Should I burn MORE than I eat?
kaylarachellee
Posts: 201 Member
So, I am supposed to eat 1,200 calories, and yesterday I burned about 1,200 calories.(burnt the calories from pre cardio and strength in the morning and a 20 mile road bike ride.)
And today I went for a 5 mile run and burnt 550 calories... should I burn more? I know that your suppose to eat back your exercise calories if you want to maintain your weight. But I WANT to lose.
Yesterday it said I had 16 net calories.
HELP!
And today I went for a 5 mile run and burnt 550 calories... should I burn more? I know that your suppose to eat back your exercise calories if you want to maintain your weight. But I WANT to lose.
Yesterday it said I had 16 net calories.
HELP!
0
Replies
-
WOW! You are not eating enough. You should be NETTING AT LEAST 1200 calories. Most people will say you should be netting your BMR which is probably more than 1200.
You are not giving your body any fuel with what you are doing. Please eat! You must eat to lose weight and be healthy. You are going to get a ton of feedback. Get ready.0 -
WOW! You are not eating enough. You should be NETTING AT LEAST 1200 calories. Most people will say you should be netting your BMR which is probably more than 1200.
You are not giving your body any fuel with what you are doing. Please eat! You must eat to lose weight and be healthy. You are going to get a ton of feedback. Get ready.
I ate 1,200 calories.... If I ate my exercise calories back... I would be eating 2,400 calories... which would be hard to eat!!0 -
Also, check out this group:
http://www.myfitnesspal.com/groups/home/3817-eat-more-to-weigh-less
Also do a search in the message boards for eating your BMR. You'll find tons of info.
Your BMR is basically the calories your body needs when you're in a coma. So, you only ate 16 calories. That's not enough for a newborn baby.0 -
No. You are making the assumption that your body burns 0 calories/day if you do not exercise. Multiply your weight by 13-15, and this will give you an estimate of your daily maintenance caloric intake. That's about how many calories you need to eat to maintain.0
-
It's not as hard as you think. Eat full fat foods, nuts, peanut butter, oils, avocados. You need to eat, girlfriend.0
-
Haha, crazy how your body works! My BMR is 1,550 calories, but eating 1,200 calories to lose weight. I hear so many different things about eating your exercise calories back or not... so confusing!0
-
I know that your suppose to eat back your exercise calories if you want to maintain your weight. But I WANT to lose.
This is incorrect, unless you have told MFP to 'maintain my current weight.' Eating your exercise calories will maintain the deficit set by MFP. Since you're less than 15 lbs over your goal, you probably shouldn't be trying to lose more than 1 lb/week.0 -
If you BMR is 1550, then THAT'S what you eat to lose weight. Your TDEE is what you eat to maintain. Yours is probably in the 2200 range at least. Eat!!!!
You should be netting 1550!0 -
MFP suggests "net" calories. Assuming you've set your activity level to sedentary you need the 1,200 cal just to keep your brain working, heart beating, digestion, tissue repair etc etc. If your BMR is around 1,500 that's what you need (to maintain) if you were in a coma.
Eat back your exercise calories. If you burned 1,200 exercising and ate 2,400 that's still only a net of 1,200.0 -
Mary's BMR is 1400 calories and she burns 900 calories with regular exercise, walking around and doing household chores.
To maintain her weight, she should be eating 2300 calories (1400 + 900= 2300).
This site tells me not to eat the exercise calories back...
http://exercise.about.com/cs/weightloss/a/howtoloseweight.htm0 -
Mary's BMR is 1400 calories and she burns 900 calories with regular exercise, walking around and doing household chores.
To maintain her weight, she should be eating 2300 calories (1400 + 900= 2300).
This site tells me not to eat the exercise calories back...
http://exercise.about.com/cs/weightloss/a/howtoloseweight.htm
Because they're basing it on TDEE less a deficit. If you set your activity level in MFP to accurately describe your TDEE you wouldn't be eating back exercise calories either.0 -
So, I am supposed to eat 1,200 calories, and yesterday I burned about 1,200 calories.(burnt the calories from pre cardio and strength in the morning and a 20 mile road bike ride.)
And today I went for a 5 mile run and burnt 550 calories... should I burn more? I know that your suppose to eat back your exercise calories if you want to maintain your weight. But I WANT to lose.
Yesterday it said I had 16 net calories.
HELP!
Never should your net cals be negative. If you burn 1200 from exercise the minimum you should eat is 2400 (1200 min plus the 1200 you burned so you net 1200) If your maintenance is 2200, your goal would be 1200 to lose 2 lbs/week, if you burn 1200 in the gym your maintenance increased to 3400, so to have the same 1000 cal deficit, you need to eat 2400.0 -
If MFP tells you to have 1200 calories, that means net calories. It is giving you the calorie deficit you need to lose weight. And it knows what it's doing! I lost 50lbs eating the net calories MFP told me to, even when I exercised a lot.
I recognize, however, that you are burning A LOT of calories. It would probably be uncomfortable for you to eat them all back, especially on a day you've burned more than 1000.
Here's the thing, though, if you eat under 1200 calories, YOUR BODY WILL NOT THANK YOU. The best thing you can do right now is be nice to your body. Take care of it and it will take care of you. You can't starve it into obeying you.
So, if you burned 550 calories today, that's good. That's enough. You don't need to burn more. In fact, you can consume up to 1750 calories today. So have yourself a protein shake.0 -
WOW! You are not eating enough. You should be NETTING AT LEAST 1200 calories. Most people will say you should be netting your BMR which is probably more than 1200.
You are not giving your body any fuel with what you are doing. Please eat! You must eat to lose weight and be healthy. You are going to get a ton of feedback. Get ready.
I ate 1,200 calories.... If I ate my exercise calories back... I would be eating 2,400 calories... which would be hard to eat!!
If you cannot eat that much, then don't exercise so much. You have to fuel your body properly. If you are only going to eat 1200. I would suggest that you don't exercise at all, as 1200 is barely enough with no exercise. Even if you stayed in bed all day and ate 1200 cals you would lose weight.
If you eat 1200 cals and burn 1200 cals from exercise, that would be the same as not eating anything on days you don't workout. 1200-1200 = 0-0.0 -
So, I am supposed to eat 1,200 calories, and yesterday I burned about 1,200 calories.(burnt the calories from pre cardio and strength in the morning and a 20 mile road bike ride.)
And today I went for a 5 mile run and burnt 550 calories... should I burn more? I know that your suppose to eat back your exercise calories if you want to maintain your weight. But I WANT to lose.
Yesterday it said I had 16 net calories.
HELP!
Never should your net cals be negative. If you burn 1200 from exercise the minimum you should eat is 2400 (1200 min plus the 1200 you burned so you net 1200) If your maintenance is 2200, your goal would be 1200 to lose 2 lbs/week, if you burn 1200 in the gym your maintenance increased to 3400, so to have the same 1000 cal deficit, you need to eat 2400.
Yes! Agree. I have lost over 3lbs some weeks when I eat my calories back. When I don't come close, I lose less than half that.0 -
Mary's BMR is 1400 calories and she burns 900 calories with regular exercise, walking around and doing household chores.
To maintain her weight, she should be eating 2300 calories (1400 + 900= 2300).
This site tells me not to eat the exercise calories back...
http://exercise.about.com/cs/weightloss/a/howtoloseweight.htm
That site takes into account exercise calories before setting your defict - MFP doesn't.0 -
There are a couple of different ways to set a deficit. One of them (using the same example you pasted) is to figure out how much you're burning *total* (Mary is burning 2300) and take the deficit off that. If Mary wants to lose 1 lb/week, she should eat 1800/day.
Another way is to figure out how much you'd need to live a sedentary lifestyle (Mary would need about 1700 -- the other 600 is from deliberate exercise), take your cut off THAT, and then add the exercise calories back in. So if Mary looks at her ~1700 to live a sedentary lifestyle, she needs 1200 NET calories in order to lose 1lb/week. She then exercises for 600 more calories and eats those back to get 1800 total/1200 NET calories.
Note that she came up with the exact same *total* number either way. What Mary should NOT do is to combine the two approaches, and eat 1200 without eating exercise calories back. That will leave her with an 1100 daily deficit, and if her BMR is 1400 she's already pretty small. That's too much.0 -
If you don't want to read all the technical stuff (I sure don't), just make sure at the end of the day, your NET is between 1200 and 1500. 0
-
Yes, you are supposed to eat back all those calories. MFP builds in a steady deficit, and you are engaging in total self-sabotage. Don't say you weren't warned.WOW! You are not eating enough. You should be NETTING AT LEAST 1200 calories. Most people will say you should be netting your BMR which is probably more than 1200.
You are not giving your body any fuel with what you are doing. Please eat! You must eat to lose weight and be healthy. You are going to get a ton of feedback. Get ready.
I ate 1,200 calories.... If I ate my exercise calories back... I would be eating 2,400 calories... which would be hard to eat!!
MFP expects you to eat all those calories represented by the green number, and when you exercise, that number goes up.
Eat back your exercise calories.
And if you are on some crash diet thing other than MFP recommendations, oh well.
Do whatever.
And good luck either way.0 -
I know I didn't make the original post - but just wanted to thank you all for your input. I was a bit confused at first as well, and am still pretty new to the site. Your information has cleared it up and I've found that I need to start eating more. Thanks all! 0
-
I think if you're getting 1200 as your MFP goal it's probably better to use the "start at your TDEE" method, unless you believe that non-obese people really can't aim to lose 2 lbs/week, which to me is ridiculous.
Say on a day without intentional exercise I burn 1700. I want to aim for 2 lbs/week because I am 30 lbs. overweight. That would put me at 700 calories a day, which is too few. So MFP puts me at 1200 and says "Sorry! You can't lose more than 1 lb/week! No matter that you're willing to eat a healthy 1200 calorie diet AND burn 500 calories a day in exercise! You have to eat that 500 calories back, which sets you right back to my conservative goal of 1 lb/week for you!"
I just believe that there's nothing wrong with eating 1200 and burning 2200 if you've got the fat to burn and you're comfortable at that level. Most of us would probably prefer to say eat 1400 and burn 2000 but even THAT is outside of the MFP boundaries, according to the 'rules' people post about having to eat back.0 -
You have your MFP set at 1200 calories to lose weight, so thats what you have to net. If you burn 1000, and you didn't eat any of those calories back you would only be netting 200, and that's not enough fuel to keep your body going. If you don't exercise at all, you eat 1200 and lose weight. If you burn off 500 calories, add that to your 1200 for the day and you can eat up to 1700 calories in that day and still lose weight. You would still be netting your 1200 calorie goal for weight loss because you used those extra 500 calories up. You have to eat them back, your body needs food to fuel itself. 1200 is the number your body needs when it does nothing. You have to give it back any extra calories you burned up, especially when your net calories are so low to begin with. You are going to plateau and go into starvation mode quickly if you only eat 1200 calories and don't eat any of your exercise calories back.0
-
You ever see the movie 'Poltergeist' - the way the house implodes and dissapears up it's own bottom into an ethereal point of light at the end? Yeah, eat more or you'll end up like that house.0
-
I find this rather disappointing. After you posted that topic asking to guess your weight, and spoke of the training you do, I had thought you were inspiring and had a great body, but evidently you are not doing things in an inspiring way at all. In fact, it is downright unhealthy, and you know this I think. Why ruin a perfectly good body by essentially starving it?0
-
My BMR is 1310....I eat about 1770 on off days and almost 2000 on workout days......and I'm still losing weight.....EAT MORE!!! FUEL THE FIRE!!!0
-
I find this rather disappointing. After you posted that topic asking to guess your weight, and spoke of the training you do, I had thought you were inspiring and had a great body, but evidently you are not doing things in an inspiring way at all. In fact, it is downright unhealthy, and you know this I think. Why ruin a perfectly good body by essentially starving it?
I have been eating some of the calories. I have been really confused by different posts.0 -
I find this rather disappointing. After you posted that topic asking to guess your weight, and spoke of the training you do, I had thought you were inspiring and had a great body, but evidently you are not doing things in an inspiring way at all. In fact, it is downright unhealthy, and you know this I think. Why ruin a perfectly good body by essentially starving it?
I have been eating some of the calories. I have been really confused by different posts.
Does a car engine run on nothing? no. When it moves, it burns fuels, and needs refilling and that is how your body works. You workout, you are burning the fuel and leaving your body empty of the things it needs to run properly. Netting this little, you are basically doing the equivalent of eating nothing at all. Why? because you are burning off everything you eat, and not replacing it. If you exercise, you need to eat. I exercise, and I eat 2000 calories + per day. My weight has not gone up. So if you want to lose weight still, you need to go to fit2fatradio, or somesuch, calculate your TDEE (the calories you burn including your exercise) and eat 500 below that. Or you set mfp to lose 1/2 - 1Ib per week, and eat what it sets as your goal after you have logged exercise. You are putting a real strain on your heart by doing all this working out and not eating enough to cover even your basic functions.0 -
Does a car engine run on nothing? no. When it moves, it burns fuels, and needs refilling and that is how your body works. You workout, you are burning the fuel and leaving your body empty of the things it needs to run properly.
Imagine your car gas tank was so over-full your mechanic said to make it lighter or else. Would it make sense to drive off a gallon a day and then go to the gas station and put a gallon in once a day? No, you need to create a deficit to make the 'tank' smaller. It doesn't matter if today's drive burns up 'today's gas' or last January's. You have too much gas. Quit topping off. (Don't fast but don't think your BMR distinguishes between today's intake and your stored calories, either. It doesn't.)0 -
WOW! You are not eating enough. You should be NETTING AT LEAST 1200 calories. Most people will say you should be netting your BMR which is probably more than 1200.
You are not giving your body any fuel with what you are doing. Please eat! You must eat to lose weight and be healthy. You are going to get a ton of feedback. Get ready.
I ate 1,200 calories.... If I ate my exercise calories back... I would be eating 2,400 calories... which would be hard to eat!!
Yes...yes it is..isn't it great!!!! I love how I get to eat and I've lost like almost 60 lbs. YAYYYY0 -
WOW! You are not eating enough. You should be NETTING AT LEAST 1200 calories. Most people will say you should be netting your BMR which is probably more than 1200.
You are not giving your body any fuel with what you are doing. Please eat! You must eat to lose weight and be healthy. You are going to get a ton of feedback. Get ready.
I ate 1,200 calories.... If I ate my exercise calories back... I would be eating 2,400 calories... which would be hard to eat!!
Yes...yes it is..isn't it great!!!! I love how I get to eat and I've lost like almost 60 lbs.
YAYYYY You'll hear a LOT of different takes but I use the system of eating my exercize calories. It works. Period. It works. It works from a calories in calories out standpoint and it works from a psychological standpoint. Just also focus on making sure you know what you want to do with your break up of fat/protein/carbs or you'll feel like a bloated slug if you carb up too much.0
Categories
- All Categories
- 1.4M Health, Wellness and Goals
- 393.3K Introduce Yourself
- 43.8K Getting Started
- 260.2K Health and Weight Loss
- 175.9K Food and Nutrition
- 47.4K Recipes
- 232.5K Fitness and Exercise
- 424 Sleep, Mindfulness and Overall Wellness
- 6.5K Goal: Maintaining Weight
- 8.5K Goal: Gaining Weight and Body Building
- 153K Motivation and Support
- 8K Challenges
- 1.3K Debate Club
- 96.3K Chit-Chat
- 2.5K Fun and Games
- 3.7K MyFitnessPal Information
- 24 News and Announcements
- 1.1K Feature Suggestions and Ideas
- 2.6K MyFitnessPal Tech Support Questions