It's really hard eating back all my exercise calories!

carolineire

Hi all,

I've been working out for about 3-4 weeks ( but more seriously so in the last two weeks) and changed my diet. Usually now I have two eggs and bread for breakfast, turkey salad for lunch, and turkey, couscous( or rice) and veg for dinner, plus snacks. My food diary is open to view. Although yesterday was an off day!

But I'm exercising a lot, sometimes two classes a day. I love it and it feels really good, and I have the time and motivation to do it. But sometimes i burn between 1000 and 2000 calories a day, and it's really hard to eat all that back. If you have a look at my diary for Tuesday 8th, I ended up eating lots of snacks to try make it up, and still couldn't do it. I don't think I was in starvation mode as I was still hungry.

I've only lost 1lb so far, and I know it's early days yet, but I just want to make sure I'm on the right track.

Edit: I have been toning up though, and Friday 11th is my three week inch loss recording, so I'm looking forward to that!

Any advice would be great!

carolineire

Also, I've just done my body fat and bmi measurements, body fat is down almost 4% and bmi is down 2 points, so something is going right anyways that's in just under 4 weeks!

erinsueburns

Well, as long as you are netting up to at LEAST your BMR and if you aren't hungry, it probably isn't a huge deal. Also, how are you determining how much you've burned by exercise. Are you using a heart rate monitor? Because there is a possibility you are over estimating how much you are burning through exercise.

714rah714

Don't be to concerned about eating all of your exercise calories back, especially the way you've been exercising lately. I personally use my exercise calories as a bank that I use to offset my weekend calories. This works well for me, may not for other people.

akaMrsmojo

I love to eat back my calories, makes me work harder. I mean seriously, isn't that why we are on here. It is a reward for a good workout.

prokomds

Are you using MFP's numbers for how many calories you're burning? One thing to think about is that for a lot of people, MFP overestimates how many calories your exercise is burning. Generally I've found that during my hardest workouts, I can just barely burn 100 calories per 10 minutes (so 600/hour). You could use a heart rate monitor to get more accurate idea of how much you're burning. You could be right, but it could also possibly be an overestimate - and then maybe you're not eating too little after all

If you're still low on calories, there are easy things you can do. I don't see anything about salad dressing with all your veggies - easy to add an extra 100 calories or so that way. You could even make your own using olive oil, lemon juice, etc, and then you know exactly what's going into it. Oils like olive oil contain a lot of nutrients that are good for your skin, hair, and so forth. You could eat two cubes of cheese instead of one, hahaha - I love an excuse to eat a little extra cheese. And with all this very healthy food, if you indulge in the occasional treat (dessert or beverage), I wouldn't worry about it. I just would avoid padding your diet with a bunch of junk just to hit the calorie goal. And obviously, make sure you're not underestimating the portion sizes of what you're eating

Generally it looks like you're doing really well! Good luck!

lizziebeth1028

Do you wear a HRM (heart rate monitor) to determine your calories burned through exercise? 1000-2000 is a lot.

MFP is designed so you eat back your exercise calories (or a good portion of them anyway). To help you reach that goal I would add calorie dense foods to your diet -
nuts, seeds
peanut butter
olive oil
avocados
cheese

Bobby__Clerici

I eat my exercise calories back no matter what.
Why?
Because if our calorie deficit is too great, we can easily suffer from
loss of muscle mass (slows down your metabolism) and impaired general progress.
You have to find what is right for you but you also need to remember that your body
is a machine and without the right type and amount of fuel there could be problems
either with loss of muscle, loss of energy, less weight loss/plateaus, etc.
Check out this topic:
http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/238282-700-calories-a-day-and-not-losing-redux?hl=700+calories

I try to just stick with the MFP recommendations.
Good Luck To You :flowerforyou:

Mokey41

Unless you're wearing a HRM those exercise calories may be way off so I wouldn't be too worried. If you find you're losing huge amounts of weight really quickly you may need to eat more but as long as you eat a healthy diet you shouldn't need to eat exercise back.

Goal_Line

1,000 - 2,000 is very high. I think you are overestimating the cals burned. I'm a 200lb man and I need to really bust my *kitten* for an hour to burn 800.

Don't worry about eating cal back.

Greenrun99

Add more portions to your meals, instead of 2 eggs, do 3, or add a few egg whites with those eggs.. Add some pb to that toast... you want to manage your deficit if your actually burning that much, as others have mentioned too big of a deficit and your going to eat away at muscle as well as fat.. I would figure out your TDEE at a active level and eat that everyday.. I am sure that will put you over 2k calories.. you need to fuel your body to see results that last.

carolineire

Thanks all!

I used a site (but now can't remember the name, will try find it!) to work out calories for my classes, you had to put in your weight and height so maybe it's more accurate than here? I'll invest in a heart rate monitor too, as I would love to have it accurate. The amount comes from two classes a day, which varies from kettlebells, spin, body sculpt (weights and aerobics) and aerobox ( aerobics, boxing, spin and TRX all in one), and is sometimes higher as when I'm in work as I've got lots of stairs to keep running up. I work up a good sweat lol!

I've read some other threads that say you have to eat all the exercise calories back, so I just wasnt sure.

I'll definitely try to include more things like avocado etc, I find it hard to eat really large meals so my portions are ok, my turkey breast is usually around 100g or less.

Um, is 3 eggs a day healthy cholesterol wise? I usually have two, wouldn't mind three lol!

But I feel good, still get hungry but not starving, and have plenty of energy.

melaniecheeks

The cholesterol in eggs will not effect your blood cholesterol, so eat away at the eggs!

Your diary is pretty good - double check some of the items though, the Brenans wholemeal bread you're recording seems to have a lot of protein (if only that were true!). Likewise, I'd be sceptical about those high calorie burns. And while you do need to fuel your workouts, particualrly if they're intense, dont feel you HAVE to eat back every last burned calorie.