exercise calories

persian_dancer

Does everyone REALLY eat all of their exercise calories? I tried that last school year and I barely lost any weight. Just curious at other people's successes and failures were with it.

benmarcum

NO! they can be there as a little bit of a buffer but you should not eat all of them away.

parvati

It seems like everyone on here says that you should.... Personally i am not.... but i am also eating properly & making sure i am getting what my body needs, i do not think i am at risk for going into "starvation mode".

I think you have to find a range in between your daily calories (before excercise) and your calories after excersice is added.....that works for you. Everyone is different & what works for one person might not necessarily work for another. If you have already found that by eating all of your excersice calories you are not losing weight, then try and eat only half of your excersice calories for the next few weeks and see if that makes a difference. If you are still not losing you may need to adjust further or change something else that you are doing that may be preventing weight loss.

It also depends on how hard you are working out, if you are "training" your body definately needs more fuel...if you are walking for an hour and a half....not so much.

Are you eating the foods that you should be? How many times a week are you working out?
Is there a chance that you need to adjust those things?


What works for me is more the calories in & calories out method....i know i need to burn more calories than i am losing in order to lose weight. I think you need to use what you hear as a guidline & adjust it to fit your owns needs.

MissKim

Your fixing to have all kinds of people come on here and tell you that you have to eat them all!!! however, i like to judge things by failures and successes and what other people have actually experienced. I lose more weight when i don't eat them all. And alot of people i know in "real life" eat a 1200 cal diet and exercise and lose weight without their bodies going into any kind of starvation mode! Their doctors actually put them on that regiment. So I think you should just do some trial and error and find out what works best for you and your body!

MacMadame

I"m sure some people do. I think it depends on where you are on the journey, as well.

I didn't eat mine when I was actively trying to lose weight. I did up my calories a bit as my activity level rose, but there wasn't a direct relationship between how many MFP said I burned in exercise (which I didn't trust anyway) and how many I ate that day. I had a set calorie goal that I aimed for that allowed me to have good energy and that's what I ate. I didn't even put the exercise into MFP during that period. (I have other spreadsheets that track my exercise for other purposes.)

Now that I'm on maintenance, I do track them and eat them (though not necessarily on the exact day I burn them) because I don't want to get too far into a deficit and get too skinny on the one hand, but I also don't want to think I can eat anything I want because I work out on the other and start gaining my weight. So I need to track them and eat them.

LittleSpy

You have to find what works best for you. A lot of folks here suggest eating them because you really do risk your health if you don't eat enough.

Lately I've had to start eating more and more of mine (fine by me! ) to continue to feel good (physically) because my workouts have gotten more intense. When I first started here I weighed 270 pounds (at 5'4") so I was in no danger of going into "starvation mode." I didn't eat my exercise calories because my body could afford to lose weight more quickly. Now I need to eat more. So, find what works for you and adjust what you're doing accordingly. And also keep in mind that what works for you at first may not work for you forever so be ready to change things.
I imagine it's no fun working your way out of "starvation mode" all because you wanted to lose weight at an unhealthy rate.

pannellkat

Your fixing to have all kinds of people come on here and tell you that you have to eat them all!!! however, i like to judge things by failures and successes and what other people have actually experienced. I lose more weight when i don't eat them all. And alot of people i know in "real life" eat a 1200 cal diet and exercise and lose weight without their bodies going into any kind of starvation mode! Their doctors actually put them on that regiment. So I think you should just do some trial and error and find out what works best for you and your body!

LOL..your first sentence made me laugh....TAKE COVER!! hunh? lol

Me personally, I eat them sometimes, most of the time I don't. I find that I lose weight when I do not eat them. To each his/her own. Find what works best for you. I usually do not eat ALL of them.

MissKim

Your fixing to have all kinds of people come on here and tell you that you have to eat them all!!! however, i like to judge things by failures and successes and what other people have actually experienced. I lose more weight when i don't eat them all. And alot of people i know in "real life" eat a 1200 cal diet and exercise and lose weight without their bodies going into any kind of starvation mode! Their doctors actually put them on that regiment. So I think you should just do some trial and error and find out what works best for you and your body!

LOL..your first sentence made me laugh....TAKE COVER!! hunh? lol

Me personally, I eat them sometimes, most of the time I don't. I find that I lose weight when I do not eat them. To each his/her own. Find what works best for you. I usually do not eat ALL of them.

lol..I've seen too many of the "should i eat my exercise calories?" posts! They get dangerous! To each their own is sooo right!! All that matters is your working to a more healthier you!!

exermom

I think you have gotten some really really good advice here. I don't add in my exercise (I exercise for about an hour/day 6-7 days/week). I used to eat my calories, but what I found was that in order to use up all my calories, I was eating junk food and I didn't lose any weight.

I really think we (at least I know that I have) have lost the ability to listen to our bodies. Our bodies are smart. If it needs a certain vitamin/mineral, you will get a craving for something high in that vitamin/mineral.

astrosnider

No way. If I ate all the calories this exercise calculator says I can have I would be gaining not losing weight. I try never to have more than 1,300-1,400 calories per day, no matter how much exercise I get.