eating calories from exercise

SHBoss1673

ok so I've revised some theories since I wrote this, but it's still essentially accurate for the most part.

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

Please read through it.

One of these day's I'm going to re-write this to be a little better and more up to date with 2011 concepts, but seriously, it's the little things that I'd change, the concepts are all still correct.

Not sure why everyone clings to 1200 so fiercly. 1200 is a FEMALE average that the WHO came up with in the 80's basically saying the average woman needs a MINIMUM net calories of 1200 to satisfy macro and micro nutrient levels and stay out of starvation. This is NOT something most people should be shooting for as a weight loss goal. Think about what that says.

1) this is a world wide average, meaning you could be far higher (or lower) than it
2) This is a FLOOR number for women. I.E. never go below this without the supervision of a trained professional in nutrition (and I don't mean your GP, doctors generally don't receive nutrition training, beware of doctors giving nutrition advice, check their credentials)
3) your deficit should be absolutely, 100% based on the amount of weight (or more specifically, fat) you want to lose. Your body fat % should be your main motivator here. If you're obese, ok fine, 2 lbs per week is probably fine, but come on guys, someone looking to lose 15 or 20 lbs shouldn't be looking to lose 2 lbs a week, it's just not how healthy weight loss happens.

katbass

This is from several posts yesterday, and I just copied and pasted it for convenience sake, so ignore the parts about exercise that dont pertain to your situation. But the BMR stuff is important MFP sets your calories based on what you tell it. If you told it you want to lose 2lbs per week, its gonna go as low as 1200 calories. But thats not necessarily healthy or the right thing to do. Really...check out your BMR and stick to it:


Short answer: Try Searching this topic, as it has been discussed ad nausea here on the site.

Longer (but not nearly long enough) answer:
Your body requires a certain number of calories in order for you to simply exist. In order for you eyes to blink, your heart to keep beating, your hair to keep growing, your organs to keep functioning, you have to feed it a certain number of calories. This number is called your BMR. (Use the tool on this site to check your BMR...) For example, my BMR is about 1490 calories. So say I lay in bed allllll day, motionless. I would require 1490 calories just to keep my body alive in a coma-like state.
The second I get out of bed, walk across the room, open the door to the bathroom, brush my teeth, pee, weigh myself, turn on the hot water,and hop in the shower...I have burned calories. Minimal...but still enough to start cutting into the 1490 my body needs in order to fuel its most basic functions.

So if I eat my BMR of 1490 a day, I am only giving my body enough to do its basic functions.

MFP gave me 1200 calories based on my desire to lose 2 lbs a week. At my height and current weight, losing 2 lbs per week is not reasonable, but I wanted to lose FAST. And the lowest MFP will set someone's calories is 1200 (For many good reasons). 1200 is sort of an arbitrary number at this point but no one should really eat LESS than 1200, and there are likely very few people who could eat 1200 calories for the rest of their lives and maintain weight or stay satisfied. (opinion...sorry) I lost 20+ lbs eating 1200 cals a day. Wahoo! Yeah me!! Right? WRONG. The second I started eating "normal" again, I gained all 20+ lbs back, PLUS MORE. It might "work" in the short term, but for many here, 1200 calories isnt the lifestyle change needed to STAY healthy and thin.

OK, back to the exercise thing. If I eat my 1500 (1490) cals today, my body will already be at a deficit for weight loss since I got out of bed, functioned, walked, lifted my toddler countless times, etc. So if I were to workout and burn 500 calories this afternoon, my body would be at an even greater deficit, and risk pushing my body to panic. Once your body panics and your metabolism worries that you are not feeding it enough, you will start to store fat at a faster rate. Your body and metabolism will try to hang onto any extra store of fat in preparation for an upcoming "famine".

Another way to look at it: If you eat 1200 calories and then exercise 500 calories away, you are only holding onto 700 calories for your body to draw from for energy, organ function, eye blinking, etc etc. Its just not enough for your body to exist on without causing longterm troubles.

It took me a looooong time to "get" this. I still have to consciously remind myself to eat my calories in order to lose weight. It seems counter-intuitive...but it WORKS. When I eat my BMR and at LEAST half my exercise calories, I lose weight. When I only eat 1200 calories, I am miserable, hungry, and i might lose some weight initially...but i gain it alllll back with a few extra for fluffiness.

Bottom line: eat more, keep moving, lose more, keep it off
BMR + exercise calories = longterm success



Hope that helped!

Also, if you put your goal as "lose 2 lbs per week" then MFP will set your calorie goal accordingly. That is why it gave you 1200 cals rather than your BMR. Its fruatrating to repeatedly see people say "eat 1200 if youre a girl and 1500 if youre a guy" because every body is sooo different. Dont take that 1200 "golden" number and assume you will lose weight. You might initially, but youll likely stall if your frame/height/etc arent getting enough calories to exist on.

rileysowner

It is up to you. If you are not hungry why eat it. I know people will talk about your metabolism slowing down, but it is much harder to slow down your metabolism than that. If you ate your calories for the day and "earn" extra by exercise, you can either have those "earned" calories go to losing weight, or you can eat food to replace them. Then your weight loss is because of your allowable calories for the day (the stuff you ate with no "earned" exercise calories figured into the mix) in which case why are you exercising in the first place because replacing those calories you burned removes it at a weight loss tool. If you are hungry eating some of those calories back would not be a bad thing, but personally I would hesitate to eat them all.

Edit:
Having said all that exercise has benefits beyond calories burned, but if you want to lose weight using those exercise calories toward your weight loss seems better than to eat more food unless you are hungry.

Hunger is not a good indication of nutritional requirements. A few days of eating more than you need stretches your stomach and it takes more food to fill you whether you need the nutrients or not. Of if you are on a liquid diet you may get all the nutrition (calories) you need but still be hungry as liquid digests faster.

I won't argue that, but if I stuck to the 1400 calories mentioned above as a minimum for a male I would be hard pressed based on the BMR the tool here comes up with for me, to lose more that .7 pounds a week. My hunger thing had to do with staying in your calorie allowance. Even eating low fiber as opposed to extreme high fiber foods makes a difference with perceived hunger. My point was if you exercise and then eat all the calories you worked so hard to burn off, assuming your main reason for exercising is losing weight, then why exercise.

Then again I have big questions what numbers like 1200 and 1400 are based on. If it is a matter of that is the amount needed to have the various nutrients you need such as vitamins and minerals, then you have those once you have eaten those calories and shouldn't need to eat any more.

SHBoss1673

I won't argue that, but if I stuck to the 1400 calories mentioned above as a minimum for a male I would be hard pressed based on the BMR the tool here comes up with for me, to lose more that .7 pounds a week. My hunger thing had to do with staying in your calorie allowance. Even eating low fiber as opposed to extreme high fiber foods makes a difference with perceived hunger. My point was if you exercise and then eat all the calories you worked so hard to burn off, assuming your main reason for exercising is losing weight, then why exercise.

Then again I have big questions what numbers like 1200 and 1400 are based on. If it is a matter of that is the amount needed to have the various nutrients you need such as vitamins and minerals, then you have those once you have eaten those calories and shouldn't need to eat any more.

Ahh, now we get to the meat of the argument. OK now I'll chime in on this. First things first, we need to understand how our bodies perceive hunger and what they do about it. When we don't have anything in the stomach providing energy, the body releases hunger hormones, the main one is ghrelin, which makes us feel hungry. Now, in a correctly functioning digestive system, these feelings are sent out at the proper time and we are hungry when we need food. But for those that have abused food (in one way or another) these hormones are not necessarily sent out at the correct time. I.E. people who tend to overeat have a tendency to be hungry even though they have plenty of energy available. Those who under eat have digestive systems that are conforming to starvation mode where the body suppresses hunger hormones, and thus even though you may need energy, you aren't being told you need any. This is why, for those of us who aren't in great health, I always say to trust your higher brain function (I.E. reasoning skills and nutrition plans) over feelings (or the lack there of) of hunger. Eventually, if you feed yourself correctly for long enough, the hunger feelings will right themselves, but not until you are eating correctly again for a while.

One of the main points I try to make when I advise people is to plan out your daily schedule in advance. By that I mean not only what you will eat, but estimate an approximate amount of calories you will burn via exercise. I realize you can't be 100% accurate all the time, but you can come pretty close once you've been working out for a few weeks and know what a specific workout will burn (generally). Thus if you are going to work out on a day, plan for those calories so you don't end up scrambling for extra calories at the end of the day. By this I also mean, we have to be diligent throughout the week, by means of planning snacks and food in advance. When you go to the grocery store, buy foods that you can break into small packages for snacks AND DO IT when you get home, it doesn't take long, and it will save you from the mid week open fridge stare trying to figure out what you can eat and how much you can take to fit into your calories for the day.

If you plan your days in advance, this becomes SO much easier. Adding the extra 50 to 75 calories per meal is no big deal, but trying to squish that 200 to 400 extra calories in at the end of the day can be to much for many people.