To Eat or Not to Eat Exercise Calories

I can see a small difference in the inches lost but I have not lost one pound. This BMR, BMI, etc has me totally confused. I exercise 4-5 times a week, ie: Zumba, Trekking, and other classes. I'm staying in the range of 1400-1600 calories per day. Another question is, I have a desk job but with the exercise I do weekly am I still considered to be sedentary? Please someone HELP!! Thanks.

Replies

  • Captain_Tightpants
    Captain_Tightpants Posts: 2,215 Member
    What's your height, weight and age?
  • melaniecheeks
    melaniecheeks Posts: 6,349 Member
    Current height and weight? Goal weight? How long have you been doing this?

    You should still put sedentary - all your additional exercising is on top of that.

    BMR is an estimate of the calories you need just to survive.

    BMI is a ratio of your weight and height that doctors (mainly) use as a very rough guide to overweightness (that's not a real word, is it....).

    You can quite cheerfully ignore BMR and BMI and just focus on nutrition and exercise.
  • supplemama
    supplemama Posts: 1,956 Member
    I eat some of my exercise calories back but not all, maybe 3-500 out of 1,000. I eat really well, you can check my diary (just ignore yesterday LOL). Some things to consider if you are not dropping pounds:

    Are you drinking at least 8 glasses of water a day, every day?
    Are you getting enough sleep? 7-8 solid hours a night?
    What are you eating?

    the last is very important because some will argue that a calorie is a calorie so it doesn't matter what you eat, but that is not true for me. If I eat 1400 calories of snicker bars and taco bell in a day, my body responds quite differently than if I eat 1400 calories of lean meat, fresh veggies, fruit, grains. You know, the good stuff. I don't lose weight if I eat lots of junk, period.

    Oh! Another thing, try exercising every day. Like on your off days from the gym, maybe just fast walk 2-5 miles on those days. I find my body just loves fat and is very resistant to the idea of me liberating it, so I MUST exercise daily.
  • Twiztedbeing
    Twiztedbeing Posts: 389
    *These are what I have read in other posts* just to be clear, people take things I say to seriously....

    Try doing weightlifting, it could help lose weight and lose waist size. Muscle is smaller than fat. It is hard to gain muscle while on a deficit so if you are worried about bulking up, don't. Weight training if you are just doing cardio workouts can shock your body to lose more lbs as well.



    Hope this helps.

  • Try doing weightlifting, it could help lose weight and lose waist size. Muscle is smaller than fat. It is hard to gain muscle while on a deficit so if you are worried about bulking up, don't. Weight training if you are just doing cardio workouts can shock your body to lose more lbs as well.

    I agree with Supplemama who made some great points. Twiztedbeing, I love that tip about the weight training shocking your body into losing more pounds! I will be trying that one myself.