Eating my excercise calories....HELP

Twasney

Okay so I get that I need to eat my exercise points - but take a look at July 18th's food diary. I made mostly good choices and I had a stellar day.

I had my aquafit class and we got there early so we did some water jogging. I also added in my steps for the day (got almost to 8000 YAY!!). All in all, a pretty good day.

But now I am home at 7:30 pm and I am supposed to consume my dinner calories and another 1200????? not even possible, not in a good way anyways. I think I did okay, I had dinner and I treated myself to a glass of wine and also enjoyed a munchy snack but still had almost 650 calories left.

How do you deal with your extra calories???

any advice is helpful, before I didn't eat them and well as you can see I am still fat! LMAO!

NB - have only started being really good about my food diary since July 11th and just changed the layout yesterday so everything before yesterday just jams into the first 4 categories!!

Tobi1013

I try to plan out my day - both food and exercise - ahead of time and then eat my exercise calories throughout the day. On most days, I exercise in the morning, so it is easy to plan, but there are days that I know I need to exercise after work. It is on those days that I add in an estimate of the calories I will burn (I wear a HRM for all of my exercise) and then plan my meals/snacks with the exercise calories already added in. Not only does this keep me from eating a HUGE meal at dinner time, it also keeps me accountable for doing the exercise I planned on doing.

CARNAT22

I plan as much as possible in advance - if I know tonight I am doing a big work out then I would have already factored those extra calories into my food plan for today!

icsracer

I try to plan out my day - both food and exercise - ahead of time and then eat my exercise calories throughout the day. On most days, I exercise in the morning, so it is easy to plan, but there are days that I know I need to exercise after work. It is on those days that I add in an estimate of the calories I will burn (I wear a HRM for all of my exercise) and then plan my meals/snacks with the exercise calories already added in. Not only does this keep me from eating a HUGE meal at dinner time, it also keeps me accountable for doing the exercise I planned on doing.

That is great advice!

kellyscomeback

I plan as much as possible in advance - if I know tonight I am doing a big work out then I would have already factored those extra calories into my food plan for today!

This is exactly what I do. I know I'm going to go running before dinner so I added in some larger calorie snacks and a glass of chocolate milk with dinner. As of right now I am over 230 calories (I have everything in my diary) and I know I'm going to burn at least 400 calories, so I am leaving myself some wiggle room in case I don't burn as much and maybe some room for dessert.

dgirllamius

I do the same as others have mentioned. If I know I am going to be doing a workout later on in the day, then I will plan what I eat so I can eat them back. I did have a day when I didn't plan ahead and it got to 11pm and I still had 600 calories to consume. I just left it for that moment, but now I plan ahead so I make sure it doesn't happen again.

atomdraco

If you have plan to workout, start eating more during the day. Look at your diary for today, you had very light breakfast/AM snacks/lunch/PM snacks. So in future, try to eat more on a workout day, especially now you probably got very familiar how much you might burn.

kimmerroze

It is probably fine that you work out that much and not eat all your exercise calories back, but eventually you will plateau, and for that reason alone I make my next comment.

There are threee factors to weight loss, Diet, Cardio, and Strength training. When one is out of balance with the other two, it is then that you will plateau. Right now, your exercising and diet are out of balance with eachother. And depending on what kind of exercising you are doing, your cardio and weight training are probably out of balance too...
This will cause you to plateau. So keep that in mind for future reference.

I would say to cut back your exercising. If you are working out for more than about an hour or so, doing hard physical activity, your body will start to release cortisol into your system, and this will cause your body to break down your muscle, if I am remebering correctly.

Twasney

Hey Guys!!

Thanks so much for the advice! I will plan my workouts like I plan my meals!

T

Twasney

It is probably fine that you work out that much and not eat all your exercise calories back, but eventually you will plateau, and for that reason alone I make my next comment.

There are threee factors to weight loss, Diet, Cardio, and Strength training. When one is out of balance with the other two, it is then that you will plateau. Right now, your exercising and diet are out of balance with eachother. And depending on what kind of exercising you are doing, your cardio and weight training are probably out of balance too...
This will cause you to plateau. So keep that in mind for future reference.

I would say to cut back your exercising. If you are working out for more than about an hour or so, doing hard physical activity, your body will start to release cortisol into your system, and this will cause your body to break down your muscle, if I am remebering correctly.

Good Point!

My workout is somewhat misleading however. the "walk" was the steps accumulated through the say on my pedometer. I am on my way to getting this up to 10000 per day! Started last week at 3500 ish steps (so basically nothing) and yesterday got almost all the way to 8000!

I do aquafit twice a week and I try to stick in some weights or zumba 1 or 2 times a week. The problem is that I have PTC and many conventional forms of excercise increases the pressure in my brain and causes migraines and vision disturbance both can last anywhere from 4 hours to 15 days! For example I was trying Kinesis for a while but I never understood why i was getting so sick after each workout. Even the zumba can be hard.

At this point its mostly about adjusting my food to healthy options and just moving however I can!

kimmerroze

At this point its mostly about adjusting my food to healthy options and just moving however I can!

This is the whole thing.. If those exercises work for you and just happen to be a bit higher calorie burning. then just make sure to eat enough to sustain that kind of exercising. I think you got this. I just wanted to point out something that I saw.

Twasney

Kimmerroze - I totally appreciate you taking the time to look and point it out! It is frustrating that I can't "follow" the rules some days! It does make the journey a little longer.

I have to say I can't believe the awesome support from everyone here at MFP! YOU GUYS ROCK!!

kimmerroze

Kimmerroze - I totally appreciate you taking the time to look and point it out! It is frustrating that I can't "follow" the rules some days! It does make the journey a little longer.

I have to say I can't believe the awesome support from everyone here at MFP! YOU GUYS ROCK!!

Oh believe you me! haha I have and am going through all the ropes too, I think what takes the longest is that people don't realize that losing weight is based on Trial and Error.. low fat... nope doesn't work for me, well lets try low sugar, well nope that isn't sustainable, well lets try low carb.. ding! ding ding! 2 months later finally something that works for me. Same goes for exercise and weight lifting. By the time you figure out what works for you and you lose a few pounds then your body stalls and you have to adjust AGAIN! that is what takes so long. lol our bodies are crazy things!

Twasney

Aint that the truth!!!!!

CenlaCoach

I will just say that I dont eat my exercise calories. My goal right now is to eat 2300 calories (weighing 257) and I try to stick close if not go over but never try to go under. I lose about 2 lbs a week using a low carb diet (30% carbs, 20% fat, 50% protein). I will probably changing this up soon as my protein intake is finally more than 1 gram per pound of body weight. So where will those extra calories come from.... probably from fat. I eat almost no rice, pasta, or potatoes. When I have added these back in to my diet I stop losing weight. All my food carbs come from fruits, vegetables. The rest come from Shakeology, protein shakes, and P90X recovery drink.
Now when it comes to plateaus mine have come from being too low on calories. As I lose weight and get in better shape I have to slowly add more calories. Now when I started I was 365 pounds and the guide recommended that I eat something like 3300 calories. Cleaning up my diet, not eating processed foods, cutting out dairy, and all breads, pasta, and rice made this impossible. I started around 1500 and have slowly added more calories as I went along. I listened to my body as far as hunger and energy levels and would make changes as necessary.

TXHunny84

If you feel exhausted or feel like you need the energy from the calories then eat them....if you don't feel tired or like you need the extra calories than don't eat them.... Don't think of is *kitten* adding calories...think of it as adding energy. If your energy level is low then eat more. If not then don't worry about it and be proud of that burn you did!

rraallpphhccuurrtt

Eat your recommended calories and do not worry about eating your excercize calories. If you have excercized and eat more than the recommended, that is fine (you will lose weight more slowly but thats fine if fine with you) but it will be harder to stop eating so much if you stop excercizing. Once that happens you gain all your weight back.

If you just want to maintain your weight, I will defer to others. But if you want to lose weight, just eat the recommended and excercize your tail off!