Increasing calories as you exercise more?

dmatuschka

My doctor started me on a 1,200 calorie/day diet as I was very sedentary due to a severe back issue. My back is getting better and I have begun to do some moderate waliking 3-5 times a week. How do I know how many extra calories to add? Also, how much protein should I be striving for?

tomcustombuilder

dmatuschka wrote: »

My doctor started me on a 1,200 calorie/day diet as I was very sedentary due to a severe back issue. My back is getting better and I have begun to do some moderate waliking 3-5 times a week. How do I know how many extra calories to add? Also, how much protein should I be striving for?

you burn about 100 calories per mile so figure your mileage multiply times 100 and add that calorie amount to your weekly amount. Get in about .7 to 1 gram of protein per lb of body weight per day. Someone carrying a lot of fat will be that amount but calculated on lean mass weight and not overall body weight

mtaratoot

If you are working with your physician, and if your physician knows about nutrition and calorie intake, and if your physician has told you a calorie goal, maybe you should ask your physician what to do now that you're moving again.

Relying on advice from random internet strangers that may be in conflict with your health care provider may not be ideal.

That said, most physicians really aren't experts with diet; ask your physician for a referral to a registered dietician.

kshama2001

dmatuschka wrote: »

My doctor started me on a 1,200 calorie/day diet as I was very sedentary due to a severe back issue. My back is getting better and I have begun to do some moderate waliking 3-5 times a week. How do I know how many extra calories to add? Also, how much protein should I be striving for?

Walking calories: I do a 20 minute mile and so use the MFP cardio entry "Walking, 3.0 mph, mod. pace"

https://www.myfitnesspal.com/exercise/diary/

Protein: Here's a reputable protein calculator:

https://examine.com/nutrition/protein-intake-calculator/

I shoot for 500 calories of exercise per day, and when I achieve that, using the MFP default of 20% protein aligns with the protein recommendation from examine. If I were completely sedentary, I'd need to bump it up to 30%.

Rockmama1111

I just did some math nerd calculations on 12 weeks of MFP and Fitbit data. MFP gave me an average of 300 calories per day (my setting is set to sedentary/1200 calories on purpose) and I walked an average of 3.5 miles per day. For reference, I’m 5’7 and am close to my goal weight.

I’d recommend getting a step-tracking device and linking it. Otherwise, if you Google “walking calorie calculator” you can enter your own stats and find an OK estimate of your calories burned.

yirara

If you are really only eating 1200 calories per day, and if you're certain you're tracking correctly with a scale then yeah, you should eat more for the exercise you do. However, you've not told us your current stats, thus it's difficult to give any more tailoured advice than this.

tomcustombuilder

Rockmama1111 wrote: »

I just did some math nerd calculations on 12 weeks of MFP and Fitbit data. MFP gave me an average of 300 calories per day (my setting is set to sedentary/1200 calories on purpose) and I walked an average of 3.5 miles per day. For reference, I’m 5’7 and am close to my goal weight.

I’d recommend getting a step-tracking device and linking it. Otherwise, if you Google “walking calorie calculator” you can enter your own stats and find an OK estimate of your calories burned.

that figure is about right

JaysFan82

My calories are higher now after losing 154 pounds in maintenance as they were when i started my journey because of the amount of running and strength training that I do.

springlering62

JaysFan82 wrote: »

My calories are higher now after losing 154 pounds in maintenance as they were when i started my journey because of the amount of running and strength training that I do.

This!!!

I’m losing again at nearly twice the goal I started at.

Plus, I had to add weight because at my lowest, I looked like a scarecrow. I’m fifteen pounds higher now, still wearing the smallest clothes I bought, sporting muscles, and no longer looking like a human Jack Skellington.

It’s a constant reevaluation.

If your doctor isn’t “up” on nutrition, (which is asking a lot since they’ve got a hella lotta other stuff to keep up with!) ask them for a referral to a registered dietician. My gym actually offered members discounted visits with a staff RD.

Btw, a registered dietician is a degreed professional. “Anyone” can call themselves a nutritionist, including someone at a gym selling supplements, or some joker on Instagram pushing a product.

My RD visits were profoundly helpful. I went in armed with a list of questions to use my time slot wisely, and after she recommended I join MFP (her #1 best suggestion!) I also went in with the app handy so she could review what I was eating, and in what quantities.

springlering62

PS if you’re not using a fitness tracker, consider getting one.

Mine “learns” my habits, makes recommendations, issues “challenges”, and makes tracking exercise on MFP very easy.

I’m pretty confident mine is accurate, but a lot of people report huge exercise numbers from their trackers. For that reason, lots of folks only eat back half their exercise calories.

Again, it’s constant evaluation. Am I losing? Am I losing too fast/ too slow?

And caveat emptor if relying on calorie burns reported by gym equipment. They tend to run wildly high. IMHO, it’s because it’s to their benefit to make you think you’re burning more than you are.

I see some folks reporting 800 calories for thirty minutes on a treadmill. Ummm……nope nope nope. They’re not doing it on purpose, they’re just relying on what some uncalibrated, well worn peice of equipment is telling them. And chances are pretty good they didn’t enter their weight, age etc when they got on the thing, either.

csplatt

I think it really depends on how much weight you need to lose, as walking is a low calorie burn.