calories

zanthee66
zanthee66 Posts: 41 Member
in Food and Nutrition
do i eat just my daily calories or should i also eat some or all of my exercise calories
i would like to hear from you and what works for you i been losing and gaining the same 7lbs for ages now please help

Replies

  • tommygirl15
    tommygirl15 Posts: 1,012 Member
    The majority seem to say eat all your available calories (exercise and all). I aim to eat all my daily calories, but I try not to eat my exercise cals (I do sometimes, though). It's the deficit that's helped me lose weight.
  • karen4ever
    karen4ever Posts: 46 Member
    Most of the time I can't finish my set daily calories never mind my exercise ones aswell lol.

    But I think most people on MFP only eat upto half of there exercise calories :smile:
  • love4fitnesslove4food_wechange
    love4fitnesslove4food_wechange Posts: 6,897 Member
    You eat them all--you have a built in deficit when you set up your profile so when you eat your BASE + your EXERCISE calories you maintain that deficit.

    Think of it like this. Person X maintains her weight on 2000 calories because she's lightly active (this doesn't include exercise--just living. Say she's a nurse and walks around at work). She wants to lose 1 pound per week so MFP has her calorie target set at 1500 calories.

    If she did no exercise, she would simply eat 1500 calories:

    1500 + 0 exercise calories earned for the day = 1500 calorie target. Her deficit is still 500 calories.

    Now let's say she's exercised and burned 250 calories doing a 2 mile jog and cool down.

    1500 + 250 exercise calories earned for the day = 1750 calorie target.

    If she eats 1500 then she is 250 below her NEW target...her deficit is now the original 500 (from simply eating 1500) + 250 burned from exercise = 750.

    problem?
    some people think it's not a problem--they aim for the maximum deficit possible in order to speed up weight loss. Not a good plan. With too great a deficit you catabolize muscle mass and thereby reduce your metabolic rate and lower your adherence (because being hungry simply sucks). Which is why you eat your "base calories" + "exercise calories" to maintain the original deficit you set out to achieve each day. Your weight loss rate will remain at 1 pound per week and you will reduce the amount of muscle mass that you lose from dieting.

    Hope this makes sense.
  • jerman01
    jerman01 Posts: 34 Member
    I eat all my daily calories. I also try to eat some of the exercise calories. Your body needs food so it can lose weight.

    The real question is: is your profile set correctly? Do some research to see how many calories you really need in a day. And are you underestimating your food intake?

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