Hi, new and struggling to use up all my exercise calories.

psychicteabag

Hi

Found this site last week and love it. Read posts re BMR and eating your exercise calories and it makes so much sense.

Today I earned 800 extra calories through exercise (an hour's boot camp and half an hour very fast walking).

I have struggled to eat the extra without resorting to high fat/sugar foods. I've eaten fairly healthy stuff today:

Breakfast - Porridge, milk, cranberries

Snack - a few nuts, 2 dried plums, 2 dried dates

Lunch - homemade spaghetti squash, mixed veg and bean lasagne with 2 small slices of wholemeal bread. Low fat yogurt.

Snack - 2 oatcakes with 2tsp peanut butter

Dinner - Jacket potato, baked beans, feta cheese, salad.

To use up some calories, (and to show my appreciation ;-), I resorted to eating a very small flan/tart thing and a little cupcake that my daughter had made for my grandson - it was basically toddler food. I calculated the calories for the entire recipe for both and divided it by the portions and the combined calories was 250 for the 2 items.

Even with the flan and cake and overdoing the feta I have come in with 160 calories left and I really don't want to eat anything else. I know this isn't a huge amount when you look at the big picture, but if I'd rather not eat 'empty' calories or high fat foods, but do a lot of exercise, how am I going to manage to regularly eat up the calories? I could manage 10 peanut m&m's for just over 103 calories, but that isn't the point is it? I know I can eat more nuts but I do eat some every day and I'll get sick of them if I have to eat loads for the sake of it.

I will probably do less exercise tomorrow but the same as today again (at least) on Wednesday. Shall I just try and even the calories out over the week?

thanks

johnporcaro

Protein Drink if you're building muscle. Or cottage cheese. If you're getting enough carbs and protein otherwise, a small deficit doesn't seem too bad.

spaniel

Hi Superpup!

I, too, have trouble eating all my calories (especially with added exercise calories) but thanks to all the good advice about healthy snacks, adding things to a sandwich, more fruit, etc. I am getting there! If you look at the women 40+ thread, there is a lot of helpful hints there.

Good luck.

psychicteabag

Thanks

I'm not really trying to build muscle. The idea of boot camp is to tone up. I've been going for 6 months, 3 x weekly. My muscles are much more toned and I'm happy with them. It's just I still have a layer of fat over them so I can't see them (mainly stomach now)!

My protein is usually spot on each day. My carbs are always lower as I try to avoid processed carbs and bread where I can as if I have bread, I tend to want lots of bad stuff to go with it.

I like cottage cheese and bought some today to keep at work but had planned to have it as part of a lunch and hadn't thought about eating it as a snack. That could work, thanks. What else could I fill up with along with nuts and cottage cheese?

psychicteabag

Hi Superpup!

I, too, have trouble eating all my calories (especially with added exercise calories) but thanks to all the good advice about healthy snacks, adding things to a sandwich, more fruit, etc. I am getting there! If you look at the women 40+ thread, there is a lot of helpful hints there.

Good luck.

Thanks, unfortunately I'm 42 so I do qualify for that thread. I'll head on over there now ;-)

oats4breakfast

Fat loss isn't about the total on one day. It's about a deficit over a period of time. So, if you're not hungry, don't eat them. If you're starving hungry and have reached your limit, eat.
You may need them tomorrow or the next day. So rather than force feed yourself today, then starve yourself tomorrow, and miss out on saturday, listen to your body and do what's both sensible and feels right. Obviously, not all feelings are right ... like eating because your bored and feel hungry - that's not sensible or right. But when you're weak legged and have a headache ... then eat regardless of what this application says.
IMHO, don't micro manage the numbers every day, rather do it (count) over time. The numbers may not even be correct if you think about it. The process of counting is about being sensible on what we eat, and, learning new habits.
Everything has a tolerance. Everything. The package may say the serving size is approximately 5 and the calories are 100. Well, approximately 5 could be 6 or 4 too, especially if you compare that to the number 300 I actually want to eat:) Also, 100 could be 90 or 110. Who knows. It's not exact. Over time, those food errors will also add up. Could be a loss or a gain. Your guess is as good as mine.
The exercise numbers will also have an error in it. If you're using a device to measure your work outs, the documentation may say it's a guide and may even say that it's +/- 10% anyway. So, when it says 800, it could be 720 or 880 (or somewhere in between or maybe even more) and it could also be simply a guide. If it was not measured by some way, then it may also be a pure guesstimation and be way off. But if you add it into MFP and then try to eat away those calories (when you weren't hungry)... but you actually only burnt 600 calories, then what was right ? The "calorie guide" or your body ?

There's also theories floating around about calorie zig zagging (has other names). MFP doesn't "zig zag" it gives you the average over days/time that you'll need. The zig zag would have the same/similar average so that we create the deficit and start using our stores, but since what we're eating on each day is always changing, our bodies can't get used to it and plateau (homeostasis I believe is the big $20 word for it)
So, what we do in MFP is try to match our daily total each day. Say 2000. So that's 2000 on Monday. Then again on Tuesday. Then Wednesday etc etc forever until we change our goals.
Zig Zag would be where Monday is 1900. Tuesday is 1900. Wednesday is 2600. Thrusday is 1900. Friday is 2200. (something like this) where it would all average out to 2000 - stil with a deficit but everyday is different.
I'm not saying to purposely zig zag, but using it to highlight that if our MFP says 2000 and we only eat 1900 because we're full. Then why eat the extra 100 ? It could be an error in calculations and, more importantly, if we have 4 days of being under, then we gained an extra 400 calories that we can drink on Saturday night