Should I exercise if I can't eat my calories back?

Frappuzzino

I do 20 minutes of high impact aerobics 3x a week ontop of a 20-30 minute walk every day, but I can almost never eat my exercise calories back. Today I am especially not feeling hungry. Should I skip my aerobics today if I know I can't eat my calories back, or should I do it anyway?

alliekate1

i have a similar question---I am training for a half marathon and on Saturday ran 12 miles and burned 1,600 calories. I was not hungry enough to eat nearly that amount on top of my 1,500 per day goal. Today, however, I am famished but not planning on a workout. ADVICE?

Newmammaluv

I am interested to see this as well. In the beginning I would skip workouts so I wouldn;t have to eat back the calories but now I just eat back some and stress less. Most "naturally thin" people don't put nearly this much stress into eating vs not eating. They have a physically strenuous day and they eat more, less strenuous and they eat less. It's all about building new healthy relationships to food.

Edited to add: Some days I have a REALLY hard time eating all my calories too until someone said "don't eat them, just drink them!!" What an ah ha! moment that was. So now I keep some higher calorie drinks hanging around for when I need the boost. Between that and peanut butter I keep things pretty close to 1200-1500 90% of the time.

bmontgomery87

Plan accordingly to add a few calories here and there during the day so it isn't an issue.
You don't want to stop excercising just because you are having trouble eating right.

Eat calorie dense foods. Peanut butter is a great way to get 200 cals. Oats are great energy.

Mmmary212

Listen to your body. If you are still hungry. EAT! If you are not, don't force it. Your body knows what it needs and doesn't need when determining if you should eat or not.

david081

I do loads of cardio and just can't eat them back. I still exercise every day, just have a more relaxed attitude towards the 1200 threshold - to me it means I can have something extra IF I feel like it...

erickirb

Don't eat more food, just eat food that is higher in caloires. This could be nuts, seeds, dehydrated fruit. Higher MF% milk products, add olive oil to soups or sauces. It is easier to eat more calories without eating more food.

froglegjack

can you add in a nutrition or protein shake during the day? they help me. I continue to exercise to get my metabolism up and to keep muscles. I can't wait to see them when I get rid of the fat. I had the same trouble too. Now I drink a protein shake and added nuts in my diet and they bump up the calories when I am not particularly hungry.

MsCracker

Ok now I'm more confused than before so let me see if I've gotten this right. Instead of not eating back calories (a concept I'm still trying to understand), I just need to eat things that are higher in caloric intake when I can't eat back calories?

So is eating back calories always the goal?

Zombriana

I wish I had that problem. I have to make sure I exercise everyday so that I can eat enough to keep me from starving!!

purple_punk

that's the problem i'm having today, i woke up late! had my breakfast at 4pm, i've just done a work out & planned to do another workout today too that would allow me extra calories but i cant imagine eating back the one i've done already so dunno to do my other workout or not...

Yocum1219

The overall idea is not get to the end of the day & think...oops, I have calories I haven't eaten! Don't "starve" yourself so much during the whole day, esp when you know you're going to exercise & burn those extra calories. Eat a slightly higher calorie snack than you would have. Almonds instead of carrots. Yogurt instead of celery. That type of thing. Keep your choices healthy, but don't "save" all of your calories for the end of the day to deal with.

If you aren't hungry and you're at the end of the day...drink a glass of orange juice or skim milk. Calories without making you feel blah, or don't even stress over it. Stressing has a negative effect on weight loss anyway. As long as your choices are healthy...you're not hungry or overly full, then you've taken care of what your body needed that day! :-)

I know, clear as mud, right?

Schwiggity

You don't "go into starvation mode" if you undereat in an ambiguous period of time such as 24 hours.

road2peachtree

I wish I had that problem. I have to make sure I exercise everyday so that I can eat enough to keep me from starving!!

LOL DITTO!