is it really necessary to eat your workout calories?

Faithinmyself6

Hello everyone,
I've been losing weight, slowly but surely, but this eating the amount of calories you burn thing is hard for me to get on board with. Myfitnesspal tells me I need to eat 1200 calories and I try to always range from 1200-1400 but I also work out a lot. I try to always enter my workouts, but I never eat more to accommodate the calories I burn. I'm just wondering how important that is, and if I was consuming more calories, would I be losing at a fast rate. Right now, I average about a pound lost a week and I work out a ton (2-3 times a day). Any advice would be appreciated!

AmyRhubarb

Are you hungry? A deficit is good, but depends on how big a deficit and how many calories you are burning through exercise each day. If you eat 1200 but burn 400 through exercise, that's only a net of 800 calories, which isn't very much. There are posts around here that explain it better than I can, but the way I see it, if you're working your body with exercise, you need to give it some fuel! And listen to your body - if you're hungry, you need to eat more. If you're not, then don't worry about it that day.

Some MFP members swear by eating every single exercise calorie every day, others don't eat any of them back. And it seems to vary a bit from person to person, you kind of have to figure out what works best for you. Personally, I eat when I'm hungry. Some days I'm hungrier than others, and on those days I eat more. Occasionally I go a little over my calories, other days I'm way under, but I never go hungry! And the weight is coming off, and my body is changing.

Search the forums for more topics on this, and check MFPs frequently asked questions too - they explain how the system is set up and how it's intended to be used. Hope that helps!

juliekaiser1988

You're going to hear arguements on both sides of this issue. It's definitely something you have to "play with" to find your sweet spot. I do eat my calories back, but that's just me.

Woolooloo

I think the consensus is to eat your workout calories because otherwise your deficit could drop you down into famine mode and your metabolism will stall. My question is does this only include cardio calories (so my 3x a week running), or also strength training calories (my 4-5x a week lifting). If I have to account for strength training calories, does anyone know a good way to estimate calorie burn from strength training? It would seem to be highly variable, and the exercise diary on MFP doesn't calculate it.

MamaKeeks

Hello everyone,
I've been losing weight, slowly but surely, but this eating the amount of calories you burn thing is hard for me to get on board with. Myfitnesspal tells me I need to eat 1200 calories and I try to always range from 1200-1400 but I also work out a lot. I try to always enter my workouts, but I never eat more to accommodate the calories I burn. I'm just wondering how important that is, and if I was consuming more calories, would I be losing at a fast rate. Right now, I average about a pound lost a week and I work out a ton (2-3 times a day). Any advice would be appreciated!

My concern with this is that it seems to me that the site overestimates calories burned for activities - so you could actually end up overestimating your burn and overeating your calories....

dokihara

My concern with this is that it seems to me that the site overestimates calories burned for activities - so you could actually end up overestimating your burn and overeating your calories....

Best way to avoid this is a Heart Rate monitor, so you can (more) accurately track how much you burned.

LuckyLeprechaun

is it necessary to put gas in your car if you want it to go?

Food is fuel for your body. If you ask your body to do more (like asking your car to drive longer) then of course it needs more fuel.

If it doesn't get the fuel it needs from your diet, it will get it somewhere. Not only your fat reserves, but your muscle mass and even nutrients from your bones. Not outcomes you want.

Don't force your body to cannibalize itself. EAT your calories.

spazwgeo

Yes eat your calories burned but I would get a heart rate monitor so you know exactly how many calories you really burned. This sight is so off!!! I did step today and mfp said I burned almost 600 calories when my HRM said 400.

LuckyLeprechaun

You're working out 2-3 times a DAY? Or 2-3 times a week?

cmriverside

With less than 20 lbs to lose, YES, it is absolutely vital you eat them.

Also, set your weight-loss goal at "1/2 pound per week".

Be realistic in your activity level, too. If you are taking care of children, going to school, OR have a job of any type, you are NOT "Sedentary."

If you have 75+ lbs to lose 2 lbs/week is ideal,
If you have 40-75 lbs to lose 1.5 lbs/week is ideal,
If you have 25-40 lbs to lose 1 lbs/week is ideal,
If you have 15 -25 lbs to lose 0.5 to 1.0 lbs/week is ideal, and
If you have less than 15 lbs to lose 0.5 lbs/week is ideal.

fitobsessed

If you check my latest post, my answer would be YES. BUT that is because I'm trying to lose 10 VANITY pounds. I couldn't figure out why I haven't lost weight in a few weeks. Basically, I'm not eating enough based on the calories I expend when I work out. During my average workouts, I sometimes burn up to 1000 calories, so on those days I have to try to eat close to 2000 calories.

ATT949

Hello everyone,
I've been losing weight, slowly but surely, but this eating the amount of calories you burn thing is hard for me to get on board with. Myfitnesspal tells me I need to eat 1200 calories and I try to always range from 1200-1400 but I also work out a lot. I try to always enter my workouts, but I never eat more to accommodate the calories I burn. I'm just wondering how important that is, and if I was consuming more calories, would I be losing at a fast rate. Right now, I average about a pound lost a week and I work out a ton (2-3 times a day). Any advice would be appreciated!

No. It's not necessary but it might help you not be as hungry and that might help you stay on your diet and that will help you lose more weight.
Your body doesn't know that it's an "exercise calorie" - it's must more food going into the digestive system. We see it as something "magic" but it's meaningless from a physiological perspective.
Similarly, the 1200 calorie figure is meaningless. It's a value from the World Health Organization that they see as the lowest calorie limit that women should eat to be healthy. It applies to "a woman" - is that the 300 pound female lumberjack or is that the 4' 11" payables clerk in a wheelchair? The idea that some number fits all women is laughable.
Further, the number of errors in tracking calories consumed and expended is staggering. This is a topic that's not discussed in polite company, I realize, but what we're doing here on MFP is, at best, a guess so the idea that there's some difference between 1200 calories and 1100 calories is wishful thinking.
Given that we have significant inaccuracy, the best we can do is be consistent. Keep tracking your weight, food, and exercise and you'll see trends (notice that I omit water because, according to medical science, a normally hydrated person has no medical need to drink water).

How does it work? I don't know how it will work for you, but I do know that it worked for me:

http://cbeinfo.net/weight.htm

I didn't want a gradual weight loss. Sorry, being "big" was something that I'd had three years of and that was enough. I went on a diet of 800 to 1k net cals and, while I'm sure other folks have had a better weight loss experience than I did, I'm quite happy with my results.


So, do you have to "eat your workout calories"? Absolutely not.

Will it help? Maybe but…why bother?

Eat less, exercise more, and live life to its fullest!

ATLMel

If you want good results from your 14-21 workouts a week (Holy sh----, you might be overtraining) then you need to fuel your body's recovery and repair. Otherwise you are just wasting all of your workout efforts. I think MFP is too restrictive on both protein and calorie recommendations.

stormieweather

With less than 15 pounds to lose, you will find your progress very slow. That's ok, our bodies let go of the fat easier when there's a lot to spare. The best way in your situation is to have a small deficit (250-300 calories or so) and focus more on fitness and less on what the scale says.

Faithinmyself6

Thank you very much for your reply and advice. I will definitely check out MFP's frequently asked questions for more on this subject matter. To answer your question.. yes, sometimes I am hungry, but only at night, and I feel good going to bed a little hungry. And sometimes I just wonder if the reason I'm hungry is because I denied myself something earlier, almost like it's a mental reason why i'm hungry. Overall, I really like your suggestion of just eating when you're hungry, I do work out a lot and my body needs fuel so I'm going to try to pay attention to how hungry I get and then eat! Thanks!

jacksonpt

It depends on how you setup your daily calorie goal. If that number includes exercise, then no you don't. If it doesn't then yes, you should.

jacksonpt

Hello everyone,
I've been losing weight, slowly but surely, but this eating the amount of calories you burn thing is hard for me to get on board with. Myfitnesspal tells me I need to eat 1200 calories and I try to always range from 1200-1400 but I also work out a lot. I try to always enter my workouts, but I never eat more to accommodate the calories I burn. I'm just wondering how important that is, and if I was consuming more calories, would I be losing at a fast rate. Right now, I average about a pound lost a week and I work out a ton (2-3 times a day). Any advice would be appreciated!

My concern with this is that it seems to me that the site overestimates calories burned for activities - so you could actually end up overestimating your burn and overeating your calories....

It depends on the person and the workout. MFP sometimes overestimates for me, sometimes underestimates.

jacksonpt

*sigh*

I'm back in the forums for 2 seconds and I'm already irritated.

For everyone making blanket recommendations (whether it be yes or no)... STOP IT! There is no one right answer.

Whether or not people should eat their exercise cals back depends on how they set their goal for daily caloric intake. If they included exercise as part of their lifestyle, then those cals are already accounted for and they do not need to eat them back. If they didn't include them, then they should be eating them back.

And actually that is a little over simplified.


.

Faithinmyself6

Sorry, this was my first post on MFP so I thought I was replying to the first member who commented, but it went to everyone. So to everyone else, I would like to say thank you for the tips as well. I do work out a lot, at least 2 times a day, but sometimes 3 times. I've lost over a 100 lbs already, and I've been plateaued at that 100 pound mark for easily 2 years now (and those 100 lbs took 4 slow years to come off). Before when I lost the weight I solely worked out and tried to be conscious of portion sizes, but never counted calories. Now I am going forward with the same work out intensity and counting calories and it's coming off slowly. I have 15 lbs to go to the next weight goal, but then 35 pounds after that to get to my final goal. So overall, 50 more pounds to go.

I appreciate the feedback about getting a heart rate monitor since i know MFP doesn't always calculate calories correctly, that's actually something I've been very interested in investing in.

Again, thanks for all the replies and good luck to everyone!