eat your workout calories??

ashleyjea1985

i dont understand how you lose weight if you eat your exercise calories.
if i burn 500 a day and then go and eat the extra 500 a day.. isnt it like null?????


please explain--- as simply as possible.. thanks!

mirahonthawall

Look at it this way... If you burn 500 cals with exercise you need to get those back to ensure your body is being fueled.

Say your net goal is 1200. You eat them before you work out. You work out and burn 500 cal. Your net is now 700 (1200-500). But your goal is 1200 so you gotta eat them back. If you don't, after time, your body thinks it's starving and will start storing fat.

NikkisNewStart

Your daily caloric goals (say 1200 a day for example) are already set up to provide a big enough deficit to ensure you reach your goal of losing x amount of pounds per week. If you burn 500 and you do not eat those 500, you have now consumed a net amount of calories of 700 for the day. No good- too little to sufficiently keep your metabolism in optimal fat burning mode!

If you eat those 500 calories- you are now back at a 1200 calories consumed for the day. A+ - that's what we want. Trust me- it may sound odd that you have to eat calories to lose weight but it is true. If my net drops below what my goal is set for (right now it is 1200 calories a day) for too many days- my weight loss stalls. When I eat those exercise calories (in turn making my net go to 1200 again, eating back what I burned) then my metabolism keeps on burning and I lose.

You can check out the weekly tab and see your weekly net calories consumed... it should be right at your goal line and not way below- where it would be if you did not consume most, if not all, of your exercise calories. Hope this helps!

ashleyjea1985

but why bother working out and losing the 500 calories if you just have to eat them when you get home....

mirahonthawall

Your body is burning calories when you're just sitting around doing nothing and you still have to eat. When you exert it with exercise, you have to eat to keep your body working.

Do a search on eating exercise calories on this forum this question gets asked every 30 minutes

NikkisNewStart

but why bother working out and losing the 500 calories if you just have to eat them when you get home....

Working out will increase your BMR... which in turn increases the amount of calories you burn just by being alive... over time you will burn more calories and despite eating your exercise calories (again- to get your net consumed to what your goal is), the deficit between calories in and calories burned will be greater b/c your Basal Metabolic Rate is higher. Plus- your heart will be healthier and you'll gain muscle definition.

If your goal is to just drop weight and not be healthier- then by all means don't eat your exercise calories. I'm sure you will drop tons of weight... as well as drop your metabolism and essentially be a thin "fat" person... aka still unhealthy.

If your goal is to lose weight, be healthier inside and out, increase your metabolism so you are a fat burning machine even when you are not exercising... then you need to eat your exercise calories and get as close to your goal (your net) as possible.

Again- say your goal is 1200. You burn 500. You have essentially only consumed 700 calories. That is not sufficient to fuel your body or maintain health. You may see a drop at first, but as your metabolism plummets, so will your ability to lose weight.

If you eat your 500 calories- you will be back at a net consumed of 1200... which is the MINIMUM you should eat to reach your goal of losing x amount of pounds a week. You will be toned and possibly prevent many diseases by increasing your fitness level. You will still lose weight- probably a lot more- than if you took the first route and didn't consume those calories... because, again, your BMR will increase and you will be running a greater deficit.

example... say my BMR is 2000 calories a day- that's how much my body would need just to be alive and lay in bed all day (I'm too tired to click and view my 'real' number... my MFP goal is 1200 calories... hypothetically this creates a caloric deficit to lose 2 pounds a week.... by exercising and increasing my fitness level, I raise my BMR to 2500 a day b/c my body is better conditioned and needs more calories to function... I'm eating 1200 calories a day... so now there is a greater deficit, i.e. more weight loss going on all the time b/c I'm a fat burning machine!

Food is fuel and your body needs it... but I've only lost 72 lbs using this method so what do I know?

HeidiMightyRawr

Think of it like this, your body will not do well surviving on less than 1200 calories a day. If you burn 500 on top of that and don't eat them back then that is the same as living on just 700 calories a day!
However, you can get your deficit from both diet and exercise, by eating say 1700 calories and then burning 500 calories through exercise and not eating them back - but this is exactly the same, just another way of looking at it.

If a person say wanted to lose 1lb a week - needing a 500 cal deficit they have 3 things they can do. Eat the calories they need to maintain (say 1800) and burn 500 each day exercising, or they could eat 1300 calories a day and do no exercise, or they could eat 2/300 calories a day less and burn the rest through exercise. By eating a large deficit in food alone and doing exercise on top you are only doing yourself harm, and you might even find it hard to lose weight.

Exercise also has far more benefits than just burning calories. You improve your general fitness, increase your strength and stamina, and also the more muscle you have the more calories you burn just by sitting around all day - easier to maintain your goal weight!

MarieAnneN

Also, you need to know that exercising is more than good to get a healthy body BUT more you exercise the more your metabolism goes up, so it burns more calories while resting.