Do you eat your caloires gained from working out????

kuaaina

what I am finding is I might not eat them all each day but I might over the week end up eating them all back..does that make sense?

Newfiedan

If you are doing zig zagging of calories then you do need a dip for 2 days on then maintenance level on the 3rd.

Pandorian

MFP sets you with a caloric goal with a built in deficit for your chosen rate of weight loss when you made your profile, without a stitch of exercise. Exercising increases the deficit, I always eat some of my workout calories back.

fraser9700

I love the reward system. That is a brilliant way to do this. for me it is more like punishment for all the bad choices that mamnged to get me out of shape. You have a very self motivating self supporting idea here and hats off to you for it. Keep at it I hope you earn your dinner for Bday.


M.

MamaLeague

It just depends. Sometimes I'll eat back about half, sometimes none. It depends on how hungry I feel. Sometimes I'll treat myself with those calories. Like last night, I came back from working out and had a peice of pizza, and a small piece of chocolate. Healthy? No, but sometimes you just have to treat yourself!

fraser9700

Snickers nailed it. What you are talking about is starvation. You will be more likely to cheat or binge eat after a string of events like that and your metabolism will head the wrong way. This may be a one day win but a long term loss. It is better to earn a dime slow instead of a nickel fast. If you put X amount of time into your nutrition and Y amount of time in exercise, make sure you leave some time for research. Keep asking questions. When it comes to conditioning knowledge is a powerful weapon.

mrphil86

If you fatigue your body and there is no energy for it to use.... What do you think happens? Your body just does not start using fat as a source of energy because you starve it. Some studies show it does the opposite. I always eat my calories back even when I lost my 30 pounds in a month.

Your body learns to use fat as a source during exercise when you have a very light meal before hand. Marathon runners use this trick all the time. If you control your calories and what you eat... Your fat will go down! Calories consumed does not mean all of it will be fat! Everything needs energy. It's a simple concept in my opinion.

mustangurl

my question is...... how in the world do you eat all those calories while still keeping it healthy? after dinner last night i still had 1100 exercise calories to eat (after eating 1600 calories for the day)! though i do understand atleast eating back until your net calories are where they are supposed to be, i can't imagine eating 2700 calories a day and still losing weight!

jab816

Whatever calories you are allotted for the day are the calories your body needs everyday. From my experience, I wouldn't use up all the calories gained from working out.

Even the contestants on the show The Biggest Loser show workout 8 hours a day burning more than 3,000 calories and they don't eat all their workout calories. The ladies stick to a 1,200 calorie diet and I think the men stick to a 1,800 calorie diet.

Yes, everyone's body is different. But I think if you get into the habbit of eating your calories from your workout, you will have that mentality of eating more because you worked out. Plus what if the calories burned is not accurate? You can be eating more calories than what your body needs or expended, therefore sabbatoging your weight loss.

I would recommend, not using any of your calories gained from your workout. You are already eating enough calories to sustain your body throughout the day. You will actually be able to lose more weight by not using those extra calories. Maybe you can treat yourself or eat something that is under 100 calories if you are going to go over, but I wouldn't recommend using them all up. Technically speaking, looking at calories in vs. calories out; what's the point in working out if you are going to eat the calories back. You always want to have a deficit.

Read this statement below from Jillian Michaels. She mentions BMR which stands for basal metabolic rate. This refers to what your body burns at rest without doing anything. Read below:


To lose a pound, you must burn 3,500 calories. As I've said before, it's all about the math — how to burn more calories in the most effective way.

You can only do so much resistance training without damaging your muscles and impeding your results. Additionally, you can't starve the weight off: If you eat fewer than 1,200 calories a day, you will sabotage your optimal results. Therefore, cardio is weight loss extra credit. It allows you to burn additional calories without overtraining. This is one of the reasons some Biggest Loser players can still lose 20 pounds a week, even 7 weeks into the program.

Think about the math: If you are eating 1,500 calories a day — we assume your BMR without exercise is 1,600 (this is actually my BMR) — and you do two 1-hour cardio sessions that burn 500 calories each (one in the morning and one at night), the two sessions, along with your regular daily activity, will speed up your base metabolism to at least 2,000. As a result, you will have burned about 1,500 calories that day — that is, almost half a pound. At that rate you will be losing up to 3.5 pounds a week.
That said, you are bound to lose more weight during the first two weeks of any weight loss regimen because of the dramatic change in your diet and the loss of excess fluid. After that, it's all about crunching the numbers, and cardio is the key.

stephierue

These are some interesting posts. Snickers had some really great info I hadn't thought of. I was going to post, "not if I can help it"
I try to treat my calories like a bank account but I guess that's really simplistic thinking.

Newfiedan

my question is...... how in the world do you eat all those calories while still keeping it healthy? after dinner last night i still had 1100 exercise calories to eat (after eating 1600 calories for the day)! though i do understand atleast eating back until your net calories are where they are supposed to be, i can't imagine eating 2700 calories a day and still losing weight!

You spread them out over 6 meals a day if you can swing it or go for caloric dense healthy foods like almonds, bananas, etc. Here are 2 posts that I put up that should help you out:
http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/210894-feed-to-shed-fat
http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/212510-how-to-zig-zag-cals-properly-caloric-cycling-properly

slindsey137

There are so many long winded opinions to this question! The simple answer is eat when your hungry, eat slowly and consciously, and stop when your full. Your body knows what it needs, the reason so many of us are overweight is because we dont pay attention to our bodies. Talk to your doctor if you need to, you know your body better than anyone else, and everyone is different!

WinKitty

if you have more to lose then no, if you are close to your goal weight you should be eating those.

I agree here.

dyiaane

I don't eat all of them because then I will never loose...but I do dip into them as often as possible. If you only eat your 1200 on workout days you probably won't loose. Good luck. You need to play around with it and see what works for your body.

write2sonya

WOW I didin't think I would get so many responses and very mixed opinions I must say!!
Thanks to all of your responses, I will listen to my body amd take it day by day....

WeCallThemDayWalkers

I've been taking the approach of eating them back...and not having ANY weight loss. In the past, when I've been successful, I was sticking to total intake of 1300-1400 no matter what I burned exercising. Apparently deviating from that has caused a stagnation for me. I'm sure everyone is different though.