Do you always eat your Excercise calories?

punka274

Just curious who eats there excercise calories. Im suppose to eat 1590 at day.....adding in those excersice cals and its up around 2000 or 1900....so do you always eat your excercise cals? Sometimes its hard for me to eat all those cals a day but i have been...i don't want my body to go into starvation mode.

punka274

Just curious who eats there excercise calories. Im suppose to eat 1590 at day.....adding in those excersice cals and its up around 2000 or 1900....so do you always eat your excercise cals? Sometimes its hard for me to eat all those cals a day but i have been...i don't want my body to go into starvation mode.

sewtoday123

I try to stay within a certain cal range, but lately, I have been busy I was not able to post on the journal. Luckily, I did not gain, but lost a pound. I exercise to lose the weight, so being able to see all the cal verses the exercise cal I just can't see eating more.

ChubbyBunny

I usually eat most of mine. I want to work on keepin about 100 left over, for error.
However, lots of people use a certain amount of their exercise calories.

faythe

I try to stick as close to the set goal without exercise as possible. If I go a little over, though, I don't beat myself up too badly - just back on the next day!

Phoenix_Rising

I always eat mine, but I only ever have about 250 workout cals, tops.

shkaki

I try to most days just because I like to eat but sometimes when i have long runs (i'm training for a marathon). So on sundays when I run like 10-16 mi, there's just no way for me to eat all of those. I eat good foods, I stop when I'm full and I log my food to make sure i'm hitting at least my BMR (before the subtraction for lbs losing/wk)

so if my goal for the day w/o exercise is 1380 cals.
my BMR calculated is: 1380 + 500 (1lb/wk loss) 1880

so on days where I exercise above that 1880, i always make sure I'm eating at least 1880 if I can't eat ALL of my exercise calories.

Just make sure you're not going below your BMR consistently and you should be okay!! If you spend days and days below that your body will start to store!

ChubbyBunny

I try to most days just because I like to eat but sometimes when i have long runs (i'm training for a marathon). So on sundays when I run like 10-16 mi, there's just no way for me to eat all of those. I eat good foods, I stop when I'm full and I log my food to make sure i'm hitting at least my BMR (before the subtraction for lbs losing/wk)

so if my goal for the day w/o exercise is 1380 cals.
my BMR calculated is: 1380 + 500 (1lb/wk loss) 1880

so on days where I exercise above that 1880, i always make sure I'm eating at least 1880 if I can't eat ALL of my exercise calories.

Just make sure you're not going below your BMR consistently and you should be okay!! If you spend days and days below that your body will start to store!

Okay so if it says my BMR is 1561 I need to be eating AT LEAST that much every day? Then if I work out....add on to that a bit?

shkaki

i only follow that on days where my exercise takes me over that amount. most days i burn around 300-600 calories from exercise. My lowest amount of cals to eat/day is 1380, so if i only burn 300 cals, then i eat 1680. (which is below my BMR of 1880) (1880BMR - 500 for losing 1lb/wk = 1380).

on days where I have long runs I burn anywhere between 700-1500calories. I just cant eat 1380+1500exercise calories, so i make sure that I eat at least my BMR of 1880 so I know I'm getting enough!

Does that make more sense? Sorry its hard to type and explain!

ChubbyBunny

I think so....
I need to be below my BMR then on a regular day....

MontanaGirl

Your allotted calories + 500 (set to lose 1 lb per week) would be your maintenance calories. Your BMR should be below your allotted calories. You shouldn't eat below your BMR (basal matabolic rate) because that is what is needed to just keep you alive. To fuel activity is more than that and to fuel hard exercise is more yet. The defecit comes off your maintainence calories - how much you need to eat to maintain your current weight. 500 less than that should = 1 lb per week loss. If you exercise you need to eat most of those exercise calories to fuel your body as the defecit is already worked into your allotment and you don't want to go into starvation mode as that will severely limit how your body will release excess weight. :flowerforyou:

ChubbyBunny

Ok....
So BMR is 1561
MFP set me at 1200 (I want to lose 2 lbs til I am out of obese range)
I re-adjusted my goals to 1400 cause I was STARVING with only 1200 (+exercise calories)
Should I bump it up even higher?

MontanaGirl

The more you have to lose, the greater the defecit can be. As you get closer to your goal weight, the defecit should be smaller and the loss slower. I would think that at 1400/day you should be o.k. Bunny. If you are losing at that steadily. You maybe could go up to 1600. What are your maintenance calories?

hnlymark

There are so many terms and initials thrown around, it does get a bit confusing to me. The way I see it, when you sign up you give basic body information and typical daily activity. Based on this, mfp determines how many calories you need to maintain that weight WITHOUT exercise. Then, once you've set a goal weight, mfp subtracts the needed amount of calories from this total to lose that amount of weight in that amount of time. But it will only do this within reason. If you exercise on top of this, you burn more calories than you normally would and, if you don't replace them, this COULD possibly take you below what is safe or desireable. That is why we input our exercise and mfp adjusts our calories for us. I suppose if you have a firm understanding of the math involved, its possible to safely tweek these numbers. I am too dumb for that. I DON'T fully understand all the math. It, quite frankly, makes my head hurt. I did notice that my target calories WITHOUT exercise are slightly lower than my BMR. I try to stay as close as possible to what is calculated for me, including exercise calories (plus or minus about 100). Its worked so far for me, but its also only been a month. Additionally, my biggest exercise day only sees an additional 267 calories, which is nothing like trying to get in 1500 extra HEALTHY calories. Anyone could go to Pizza Hut and top off their calories, but to make it all balance out nutritiously...I don't know how these long distance runners/bikers etc. do it!

jules1984

Whew! I'm glad other people feel this way. I get so used to eating my 1200 calories that eating a ton more is hard. I do my best to do it but some days I just can't. I've been biking to and from work every day (12-13 mph for 45 minutes total) and then I often take brisk walks with the other ladies at break time! Today I've already burned about 500 calories and I've only eaten 600 so far!! I have another 1100 to go! That's like a whole 'nother day of food. I'll do my best but sometimes I just can't cram it in.

Oh, and your target calories are supposed to be below your BMR because they have already added in your deficit to lose weight. Your BMR is just what you should eat to maintain - not gain or lose.

This is a great post with all the links to your questions answered:
http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/10665-newbies-please-read-me-2nd-edition
In a nut shell, MFP does the math and eat everything it tells you to if you can, but listen to your body.

firegirlred

I'm trying to prepare myself for a 5k so it's hard to eat all of 750 exercise calories a day, plus the 1440 that MFP figured for my desired weight loss. I just try to make sure that calories in-calories out equals 1200 at a minimum.

TamTastic

Hey! I burn a lot of calories when I exercise. I do eat some of them back but not all! I burned around 1150 calories today and my calories today are around 1900, which is still keeping my net calories a little low. BUT, I try to keep in mind that the calories burned might not be exact, though I always subtract some from the total. Like today, the machines said I had actually burned around 1270, but I usually subtract at least 10%.

Anyway, I am STUFFED. I can't possibly eat anymore but at least I have eaten a little more than half back and have left 650 uneaten.

Oh and for those struggling to get the calories in, just try adding a bit more to each meal. That helps me a lot. That way I don't feel the need to cram everything in at the last minute. Granted, I work out first thing in the morning so I know I have all day to spread them out. Also, have almonds around and peanut butter. These are the days to indulge in things like that! Or my fav....Nutella on a multi-grain english muffin! MMM!

Just my 2 cents!

-Tami

hnlymark

That's what I mean by confusing. According to mfp, BMR is not the calories needed to maintain weight. It is the approximate number of calories needed to keep you alive for a 24 hour period, not counting those required for exercise OR typical daily activity. So, it is significantly below the calories required to maintain, especially if you are particullarly active in your daily activities. So, using me as an example, my BMR is 1836 calories a day. If I subtract the 500 for a pound as suggested, I am down to 1336. But, since we haven't accounted for daily activity, I am a lot lower than 500 below my maintain, so I will theoretically lose more than the pound IF my body doesn't go into the starvation thing everyone talks about. And then, subtract another 267 for my workoput and I am below 1200, that magical no no. So, yeah, I guess you have to listen to your body to a certain extent, but, provided the information being entered is accurate, I think your best bet is to try to stay reasonably close to your target calories.

ChubbyBunny

The more you have to lose, the greater the defecit can be. As you get closer to your goal weight, the defecit should be smaller and the loss slower. I would think that at 1400/day you should be o.k. Bunny. If you are losing at that steadily. You maybe could go up to 1600. What are your maintenance calories?

Not sure, where do I find that?

hnlymark

The more you have to lose, the greater the defecit can be. As you get closer to your goal weight, the defecit should be smaller and the loss slower. I would think that at 1400/day you should be o.k. Bunny. If you are losing at that steadily. You maybe could go up to 1600. What are your maintenance calories?

Not sure, where do I find that?

Look under My Home, Goals, and Calories Burned From Normal Daily Activity.

ChubbyBunny

2110

hnlymark

2110

So if you eat 1610 calories a day with no exercise you should lose about a pound a week. Keep in mind, this number is based on what you entered as your daily activity. Increase the activity and your calories will increase and vice versa. In my personal experience, I have been losing more than the predicted amount, so I think I may have my activity level set a little too low.

ChubbyBunny

I currently have my calories set at 1500 and I am hoping to lose 2lbs a week, just til I am under obese.

So, am I too low? I have my daily activity as light. However, I am about to start an exercise program that's about an hour every day.

hnlymark

I currently have my calories set at 1500 and I am hoping to lose 2lbs a week, just til I am under obese.

So, am I too low? I have my daily activity as light. However, I am about to start an exercise program that's about an hour every day.

1500 sounds good, but if you start doing 60 minutes of exercise every day without adding calories to compensate, it might be too low. It just depends on how many calories you burn in your workout. If you only burned 300 calories and didn't replace them, you would be at that 1200 number everyone talks about and you would be at a total deficit of 910 calories. From what I read in bank's articles, you could probably get away with that. But, the thing is, most cardio workouts for an hour are going to burn more than 300 calories. So you may have to eat a little more on days you work out. That's why I rely pretty heavily on what the computer tells me. As long as I log my exercise and calories accurately, I feel safe eating what the system tells me to.