Looooong post about exercise calories...

masterofktulu

So far I have lost 12 pounds. I agree completely it is mostly water weight. I eat a ton of food, and it is mostly veggies, fruit and chicken which are low in calories but provide me with everything else I need. I do mix it up once in a while. I have read countless topics regarding people who are under their deficit.

I sat down for a while and spoke to a professional trainer regarding calorie intake. He informed me this site is to be taken as a guide, and a good way to determine estimated calories, fat, carbs etc. I told him exactly what I eat, how much, and all of my exercises. He told me that my exercise calories should be taken with caution on this site, due to the fact a considerable amount of calorie burns on exercises are based on averages MPF has provided.

He also told me I am not starving myself. I mentioned about my body if when I begin a healthy transition would I feel like I am full even if my body wasn't getting enough food? He told me no. Unless I was taking a considerable amount of pre workout and post workout supplements, fasting, or constantly hungry and not content, I am not starving myself. He said rule of thumb, if you are hungry, eat. If you know you aren't don't eat. He told me even if I was full and was well under caloric counts eating for the sake of just getting the calories is not a smart decision. Every person is different and that is a key factor to understanding weight loss.

My next step is to purchase a heart rate monitor watch which will then give me accurate results regarding how many calories I truly do burn in every day life. I truly don't believe I am burning 900 calories by weight training for 20 minutes and choosing "shooting hoops" for 120 minutes. Especially since my heart rate does not increase a whole lot and I am never out of breath.

I am most definitely eating what my body needs. I never feel deprived, shaky, or disoriented in any way. Everyone has an opinion based off of either facts from someone else's opinion, or personal experience. Just like this one :P

monyango

I'm in total agreement with you. I personally eat my exercise points because I work my tail off so I'm usually hungry. But today I was left with 340 calories remaining that I didn't eat because I wasn't hungry. I'm in weight maintenance so I try not to have too large of a deficit but at the same time the "don't eat unless you're hungry" has been paying off for me up till now.

Best of luck with your weight loss journey!!

Lstrode

I got one of those watches today. I was wondering how accurate it is. I figure it has to be pretty accurate since it has a heart monitor with it. I got it at Wal-Mart for $28.00. Well, my husband picked it up for me, but still. lol. I checked it 3 times today - doing normal activities, dancing, and using my Wii Fit Plus. From what I can tell, it seems accurate. I already love it, and it wasn't expensive. Good luck!

NightOwl1

Most exercise estimates (whether it be this site, a machine readout, or even a lot of HRMs), tend to overestimate the number of calories we burn through exercise. So you are definitely right that 900 calories for two hours of shooting baskets is way too high.

However, your trainer is not entirely right either. I think you are probably eating too little. Minimum daily recommended calorie intake for an adult male is 1500-1800, even if you don't exercise. So if you're below that, and then you add in exercise, that's not healthy long term.

The common advice "trust your body" couldn't be more untrue in certain situations. The truth is that your body is a lying *kitten* sometimes. It's goal is survival, not operating at your optimum health levels. So if you don't feed yourself enough, often your body will compensate an take away your hunger. So don't think just because you're not hungry, doesn't mean you don't need to eat more.

Hopefully an accurate calorie readout from an HRM will help you get a better idea of what your actual burn is. But if operate at too high a calorie deficit, your body will slow your metabolism down to compensate.

clioandboy

I have lost weight steadily since joining this site, and I LOVE it but I have been in shock since Xmas. I got an hrm and I am booking a third of the cals that I was booking from mfp! I ate my exercise calories almost always so 2011 has started with ne earning lots less calories and eating less..... I guess I may reach my goals now! Good luck to you

proudtexan71

Thank you for all this info - I truly appreciate it.

Lstrode

The common advice "trust your body" couldn't be more untrue in certain situations. The truth is that your body is a lying *kitten* sometimes.

LOL that made me giggle

LastFighter

I do not trust my own body. It tells me to eat all the time.... I am hungry right now lol. I dont have underlying reasons for eating I just love food. I love the pastas, cheeses and meats. I also love the high calorie snacks.

You should not listen to your body especially before you go to bed. If you feel hungry within 2 hours of your bed time have a glass of water.

I could see a 900 Calorie burn for 2 hours of shooting hoops as long as your actively doing it. light jog to get the ball, consistently shooting etc. also depending on your size/weight.

JaneZv

The truth is that your body is a lying *kitten* sometimes.

:laugh: LOL! How true, especially during TOM. How can I be hungry all day! Grrrrr... lying *kitten*! :grumble:

ladyhawk00

So far I have lost 12 pounds. I agree completely it is mostly water weight. I eat a ton of food, and it is mostly veggies, fruit and chicken which are low in calories but provide me with everything else I need. I do mix it up once in a while. I have read countless topics regarding people who are under their deficit.

I sat down for a while and spoke to a professional trainer regarding calorie intake. He informed me this site is to be taken as a guide, and a good way to determine estimated calories, fat, carbs etc. I told him exactly what I eat, how much, and all of my exercises. He told me that my exercise calories should be taken with caution on this site, due to the fact a considerable amount of calorie burns on exercises are based on averages MPF has provided.

He also told me I am not starving myself. I mentioned about my body if when I begin a healthy transition would I feel like I am full even if my body wasn't getting enough food? He told me no. Unless I was taking a considerable amount of pre workout and post workout supplements, fasting, or constantly hungry and not content, I am not starving myself. He said rule of thumb, if you are hungry, eat. If you know you aren't don't eat. He told me even if I was full and was well under caloric counts eating for the sake of just getting the calories is not a smart decision. Every person is different and that is a key factor to understanding weight loss.

My next step is to purchase a heart rate monitor watch which will then give me accurate results regarding how many calories I truly do burn in every day life. I truly don't believe I am burning 900 calories by weight training for 20 minutes and choosing "shooting hoops" for 120 minutes. Especially since my heart rate does not increase a whole lot and I am never out of breath.

I am most definitely eating what my body needs. I never feel deprived, shaky, or disoriented in any way. Everyone has an opinion based off of either facts from someone else's opinion, or personal experience. Just like this one :P

My reply (even longer....LOL):

I'll agree with almost all of that. Chicken, veggies and fruit are excellent. But your body does need good carbs as well (this is of course another hot topic, but I won't get into that). And good carbs is where a lot of good cals can come from. It also needs good fats (from natural oils, nuts, avocadoes, fish) and those are also a source of good cals.

Certainly, I would never say anyone should take the numbers given by MFP as absolute and without any margin for error. From what I've been told by those who have access to the actual tests, the BMR given by MFP is generally VERY close, however. As far as exercise burns, the entries in the database are certainly a huge issue - they are well over on some, about right on some, and well under on others - and it depends entirely on who is doing them (height/weight, age, intensity) as to whether they would be in a good range for accuracy. It is why I don't generally eat ALL of my exercise cals, or I back out some of the cals on a given entry.

I don't believe you're starving yourself, and wouldn't tell you that you are. As a young male, you are in a category that can withstand a much larger cal deficit than many people, and you may be getting enough, averaged out over time, to keep from creating too large of a deficit - you can only wait, watch, and see. It can take many weeks, if not months, to observe real effects.

Here would be my issues, though. A minor one would be that I would disagree with your trainer as far as loss of appetite - I experienced it myself. Or rather, I should say a continued lack of appetite. My previous habits included a LOT of soda and eating no breakfast and rarely eating lunch - I had suppressed my appetite during the day for many years and it took some time to retrain my brain to recognize hunger. That's just my opinion, but I've heard a LOT of people claim a lack of appetite in the first couple of weeks and I find it hard to believe they're all lying or wrong.

That brings me to my strongest disagreement. One of the biggest reasons for the existence of a site such as MFP is that the majority of people who are overweight are not able to recognize the true feelings of hunger. Saying "trust your body" just isn't a useful thing in the beginning. Most overeaters have established habits over many years that contradict the body's normal hunger cues - and thus they can no longer distinguish between real hunger and other feelings or mental cues. It's a classic case of Pavlov's dog - over time, associating something with food brings the same response whether the food is there or not. Overeaters will feel hungry when they are not, and not feel hungry when they need fuel, because they are mentally trained to have the inappropriate assocations/responses with food that caused their overeating.

Which is one of the reasons why MFP (or any calorie counting) is so useful. Its best application as a weight loss tool is to help retrain the body AND mind to recognize the cues a HEALTHY body gives us. The way it does this is it says "You need to eat this many calories today. Don't go too far over or under - try to meet this goal." By doing that over the first few weeks or months, it helps us recognize healthy portions, and a healthy schedule, and a healthy amount of total calories - based on fairly accurate estimates of what a person this size/age/activity level needs.

The idea is this: MFP already calculates a cal deficit that allows for a certain amount of HEALTHY weight loss per week. Exercise over and above that number of calories needs to be replaced to some extent or the deficit is larger than what you (presumably) intended.

I would never say ALL people need to eat ALL exercise cals - or the reverse. There is a good amount of variation in what is appropriate for each person. Some people need to eat all of them, some need to eat some. It is largely dependent on how much a person has to lose and how much exercise they do, and the accuracy of their logging. But to say that the idea of eating exercise cals AT ALL is "garbage", is not only incorrect (based on scientific studies), but is somewhat damaging for a LOT of the people here. Most of the people here are women. Women have much less leeway, due to slower metabolisms, less muscle mass and lower calorie requirements. While you may have a reasonable deficit range of 1000 cals or more, most women (especially those with less fat to lose) may only have a range of 500 or less, as far as the number of cals needed to sustain healthy weight loss. Few people will come onto MFP and never need to tweak the numbers a little bit. But the overall guidelines are pretty successful - because of the calculations used - and the calculations include trying to meet cal goals (which, by default, includes eating exercise cals.) If not eating your cals works for you, by all means, do it that way. But as you said - everyone is different - and the majority of people do need to eat at least some of them, so try not to discourage them from doing so.

Anyway, sorry if I rambled, getting a bit tired and I start to babble. I wish you the best of luck and I hope you can continue to be successful. :flowerforyou:

ladyhawk00

Most exercise estimates (whether it be this site, a machine readout, or even a lot of HRMs), tend to overestimate the number of calories we burn through exercise. So you are definitely right that 900 calories for two hours of shooting baskets is way too high.

However, your trainer is not entirely right either. I think you are probably eating too little. Minimum daily recommended calorie intake for an adult male is 1500-1800, even if you don't exercise. So if you're below that, and then you add in exercise, that's not healthy long term.

The common advice "trust your body" couldn't be more untrue in certain situations. The truth is that your body is a lying *kitten* sometimes. It's goal is survival, not operating at your optimum health levels. So if you don't feed yourself enough, often your body will compensate an take away your hunger. So don't think just because you're not hungry, doesn't mean you don't need to eat more.

Hopefully an accurate calorie readout from an HRM will help you get a better idea of what your actual burn is. But if operate at too high a calorie deficit, your body will slow your metabolism down to compensate.

Well said...and so much shorter than mine.