Do I need to eat some of my exercise calories or all 1200 of my calories

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Replies

  • VeryKatie
    VeryKatie Posts: 5,959 Member
    1200 calories for 60 - 90 mins of swimming? Sounds wrong.
  • veganbaum
    veganbaum Posts: 1,865 Member
    heiliskrimsli wrote: »
    veganbaum wrote: »
    They are genuinely trying to help others see that weight loss and maintenance do not need to be as difficult and miserable as some believe and that food is fuel, but you can also eat some for pleasure if so desired and still reach your goals.

    I didn't suggest anyone should be miserable. On the contrary, all I have said is that not everyone who eats less than you think they should is miserable.

    You're still entirely missing the point. It does seem as though you may have some disordered thinking about food. Your words are emotive - force-feeding, stuffing your cake hole - and you focused on the "miserable" part of what I said (which I never said that you said or suggested), when my primary point was about fueling. And many others have expressed the concern about under-fueling along with[/i] the enjoyment of having calories for whatever they want. Each person can do whatever they want. Others are just trying to express the importance of eating for health and sustainability. You seem to be unwilling to accept that others are actually saying that.

    Anyway, I don't mean to hijack the thread. I do think it's important for lurkers to understand why so many encourage not having an overly aggressive deficit.
  • lynn_glenmont
    lynn_glenmont Posts: 10,076 Member
    People can argue all day about whether OP's exercise calories are accurate (and, surprisingly for MFP, no one yet has addressed the question of whether her reported 1200 calories is accurate, given the lack of reported weights in the meals she outlined), but the gold test is her rate of weight loss. If all her reported numbers are accurate, I would think she'd be losing weight far faster than is desirable for muscle retention, fueling her workouts, etc. (Indeed, I find it hard to believe anybody who is only 30 lbs overweight could last more than a few days eating only 1200 calories and putting in workouts of 60 minutes intense swimming + 30 minutes moderate swimming.)

    OP, how long have you been doing this (eating what you believe to be only 1200 calories with the workouts you describe)? Have you lost weight, and how much, during that time?
  • heiliskrimsli
    heiliskrimsli Posts: 735 Member
    veganbaum wrote: »
    You're still entirely missing the point. It does seem as though you may have some disordered thinking about food.

    I just don't assume that anyone who eats less than I do must be miserable.
    Your words are emotive - force-feeding, stuffing your cake hole - and you focused on the "miserable" part of what I said (which I never said that you said or suggested), when my primary point was about fueling.

    Making yourself eat beyond the point where you're satiated doesn't feel good. At least, not to me it doesn't. It feels physically bad, not mentally.
    And many others have expressed the concern about under-fueling along with[/i] the enjoyment of having calories for whatever they want. Each person can do whatever they want.

    Can they?
    Others are just trying to express the importance of eating for health and sustainability. You seem to be unwilling to accept that others are actually saying that.

    Anyway, I don't mean to hijack the thread. I do think it's important for lurkers to understand why so many encourage not having an overly aggressive deficit.

    What is overly aggressive to you may not be to someone else. Since this is a discussion of opinions, mine is that if someone is not feeling negative side effects or vitamin/mineral deficiency, and if their athletic performance goals are being met, the eating back of exercise calories is optional and not a requirement.
  • marelthu
    marelthu Posts: 184 Member
    My dietitian said not to eat my exercise calories, unless we're talking a thousand or something.
  • marm1962
    marm1962 Posts: 950 Member
    VeryKatie wrote: »
    1200 calories for 60 - 90 mins of swimming? Sounds wrong.

    The butterfly stroke burns the most during competition. The average swimmer weighing 205 pounds will burn approximately 1024 calories an hour doing the butterfly at a competitive event. In comparison, the average 205-pound swimmer burns around 651 calories per hour swimming the backstroke during competition.
  • GottaBurnEmAll
    GottaBurnEmAll Posts: 7,722 Member
    marelthu wrote: »
    My dietitian said not to eat my exercise calories, unless we're talking a thousand or something.

    Are you using the TDEE method of weight loss? How aggressive is your deficit and what type of exercise do you do?
  • cerise_noir
    cerise_noir Posts: 5,468 Member
    edited March 2017
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  • cerise_noir
    cerise_noir Posts: 5,468 Member
    marelthu wrote: »
    My dietitian said not to eat my exercise calories, unless we're talking a thousand or something.

    Yeah, but....that's not how mfp works unless you've changed your calories to the TDEE method.
  • GottaBurnEmAll
    GottaBurnEmAll Posts: 7,722 Member
    edited March 2017
    Look_Its_Kriss wrote: »
    Sometimes to win the debate, you just gotta know you put the correct information out there and walk away with a high head.. :kissing_closed_eyes:

    Fortunately, the OP has taken the advice to eat back a portion of her exercise calories. I hope she hung around long enough to see that eating to lose 2 pounds a week is too aggressive a goal for her as well.

    The rest of this thread is just noise.
  • snickerscharlie
    snickerscharlie Posts: 8,578 Member
    heiliskrimsli wrote: »
    Making yourself eat beyond the point where you're satiated doesn't feel good. At least, not to me it doesn't. It feels physically bad, not mentally.
    Unless the OP is 4 feet tall, there's no eating "beyond the point where you're satiated" going on here. Not on 1200 calories compounded by not eating any of her much-needed exercise calories back.

    OP, I'm glad you've reconsidered. A slower and healthier rate of loss is much more sustainable. :)
  • kshama2001
    kshama2001 Posts: 28,053 Member
    marelthu wrote: »
    My dietitian said not to eat my exercise calories, unless we're talking a thousand or something.

    Is your dietitian aware that MFP uses the NEAT method to establish a base of calories?

    http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/818082/exercise-calories-again-wtf/p1
  • kshama2001
    kshama2001 Posts: 28,053 Member
    heiliskrimsli wrote: »
    Making yourself eat beyond the point where you're satiated doesn't feel good. At least, not to me it doesn't. It feels physically bad, not mentally.

    Oh, I thought you were talking about not starting a meal because you don't feel hungry, not eating past satiation.

    About how many calories does it take to fill you up and for how long does that last? I'm not terribly hungry in the AM and a 250 calories smoothie will last me a few hours. I like bigger dinners - 500-700 calories or so, which get me through to my 300 calorie bedtime snack. (Lunch and an afternoon snack depend on my activity level.)
  • mitch16
    mitch16 Posts: 2,113 Member
    marm1962 wrote: »
    VeryKatie wrote: »
    1200 calories for 60 - 90 mins of swimming? Sounds wrong.

    The butterfly stroke burns the most during competition. The average swimmer weighing 205 pounds will burn approximately 1024 calories an hour doing the butterfly at a competitive event. In comparison, the average 205-pound swimmer burns around 651 calories per hour swimming the backstroke during competition.

    Except she specifically said that she is a lake swimmer (open water, usually distance). I know very few swimmers who would chose to do butterfly for longer than the 200 meter (indoor) events. Even swimmers who specialize in butterfly don't do usually do 90 minutes of butterfly in a workout (that's a recipe for rotator cuff injury).

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