Started to not eat exercise calories, now I have no energy

jsmcintyre
jsmcintyre Posts: 26 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
After a couple of weeks of not eating back exercise calories, I find that I have a limited amount of energy for my morning workout routine. Any thoughts? My food choices are limited here in a "field environment", but I am choosing more of the good and less of the bad. I can't get on a scale to see if it is having any effect. Suggestions?

Replies

  • erickirb
    erickirb Posts: 12,294 Member
    Eat more, or exercise less. If you need more calories, I suggest adding bacon, It makes everything better
    <---
  • iampanda
    iampanda Posts: 176 Member
    Try eating back exercise calories then... obviously your body is telling you that something is not right.
  • mercymarque
    mercymarque Posts: 450
    only eat back what you need... If your hungry or need energy... Have protein
  • Lesa_Sass
    Lesa_Sass Posts: 2,213 Member
    Yes, eat back your exercise calories.

    Food is your friend, it is not the enemy.

    Eat clean, train dirty.

    This is supposed to be a journey, not a race. Do not diet, just eat healthy. You will be amazed at what happens next.
  • AmyFett
    AmyFett Posts: 1,607 Member
    Try eating back exercise calories then... obviously your body is telling you that something is not right.

    Yeah I agree with this. I was on 1500 calories, which would be high-ish for me if I was eating back exercise cals, but I wasn't. Instead, I lowered myself to 1300 and started eating back most or all of my exercise cals. Most days it's hard to get up high enough, but as long as I net at least 1000, I'm ok with that. There's been days I burn 700-800 calories or more, so there's no way for me I'm eating over 2000, i'd have to eat junk to get up that high.
  • BrianSharpe
    BrianSharpe Posts: 9,248 Member
    After a couple of weeks of not eating back exercise calories, I find that I have a limited amount of energy for my morning workout routine. Any thoughts? My food choices are limited here in a "field environment", but I am choosing more of the good and less of the bad. I can't get on a scale to see if it is having any effect. Suggestions?

    You've got to put gas in the tank if you want to have any get up & go. I tend to not eat them all back as I suspect my HRM may over estimate my caloric burn and I know that nutrition information labels are not that precise either.
  • zaph0d
    zaph0d Posts: 1,172 Member
    Can you rephrase this in terms of your ovreall calorie deficit? What do you mean you stopped eating back exercise calories? Are you just going by the MFP calorie target and ignoring exercise? How does your intake compare to your TDEE? If you're running a huge deficit, of course you're going to feel like hell.
  • sydnisd183
    sydnisd183 Posts: 247 Member
    Yes, eat back your exercise calories.

    Food is your friend, it is not the enemy.

    Eat clean, train dirty.

    This is supposed to be a journey, not a race. Do not diet, just eat healthy. You will be amazed at what happens next.

    I like this
  • JesterMFP
    JesterMFP Posts: 3,596 Member
    My thoughts are... eat your exercise calories. MFP gives you a lower goal than you would get elsewhere because it assumes that you will eat back your exercise calories. Otherwise, you would get a higher goal. If your calorie deficit is too large, you will find your energy levels are affected. Fuel your body.
  • fit4lifeUcan2
    fit4lifeUcan2 Posts: 1,458 Member
    I don't burn a lot of exercise calories so don't eat my exercise calories back. There are days when I'm super busy and running around like a chicken without a head and I'll feel really tired and low on energy so I'll eat more. Something healthy like an apple or banana or even a small healthy sandwich. Keep it healthy and you won't have the guilt plus you'll feel better. Don't let yourself run down so low. You'll end up miserable.
  • G30Grrl
    G30Grrl Posts: 377 Member
    Really? Um, EAT your exercise calories. Your body *requires* additional energy to exercise. Your daily calorie goal should be based upon your mean level of activity combined with the rate at which you want to lose weight, which shouldn't bee too fast, especially if you are living under circumstances in which your body could have some serious demands placed on it at any given moment. You NEED fuel just to live, and you need more when you add exercise to the routine. Please take care of yourself. Your country needs you. :-)
  • Goal_Driven
    Goal_Driven Posts: 371 Member
    Eat back whatever exercise calories that you need. If you're hungry, fuel your body. Makes smart choices and always net at least 1200 calories after exercise. Good Luck!
  • FabMrFox
    FabMrFox Posts: 259 Member
    After a couple of weeks of not eating back exercise calories, I find that I have a limited amount of energy for my morning workout routine. Any thoughts? My food choices are limited here in a "field environment", but I am choosing more of the good and less of the bad. I can't get on a scale to see if it is having any effect. Suggestions?

    Depends on your "field environment" And I hate to push any suppliments or pills but for me what helps in addition to eating more is taking B6 and B12 vitamins. I also used to make protien powder shakes (add in the cocoapowder from MRE's)
  • faithchange
    faithchange Posts: 311 Member
    I was eating at 20% reduction of my TDEE with the exercise figured in. I liked this because I was able to eat more foods. But, losing was slow. Recently, I went back to having MFP figure out my daily need and then adding whatever exercise I needed into the equation. I've noticed either way, that I feel like crap too...if I don't eat at least some or most of those exercise calories back. Hoping for a bust out of my little plateau I'm in doing it the old simple way. Good luck and eat if your hungry!
  • Cait_Sidhe
    Cait_Sidhe Posts: 3,150 Member
    Can you rephrase this in terms of your ovreall calorie deficit? What do you mean you stopped eating back exercise calories? Are you just going by the MFP calorie target and ignoring exercise? How does your intake compare to your TDEE? If you're running a huge deficit, of course you're going to feel like hell.
    ^ This. Your question cannot be adequately answered without this info.
  • yo_andi
    yo_andi Posts: 2,178 Member
    You just proved why eating exercise calories work. Your calorie goal on this site has a built in deficit from your total daily calorie requirement. By exercising you make the deficit even greater. So, you're not getting enough calories to power those morning workouts. Eat more, or train less.
  • iampanda
    iampanda Posts: 176 Member
    Try eating back exercise calories then... obviously your body is telling you that something is not right.

    Yeah I agree with this. I was on 1500 calories, which would be high-ish for me if I was eating back exercise cals, but I wasn't. Instead, I lowered myself to 1300 and started eating back most or all of my exercise cals. Most days it's hard to get up high enough, but as long as I net at least 1000, I'm ok with that. There's been days I burn 700-800 calories or more, so there's no way for me I'm eating over 2000, i'd have to eat junk to get up that high.

    Actually, there are nutritious, calorie-dense foods out there. Its a myth that you have to eat junk to fill that many calories... just thought I'd point that out. Nuts, nut butters, avocados, and oils are just a few. :)
  • magj0y
    magj0y Posts: 1,911 Member
    After a couple of weeks of not eating back exercise calories, I find that I have a limited amount of energy for my morning workout routine. Any thoughts? My food choices are limited here in a "field environment", but I am choosing more of the good and less of the bad. I can't get on a scale to see if it is having any effect. Suggestions?

    Go back to eating more calories.
    Instead of relying on scales, rely on your progress of how much you can lift, how many more reps you can do, or how much further you can go in X amount of minutes on a treadmill.

    use another website to find out the amount of calories of someone your size with the level of exercise so you don't have to figure out how many more calories you need to "eat your calories back"
  • Aeshek
    Aeshek Posts: 2
    I don't eat back all of my exercise calories most days. I make a Sodastream Energy Drink and have about 1/4 liter first thing in the morning and sip on the rest of the 1 liter bottle until noon, that seems to fix any energy issues for me. If I'm away from my Sodastream machine, I usually turn to either a can of low carb energy drink or a cup of black coffee and that seems to do the trick. I'm sure people will say caffeine is not healthy, but it's working for me for the time being. Once I reach my goal weight and can go into maintenance mode and up my calorie intake, I can phase out the energy drinks for energy. If you go this route, just be careful not to over do it.
  • Mummyadams
    Mummyadams Posts: 1,125 Member
    You just proved why eating exercise calories work. Your calorie goal on this site has a built in deficit from your total daily calorie requirement. By exercising you make the deficit even greater. So, you're not getting enough calories to power those morning workouts. Eat more, or train less.
    Yep!
  • love4fitnesslove4food_wechange
    love4fitnesslove4food_wechange Posts: 6,897 Member
    After a couple of weeks of not eating back exercise calories, I find that I have a limited amount of energy for my morning workout routine. Any thoughts? My food choices are limited here in a "field environment", but I am choosing more of the good and less of the bad. I can't get on a scale to see if it is having any effect. Suggestions?

    do what was working when you HAD ENERGY. Problem solved.
  • mfpcopine
    mfpcopine Posts: 3,093 Member
    After a couple of weeks of not eating back exercise calories, I find that I have a limited amount of energy for my morning workout routine. Any thoughts? My food choices are limited here in a "field environment", but I am choosing more of the good and less of the bad. I can't get on a scale to see if it is having any effect. Suggestions?

    Unless you're exercising like a demon, or eating an incredibly small amount of food, it[s probably psychological. Maybe you need to eat more protein in the morning. I don't really know how you can keep track without a scale, and I assume you're not taking your measurements.
  • kdub67
    kdub67 Posts: 181 Member
    My suggestion is to eat back your exercise calories (or at least half of them). I found this out for myself a few months ago. Before joining MFP I was counting calories and keeping it to around 1100 or so. I was also working out 5x a week with a pretty intensive workout. I was extremely frustrated that I didn't lose a single pound.

    Once I joined MFP and started learning about nutrition, BMRs, TDEEs, etc...and basically became better informed about how my body worked, starting wearing a HRM during my workout, and eating back my exercise calories, the weight has been coming off just as it should: at about a pound a week.

    Before, I was tired, hungry, and cranky, but I thought that's how I'm supposed to feel on a diet! People can say what they will about believing in starvation mode, but looking back, I was only eating 600 net calories a day. For myself, I truly believe my body was holding onto every single fat cell just to survive. Now I'm not tired or hungry and I feel much stronger and fit.

    Try it for a while and see how you feel! Good luck!!
  • DangerJim71
    DangerJim71 Posts: 361 Member
    I started out not eating my exercise calories too but it catches up fast. So I started eating them back and still lost a lot of weight but I also had much more intense workouts, go a lot stronger a lot faster and now I just can't seem to eat enough some days to fuel the workouts that I am doing now.

    Keep working and eat more. It won't kill you.

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