Five days a week? Should I eat those calories?

mormadu1

I've been at this for about two months now slowly increasing my workouts from 2-4 times a week. I've talked to a few friends that workout with cardio and weights 5 days a week. I've been doing cardio (my own version of C25K) and recently started weight training- by recently I mean last week. I know with C25K, we are supposed to rest one day between, but can't do that if I want to move to a 5 day a week program. My legs are gloriously tired and the weight is slowly shedding, I mainly see improvements with fit of clothing. What I want to you know is 5 days too much for a "beginner"? Also, I am on 1200 Cals a day; with working out should I be eating back the calories I burn? I just feel that the weight loss could be more than it is. I'm not sure if my body holding onto what it's getting or if I'm just slow to lose....which wouldn't surprise me at all. Thanks for your input!

Lyssa62

I can't force myself to eat back more than 1/2 of my exercise calories..I can't wrap my mind around the concept.

alpine1994

I used to eat back my exercise calories but I wasn't losing. This lasted for a month. I stopped eating them back and I'm losing, but slowly. Some days I'm really hungry and I eat more, but most days I just eat my cals allowed for the day. MFP calculates your deficit assuming you don't exercise at all so that you're supposed to eat back exercise calories and still lose according to the weight loss goals that you set. This will work for people but it just didn't work for me.

jetabear10

No...as a general rule if you are going to eat more on exercise days only eat back half of the calories...plus...if you are only eating 1200 cals a day you need to be careful that you aren't sending your body into starvation mode. My trainer at the gym was agast when I told her how many cals I was eating (1200) and she told me to up it by 50 each week until I found the perfect fit for me. I now eat 1350 on days I don't exercise and closer to 1450 on days I do (depending on what I do)

If your body goes into starvation mode...you will actually end up gaining...this was what was happening to me.

You may also want to check out the group Eat More to Weigh Less...I found it VERY informative.

Good Luck...message me if you have any questions or friend me for support!

jacksonpt

Eating back calories depends on how you setup your profile/goals with MPF. If your activity level includes exercise, then no, you shouldn't eat them back. If it doesn't include your workouts, then yes you should.

Read this for more:
http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/383956-exercise-calories-explained?hl=exercise+calories+explained


As for 5 times a week... it'll vary person to person. If your goals are simply to lose weight, then you can get away with less recovery time. If you want to get stronger or build muscle, then you need to think more about allowing your body to recover to maximize your progress.

Listen to your body and your mind... you'll figure out what you can do and what you can't.