EATING YOUR EXERCISES CALORIES!

rachel41

Losing weight usually involves a relatively simple calorie equation: burn off more calories with daily activity than you consume through food. So what, I don,t understand is!You should eat your exercises calories!!! Then you won,t lose because you are eating more after you have just exercises.:sad: I know for me ,I do not eat my exercises calories!I am losing weight.!!!!!My doctor gave me a 1500 cal diet sheet.well ok thats great,but you do not exerices to reward your self to eat more,You won,t loss!!!!You are eating more then the 1500 cal!!!!!!

rachel41

Losing weight usually involves a relatively simple calorie equation: burn off more calories with daily activity than you consume through food. So what, I don,t understand is!You should eat your exercises calories!!! Then you won,t lose because you are eating more after you have just exercises.:sad: I know for me ,I do not eat my exercises calories!I am losing weight.!!!!!My doctor gave me a 1500 cal diet sheet.well ok thats great,but you do not exerices to reward your self to eat more,You won,t loss!!!!You are eating more then the 1500 cal!!!!!!

bathedinshadow

It's because MFP already factors your deficit in. So it's there regardless of exercise. Any exercise done is then, therefore, exceeding the suggested deficit which is already factored in.

I agree with eating at least some of your exercise calories back. I don't know about all of them. I mean the other day I literally ended up working out for like 6 hours just because of random activities... I burnt over 2000 calories (I wouldn't normally do this). I'm not about to eat my alloted 1200 plus an additional 2000 as that would be A LOT of food, but I definitely ate some of them back.

So for you, your doctor is likely telling you how many calories to eat which would maintain. He/she is probably not factoring in a deficit and assumes that you are probably only going to burn 300-400 calories in a workout and then there is your deficit and I wouldn't eat them back either. But the premise is that MFP has already factored the deficit in, therefore whatever you burn now drops you below the recommended minimum of 1200 calories a day.

purrrr

i should start a topic about eating my excercise calories, too, seems everyone has had one cos i see several of these every day :laugh:

MFP is not a doctor as the disclaimer at the bottom of the forum suggests... if your doctor prescribed this diet and it's working for you, then you stick to what the doctor has said...

pixiestick

Most of us don't have the advantage of a physician's advice--I was losing less than 1lb a week before I started eating my exercise cals.

I recently got a personal trainer, and she suggested finding a happy medium (I burn about 600cals 6x a week at the gym), feeling that 1800cals is a bit high.

(drum roll)

She wants me to aim for 1500cals on the days that I work out, and 1200cals on the days that I do not.

pammiles47

That makes more sense!:bigsmile:

thompsons81702

I say it is all about your body. I know that someone will post witht he thread about going into starvation mode. I hate that thread. I understand starvation mode and I understand the eating of the exercise calories. I really do. I also know many people that it works for. However I follow my doctors orders to a 1500 calories a day. That is what works for me. If I find myself at a platue I will vary it either up or down.

flcaoh

At the very least, I think we need a sticky explaining how My Fitness Pal deals with exercise calories and why it adds it to your total allowed calories to eat. Regardless of whether people actually do it or not.

I see a post asking about this at least every other day. I'm not saying that's bad, it's awesome that people are proactive and are here and are curious regarding how to treat their bodies. It's just that we reeeeally need some sort or permanent explanation.

TamTastic

All I ever add to these threads is my own personal experience.

But first of all, I know it sounds strange but when you think about it, you start to understand better.
You decide to lose weight. You lower your calories to a certain amount. You then exercise and burn MORE calories than those you are already excluding from your diet. So, eating some back....yes, you are eating more than 1500 calories but that isn't what your body is "bringing in" due to the exercise.

Anyway, for ME. Non-gym days, I ate 1400 calories. (I never ate below that). At the end, that was Mon, Wed, and Fri. On workout days, I got to the point where I was burning over 1,000 calories and I would eat around 1,900 calories on those days. (I ate about half the workout calories back). That was Tues, Thurs, Sat and Sun.

On the days I didn't go to the gym, I would do some lunges and squats and things at home and just stuck to my 1400 at the end.

I rarely had a plateau and when I did, I didn't stay for more than a week or two. I lost 135 lbs in 16 months (so even with plateaus or better weeks, worse weeks, etc...that averages out to about 8-10 lbs a month).

So, in MY personal opinion and experience....eating plenty and exercising plenty is what worked for me. And I think by doing the almost every other day thing, my body was kept at a constant burn and HAPPY!

It is all about finding what will work for you. It can be a trial and error thing. But also, making sure the calories burned are accurate is important as well. I never used a heart rate monitor. I did read in a fitness article that a good way to get an accurate reading on a machine like an elliptical (Which I used a lot), is when it asks for your weight, enter in a weight about 5-10 lbs LESS than you are. And at the end, deduct about 15% from the final number it gives you. That is what I did and it worked for me and I never ate ALL of them back.


Good luck! :drinker:

kerrilucko

MFP factors in a deficit. most women seem to go with 1200 cals a day (which is the bare minimum ANYONE should go) now if you're eating 1200 calories a day and then you go out and burn 7 or 800 at the gym, you've only got 4 or 500 left for your body to live off of. That's insanely low considering my own BMR is in the neighborhood of 1400 cals (that's how much I burn everyday doing nothing.) WIll you still lose weight if you don't eat them? YES. will it be at a slow, healthy pace for your body? NO.

Now your case is different. Being that you're following a plan handed to you by a DOCTOR, AND you've been instructed to eat 1500 calories a day, which is significantly higher than 1200.
All I can say is I do eat my exercise calories, all of them, and I have lost 61 lbs.

If it works for you, follow your plan and stay in touch with your doctor, but please do not make posts that outright state to others that they won't lose weight eating their exercise calories. It's not true, and it encourages unhealthy behaviour.

MyaPapaya75

My physician agrees with the original post...Im on 1200 strict...and I dont eat my excercise calories...but this is my experience and what has worked for me ..there are many that eat a portion and have great success....:drinker:

hmo4

All I ever add to these threads is my own personal experience.

But first of all, I know it sounds strange but when you think about it, you start to understand better.
You decide to lose weight. You lower your calories to a certain amount. You then exercise and burn MORE calories than those you are already excluding from your diet. So, eating some back....yes, you are eating more than 1500 calories but that isn't what your body is "bringing in" due to the exercise.

Anyway, for ME. Non-gym days, I ate 1400 calories. (I never ate below that). At the end, that was Mon, Wed, and Fri. On workout days, I got to the point where I was burning over 1,000 calories and I would eat around 1,900 calories on those days. (I ate about half the workout calories back). That was Tues, Thurs, Sat and Sun.

On the days I didn't go to the gym, I would do some lunges and squats and things at home and just stuck to my 1400 at the end.

I rarely had a plateau and when I did, I didn't stay for more than a week or two. I lost 135 lbs in 16 months (so even with plateaus or better weeks, worse weeks, etc...that averages out to about 8-10 lbs a month).

So, in MY personal opinion and experience....eating plenty and exercising plenty is what worked for me. And I think by doing the almost every other day thing, my body was kept at a constant burn and HAPPY!

It is all about finding what will work for you. It can be a trial and error thing. But also, making sure the calories burned are accurate is important as well. I never used a heart rate monitor. I did read in a fitness article that a good way to get an accurate reading on a machine like an elliptical (Which I used a lot), is when it asks for your weight, enter in a weight about 5-10 lbs LESS than you are. And at the end, deduct about 15% from the final number it gives you. That is what I did and it worked for me and I never ate ALL of them back.


Good luck! :drinker:

Have to say, it is such a debatable topic. But I like Tam's way, and I've actually started to do similar to this. I put myself at Sedentary, which I am usually due to being off work, so that put me at 1400 for losing 1/2 a pound a week-250 cals. So when I exercise 6x a week, I eat my exercise cals-except for 250 to hopefully make a pound a week loss. I started only a few days ago, so we'll see how it goes.:bigsmile:

AmandaJ

I eat about 75% of my exercise calories back and it is working for me. The days I don't eat them back, the next day my body is sluggish and doesn't want to move. I also realize that I need1400 calories per day to function. This has been working great so far so I am happy.