Eating exercise calories

AnneMelody

Please can somebody tell me if I have to eat every exercise calorie???? If I use 1000 calories swimming etc, Do I then really have to eat 1000 cals on top of my 1200? I find it really hard to eat that much!! Also I am afraid that I will end up eating too much, and putting weight back on!

ChristinaRamos

good question! I don't eat my excercise calories.

Nomomush

You DO NOT have to eat your exercise calories back...as long as you have given your body the 1200 calorie good nutrition...per my certified trainer/nutritionist.

kimmerroze

You need to eat atleast half back... there are lots of posts on this and you will get a HUGE variety of answers back, because it is preferential... but burning off 1000 of your 1200 calories is not healthy or helpful in your weight loss... if you dont' eat some protein after your work outs your body will feast on your muscle... sure you will lose weight, but it will be muscle, and not fat, and then you will just be what people call "skinny fat"


read the link in my signature...

In my opinion if you cant eat the majority of your calories back, you should pull back your cardio exercising a bit. and add in some wieghts.

I was having this issue... burning a high amount of calories and then not eating them back... I didnt' lose any weight... once I started burning less calories and lifting more weights and eating my calories back I saw significant changes with my weight loss.

Sigra

They prefer you to eat all your exercise calories, but to be honest, if you can't find the time, or are just too full I wouldn't worry about it. - There are days when I'm left with 200-900cal left over and there is noway I'm eating all that in one setting! Or filling my body with that much sugar to compensate!

MrsH06

Well, if you have 1200 a day and burn 1000 than you are only running on 200 so yes you need to eat as much as you can to get it back up to the 1200. Your body could go into starvation mode if you are not eating enough. It sucks I know because I also have that problem sometimes but it works! Keep up the good work :flowerforyou:

glenna221

I don't eat the all back. Especially my swimming calories. I think MFP overestimates the calorie burn for swimming. Since I can't wear a heart rate monitor when swimming, I underestimate my swimming cals.

AnneMelody

Sorry for sounding thick, but does that mean Net calories 1200, or 1200 total, even if you do 1000 cals of exercise???

tmcowan

Might want to try this post:

http://shouldieatmyexercisecalories.com/

Hope it helps.

mignalg

You have to look at it this way...if you eat 1200 calories a day and burn 1000 that means your body only has 200 calories to use for itself. In order to achieve best weight loss you need to make sure your body has the nutrients it needs to stay healthy and still lose weight and by your body only having 200 calories to use it can actually be detrimental to losing weight because your body can enter starvation mode which hinders weight loss.

DyannAlvarez

I am struggling with that same question today! And it's true - if 20 people answer you'll get 20 different answers. I am going to eat 1200 NET CALORIES for the next week and see what happens. I have only been eating around 800 to 900 net calories and it dawned on me last night that I'm probably starving my body. And no... I've not lost an ounce in over 2 weeks. It makes sense but I have to say it is very hard to wrap your head around the concept. I'm doing it though.

AnneMelody

Thank you!! I think I have got it, at last!!!

kimmerroze

Sorry for sounding thick, but does that mean Net calories 1200, or 1200 total, even if you do 1000 cals of exercise???

1200 calories without exercise is your NET CALORIES

1200 calories consumed then you work out and burn 500 calories your NET CALORIES would be 700 calories

your caloric intake needs to be 1200 NET... ESPECIALLY if you don't work out... when you work out and burn calories, you need to try to get as close to your 1200 NET as possible...

that means that if you eat 1200 calories then burn 1000 calories your net is 200 calories which means you need to eat as much of those 1000 calories as possible.

But be aware especially if you use mfp's calculations that you double check.. MFP is generally wrong on their calorie counts.

Hope that all makes sense.

RMinVA

You don't HAVE to do anything. Cut out all the "noise" and listen to your body! If you are eating a balanced healthy diet, then maybe not. If you are not eating enough you will definitely know it because you will be ravenous.