An objective look at eating "exercise calories"

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Replies

  • EthanJeremiahsMama
    EthanJeremiahsMama Posts: 534 Member
    I'm glad and you're welcome.

    Hi, wow I am so happy I came across this post. I am 5'6 & 111 pounds. I have been using MFP for almost 3 months now & have lost about 20 pounds. I only go to the gym 3 times a week for an hour each time. I usually burn about 500 calories each workout doing cardio.. However I'm not sure if that's accurate since I do not have an HRM, which I am purchasing a polar FT4 over the weekend lol :) I've been at 1,200 cals per day.. And I never eat my exercise calories back. So my net cals are always low or below 1,200. I thought we werent supposed to eat them due to, hey what's the point when I just burned them off? This post is so helpful..

    I seriously need to make changes. So basically for instance, today I supposedly burned a total of 500 cals. If I'm at 1,200 cals per day.. I need to eat those extra 300 cals(to be on the safe side since it's not accurate on machines) to CONTINUE to lose weight & be healthy??
  • EthanJeremiahsMama
    EthanJeremiahsMama Posts: 534 Member
    BUMP. Hopefully I can receive a response from Steve soon! Thanks so much.
  • stroutman81
    stroutman81 Posts: 2,474 Member
    I'm glad and you're welcome.

    Hi, wow I am so happy I came across this post. I am 5'6 & 111 pounds. I have been using MFP for almost 3 months now & have lost about 20 pounds. I only go to the gym 3 times a week for an hour each time. I usually burn about 500 calories each workout doing cardio.. However I'm not sure if that's accurate since I do not have an HRM, which I am purchasing a polar FT4 over the weekend lol :) I've been at 1,200 cals per day.. And I never eat my exercise calories back. So my net cals are always low or below 1,200. I thought we werent supposed to eat them due to, hey what's the point when I just burned them off? This post is so helpful..

    I seriously need to make changes. So basically for instance, today I supposedly burned a total of 500 cals. If I'm at 1,200 cals per day.. I need to eat those extra 300 cals(to be on the safe side since it's not accurate on machines) to CONTINUE to lose weight & be healthy??

    A couple of things:

    1. Are you sure further fat loss is what you need to be focusing on in order to reach your goals? Read this post:

    http://body-improvements.com/2011/07/22/what-happens-when-you-reach-your-goal-weight-unsatisfied/

    2. All cardio and no strength training?

    3. A 'safe' deficit, in your case, is around 25% off of total energy expenditure. I'd put your total expenditure at roughly 1600 calories. So 25% off of that would put you at 1200 as a daily target.
  • Bluestar083
    Bluestar083 Posts: 146
    bump
  • njean888
    njean888 Posts: 399 Member
    bump, will read later. Thank you
  • TexasNana41
    TexasNana41 Posts: 114 Member
    Bump
  • inkleberry75
    inkleberry75 Posts: 11
    Well explained, thank you.
  • Davis1818
    Davis1818 Posts: 22 Member
    Thanks!
  • stroutman81
    stroutman81 Posts: 2,474 Member
    bump
  • parys1
    parys1 Posts: 2,072 Member
    So helpful. Thank you!
  • whoreheyR1
    whoreheyR1 Posts: 135 Member
    Thanks for the good info, love MFP!!
  • mrsredneckmorris
    mrsredneckmorris Posts: 119 Member
    Bump
  • stroutman81
    stroutman81 Posts: 2,474 Member
    Thanks guys!
  • Adrenaline_Queen
    Adrenaline_Queen Posts: 626 Member
    Thank you all so much for taking the time to post so much for mean to read!! :grumble: Only joking! I love it, I feel I understand about my body then I read something that makes me feel so ignorant!!

    I am incorporating more protein in my diet, this is so important to me, this read has made me think even more about how I eat, thank you all xxxxxxx

    Now I just need to remember it all xxxxxxxx :flowerforyou: :flowerforyou: :flowerforyou:
  • kidsmoke
    kidsmoke Posts: 10 Member
    Thank you Steve, great information in this thread!
  • stroutman81
    stroutman81 Posts: 2,474 Member
    You're welcome.
  • jipper2
    jipper2 Posts: 3
    Stormie,

    I'm new here and have learned a lot from your posts. Thanks.

    Would you give the same advice to a person who has a LOT of weight to lose and who works out solidly, but not "like crazy"? Some days MFP is giving me over 3,000 calories to eat.

    Are you asking Stormie or me?
  • jipper2
    jipper2 Posts: 3
    I'm asking you, not Stormie! Sorry about that.

    I'm a teenager and I'm 6' tall and weigh 331 lbs. I'd be so happy to lose just 50 pounds, what a relief. I spend a lot of time doing schoolwork, but I also play racquetball a couple times a week, swim like an hour at a time regularly, walk about 30 minutes several times a week. I also play drums and I get exercise calories for that (and I have to say, I do really get a workout playing drums). I've had a eally stressful life, went through some years where I did not have much to eat. Then, when we had more food, I started to eat "normal" amounts, but I would suddenly gain a bunch of weight all at once. All added up. No doctor could figure out why. I never went on a real restrictive diet.

    So we keep looking for something to help me and found mfp. I see a couple of things now after studying mfp: I never in my life ate nearly as much as mfp tells me to eat everyday, even before exercise. Even when more food was available, I ate about the same amount as everybody else in my family and they are not nearly as big as me (nor are they teenagers, you heard about the "growing boy," right?). And our family eats healthy. Then I would go to summer camp or something and eat mostly burgers, fries, cokes, stuff I never had at home. I would come home and weigh 15 pounds more -- 1 week!

    Now I am exercising, so mfp is telling me to eat even more! Since I've been here I wasn't eating my regular calories for the day. With working out, I usually have 500 to over 1,000 exercise calories left over every day. Yeah, not a typo.

    So all the time I've been on mfp, I didn't lose any weight at all. But I didn't gain any weight and that gave me some hope, you know! Also someone told me I would gain weight from getting more muscle.

    Now I am trying to understand your post and I think it was you wrote about stress, too. Seems like you're talking about skinny people need to eat their exercise calories. Does what you said go for someone like me, too? Someone who is way overweight but can still earn a lot of exercise calories -- some days if I swim laps for an hour, play drums for an hour, go for a walk -- mfp tells me to eat just massive amounts of food. But I'm not losing with what I'm doing and running 500-1000 behind on calories. So that's my question. It's like, really? Kinda scary to eat that after all these years of training myself to eat a lot less. You think that's why I'm not losing?
  • stroutman81
    stroutman81 Posts: 2,474 Member
    bump
  • lauriejayne813
    lauriejayne813 Posts: 34 Member
    Thank you for this explanation. This has been bugging me :smile:
  • stroutman81
    stroutman81 Posts: 2,474 Member
    You're welcome. :)
  • sarahc0714
    sarahc0714 Posts: 49
    bump
  • myofibril
    myofibril Posts: 4,500 Member
    bump....
  • myofibril
    myofibril Posts: 4,500 Member
    and another bump.

    <<<<< Here to help.
  • WorkingMyButtOff
    WorkingMyButtOff Posts: 34
    Bump
  • Rachaimee
    Rachaimee Posts: 9
    BUMP!

    Thanks so much for explaining this minefield of a subject so simply! It's finally starting to make sense :)
  • mmarcy11
    mmarcy11 Posts: 38 Member
    This is great! Thanks for the post, I'm new and I've been having people explain everything to me and this really helps!!
  • mmarcy11
    mmarcy11 Posts: 38 Member
    bump!!
  • kubes71
    kubes71 Posts: 2
    Bump
  • mmarcy11
    mmarcy11 Posts: 38 Member
    Bump!
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