Am I suppost to eat the extra calories from working out????

mrscdgogan

Hi. I'm Cary, and I am a 28 year old mom of 3. I'm 5'2 and on Monday (when I started this journey) I weighed 203 lbs! :sad:

I am getting conflicting opinions as to whether or not I should eat the extra calories from working out? Some told me not to, because I would lose more. And then some told me that I should because if I don't then my metabolism won't function properly. I'm new to this as I said, so I really need advice from people who have lost weight. What do you do? And, any other advice that you have that has really helped you lose, will help me greatly! Thanks everyone!:happy:

candeestars

I too have wondered this I try not to!

amber10101

Yep, eat those back! Your body needs the fuel.

Of course, eating a Snickers bar to replenish those exercise calories might not be the best idea!

mikeyrp

As a 1 year MFP member I can tell you that this topic comes up all the time. The simple answer is YES, you should.

In more detail though - it depends what training you are doing and how often, plus what your weight loss target is. Basically you need fuel for your workouts and to keep your body healthy - so if you intend to work out every day for an hour or more, eat back most of your calories. If you do half an hour three times a week, you dont need to eat them back. Also - if you have a 1lb a week loss plan, you are safer not eating the cal back than a 2lb a week plan - because there is some slack built into your calorie allowance anyway.

My advice is as follows

1) Open your diary so your friends can keep you in check.
2) See how you feel each day - if you don't eat back your cals and you start feeling fatigued - that's a sign you need to eat more!
3) Try and eat healthy calories - what and when you eat will impact your training.

Good luck

busyPK

You already know my stance on this. I would also suggest you opening up your diary for friends or to the public as it will give you more accountability. You can wait a bit to get more comfortable, but it does help. Mine use to be private for the first couple of weeks. Also, I love looking at other peoples diaries for ideas. You can do a search on the message boards for open diaries and should find some posts with a lot of responses from people who keep theirs open to the public and you can read what others who have lost weight eat for ideas. Lastly, check out skinnytaste.com - it's a great website with lots of yummy recipes!

Articeluvsmemphis

you'll always get conflicting answers, answer is YES

nhorton5

I really struggle to eat 1200 calories a day so when I exercise I am normally well below my target. I don't tend to eat the calories I burn but if I feel my body is a bit weak I will make sure I eat something to give me a boost.

KareninCanada

Yes.

You and I are the same height and your starting weight is just 2 pounds more than mine... after two weeks of "down one, up one" while my body figured out what the heck was happening, I dropped 3.4 lb last week eating about 1800 relatively healthy calories and exercising. You need to keep yourself fed well enough that your body thinks it's okay to release the fat.

Feel free to "friend" me if you'd like.

newfieborn

Hi Cary

Congrats on starting your journey. Yes, you will get lot of conflicking info on this topic and I am not saying that my advise is perfect either but this is what I have learned.

It is important that you are nourishing your body every two to three hours (all hours that you are awake) with balanced, delicious meals and snacks.The idea is that by having small, frequent meals, your body never has the chance to go into starvation mode and your body's metabolism kick into overdrive. You must balance all meal with protien, carbs, fats, & lots of water. Maintain small portion size and balance this out with regular exercise. If you do this then calorie counting is not as big an issue. Your healthy food choices will limit your calorie intake and your exercise will burn excess calories.

In the end, most days MFP will show that you still have not reached your daily calorie goal and that is ok because you know that you have eaten all of your required nutritients. Your body is actually burning some of the excess energy (fat) that it has stored. This is what you are trying to achieve.

Hope this helps.

Te2005

I just started a few week a I heard so many arguements both ways that I contacted a nutrionalist. She told me NO, it's not neccesary as long as you are eating your normal calories. More important, if you are getting all the viamins and such that you need. Her instructions to me were, if you're hungry eat a healthy choice, but pay attention to your body. Until another medical professional tells me differently, this is my plan.

KareninCanada

I just started a few week a I heard so many arguements both ways that I contacted a nutrionalist. She told me NO, it's not neccesary as long as you are eating your normal calories.

Yes, absolutely correct. The difference is that MFP starts your calorie count lower than a nutritionist would. MFP puts me at 1200+ exercise, my trainer/advisor says 1800 or more without considering exercise. Comes out to about the same number.

uncbluegirl

Yes and no. For me, it depends on how many calories I burn in a day. If I have a short workout and only burn 200 calories, I might not eat extra, but if I have an bigger day where I burn 500 or 600 calories, then I'll usually try to eat back about half of those calories. I also try to eat at least around 1200 net calories - for me, "the jury is still out" about the whole "starvation mode" idea, but I do find that if I eat at least 1200, the next day the workouts are less tiring and easier.