Burning 1000+ calories with exercise several days in a row?

kayscholl93

For the past year, I've been trying to lose about 70 pounds. I'm about 15 pounds away from my goal. But I've been told that my approach is very dangerous and it needs to be changed.

I LOVE exercising. I exercise 6 days a week for sure, sometimes 7 days a week if I can't help myself. I exercise sporadically through out the day for hours, and burn over 1000 calories. I also have a HRM to monitor these calories burned. So my question is, on days I burn about 1200 calories with exercise, how much should I be eating? This is very important: I've been told to NET 1200 calories, so if I burn 1200 cals with exercise, then I need to eat 2200 calories that day. However, I've tried this and ended up either gaining or maintaining, and I have NO idea why. How is that even possible?

There are some days where my NET calories are at -50 for that day. Don't get me wrong, I lose about 8-10 pounds a month with this approach, but my friends and family are worried about me. I need to find out what else I can do...?

Hornsby

Firstly, what type of exercises are you doing to burn 1200 calories?

atsardoulias

Do you work? LOL I don't know how people have time to workout that much, if they don't have a job, kids, etc.

StaciMarie1974

You're either over-estimating you burn or under-estimating the calories you consume. Or both. A HRM is generally reliable - have you updated your stats as you've lost the weight?

What is your height/weight now?

atsardoulias

How are you burning 1000 calories thru out the day?

kayscholl93

I do so many different exercises:

-my elliptical trainer
-Hip Hop abs videos
-Turbo Jam videos
-running outside
-walking outside
-youtube workout videos

Most of the time, I do several of these each day. But on days that I don't have time, I usually just do the elliptical or walking.

VoodooSyxx

IN just to see the responses. Because I burn 1000+ a day, almost every day, and I don't eat back the calories.

lydiaannepage

*bump to read the replies to the questions because I'm curious*

StaciMarie1974

One other thought - if you've lost weight thru extreme means you've potentially lost a lot of muscle. Have you done strength training along your journey? Depending on how much you've lost, you could have done damage to your body's burn rate. Muscle burns more than fat, so if you're significantly low on muscle mass you won't be burning as much as the HRM thinks. Your BMR might also be reduced.

Perhaps cut back on the cardio, eat higher calorie intake especially protein, and focus on weight training.

positivity1967

hi

do you cycle a lot or run a lot. same as you, i can burn off 1200 calories cycling for an hour or so and then its incredibly hard to eat back all those burnt off calories in one day so its no wonder your losing quite a bit in a month. that said, its also very addictive, seeing the scales go down so i wonder if secretly your very pleased how its working out and have no intention of doing anything else anyway? just a thought

chivalryder

First of all, I'd take a step back and consider taking more rest days. Ever heard of over training? If not, Google it. It can be serious.

Regarding your question, I would switch up how you look at calorie consumption. I'd switch over to the TDEE method, using "highly active" as the multiplier (1.75-1.9x BMR) then subtract 10% for your deficit. Eat that every day.

If you want to keep following the MFP system then yes, eat those calories back. With so little weight left to lose, it'll take a long time.

Speaking of losing weight, are you sure that's the weight you want to be? Do you know your BF%?

As for Hornsby's comment: I can easily burn 1200 calories from cycling for two hours. My average rides burn 500-600 calories/hour. If I push myself, I can easily go over 600 calories/hour. Starting next Friday, I'll be riding 3-4 hours every Friday. There will be big calorie burns.

ahiddenlink

It's certainly possibly to do it many days in a row, on days I go to the gym and play sports I cover that 1,000 + but that's only a few times a week for me. 2-3 hours of "intense" workouts would cover that for a lot of people.

SkinnyGirlCarrie

Do you do the fitness assessments with your HRM so it is using your personal zones and not the generics? That can make a difference.

AbsolutelyAnnie

If you are burning 1000+ calories and maintaining or gaining when you attempt to eat 2200 calories, you are very likely not calculating your food properly and eating more calories than you think. Or your HRM is off. One of the two. If you are consistently losing 2 lbs per week, that is the fastest you want to lose and be safe.

Without being able to see your diary and not knowing your current weight/height, and what type of exercise you are doing it is difficult to say more.

However, netting below 1000 on a regular basis is not a good way to go. I could not support netting -50.

Hornsby

If you were eating back your calories and gaining then you are either overestimating your calorie burn, or underestimating your consumption.

Based on the exercises you say you are doing, I would say you are over estimating your calorie burn. HRMs are only accurate for steady state cardio (running, jogging, elliptical...etc). Since I don't know much about the videos, I can't say for sure, but I am guessing an HRM wouldn't track those calorie burns all that accurately.

MeanderingMammal

-Hip Hop abs videos
-Turbo Jam videos
-youtube workout videos

For some reason you're misjudging either your calorie intake, or your calorie expenditure, or both leading to you consuming more calories than you expend.

Your HRM may be including your base calorie expenditure anyway, so you end up double accounting, but equally an HRM is unlikely to be accurate for the training you list here as it's not designed for those types of sessions.

chivalryder

hi

do you cycle a lot or run a lot. same as you, i can burn off 1200 calories cycling for an hour or so and then its incredibly hard to eat back all those burnt off calories in one day so its no wonder your losing quite a bit in a month. that said, its also very addictive, seeing the scales go down so i wonder if secretly your very pleased how its working out and have no intention of doing anything else anyway? just a thought

I highly doubt those burns are accurate. I'm not in the greatest shape (the larger you are, the more you burn) and I can only get a 600 calorie burn per hour when I bust my butt on my bike. I'm using an HRM with VO2 MAX input. I trust it to be fairly accurate.

_lyndseybrooke_

I'm convinced that people that burn 1000+ calories in a day by exercising either don't work or don't sleep.

brianpperkins

Let's take a step back here. How did you arrive at the net calorie goal? What is your age, height, and current weight?

From there ... do you measure your foods or just estimate/guess on portions? How accurately do you log? (impossible for anyone to assess with a closed diary).

What workouts and for how long are you doing them? HRMs are great for some activities, useless for others. Are you doing any resistance training to maintain lean mass?

Tillyecl1

I'm similar to you in that I burn around 7500 cals\week with one rest day. I do between 90 minutes and 4 hours a day (training for middle and long distance triathlons) and yes I even have a "proper" job. I get up early and go out after work in order to get my mileage in.

As for eating back calories, I struggled until I swapped from NEAT to TDEE. The TDEE method has made it so much easier for me. I have a slightly higher calorie limit using this method but I don't have to worry about eating back the exercise calories as they are built into the basic calorie allowance.

EDIT: and when I say 90 minutes-4 hours I mean running or cycling solidly at a reasonable pace (run approx 10.5-11 kph, cycle approx 26-30 kph) for the entire time stated.

positivity1967

well yes it is accurate. i used two different ways of calculating burn, both are pretty much the same. i did say over an hour so btw!