Eat or not eat exercise calories..

GemFB

Okay...I have heard two sides to this...Should you eat yer exercise calories?

GemFB

Okay...I have heard two sides to this...Should you eat yer exercise calories?

wriglucy

My opinion....as long as you net calories don't go below 1000 for the day. If you are supposed to eat 1200 a day, and you eat that, but burn like 200 cals...who cares, you don't have to eat them. And...your body isn't going to into starvation mode after one day if you a deficient in calories. The body regulates itself and adjusts to things that happen on a regular basis. Hope this helps...as long as you don't go below 1000 net each day. THere was a post saying that starvation would start at 700 cals or less a day for awhile, but I would still say 1000 just to be safe.

pauladavies86

yes, you should eat your exercise calories because they've already deducted the calories per day that will make you loose your weight. For example, to maintain my current body weight I should be eating 1700 calories a day but the website gives me 1200/day because at a 500 calorie deficit is where people start losing weight. When I exercise I burn roughly 600 calories so if I didn't eat those calories I'd be losing 1100 calories that day and it's not healthy! (that's when your body starts thinking starvation mode.) It kind of depends on how much you're excercizing though. If say you are only losing 200 calories when you workout it wouldn't be THAT bad not to eat them but keep in mind that you're already losing 500 calories (yours may be slightly different depending on your adjustments) just from eating how many calories are in your daily plan. So hey, it's okay to eat those extra calories and you might as well treat yourself to something yummy! )

banks1850

Gem, please read these posts, it might clear things up for you.

http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/10665-newbies-please-read-me-2nd-edition

icandoit

EAT THEM
EAT THEM
EAT THEM
EAT THEM
EAT THEM
EAT THEM
EAT THEM
EAT THEM
EAT THEM
EAT THEM
EAT THEM
EAT THEM
EAT THEM
EAT THEM
EAT THEM
EAT THEM
EAT THEM
EAT THEM
EAT THEM
EAT THEM

GemFB

banks1850 Yer post is what sparked this.

banks1850

is there a question about it? Which post are you speaking of? I have 2 on there.

wagon0619

I am new to this site, but was wondering the same. As a big guy my profile says to eat 2300 calories a day with my exercise plan to lose 2 lbs per week. I ate 1800 cal today and burned almost 1300 through exercise. It says I have 2100 calories left. Am I supposed to eat at this level or what?

GemFB

Yup...That's exactly it.

GemFB

is there a question about it? Which post are you speaking of? I have 2 on there.

I saw it earlier....It was on one of the posts about a girl who was eating all of her exercise cals and couldn't lose anything...A nurse said something and you responded...I think it was u... http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/11221-i-feel-like-there-s-no-point

monicayogima

I only started to loose weight when I began eating my exercise calories...........EAT THEM>>>>>>

GemFB

I only started to loose weight when I began eating my exercise calories...........EAT THEM>>>>>>

I am usually close...Normally about 200-400 left over a day

astridfeline

400 is too many leftover--it's a mini-meal!!
I would not leave more than 200-250 uneaten. Are your net calories below your BMR?

GemFB

Below my bmr?

MontanaGirl

Basal Metabolic Rate - go to the "Tools" section here to calculate, or Google "BMR calculator" and it will give you several sites that will calculate for you. I would check 3-5 different ones and average all the results - at least that's what I did. Your BMR is the very minimum you need - just laying around - for your body to function. ALL activity is on top of that amount. You really shouldn't eat less than your BMR in net calories on a daily basis.

GemFB

It says 1635....My mfp is 1335.....I usually burn about 400-800 a day. So what does this mean?

wagon0619

Ok, I tried eating most of my exercise calories yesterday and I gained a pound! I have even been overestimating my food calories and underestimating my workout times to bring the numbers closer so I don't have to have such an excess. Right now after breakfast I still need to consume over 3400 calories for the resty of the day.

MDnns

Even though we diligently try to count our calories it is not an exact science and the odds are we are counting UNDER what we actually ate. To err on the side of caution:

DON'T EAT THEM
DON'T EAT THEM
DON'T EAT THEM
DON'T EAT THEM
DON'T EAT THEM
DON'T EAT THEM
DON'T EAT THEM
DON'T EAT THEM
DON'T EAT THEM

banks1850

Even though we diligently try to count our calories it is not an exact science and the odds are we are counting UNDER what we actually ate. To err on the side of caution:

DON'T EAT THEM
DON'T EAT THEM
DON'T EAT THEM
DON'T EAT THEM
DON'T EAT THEM
DON'T EAT THEM
DON'T EAT THEM
DON'T EAT THEM
DON'T EAT THEM

I'm curious to the logic you use to come to this point, I mean, it's transparent how we come to the point of eating your calories, can you give us a logical explaination of why you shouldn't? I'm open to listening to it and deciding on merit, but I would need to here a process before you could convince me of this. I feel like my facts and logic pattern are relatively solid (see this post: http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/10589-for-those-confused-or-questioning-eating-your-exercise-calo?hl=1200+calories&page=1#posts-77835), if you think there is error in my logic, please show me where. I'm not a doctor or a registered dietician so I understand that I don't know everything (far from it) about the human body. But Just saying "odds are we are counting UNDER what we actually ate" without backing that up doesn't cut it for me.

MDnns

I attend bootcamp with an Apex Certified Nutrition Specialist, a kineseologist and we have weekly meetings with a dietician. It is your personal decision rather you choose to eat your exercise calories or not. Point being, your deficit increases each day you do not choose to eat them. For women, most of us do not count every single morsel that we put in our mouths. Therefore, it is these expert's opinion that we are more likely under counting calories than over counting calories.

Again, it is advice I have been given and my opinion that you can choose to follow or not. I'm not trying to convince you and don't feel the need to scientifically sell it to you. Everything works different for everyone's body.

I didn't eat my exercise calories and I lost 6 pounds last week.

astridfeline

It says 1635....My mfp is 1335.....I usually burn about 400-800 a day. So what does this mean?

This means you should eat at least 1635 calories per day, plus eat your exercise calories. One weakness of MFP is that it lets you eat below your BMR, which you shouldn't do.

MontanaGirl

I attend bootcamp with an Apex Certified Nutrition Specialist, a kineseologist and we have weekly meetings with a dietician. It is your personal decision rather you choose to eat your exercise calories or not. Point being, your deficit increases each day you do not choose to eat them. For women, most of us do not count every single morsel that we put in our mouths. Therefore, it is these expert's opinion that we are more likely under counting calories than over counting calories.

Again, it is advice I have been given and my opinion that you can choose to follow or not. I'm not trying to convince you and don't feel the need to scientifically sell it to you. Everything works different for everyone's body.

I didn't eat my exercise calories and I lost 6 pounds last week.

Well - if you are so sold on this, then would you please provide info? All of us are just trying to do the best for our bodies and if you have facts that will help us we would like to hear them. If you're just following advice because it was given to you - well then a lot of us could do that. I was advised once to not eat vegetables and just eat meat and cheese. Fortunately, I didn't take the advice :happy: But if you have something with scientific backup I, personally, would like to hear it.

banks1850

I attend bootcamp with an Apex Certified Nutrition Specialist, a kineseologist and we have weekly meetings with a dietician. It is your personal decision rather you choose to eat your exercise calories or not. Point being, your deficit increases each day you do not choose to eat them. For women, most of us do not count every single morsel that we put in our mouths. Therefore, it is these expert's opinion that we are more likely under counting calories than over counting calories.

Again, it is advice I have been given and my opinion that you can choose to follow or not. I'm not trying to convince you and don't feel the need to scientifically sell it to you. Everything works different for everyone's body.

I didn't eat my exercise calories and I lost 6 pounds last week.

I hope you don't think I'm attacking you, I just wanted to know why you felt that way. Anyway, so let me know if I read it right. So the ditetician agrees that you need to stay within a certain deficit correct? And they are basically saying that most women lie to themselves about what they eat. Well, ok, if someone is doing that, then yeah, I guess you probably COULD get away with not eating your exercise calories.

So that being the case, would you agree with this statement? "If you are honest and record all your calories, and all your exercise, you should eat your exercise calories because this site already builds in a deficit for you."