Exercise and Calorie Intake

lilmestydaze

I was wondering what you guys think is the best strategy. I know that this website gives you a certain amount of calories that you should consume in a day in order to loose 1 lb a week (or whatever your goal is). Then I notice that it adds to that calorie amount if you exercise. So, I am usually good at meeting the first calorie goal. I am just confused about weather or not I should eat more after working out to reach the other one? They say that not eating enough calories can put your body in starvation mode...would this be true if you don't try to get close to the calorie amount they provide after pluggin in your exercise? Wouldn't eating more defeat the purpose of working out to begin with?

Please give me your opinions or expertise!

SHBoss1673

yes, the logic holds for exercise calories as well as the daily allotment.

NOLA_Meg

First of all I am not an expert, this is just my opinion:
Keep in mind that the relationship between the calories you consume in a day and the amount you burn whether through daily activity or exercise is not exactly mathematical. If you have set a goal of 1500 calories per day and "burn" 300 through working out, you do not necessarily have to make up the 300 you burned because you are trying to influence your BMR (basal metabolic rate) which is an average amount of calories you burn daily for your weight and height. Once you have increased you daily exercise for a certain period of time (which will depend on your individual weight, calorie intake, BMR, and amount of calories burned in exercise) then you should probably increase your daily calorie intake. Of course, if you are increasing your exercise dramatically, are in training for a race, or are doing long work-outs (over 2 hours) less than 3 times per week then you probably should increase your calorie intake on those training days or work-out days. It just depends on how dramatically you are adjusting your lifestyle.

badbradclark

The more you exercise, the more you need to fuel your body. That does not mean that you should be eating candy or wasteful foods because you have extra calories available! I try and refill my exercise calories by the power bar or clif bar that I eat prior to eating, and by eating something healthy and full of protien after exercising. I made a meal group called exercise/energy to log those foods against. My mindset is that exercise calories allows me some leeway when I am having a bad day, plus allows me to consume before and after exercise foods without dipping into my normal calorie amounts.

Short answer, yes, use your exercise calories, but don't waste them on junk food. Use them to fuel your workouts.

jadenjo

I had that same question! I've just started an 8 week biggest loser program and I'm not sure what to do either. I'm also skeptical of the accuracy of the calories burned equations. I'm worried that I'm not burning off as much as it says I am. And if I'm not then I might eat too much! Well, I guess I'll just do the best that I can. I'm going to try not to eat past the "I'm satisfied" feeling and eat as healthy as I can and not sweat the calories as much. I guess time will tell. Best to you all!

allysond

I found that the calories burned is pretty accurate I think. I searched on other websites and have found that the numbers pretty well match. I do body step at goodlife a lot and have found that depending how hard you work you can burn 600 -800 calories in the hour. MFP says you burn something like 650 in an aerobic step class so its pretty accurate I guess. At the very least it's a pretty good guideline. :happy:

jadenjo

Allysond, I think you may be right. It's seems incredible that I could burn off almost 800 calories in an hour (I'm pretty overweight) but I did lose 2 pounds this week. That's really making me love the exercise! It's nice to know that if I need to "blow the diet" occasionally that I have that leeway. I like the exercising (for the most part) but it's the dieting I hate. But somehow I'll learn to love it. :-) All that being said, I'm still trying not to "eat my exercise calories". If my stomach is truly hungary then I eat but I think it's those calories that helped me shed the weight. If anybody else has ideas on this I'd love to hear...

Emorriso165

I'd go crazy if I had to eat 1,200 calories a day as MFP calculates, so that is one of my main motivators for exercising. Take today for example, I started out with 1,200 calories allotted and by the end of the day had earned an extra 1,200! I didn't eat it all back, but I still like that it gives me the leeway to eat more if I need it. Plus exercise makes me feel good, releases stress and I've grown to love an hour of me time with just me, the elliptical and my iPod! If I didn't eat back my exercise calories I'd feel like I was STARVING and am prone to binging when I let myself get too hungry or feel too restricted.