excercise calories?

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redreamingme
redreamingme Posts: 62
in Health and Weight Loss
I'm sure this question has been asked quite a bit, but am I supposed to eat my calories that I've burnt off from excercise? If so then what's really the point of excercising if you're just eating what you worked off, besides getting toned?

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  • redreamingme
    redreamingme Posts: 62
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    I'm sure this question has been asked quite a bit, but am I supposed to eat my calories that I've burnt off from excercise? If so then what's really the point of excercising if you're just eating what you worked off, besides getting toned?
  • melbug25
    melbug25 Posts: 50
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    I understand where you are coming from and a lot of people here get sick of answering this question, but they have to remember that this is a website to help people and that they too, started where you are and asked the same questions.

    Now, to answer your question, your body burns X amount of calories a day without doing anything right? Yes, and when you add exercise to that you burn X + Y more calories. So if you eat the exercise calories then your body is still burning all the ones that you aren't aware of.

    If you lose weight eating all of your exercise calories then you are doing great, if you don't loose weight, just play with it a little and only eat half or three quarters of them sometimes.



    *Warning* Not a professional medical adviser and to get accurate information you must consult your physician.
  • anthonyd
    anthonyd Posts: 3
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    It depends on if you are trying to lose weight or not.

    To lose weight you need to create a caloric deficit of about 500 calories a day. Than means you need to burn off 500 calories more than what you take in. So if you exercise to lose weight (1 - 2 lbs a week at most) then do not eat the burnt off calories.

    To maintain weight you would need to eat the calories that you burnt off. This will enable you to tone and at the same time not lose unwanted lean mass.
  • pixiestick
    pixiestick Posts: 839 Member
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    MFP starts you off with a deficit already... so if you don't eat at least some of your calories, you are likely to shoot your metabolism in its proverbial foot.

    I have had a lot of success eating 1200 cals as my daily standard, and then eating back at least half of my exercise cals (but I allow myself to eat them all back if I want). The only catch is on days when I burn 1000+ from exercise (one or two days a week), in which case I only eat up to 1600...

    Ask Tammy or anyone who has had good success counting cals and they will ALL tell you that eating at least some of your exercise cals is essential.

    :flowerforyou:
  • redreamingme
    redreamingme Posts: 62
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    Alright thanks everyone :]

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