What is "eating exercise calories"?

jtodacheeny

I have been reading alot about eating your exercise calories. I am relatively new to this, and I want to know exactly what that means and how to do it.

Also, is it really neccessary to count calories so strictly? What is more important to focus on, what you eat or how much you eat?

I am a mother of a 2 yr old and a 4 yr old, and my husband and I have a construction company that I run as well. It is very hard to track calories (don't have time to figure it out!!) so can I just be very picky about what I eat (fruits, veggies, lean protein and water) and not worry about calories??

BrendaLee

It's important to focus both on what you eat and how much you eat. It is crucial to track your calories closely, because it's so easy to overeat and not even realize it. The little things really add up.

Eating your exercise calories means you log all of your exercise, and any calories you burned, you eat those back to maintain the deficit set by MFP. 1000 calorie deficit to lose 2 pounds per week, 500 to lose 1 pound, etc.

MFP not only tracks your calories, but it also tracks your protein, fat, carbs, etc. so you can be sure you're getting close to the right amounts of each, and you can see areas you have to work on.

azwildcatfan94

Lots of issues here. And good questions. Put simply, eating your exercise calories is documenting how many calories you have burned with exercise and eating some or all of those calories back. You will get a lot of different opinions on this board as to why to do one option or the other. Basically, not eating the calories should speed weight loss if you have enough fat on your body that your body will allow the calories to be burned. Say, more than 20 -25 pounds of fat. Less than that and your body will go into starvation mode and try to hang onto what fat it has.

Some people will say a calorie is a calorie is a calorie. Weight loss, at its most basic definition is calories in minus calories burned. You want to eat fewer calories than you burn. However, 1500 calories of ice cream is not as healthy for you as 1500 calories of nutrient dense foods. So, there you need to figure out which combination between the two works best for you to be successful.

You can eat only "healthy" foods and still overeat your calories. But, if you took the time at night to measure out portions and ensure you aren't going over in calories, then you wouldn't have to count during the day. And, as time goes on, you can get better at eyeballing the food, but, I still measure/weigh the high calorie ones (oils, nuts, avocados, cheese, meat, etc.) I could misjudge on lettuce by a full cup and only go up 7 calories, no big deal, but, misjudge on stuff I listed above, and go way over.