Help! Calorie intake!

Karasene

I have recently as in today, upped my calorie intake from 1200 to 1400. I try to work out 5x a week but usually its just 4x. I do 25 minutes on the elliptical and it says i burn around 400 calories. I also throw in 25 minutes of strenth training 2-3 x per week. I also like to give myself a cheat meal on saturdays!

My question is should i be eating more? Only eat more on days i work out? Should I not try and workout so many days a week? I know this site reccomends eating your exercise calories but that dosent make sense to me! I want to burn htose calories so i loose fat. Why would i put those calories back in???

I hope someone can help and explain this to me. I thought i had all figured out until my sister talked to a dietician who said she should be eating 1800 calories and if she didn't work out she should still loose weight!!!! I'm sooooo confused! I just want to do the right and healthy thing!

kvr414

I don't know if this will answer your questions, but I found it very interesting> this is a post by a fellow MFP member discussing exercise calories.
http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/10589-for-those-confused-or-questioning-eating-your-exercise-calo

Shawnalee0703

Sometimes eating adifferent amount of calories each day is a good thing. Keeos your metabolism on its toes. have you calculated your bmr accurately? my biggest tip would be that you calculate your bmr according to activity, sge, weight and then from there subtract calories to lose weight. how many calories are you burning during exercise each week? If you don't feed you're body while training it will lose efficient energy. That is why you are recommended to eat your burnt calories...not always, but sometimes, because that food is fueling your body during workout. If you are eating nutrient dense food and not junk then you shouldn't worry about an extra couple hundred calories eaten on a workout day because it is a natural fuel for your body to use to burn calories. Try...1400 on regular basis and on a day you might burn more than 500 in training then eat 100-200 more....but make sure the extra is only taken in in quality food. Again....calculate your bmr and go from there. Mine says to eat.2100 to maintain, then if I workout and cut to between 1500 &1600 day...i should be losing. Just look at real foif as fuel.