Should I eat all calories burned?

Mommagoose4

Okay so I am new to dieting & weight loss.

Here in a nutshell is my situation.

Mon-Fri I eat 1350 calories ish which is what MFP says I should eat.
I work out 3 - 1 hr long workouts & daily activities burning about 4000 calories, this is just the last couple of weeks I have been working up to these workouts.

I had lost weight but nothing this week, I have actually gained a little.

So I am wondering why not? Am I not eating enough? Working out too much?

I am a 31 yr old woman. Weighing about 220lbs. 5 foot 6 inches!

misskerouac

You are going to get a lot of answers. My short answer is, you need to eat more, your net calories shouldn't be below 1200. Some people will say eat all your exercise calories back, some will say you don't have to. I eat most of mine back, but as long as my net is over 1200 then I don't worry TOO much about getting ALL my calories in for the day if I'm no longer hungry.

If you are hungry eat.

Remember that your body needs a certain amount of calories to function properly, so don't restrict yourself because you think you will lose faster. You could eat ALLLLL your exercise calories back and still lose weight because MFP has already built in the deficit you need to lose .5/1/1.5/2 lbs a week (whatever you chose).

Mommagoose4

Okay here is where I need answers. What is net calories? I eat my allotted 1350 calories the MFP says I should eat being deficient the 1000 calories to loose 2 lbs a week.

Then my exercise could range from 2500 -4500 calories burned in a single day.

If I am hungry I eat. I don't starve myself. I am consuming a protein shake a day as a snack to just keep my protein up.

misskerouac

If you set MFP to a 2lb loss then 1350 already has that 1000 deficit built in.
So if you eat 1350, then you exercise and burn 500 cals your net is now 850. That means you are giving your body 850 to operate on, it's not enough.

That is ALOT of exercise, and if your calorie burn is that high then it is very intense exercise for you, this is a lifestyle change, you want to make sure it's something you can sustain and that you can enjoy otherwise there is a higher chance that you will not continue. There is no need to workout 3 hours a day (in my opinion anyways) you are creating this HUGE deficit in calories. If your goal is 1350 and you burned 2500 calories, you'd need to eat 2500 calories just to get your net calories back up to 0.

susannamarie

Depends on how sure you are that your calorie burn is correct.

4500 burned on a single day is a hell of a lot and I'd hate to eat that much and then discover the numbers were wrong. Some people say MFP's estimates go high for exercise.

marpeters

I agree with the post above. You might want to be careful about the amount of calories you are burning in a workout. I don't know where you get the calories, but some machines are inflated I think. I usually under judge my calorie burn to be on the safe side.

BrianSharpe

I too am a little curious about where your getting your exercise burn from. According to my HRM I burned about 1,900 cal in the last half-marathon I ran (and I'm around 200lbs)

misskerouac

Depends on how sure you are that your calorie burn is correct.

4500 burned on a single day is a hell of a lot and I'd hate to eat that much and then discover the numbers were wrong. Some people say MFP's estimates go high for exercise.

Definitely! I bought a HRM so that I'd have a better estimate as I didn't trust the MFP estimates. The elliptical on MFP for my height and weight was way over stated

dvisser1

I'm 255 and burn around 1100 calories in a hard 1:15 at the gym. The only time in my months on MFP that I've gone to 2500 or over was on a 4 1/2 hour day hike up a small mountain near town and I think that was only 2900 calories. Not saying it's impossible to burn 4500 calories in a day, just unlikely.

Please note that exercise is really what activity you do above and beyond your normal daily routine. Your daily activity level is part of developing that calorie goal to start with.

KareninCanada

I work out 3 - 1 hr long workouts & daily activities burning about 4000 calories, this is just the last couple of weeks I have been working up to these workouts.

Do not factor your daily activities in as "exercise calories" - that is just for your workout.


So you will eat your 1350, plus what you log for JUST those one-hour workouts. But I would suggest to you that the 1350 is too low... in your case I'd be more inclined toward 1600 per day, plus exercise calories on the days you work out.

BrittanieGo

oh lordy I could be totally screwing up. I didn't get this whole net thing, and I am for a defecit everyday.. is that not good then? My estimated needs is 1900 for my height/weight and I eat 1200-1300 everyday and I workout almost everyday, using my HRM says approx 700 calories each workout, I would have a defecit of 1300 every day. I thought the goal was to have a defecit!

Mommagoose4

Thank you all for your advice!
A lot to consider for sure.
I don't use the MFP numbers.- I do an intense step aerobics where my feet & arms NEVER stop moving. And I do a high energy Dance. On top of everything else I do in a day - I am the mother of 4 very active children.
Upon reading & advice I think I will try to decrease my exercise b'c I don't want to up my calories b'c I am just not hungry. I was loosing weight steadily until this week so I wonder if maybe I am building muscle?

taso42

If your calories eaten and burned are recorded accurately, then you would eat every single "exercise calorie". If there are inaccuracies, then you compensate by eating more or less.

cr9576

Thank you all for your advice!
A lot to consider for sure.
I don't use the MFP numbers.- I do an intense step aerobics where my feet & arms NEVER stop moving. And I do a high energy Dance. On top of everything else I do in a day - I am the mother of 4 very active children.
Upon reading & advice I think I will try to decrease my exercise b'c I don't want to up my calories b'c I am just not hungry. I was loosing weight steadily until this week so I wonder if maybe I am building muscle?

I would like to know that too, If you have been steadily been losing weight and then you stop for a week or two to drop a pound is it posible that it is because you are gaining muscle if you have been strength training?

Wade406

If your calories eaten and burned are recorded accurately, then you would eat every single "exercise calorie". If there are inaccuracies, then you compensate by eating more or less.

This, but think in terms of weekly. Any given day can be +/- a few hundred calories of your daily net goal. But try and keep your weekly average as close as possible to your net calorie goal.

For accuracy, you may need to use a food scale and an HRM. If you are estimating one or both sides of the equation, you may have to adjust your net goal to account for your inaccuracy, whether too few or too many.

randall774

heres the way i do it,,,

i only input cardio because i get a reading on the equipment, i never input my resistance training because it would be pure guess work.

i work on a 40/40/20 percentage split in my calories. that is i aim to get 40% protien, 40% carbs and 20% fats in my daily diet.

i also know i need to get around 170g of protien a day to maintain my muscle whilst dieting (1g per lb of lean body wieght).

so using the pie chart (iphone app) i can judge what i need to be eating to get this balance.

sometimes im under my goal (1700), sometimes im over by a bit, but im still losing weight steadily and keeping my strength and tone.

if i got a load of calories left at the end of the week according to the app, then ill have a treat day on saturday or sunday to use some up which gives me something to look forward too .

hope this helps people.

Mommagoose4

Thank you all for your advice!
A lot to consider for sure.
I don't use the MFP numbers.- I do an intense step aerobics where my feet & arms NEVER stop moving. And I do a high energy Dance. On top of everything else I do in a day - I am the mother of 4 very active children.
Upon reading & advice I think I will try to decrease my exercise b'c I don't want to up my calories b'c I am just not hungry. I was loosing weight steadily until this week so I wonder if maybe I am building muscle?

I would like to know that too, If you have been steadily been losing weight and then you stop for a week or two to drop a pound is it posible that it is because you are gaining muscle if you have been strength training?

I think the only way to track this would be to measure. Which I haven't been & probably should be. I do notice a change in my clothes & slimming -- the scales is just hating me this week.

Mommagoose4

If your calories eaten and burned are recorded accurately, then you would eat every single "exercise calorie". If there are inaccuracies, then you compensate by eating more or less.

This, but think in terms of weekly. Any given day can be +/- a few hundred calories of your daily net goal. But try and keep your weekly average as close as possible to your net calorie goal.

For accuracy, you may need to use a food scale and an HRM. If you are estimating one or both sides of the equation, you may have to adjust your net goal to account for your inaccuracy, whether too few or too many.

I do not have a HRM. I should look into one. The ones I have seen are pretty expensive. But I do measure almost every meal I eat to ensure accuracy when I put it in my food journal as well reading labels.

Mommagoose4

heres the way i do it,,,

i only input cardio because i get a reading on the equipment, i never input my resistance training because it would be pure guess work.

i work on a 40/40/20 percentage split in my calories. that is i aim to get 40% protien, 40% carbs and 20% fats in my daily diet.

i also know i need to get around 170g of protien a day to maintain my muscle whilst dieting (1g per lb of lean body wieght).

so using the pie chart (iphone app) i can judge what i need to be eating to get this balance.

sometimes im under my goal (1700), sometimes im over by a bit, but im still losing weight steadily and keeping my strength and tone.

if i got a load of calories left at the end of the week according to the app, then ill have a treat day on saturday or sunday to use some up which gives me something to look forward too .

hope this helps people.

This really helps me! Thank you so much! I do like the 40-40-20 split. It seems to make sense to me. And I don't workout on the weekends those are my lax days. I worry day to day but i like your idea of watching day to day but worrying week to week.

taso42

If your calories eaten and burned are recorded accurately, then you would eat every single "exercise calorie". If there are inaccuracies, then you compensate by eating more or less.

This, but think in terms of weekly. Any given day can be +/- a few hundred calories of your daily net goal. But try and keep your weekly average as close as possible to your net calorie goal.

For accuracy, you may need to use a food scale and an HRM. If you are estimating one or both sides of the equation, you may have to adjust your net goal to account for your inaccuracy, whether too few or too many.

I do not have a HRM. I should look into one. The ones I have seen are pretty expensive. But I do measure almost every meal I eat to ensure accuracy when I put it in my food journal as well reading labels.

That's great. You don't strictly need an HRM. Just be consistent with everything you do. If there's some error, over time you will discover it and you should be able to compensate.

lmcianci87

HELP! haha..I'm new to this and totally confused on how many calories I should eat/leave. I did Weight Watchers previously, and they tell you to eat your points! haha..I did lose 32 lbs though!! I wanted to try something FREE and different, I could tell I wasn't consuming enough calories.

OK...so I'm given 1450 calories a day. I work out 6 times a week (burning 600-700 calories), therefore my total is 2050-2150 right??
Here are my readings for today:
Goal: 1450
Food: 1643
Exercise:615
Net: 1028
Remaining: 422

soo..my question is, is this good or bad?! haha..help!!

listlife

Well I started here at about the same stats as you. I eat back most of my exercise cals and i lose about 1-1.5 a week. If that helps at all

enyo123

oh lordy I could be totally screwing up. I didn't get this whole net thing, and I am for a defecit everyday.. is that not good then? My estimated needs is 1900 for my height/weight and I eat 1200-1300 everyday and I workout almost everyday, using my HRM says approx 700 calories each workout, I would have a defecit of 1300 every day. I thought the goal was to have a defecit!

SOME deficit. But 1300 calorie deficit, plus the built in one from MFP? That's excessive.

Tourney3p0

Get a heart rate monitor to verify your exercise calories burned numbers are correct. With relatively small numbers, the MFP approximation is close enough to not worry. With lots of exercise however, being off by even 10% (which honestly tends to be a little low) of 4000 daily calories comes out to nearly a pound a week in unexplained weight gain/lack of weight loss.

Then read the stickies at the top of the General forums, particularly the one titled "Newbies Please READ ME (2nd edition)". It will answer all your questions and tell you exactly why you should do it that way.

lmcianci87

Thanks!
Sooo...am I doing it right if I follow everyday like today? haha..totally lost!

IdalmisRodriguez

"Estimate how many calories you’re burning per mile of running by multiplying your weight by 0.75. Multiply your weight by 0.53 for an estimate of calories burned per mile of walking." I found that in a website (can't even remember where- but I copy/pasted it to a note).
My point is: be careful on how you count the burned calories. In 70 min of exercise my treadmill says I burn 600 calories and MFP says I burn 450- I trust MFP because it knows my weight and height. Do I explain myself? It's not the same for everybody. And I agree with the comments that remind you this is a LIFESTYLE change. You can't be unrealistic because then you won't keep it up.

awisegirl84

HELP! haha..I'm new to this and totally confused on how many calories I should eat/leave. I did Weight Watchers previously, and they tell you to eat your points! haha..I did lose 32 lbs though!! I wanted to try something FREE and different, I could tell I wasn't consuming enough calories.

OK...so I'm given 1450 calories a day. I work out 6 times a week (burning 600-700 calories), therefore my total is 2050-2150 right??
Here are my readings for today:
Goal: 1450
Food: 1643
Exercise:615
Net: 1028
Remaining: 422

soo..my question is, is this good or bad?! haha..help!!

I agree with the first person's response to this topic. I try to keep my Net Calories between 1200 and my goal (1390). Your body needs the fuel to function at a basic level. If I go over a few (or 100) calories one day I'm just more careful the next day. And it's the big picture that I stay focused on: movement and healthy choices. :flowerforyou: