Don't want to eat anymore today...imagine that...

Options
autumnater
autumnater Posts: 42 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
Hello. After exercising I seem to "earn" extra calories. Today I excercised enough to get 421 bonus caolories....am i supposed to use them or leave them alone? I want to lose weight...not maintain or gain so I am a bit confused, What to do???? Any avice out there would be appreciated....thanks.

Replies

  • macw1_2000
    macw1_2000 Posts: 50 Member
    Options
    I heard you're supposed to eat the calories that you burned but frankly, I haven't been. I'm supposed to be at 1200 calories a day for weight loss and I try to stick to that regardless of what I do at the gym. 3 pounds down so far (in two weeks) and I feel pretty good.

    I haven't been able to get a straight answer on this either but I know what I'm doing. Sometimes I am more hungry than others so on those days, if I go a little over, I don't feel so badly about it. Other days I am below and haven't made up the calories that I worked off.

    Play with what works for you and see what happens.
  • tmcowan
    tmcowan Posts: 322 Member
    Options
    You're supposed to eat them. MFP already has you set up to lose "x" pounds per week with the calories that you get. If you consistently leave those calories on the table you may be hindering your weight loss. There are a lot of posts out there about eating your exercise calories, if you do a search you'll be amazed at the responses.
  • meggonkgonk
    meggonkgonk Posts: 2,066 Member
    Options
    You should eat most of them- it is pretty unique to each person, but generally speaking your MINIMUM calories should be 1200+your exercise cals. Your settings are set to lose weight at whatever speed you chose, so eating back your exercise calories, still leaves you at a deficit. By eating your exercise calories your are teaching your metabolism to burn calories and such and keeping it from trying to prevent starvation. Exercise isn't meant to increase your daily deficit significantly, it's just good for your body and helps develop its systems that burn fat.


    Bottom line you can avoid eating them if you want, but it won't hurt you to eat them and nutritionally its arguable that you need to.
  • brendansmom1
    brendansmom1 Posts: 530 Member
    Options
    If you do a search ^up there where it says search.....do one for "eating exercise calories". There is like a HUGE thread on this and a very "technical" explanation too....I wish I had the thread bookmarked cause I always want to re-read it. LOL

    Personally, I do some of the time..but never all of them.......some days I do more than others...it really depends on when I work out and all.

    Good Luck!! :happy:

Categories