never ate exercise calories, now I want to..

disney_girl125

I don't have much weight left to lose. I have lost it all no problem only eating 1200 calories and never eating exercise calories. I have been working out more intensely now, and i'm hungry. So, I want to change and start eating my exercise calories. I don't burn as much as others so i've found out. I wear a polar heart rate moniter so I can see how much I burned. Today I did body pump and burned 283 calories, and then body combat and burned 300. I have already ate 448 of those exercise calories. Will this huge change start making me stall weight loss wise? Or gain? Since i'm close to goal and never bothered eatting them before? I just don't have the energy to work out like that, mostly the double workouts and then not eat them. Any advice?

LeonardoLJR

you won't gain weight if you consume extra calories only enough to fuel your workout. Consume extra complex carb. calories no more than 4 hours before your workout. If you expect to burn 700 kcals. for example, 4 kcals to each gram of carb. gives 175 grams of extra carbs. needed. just try working out a few hours after you consume those carbs., no more than 4 hours and you'll be good to go. that is the only variable to any diet on workout days, otherwise stick to the diet that you like as usual.

togmo

You will inevitably lose less weight than you were previously, you are now eating more calories. That isn't a bad thing though, especially if you are close to your goal.

1200 calories a day is very low, I don't know what your weight, height etc are but I would recommend you put your numbers into a calorie calculator (one linked below) and see how many calories you should be eating day to day. I dare say you are hungry because you have been undereating for quite a while and as you get thinner your body will fight you harder to eat more. Heavily under eating is not healthy but isn't really a big problem until you drop to a more natural body weight as your body can use your fat stores for energy during times of negative calorie intake. Once you get thinner though your body is trying to fight off starvation and will send signals throughout your body telling you to eat more.

I would put your numbers into a calorie calculator like the one linked below and just see what your BMR and TDEE are roughly and gauge how many calories you should be consuming. You can set this to 'desk job with little exercise' to gauge roughly how many calories you need day to day doing no exercise and then you can eat back your exercise calories. I gauge roughly how much exercise I do and input 'moderate exercise' instead of desk job and eat that many calories day to day, rather than methodically logging my exercise as such but either way works. You should always be eating above the number it gives you for your BMR. The number it gives you for your TDEE tells you how many calories you can eat at your current age/weight/height and neither gain or lose weight. Anything below this number will result in weight loss, whether it is averaged out or whether you eat more on your workout days and less on non-workout days.

I hope this helps but simply put if you are hungry I would recommend you need to eat more.

http://scoobysworkshop.com/accurate-calorie-calculator/

disney_girl125

Thank you for the replies. I'm 5'4" and 128 pounds. I started in February at 217 pounds.

editorgrrl

I don't have much weight left to lose.... I want to change and start eating my exercise calories.... Will this huge change start making me stall weight loss wise? Or gain?

First, if you're close to maintenance then your goal should be set to .5 lb. per month. Second, everybody's different, and weight loss takes a whole lot of trial & error.

Start by eating back half your exercise calories for a few weeks. If you don't plateau, start eating back 75% of your exercise calories. If you're still losing after a couple of weeks, start eating back all your exercise calories.

(Maintenance will work the same way: change your goal, then fine tune to find the calorie intake at which your weight stabilizes.)

Congratulations on nearing your goal!

togmo

Punching those numbers into the calculator you are pretty much on the right track.

Your BMR is estimated to be just below 1200 and your maintenance caloric intake is estimated at a little under 1400. If you continue to eat roughly 1200 calories a day and eat back your exercise calories (as Leonardo said earlier, not just after but some before your workout to fuel your exercise) you should still lose a little bit of weight but I would think at that height and weight you are probably transitioning into maintenance nearly. Googling what your ideal weight is (I am a 6'3" male and have no idea what is right for you) it suggests you are close to the right size and don't need to lose too much more - congratulations!

I also found an interesting post about 5'4" women and their weight loss on here while googling it.
http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/1102475-5-4-ladies-and-calories

LeonardoLJR

I think you have really good advice so far. Personally, I'd make sure you know how much you want to lose from your diet alone, and that will determine your weight loss that way you can distinguish between your weight loss goals and energy goals separately. It just makes life a lot easier and organized that way. If you factor both your diet and inconsistent workouts, it will make your total calorie intake much less accurate and you constantly have to make changes all over the place. that is not a good way to optimize.

I just want to add one last time to make sure you consume good carbs. before your workout and some after. That's IMPORTANT since you're concerned with a lack of energy during workouts right? Carbs. produce the "fastest" amount of energy in the shortest amount of time, through glycolysis, but it will take a few hours for your body to digest after you eat. Wait too long you will deplete your main source of energy (carbs.), cause your blood sugar to drop and begin to burn fat for energy. Worst case scenario, you'd break down muscle if you're already at an extremely low body fat % like togmo mentioned, especially during workouts. --> That is why you feel groggy and get a lactic acid burn in your muscles a lot sooner, you're body is reverting to an alternate pathway for energy that you don't want. So just consuming anything available will not necessarily do the trick.