If you're afraid to eat your exercise calories...

KareninCanada

Just a little math exercise for you. Fill in your data, but reverse your goals. Or go to someplace like http://www.free-online-calculator-use.com/weight-calorie-calculator.html if you don't want to mess with your account here.

Put in the weight you started at, and the weight you are now. Fill in your stats and set the goal date to measure the amount of time it took you to put the weight on. That will tell you roughly what you would have been eating per day to put on the weight. Now, figure it out for losing by flipping the numbers. That will also show you what it takes to maintain your current weight. Compare those numbers for a minute.

For me, right now my calorie goal is about 1700-1800 per day after exercise, allowing for more when I'm exercising hard, even up to 2000.

By doing the math on that particular site, I get a result of 2045/day to start at 145 and gain 55 lb in a year and a half (assuming no exercise), and then 1982/day to hold at 200 with no exercise. With the exercise I'm doing now, I would need to be eating 2560/day just to maintain at 200 lb - forget about gaining!

In short, even with an allowance for exercise calories, I've already created a deficit from what I used to be eating. I think we easily lose sight of how many calories we were eating before we started logging, and it sounds outrageous to think that someone could lose weight on 2000 calories/day - yet there are a TON of people on here doing just that.

Hope this helps someone out there. Don't be afraid to fuel your body.

janegalt37

That's rather surprising, even to someone not eating super-low cals. I'll definitely check out my calculations in a bit. Thanks!

Scorpioangel

I agree with you! People are literally shocked to find I have reached my goal on 1,600 (now 1,800) calories a day. My body literally needs this fuel to get my workouts done effectively and correctly!

mjhelton

This is really good information... Im always scared to eat my workout calories that MFP adds back into my day. During this month of starting on MFP i've tried to stay within 1200-1400 calories a day even when MFP adds back into my daily allowance 1200 caloried burned during a workout so it still leaves me with over 1000 calories left by the end of the day. So you ladies are telling me I should be eating a lot more?

KareninCanada

Absolutely! Look at your "net" calories and that's what you're leaving your body to work with for maintenance...

spinqueen72

This is really good information... Im always scared to eat my workout calories that MFP adds back into my day. During this month of starting on MFP i've tried to stay within 1200-1400 calories a day even when MFP adds back into my daily allowance 1200 caloried burned during a workout so it still leaves me with over 1000 calories left by the end of the day. So you ladies are telling me I should be eating a lot more?

Yes! Especially if you're exercising as much as you are!! I gained a lot of my weight, because I wasn't eating enough! My body started storing everything I ate as fat, because I literally forced it into "starvation mode"!
I had a hard time adjusting to the "eating to lose weight" deal...I always thought if I didn't eat as much, I'd lose more! Boy was I mistaken!!! I wish I had known that before..it probably would've saved me a lot of heartaches/headaches!

rebeccawalker1982

I really have just stopped worrying about the work out cals being added to my starting total. I jsut make sure I stay a little under or right at the starting cal goal for the day. I do this mainly because I do not do hard work outs...go for 2-3 mile walks, ride a stationary bike for 20-30 mins, 20-30 mins of Zumba or play on the Wii fit and add in a few strength training things. Who knows....I maybe doing it all wrong with the amount of cals but I really dont understand all the calculations that people post on how you find what you should be eating. I am at 1500 cals a day and I weigh 211 right now and 4'11". Lost 5 lbs in Jan (1st month on here).

MandyMcAwesome

I think the "eat plenty or your body will freak out" thing really did it for me. It made sense, FINALLY.

cczap80

Sometimes I feel like I'm afraid to eat because I don't want to gain anything but then the hunger usually takes over! I figure as long as I work out and stay active I should be okay!

Thanks for the info!!