exercise calories (i kno its been done b4!!)

mrshickey

Just a question- lots of people have posted about this and i wanted opinions and didnt want to hijack someone elses thread!

however..... i wish to lose 2 lbs per week, but mfp gives me a 1200 calorie goal each day and it says i will only lose 1.2 lbs per week,. Everyone says I should not eat below 1200 calories, so is it unhealthy to make up a little bit of the deficit with exercise?

Ive eaten approx 1200 calories today, im nice and full, but burned just over 600 calories on my cross trainer this eve (HRM measured) and there is no way I can eat the calories back now (its 10pm here and il be going to bed very soon).

as much as the idea of less exercise is appealing, id rather do as much as i can when i have the motivation!!

and i dont want to eat just for the sake of eating. will i really be doing loads of damage??

squishycow7

if it's every once & a while I'd say there's nothing wrong w/ being low...however on a daily basis you really DO need to fuel your body enough so that it can do what it needs to do!

if you know you're going to be burning a lot of calories, start your planning early in the day. plan to eat more calorie-dense foods if *more* food seems like a problem. for example, nuts are high in calories, but are healthy so that you don't fill yourself on empty calories.

hope that helps!

rockerbabyy

if you dont have 100 or so pounds to lose, 2 lbs/week is too much of a loss...
the closer you are to your goal, the lower per week you should lose. try setting yours for 1 lb/week or so and see how you do. you really dont want to go below 1200 net calories, and thats why with your goal set as 2 lbs. mfp is saying youll only lose 1.2 lb

thankyou4thevenom

http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/10589-for-those-confused-or-questioning-eating-your-exercise-calo

Read this and then make your mind up.

vanessaclarkgbr

I don't *always* eat my exercise cals back there and then - if I'm hungry I do, but I prefer to have a spike day so I can relax a bit at the weekend over the whole thing. If you feel like you're a bit low on the cals and it's getting late, I'll have some nuts or it's just not convenient to eat right that minute (I think you're low carbs but macadamias work for that I think if you don't have too many??)

On advice of an MFP friend when I have a spare 5 mins I weigh and bag some up, so they are at work, in my laptop bag, gym bag etc. I personally like to keep the exercise up, and I think we can all listen to ourselves a bit, if you've drunk water and you're still hungry, eat. If you're not hungry and you have energy, save the cals for a treat/hungry day :-)

rileamoyer

if you dont have 100 or so pounds to lose, 2 lbs/week is too much of a loss...
the closer you are to your goal, the lower per week you should lose. try setting yours for 1 lb/week or so and see how you do. you really dont want to go below 1200 net calories, and thats why with your goal set as 2 lbs. mfp is saying youll only lose 1.2 lb

correctomundo!!!!

jonzo21

one day shouldn't hurt you, but if you do this consistently your metabolism will drastically decrease because it thinks its not going to get enough energy, so it compensates for that by lowering the amount of calories you burn through normal activity. Like another user mentioned, plan things out accordingly. If you know you'll be working out tonight, eat extra during the day. That will also serve as motivation to actually do the workout since you already ate the calories for that workout.

And like another user mentioned, your goal may be too high. I had this problem also, I was eating 1200 (even my exercise calories) and wasn't really losing anything... now I'm following everyone's advice and changing my goal and eating a bit more calories, I have faith it will work

morganadk2_deleted

Are you eating enough? Are you eating your exersise calories?

http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/10589-for-those-confused-or-questioning-eating-your-exercise-calo

http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/61706-guide-to-calorie-deficit

Go to the tools section and figure out your BMI:

Generally someone with a BMI over 32 can do a 1000 calorie a day (2 lbs a week) deficit
With a BMI of 30 to 32 a deficit of 750 calories is generally correct (about 1.5 lbs a week)
With a BMI of 28 to 30 a deficit of 500 calories is about right (about 1 lb a week)
With a BMI of 26 to 28 a deficit of about 300 calories is perfect (about 1/2 lb a week)
and below 26... well this is where we get fuzzy. See now you're no longer talking about being overweight, so while it's still ok to have a small deficit, you really should shift your focus more towards muscle building, and reducing fat. This means it is EXTRA important to eat your exercise calories as your body needs to KNOW it's ok to burn fat stores, and the only way it will know is if you keep giving it the calories it needs to not enter the famine response (starvation mode).

This is just a part of it! please read the link above

brandiuntz

Are you eating enough? Are you eating your exersise calories?

http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/10589-for-those-confused-or-questioning-eating-your-exercise-calo

http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/61706-guide-to-calorie-deficit

Go to the tools section and figure out your BMI:

Generally someone with a BMI over 32 can do a 1000 calorie a day (2 lbs a week) deficit
With a BMI of 30 to 32 a deficit of 750 calories is generally correct (about 1.5 lbs a week)
With a BMI of 28 to 30 a deficit of 500 calories is about right (about 1 lb a week)
With a BMI of 26 to 28 a deficit of about 300 calories is perfect (about 1/2 lb a week)
and below 26... well this is where we get fuzzy. See now you're no longer talking about being overweight, so while it's still ok to have a small deficit, you really should shift your focus more towards muscle building, and reducing fat. This means it is EXTRA important to eat your exercise calories as your body needs to KNOW it's ok to burn fat stores, and the only way it will know is if you keep giving it the calories it needs to not enter the famine response (starvation mode).

This is just a part of it! please read the link above

^^THIS. Read those links. Losing 2lbs a week isn't possible for most people. Try for 1lb a week. You will have steady weight loss when you set a calorie deficit that is appropriate for your current BMI.

vanessaclarkgbr

I'm also going to add - I lose in a sort of three week cycle, 1lb one week, nothing the next then a bit drop of say 4lb. So don't think oh great I could do that when you see a big drop (I'm sure mine's hormonal!) Unfortunately my body doesn't subscribe to the 'just follow these rules and you will lose xx' I'm sure others are the same.