"extra calories"

JPRexRun

Help!

The first two or three weeks I was on MFP... I didn't use my "extra calories" earned from working out, and I lost 4lbs.

Now that I'm 'using them' I've put back on 2-3lbs. (Maybe it was because I worked out for 60 minutes yesterday and still went over by 300 calories and 134g of carbs!)

I know everyone says you can eat them, because you don't want your body to go into starvation mode... but has this happened to anyone else?

I thought I was doing so well....

JPRexRun

Help!

The first two or three weeks I was on MFP... I didn't use my "extra calories" earned from working out, and I lost 4lbs.

Now that I'm 'using them' I've put back on 2-3lbs. (Maybe it was because I worked out for 60 minutes yesterday and still went over by 300 calories and 134g of carbs!)

I know everyone says you can eat them, because you don't want your body to go into starvation mode... but has this happened to anyone else?

I thought I was doing so well....

babyhippo

I've been using some of my extra calories and I still am loosing weight. But, I don't eat extra food just to use them up. If your not hungry.....Don't eat it.

lotusfromthemud

Here's my opinion/research findings on the "extra calories". I don't eat all of them. I eat most of them, but then I subtract from them the calories I would have burned in the same amount of time sitting on my sofa.

For example, if I work out for an hour on the eliptical, and it says I burned 500 calories, I subtract 70 calories ( a sedentary hour) for a total of 430 calories burned.

I've also read to simply subtract 10% to make up for inaccuracies. It's not an exact science, and it also depends on how big your calorie deficit is to begin with. If you're at 1200 calories, you should eat most of them, or you'll head to negative net calories, which is very bad.:flowerforyou:

Panthera

From the little bit of research I have done, you would have to eat less than 50% of your needed calories per day for a period of time for your body to go into starvation mode. That is hard to do. I usually don't eat any of my extra calories and I am losing 1-2 pounds per week, which is my goal. But if I'm hungry, I have a little something. And if I am at a special event and I want to eat more, I do. I just watch my calorie intake more after that.

Look at the contestants on the reality show, Survivor. They lost weight fast. And they are starving themselves. When they get off the show, they eat a lot because they have been starving. But they still lost the weight in the first place. This shows that it takes a period of time before this starvation mode kicks in, I think.

A normal healthy diet getting at least (approx) 1200 calories is not going to put you into starvation mode.