Calories Per Day Question

peachyolives

I just joined today and went through the exercise of putting in my goals for weight loss and how much I plan to work out. I am confused about this "Net Calorie" concept, though. If my daily calorie allowance is 1200 calories, should I be eating more calories for each calorie I burn at the gym or just stick with 1200 per day? I always thought that was the maximum calories I should have whether I worked out or not (at my weight).

Any insight is appreciated. Thanks!

jrich1

MFP doesnt factor in workout so if you work out you need to eat back some of these calories to refuel your body to stay heathy, the number you are given without exercise already has a deficit built into it

toots99

Check out this thread: http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/10589-for-those-confused-or-questioning-eating-your-exercise-calo

nancdag

I have lost 24 lbs and I eat my exercise calories. Your given 1200 calories a day before exercise. If you don't eat the extra calories and you burn 300 doing exercise you are only giving your body 900 calories of energy. It's not the healthy way to go. You will lose wait faster but you will be hungry.

LareishaH

I just want to warn you that this is a very controversial topic!!! Some people will tell you to eat your exercise calories and some people will tell you not to because it defeats the purpose. Personally, I think that you have to find out what works best for you. Good Luck!

lutzsher

I just want to warn you that this is a very controversial topic!!! Some people will tell you to eat your exercise calories and some people will tell you not to because it defeats the purpose. Personally, I think that you have to find out what works best for you. Good Luck!

Totally agree. I actually like to "shake it up" to keep my body guessing . . . that seems to work the best for me. I don't eat the same amount of calories 2 days in a row. Some days I eat all of my exercise calories, some days I eat none of them. Some days Im over a bit, some days Im under. I find that if I consistently eat more than 1/2 to all of them that the scale won't move at all for me . . . but each person is different so you will have to figure out what works best for you!

peachyolives

Thank you to all of you for your help! I think I will start without eating most/all of those calories...I would hate to see the scale stay in the same place.

Chiquita_Banana

I just want to warn you that this is a very controversial topic!!! Some people will tell you to eat your exercise calories and some people will tell you not to because it defeats the purpose. Personally, I think that you have to find out what works best for you. Good Luck!

i agree sometimes if i'm hungry i will eat some of my exercise calories, if i'm not then i won't

funkyspunky871

I just want to warn you that this is a very controversial topic!!! Some people will tell you to eat your exercise calories and some people will tell you not to because it defeats the purpose. Personally, I think that you have to find out what works best for you. Good Luck!

Exactly! It's very controversial, and it works either way for a lot of people. I personally don't eat my exercise calories back, because it stalls my weight loss. I'm not going to tell you not to eat them back either... Yet, I WILL say that you should at least give it a try. Why not eat them back if it doesn't stall your weight loss? It's a genius plan; burn 100 calories, gain 100 extra calories to spend on whatever you'd like. I wish I could eat mine back. ;_;

alantin

It's a genius plan; burn 100 calories, gain 100 extra calories to spend on whatever you'd like. I wish I could eat mine back. ;_;

It doesn't really go like that if you're taking it seriously. Mad exercise to get to eat candy isn't a very good idea if you want good results.
The extra calories need to be good, nutrient rich food that fits into your balanced diet. Just like everything else.

Cheat days are for whatever you like.

I usually plan my food diary a day or two before after I have decided what kind of exercise and how much I'm going to do on that day. That makes accommodating the increased nutrition requirements easy as well as getting a balanced amount of nutrients.

How much your true exercise calories amount to in the end requires a lot of guesswork without an HRM though and I believe that most people who "don't believe in exercise calories" just ended up overestimating them and eating too much as a result if they tried eating them in the first place. What the site suggests, seems to be way too much, at least for me.

funkyspunky871

It doesn't really go like that if you're taking it seriously. Mad exercise to get to eat candy isn't a very good idea if you want good results.
The extra calories need to be good, nutrient rich food that fits into your balanced diet. Just like everything else.

I happen to be very serious about my weight loss, thank you very much. I've had "good results" too. (I'd say 96 pounds proves that.) I have junk food several times a week though. It honestly doesn't matter where the calories come from. A calorie is a calorie and will always be no matter how much you argue that fact. I spend my calories on what I like. I am NOT saying I eat only crap and nothing else, but, yeah, I just so happened to have a candy bar with my dinner the other night. I wasn't that hungry; it was my choice to spend my calories on it. I still lost 2 pounds on Saturday morning too. I think that's what keeps me heathy mentally.. by knowing that my calories are like a bank, and I can use them for whatever I'd like. I wouldn't have lost 96 pounds thinking that I'd have to live the rest of my life eating whole grain (yuck), grilled chicken, and salad. Cheat days can't be any better for you than occasionally eating crap that actually fits in your calorie goals.

But, thanks for assuming that I was talking about exercising JUST to eat junk. Pretty degrading if you ask me.

funkyspunky871

It doesn't really go like that if you're taking it seriously. Mad exercise to get to eat candy isn't a very good idea if you want good results.
The extra calories need to be good, nutrient rich food that fits into your balanced diet. Just like everything else.

I happen to be very serious about my weight loss, thank you very much. I've had "good results" too. (I'd say 96 pounds proves that.) I have junk food several times a week though. It honestly doesn't matter where the calories come from. A calorie is a calorie and will always be no matter how much you argue that fact. I spend my calories on what I like. I am NOT saying I eat only crap and nothing else, but, yeah, I just so happened to have a candy bar with my dinner the other night. I wasn't that hungry; it was my choice to spend my calories on it. I still lost 2 pounds on Saturday morning too. I think that's what keeps me heathy mentally.. by knowing that my calories are like a bank, and I can use them for whatever I'd like. I wouldn't have lost 96 pounds thinking that I'd have to live the rest of my life eating whole grain (yuck), grilled chicken, and salad. Cheat days can't be any better for you than occasionally eating crap that actually fits in your calorie goals.

But, thanks for assuming that I was talking about exercising JUST to eat junk. Pretty degrading if you ask me.

SafariLara

Sometimes I eat back SOME of my exercise calories, but I still try to keep my overall calorie intake low because I lose better when I don't eat back calories. And I agree, while some foods are more nutrient dense than others, if you've already eaten balanced meals and have extra calories, eat whatever you want!

vlonghi

I usually don't eat my work out calories just because i don't usually work out every day and I want to have some sort of healthy meal plan to get my body used to ingesting only a certain amount of food in a day... plus I think if i ended up eating them, It would probably end up being junk food or something of the sort. It'll make it harder to stick to healthy food i think.. IDK lol:happy:

alantin

It doesn't really go like that if you're taking it seriously. Mad exercise to get to eat candy isn't a very good idea if you want good results.
The extra calories need to be good, nutrient rich food that fits into your balanced diet. Just like everything else.

I happen to be very serious about my weight loss, thank you very much. I've had "good results" too. (I'd say 96 pounds proves that.) I have junk food several times a week though. It honestly doesn't matter where the calories come from. A calorie is a calorie and will always be no matter how much you argue that fact. I spend my calories on what I like. I am NOT saying I eat only crap and nothing else, but, yeah, I just so happened to have a candy bar with my dinner the other night. I wasn't that hungry; it was my choice to spend my calories on it. I still lost 2 pounds on Saturday morning too. I think that's what keeps me heathy mentally.. by knowing that my calories are like a bank, and I can use them for whatever I'd like. I wouldn't have lost 96 pounds thinking that I'd have to live the rest of my life eating whole grain (yuck), grilled chicken, and salad. Cheat days can't be any better for you than occasionally eating crap that actually fits in your calorie goals.

But, thanks for assuming that I was talking about exercising JUST to eat junk. Pretty degrading if you ask me.

I didn't mean to be degrading and I'm sure you are serious about your weight loss. I'm sorry if you took what I said as a personal remark against you but what you said just doesn't sound right to me and I was merely responding to that.

The difference here seems to be that, by results, I don't mean merely weight loss although I began by looking for that. I'm in this for fitness and a balanced diet is a HUGE part of it so a calorie might be a calorie but the rest of the nutrients that come (or don't come) with it matter at least as much!
And for the record, by cheat day, I mean eating whatever you like but still staying within your calorie goal.

I used to do what you described when I first began here but the interesting thing is that while I have been tweaking my diet and trying to find a way to get a balanced amount of all the important nutrients, most of my cravings have just disappeared and I couldn't go back to eating the way I used to before. I don't usually even require cheat days, but they come in handy when having fun with friends.