Question: RE: Calories-in vs Calories-out ...

SturgeonGal

I have heard mixed things regarding the amount of calories to eat , some say to "eat back" the calories you burn in a work out.. to me this doesn't make sense .. If work out I do it to burn more calories and help move the weight loss along so I am looking for the official answer to this delema. But when I do an online searh regarding "weight loss" or " Nutriton" I get mostly web sites that are promoting their weight loss plans or pills.. :grumble:
I have almost gotten the calories in part down ... I can eat and keep it in the 1200- 1300 calorie a day range and have been seeing resluts but I am looking into joining a gym for the 6 wetter, colder months of the year to help me reach my goals of getting to my desired weight and slenderness by Summer 2010. so Here is the question:

If I am eating 1200- 1300 calories a day do I need to eat more on the days I work out or do I maintain 1200-1300 calories a day to see best results and stay healthy? :huh:

If you know of online sources that can help me that would be awsome... Thank You for the help :happy:

cassandra1220

You will log in your exercise for the day the same way that you log in your daily food. The website does the math for you. I usually dont eat all of my exercise calories but some days I do. It just depends what kind of day I am having.

Hermit4Hire

http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/10589-for-those-confused-or-questioning-eating-your-exercise-calo

Happy reading....

Jerzeebabie04

Well this confuses me too!! But if you look through many of the posts on here, there are a lot of people who say you have to eat all of your calories. On MFP when you log your food for the day and then log your exercise, it will automatically give you more calories. I don't really understand it either, I thought the point of working out was to burn calories.

From what I have learned on here, is that as long as you are maintaining a deficit you will lose weight. Now I'm pretty overweight and according to my BMR I need to consume 2190 calories a day just to maintain the weight I am now. But I'm eating 1200 calories, which gives me about a 930 calorie deficit each day according to MFP. It takes 3500 calories to lose a pound, so 930 x 7 days a week = 6510. Now that divided by the 3500 means I should lose about 1.9 lbs a week.

Not sure if any of that is helping, but if I find out anymore information on why it's so important to eat all of your calories, even the extra calories after working out, I'll let ya know! good luck

Silver_Dream

I eat about half my exercise calories. I'm losing roughly 1.5 to 2 lbs a week.

HeatherBurke

Well this confuses me too!! But if you look through many of the posts on here, there are a lot of people who say you have to eat all of your calories. On MFP when you log your food for the day and then log your exercise, it will automatically give you more calories. I don't really understand it either, I thought the point of working out was to burn calories.

From what I have learned on here, is that as long as you are maintaining a deficit you will lose weight. Now I'm pretty overweight and according to my BMR I need to consume 2190 calories a day just to maintain the weight I am now. But I'm eating 1200 calories, which gives me about a 930 calorie deficit each day according to MFP. It takes 3500 calories to lose a pound, so 930 x 7 days a week = 6510. Now that divided by the 3500 means I should lose about 1.9 lbs a week.

Not sure if any of that is helping, but if I find out anymore information on why it's so important to eat all of your calories, even the extra calories after working out, I'll let ya know! good luck

I just did that equation with my BMR and I only want to lose about 20 pounds but it says that to maintain I need to consume 1448 cals a day, eating 1200 a day that leaves my deficit at 248 x 7 days= 1736... divided by 3500 comes to losing only .49 pounds a week... No wonder it was so easy putting on the weight so fast.... and that it's going to be so hard taking it off.... This just makes it harder for me to understand eating the 300 or 400 calories from the elliptical... Discouraging... hmmm

lotusfromthemud

Well this confuses me too!! But if you look through many of the posts on here, there are a lot of people who say you have to eat all of your calories. On MFP when you log your food for the day and then log your exercise, it will automatically give you more calories. I don't really understand it either, I thought the point of working out was to burn calories.

From what I have learned on here, is that as long as you are maintaining a deficit you will lose weight. Now I'm pretty overweight and according to my BMR I need to consume 2190 calories a day just to maintain the weight I am now. But I'm eating 1200 calories, which gives me about a 930 calorie deficit each day according to MFP. It takes 3500 calories to lose a pound, so 930 x 7 days a week = 6510. Now that divided by the 3500 means I should lose about 1.9 lbs a week.

Not sure if any of that is helping, but if I find out anymore information on why it's so important to eat all of your calories, even the extra calories after working out, I'll let ya know! good luck

I just did that equation with my BMR and I only want to lose about 20 pounds but it says that to maintain I need to consume 1448 cals a day, eating 1200 a day that leaves my deficit at 248 x 7 days= 1736... divided by 3500 comes to losing only .49 pounds a week... No wonder it was so easy putting on the weight so fast.... and that it's going to be so hard taking it off.... This just makes it harder for me to understand eating the 300 or 400 calories from the elliptical... Discouraging... hmmm

Your BMR is NOT the same as your maintenance calories. The BMR (sometimes called RMR) is the bare minimum your body takes to survive (think in bed immobile all day). Your maintenance calories are considerably higher than your BMR, and vary according to your daily activity level.

SturgeonGal

http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/10589-for-those-confused-or-questioning-eating-your-exercise-calo

Happy reading....

This was somewhat helpful in understanding the concepts of it all.... Now I am thinking maybe Ishould make at least one apointment with a licensed nutritionist to make sure I am balancing my diet correctly... I alway tend to go over on carbs and I dont want to make this any harder than it is... I am seeing weight loss so far with out the extra regular exceise but once I start working out I dont want to shoot my self in the foot ( so to speak) ...

Thank you for the link
Good luck on you quest ....

SHBoss1673

http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/10589-for-those-confused-or-questioning-eating-your-exercise-calo

Happy reading....

This was somewhat helpful in understanding the concepts of it all.... Now I am thinking maybe Ishould make at least one apointment with a licensed nutritionist to make sure I am balancing my diet correctly... I alway tend to go over on carbs and I dont want to make this any harder than it is... I am seeing weight loss so far with out the extra regular exceise but once I start working out I dont want to shoot my self in the foot ( so to speak) ...

Thank you for the link
Good luck on you quest ....

Forget the nutritionist, a Registered Dietitian is what you want. There are no standards for nutritionists, one could be awesome, the other could be a wacko, and both could be called nutritionists.

By the way, I'm Banks, the one who wrote the above link that you read (don't ask about the different username, long story), and I just wanted to add, MFP assigns you a calorie amount based on the goals you have designed to help you lose weight regardless of exercise. Remember, the main function of exercise (and this site) is making you healthier, NOT necessarily to lose weight.
Whether you exercise or not, using the plan on MFP should help you lose weight, but if you DO exercise, you'll be more healthy, stronger, more fit, have better muscle tone, better blood pressure, lower cholesterol, higher bone density, better balance, more stamina, and a whole host of other things. So in other words, don't exercise to have more calories to eat (although that's not a BAD thing), exercise to make you a better you, and eat a healthy, balanced, moderate deficit diet to lose the fat.

SturgeonGal

Forget the nutritionist, a Registered Dietitian is what you want. There are no standards for nutritionists, one could be awesome, the other could be a wacko, and both could be called nutritionists.

By the way, I'm Banks, the one who wrote the above link that you read (don't ask about the different username, long story), and I just wanted to add, MFP assigns you a calorie amount based on the goals you have designed to help you lose weight regardless of exercise. Remember, the main function of exercise (and this site) is making you healthier, NOT necessarily to lose weight.
Whether you exercise or not, using the plan on MFP should help you lose weight, but if you DO exercise, you'll be more healthy, stronger, more fit, have better muscle tone, better blood pressure, lower cholesterol, higher bone density, better balance, more stamina, and a whole host of other things. So in other words, don't exercise to have more calories to eat (although that's not a BAD thing), exercise to make you a better you, and eat a healthy, balanced, moderate deficit diet to lose the fat.
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I look at the work outs as building the muscle under the fat so 1) when I lose the fat I will be toned not flabby, 2) I have heard that the muscles help burn the fat away, 3) I feel great after .. I mean really energized.. My legs are a little sore today after my work out yesterday but I can't wait to get to the gym after work do my 30 min of cardio and my core and work my upper body today give the legs a day off, so to speak...
Your research and article helped... I burned just over 1400 calories and there was no way I could eat healthy and eat back al those calories but I di make a Berry smoothie for dessert which was about 400 calories (healthy and yummy) and had a slightly larger serving at dinner of homemade Mac & Cheese and fish
I was totally jazzed when the scale this morning said I broke my 230# barrier and was 228.6 .. Yeah Me :drinker: :laugh:

Ripgirl

Not only is exercising good for you for a number of reasons other than weight loss, it does give you more calories to consume in the day than without the exercise.

For me, this is the key to this being sustainable. It is simply unrealistic to think that I will never eat another hot wing, or have a piece of birthday cake, or more than 1 glass of wine in an evening. Moderation and infrequency are obviously important here, but to say 'never' for me just wouldn't work. I want to be fit, healthy, slim AND enjoy life's little treats now and then.

Exercising regularly not only gives me all the obvious associated benefits, it also gives me room to make a higher calorie choice once in a while. It also provides me a way to feel better - physically and mentally - afterward if I have overindulged, knowing I've worked a little harder at the gym or pushed myself to run a little further to burn some of those extra calories.

For me, exercise gives me more freedom with my diet rather than being confined to a daily budget of 1300 (or whatever) calories.

cheshirekat

I weigh about 130 pounds now after losing a bunch of weight and gaining a lot of muscle from doing trailwork, running, and working out. But now I feel like I am always hungry operating at a 500 calorie a day deficit, I seriously never skip my workouts just so I can eat more because I feel so hungry all the time! It wasn't even this bad, say 10 pounds ago, eating 1300 calories was fine, but recently I find myself thinking about my next meal or snack pretty often lol. I lowered my weight loss to a 1/2 pound a week for this reason, but I'm still looking forward to finally getting to get the maintenance phase! Come on 5 pounds!

astridfeline

http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/30898-bmr-vs-tdee-what-mfp-is-telling-you?page=2#posts-875286

here is a good explanation of what the BMR is...as Vivia Kay mentioned, it's NOT your maintenance calories.

SturgeonGal

HMMMM.. I burn so many calories i na workout that it is not always possible to eat back all of my calories ...
If I am in the net of around 900 calories will I still lose weight or will my body think it is starvation time and start hording fat?
This concerns me because I dont want to damage my metabolism or undo all of the hard work I have been doing...
If I need to get more calories I guess I could try having a smoothie with frozen berries and juice and protein powder at night after my work outs ...

Any input ???? Please ...

lotusfromthemud

define "so many calories". . . what do you do in your workouts and how do you calculate your calories burned?

SturgeonGal

define "so many calories". . . what do you do in your workouts and how do you calculate your calories burned?

I average a 70-90 minute workout that consists of 30 min Cardio to start, then my core weights machines, and then either Leg machines or arms depending on day and ending with 20 minutes on the bike ... I burn 800-900 calories in a workout according to my HRM .... then I go home and eat dinner ( example last night I had 2-3oz salmon filets grilled, 4 oz Orozo Noodles, 2 cups Frozen Asperagas stiry fry veggies steamed.) I generally have an apple and maybe some popcorn with my hubby later in the evening.... By the time I have eaten the Daytime calories ( breakfast lunch and day time snacks) I am around 600-850 calories which when i hit the gym I burn off.... I dont want to cut my workouts.. I Love them and feel great after, sore but relaxed, Feel like I have done something and accomplished something ...but my Calorie net is usually 500-900.. What worries me that i might not be netting enough ...

I just made an appointment with my new General Doc, Figured if I am going to do this right I should make sure health wise I am not doing damage plus would be good to have someone to go to if I trip over my big feet on the treadmill or something silly like that .. LOL

lotusfromthemud

If I'm reading your OP correctly, you're eating 1200-1300 calories without (before) exercise. This is really close to an agreed minimum of calories for a woman to take in.

That already puts you at a pretty big deficit from your maintenance calories. Increasing your deficit larger through exercise may very well backfire (if my calories went too low when I was losing my weight loss stalled). I would encourage you to read the (long, but very informative) post I linked higher in this post, which explains in greater detail why eating back some of your exercise calories is important.

I would say aim to eat back some (I went with half when I was losing) of your exercise calories, and space them out throughout the day.

But, it's a great idea to talk to your doctor about it. It might be a good idea to ask for a dietician reference, as some doctors aren't specialists in nutrition. :flowerforyou: