungry is to eat nuts. I especially like sunflower nuts. I get them without the shells it's just easier for me like that I don't want to bother with opening them. They don't make me feel over full but help me get the calories up to where they need to be. HTH

alantin

I'm not sure if anyone mentioned this yet but the body can take the energy it needs from three sources (In the order it prefers to burn them when exercising):
1.) The food you eat
2.) Your muscle tissue
3.) Your fat tissue

I've read tons about this stuff but frankly don't remember much about the scientific details.. Nevertheless, it pretty much comes down that while exercising, you mainly take the energy from the carbohydrates you ate. If there is no such supply, the next choice is your muscle tissue and the fat tissue is only the last preference. Of course this depends on the type of workout and strain too but I believe the general rule is right.
After a workout your body is in a catabolic state (it is breaking itself down) and it needs nutrients to turn the catabolism to anabolism (building the muscle stronger and preparing the damage that the exercise gave to the muscles).

When you lose weight, you lose both, lean muscle tissue and fat tissue. Exercise is an attempt to affect the ratio in which you lose them but if you don't eat the exercise calories, you don't give the body the easiest source for the energy it needs and force it to resort to the second easiest. The muscle tissue.
I believe, the body fat is mostly used for energy when resting (excluding low heart rate aerobic exercise.)

Also the reason why they recommend you to eat about 500 kcal less than you burn is that around there the ratio stays pretty optimal. If you eat less, you run the risk of burning more muscle than you need to.

So the bottom line is:
Eat the exercise calories! It helps you lose what you want to lose!

I think, I got it right for the most part but if anyone has anything to correct or add, please do!

alantin

After writing that I found this excellent post by banks1850 about the subject. -->

http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/10589-for-those-confused-or-questioning-eating-your-exercise-calo

NWCountryGal

The only thing I understand is that when we eat our exercise calories, it's balanced nutrition, not junk food. A balanced diet provides what the body needs to build it. It makes sense that the body needs X amount of calories to feed on to survive and if it doesn't get it from good foods, it will start feeding on lean muscle mass because that is the healthy part of our bodies. So if you are to have, say, that 1200 for your age, height, weight, etc., then you "rob it"(in a good way)when you exercise. So when you exercise, you build up your heart strength and muscle. But if you aren't replacing good food to help build that muscle and strength, well, like I said, the body will try to protect itself. I think eventually, doing it the other way, the body will not be healthy.

Just my opinion though, Denise

I ate my extra calories at first, but I haven't for the last week. It didn't make sense to me either. Why go through the trouble to burn calories, if I'm just going replace them with more calories?

NWCountryGal

Yes, I remember this from last year and thanks for finding it. It was researched pretty well I believe and well, it works for me and I never felt better in my life. It's even hard to eat all my food some days and I do eat more some days then I should but less the next. Only because I just am not perfect to the # of calories;)

Thank you for saving this and providing it here, Denise

After writing that I found this excellent post by banks1850 about the subject. -->

http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/10589-for-those-confused-or-questioning-eating-your-exercise-calo

EKarma

I don't eat my exercise cls.. I told my doctor exactly what I was doing too.. I stick to 1200-1300 cals a day and I exercise.. She said, "Erin, you're doing great. You shouldn't worry." She did a blood test and everything came out normal.. I have been doing this since I started.. I never ate my exercise cals.. I did start going under 1000 cals a day in Oct 2009.. My body DID go into starvation mode.. I didn't lose anything for forever and I didn't know what was going on.. But Some peeps suggested I up my cals to at least 1200 and the weight started coming off again. Like I said I keep them at about 1200-1300 cals a day. I keep an eye on my sodium and drink lots of water. I also take psyllium husk powder.. It's a natural fiber. I take it twice a day and it keep me hella regular. I dropped 3-4 lbs in my colon in the first couple of days..

MissKaay

I don't eat my exercise calories, EVER. Hahah, and I eat a little under my count, its hard for me to get it all in and I lose weight just fine.