Do you guys eat your excersise calories?

Douniap

You are supposed to eat your exercise calories or at least 90% of them. While setting up your profile, you already have indicated how many pounds per week you will be loosing. If you skip your exercise calories, then you are starving your body and you won't lose weight.. You will be slowing down your metabolism..
so yes, have those exercise calories (or at least 90%), they are there to help you!!
To your health

maroon58

yes, i eat about 1/2 or less of them. i didn't for a bit and did't lose much weight. it makes since when you look at the post above. do what works best for your body.

Paige1108

Yes I eat my exercise calories. MFP has a deficit in my daily goal so I can eat my exercise calories and still loss weight.

My maintenance calorie goal, when I get there, will be 1660 calories per day. Then I will bike commute and walk my dog, which I count as exercise, getting another 300ish calories. Making my daily maintenance calorie intake between 1660 and 1960 per day.

MFP has calculated my deficit for me, so I'm given a goal of 1310, that's a deficit of 350calories per day to loss .5lbs a week. Then I bike commute and walk the dog, getting 300ish calories. And I eat them; making my daily "diet" calorie intake between 1310 and 1610. So I'm still running the exact same 350calorie deficit that I need to run to loss .5lbs per week.

Now I just switched to .5lbs per week as recommended by someone on MFP for people very near their goal weight. But oddly I have still lost 1lbs per week in the last two weeks, I think I maybe biking harder than I think. Prior to this I was set at 1lbs per week. The only time I didn't loss at the rate I wanted to was when I thought I would get "hard core" and not eat all my calories. I stopped losing for 6 weeks and didn't start losing again until I started eating all my calories and trusting the math. Now I trust the math and I love it.

horizonflight

If you want to lose weight you need to burn 3500 calories to lose 1 pound. I was advised to not eat the exercise calories to lose weight.

Good Luck.

This is true providing that when you started a regimen of your weight loss you didn't cut down in calories and just exercised instead. However, if you've cut down in calories AND you're exercising it may be different. I personally pick and chose. Some people may log their exercise prior to exercising to determine how many additional calories you "should" consume in addition to your "minimum" or your "daily goal" to make up for the calories you will lose providing you are on a "minimal" calorie intake. Again, it varies with everyone. You have to figure out what works for YOU since what works for others may not necessarily be something for you.

Alioth

Yep. I eat'm most of the time, or pretty close to them. Sometimes I go over, sometimes I'm under. I try not to go more than 200 under or 500-600 over. 500-600 over is a maintenance day and usually happens the day after a major workout. A maintenance day now and then really doesn't hurt or hinder me. I've been losing weight faster than a pound a week, and not on purpose.

MacMadame

You have to eat to get those calories back. If you do not eat your exercise calories on a normal basis then your body will go in to survival mode.

Not necessarily.

First of all, calories burned in exercise are not magic calories that must be replaced with food. They are just like calories burned in other daily activities. So what matters is the net calories and there are many roads to get to the same net calories.

For example, let's say one person needs 2200 calories to maintain. They eat 1200 calories per day plus they eat their exercise calories. They have a 1000 calorie a day deficit. No problem.

Then we have another person who needs 2000 to maintain. They are given a 1200 calorie a day goal. This only gives them a 800 calorie deficit though. So they exercise another 200 calories a day (on average, some days they don't exercise and some they do more) and don't eat those calories to get a 1000 calorie a day deficit. Still no problem.

Both people only have a 1000 calorie deficit and are losing 1-2 pound a week. One is eating their exercise calories and one is not. Both are getting in 1200 calories a day minimum from food. Neither is in starvation mode.

rafaelwall

Both people only have a 1000 calorie deficit and are losing 1-2 pound a week. One is eating their exercise calories and one is not. Both are getting in 1200 calories a day minimum from food. Neither is in starvation mode.

What you say is true, but Shawna is referring to the case in which people go under the essential 1200 calories a day the body needs to survive. If at the end of the day, your net calories are below this, you must eat in order to reach 1200 (or whatever goal MFP has set for you). Otherwise, the body triggers said survival mode.

I'll use my case as an example. I'll be detailed just for those out there who are still confused:

- I want to lose 2 pounds per week. MFP advised that I have a goal of 1310 calories a day.
- Suppose I eat those 1310 calories by the afternoon. Good. Goal achieved. Net calories so far: 1310.
- In theory, I shouldn't eat anything else for the rest of the day. But that's only if I don't do any kind of exercise.
- Later, same day, I hit the gym and burn 500 calories.
- Now my net calories are 1310 - 500 = 810.
- What this means is that now I can eat 500 calories worth of healthy food so I can get back to the net goal of 1310.
- If I don't do this, then I should AT LEAST eat 390 calories, so the net calories are the minimum of 1200 my body needs to survive.
- If I don't reach that 1200 minimum, then after some days bam, my body goes into survival mode, and it won't let go those precious fat deposits.

In summary, I eat all my exercise calories back from exercise as long as the net calories at the end of the day are still on the goal MyFitnessPal set for me. I've been constantly losing weight this way.

Good luck everyone!

12cindy3

i have a 1200 calorie count per day and i eat about 1100-1200 calories per day. i also go to gym and burn about 500-600n calories a day. should i be eating 1700 calories per day? ty