EXERCISE CALORIES

hema

Does everyone eat all of their exercise calories? I don't because I feel I should be under in order to lose weight.
Today for example, I earned 1017 exercise calories, on top of my 1200. I ate some of the extras but not 1000 calories. Should I ate more of those calories, I only eat 2-3 hundred of those extra calories. Good or bad, any thoughts, ideas opinions!!!

sonjavon

I almost always eat all of my exercise calories. There are days when my "exercise" is actually "work" - that I can't possibly eat them all back... like shoveling snow, mowing the lawn... I burn a lot doing those and those activities take a lot of time out of my day... so I don't get to eat them all back.
So... looking at what you wrote... this is my understanding:
1200 (what you're alotted calories are)
-1017 (calories that you've expended exercising)
=183
+300 (What you eat back)
=483 calories that you are asking your body to survive on...

Yes, in my opinion and according to everything I have read on the topic - you should be eating back more of your calories. MFP has already calculated a deficit for you that will allow you to lose weight - which is why you can eat back your exercise calories. You should AT LEAST be eating enough of your exercise calories to come back up to 1200 calories.

Cheryl89

was wondering the same myself. I think as long as you eat all of your 1200 and get a little exercise in each day its ok whether you eat the extras or just let it burn off. I'm going to aim for around 500 exercise each day and thats a lot for me cos I can be really REALLY lazy but I'll probably be eating around half of those. Got to eat at least 1200 to keep your body running but I dont think you HAVE to eat the extra ... just makes i easier for us.

LuckyLeprechaun

Guys....PLEASE go read the newbies posts.

Exercise calories are not optional.


SIGH

You can't drive across the country until you fill up your tank, right? Well your body can't burn off the fat you have unless it has fuel.

LuckyLeprechaun

http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/10589-for-those-confused-or-questioning-eating-your-exercise-calo

GiGi76

Guys....PLEASE go read the newbies posts.

Exercise calories are not optional.


SIGH

You can't drive across the country until you fill up your tank, right? Well your body can't burn off the fat you have unless it has fuel.

Completely agree, you need to eat your exercise calories back, at least most of them, but make it healthy foods.... When you read the newbies posts it will all fall into place!!!

MacMadame

Exercise calories are not optional.

Of course they are optional. I didn't sign a contract when I started using MFP that I had to eat them or I'd have to give them my first born child. :laugh:

It's a personal choice everyone has to make based on their own situation. Personally, I didn't eat them when I was losing. As my activity level rose and my excess weight dropped, I did consume more calories but it wasn't a direct one-to-one relationship. I had a range of calories that I aimed for each day and an average for the week that I was shooting for as set by my doctor and that's what I ate regardless of exercise.

Now that I'm in maintenance (aka the rest of my life), I do pay more attention to them because I do want to eat them back at some point. But I don't stuff myself one day if I don't feel hungry and starve myself the next day if it's a rest day and I'm not burning extra calories in exercise. I try to make sure I'm in equilibrium over a 2-3 day period, going under on some days and over on others but hitting my maintenance level on average.

Btw, in the example given above, you are not asking your body to operating on 400+ calories. It gets the rest of the calories it needs by burning your fat stores.

sessy1011

b.u.m.p.

hema

No I 1200 + 1017= 2217. I ate 1550, so I have alot left over. I don't eat all my extras.

rjacs188

Hi! I went and read the newbie post. I don't eat my exercise calories either. It's not that I think it will help me lose faster but more like I'm satisfied with my intake and not feeling hungry. I do try to get as close to "spending" my exercise calories but then it drives my ranges for say protein over , or fat. I'm only 3 weeks into learning to eat healthier so I'm still working on finding a good balance. Honestly I only have about 300 calories that I don't "use". I feel everyone is different and as long as I don't starve myself and make smart choices it will all fall into place for me.

somigliana

Personally, I do. It all makes good sense to me, and I prefer to keep to the deficit I chose at the start--it fits in better with feeling like I'm living a new lifestyle, not cutting my throat.

I do my best to make those extra calories healthy choices and not to leave them to 9pm to eat. If I know I'm going to exercise on a certain day, I might, for example, plan a slightly larger breakfast or dinner.

AprilChampion

nope...i dont touch them. i was at 1200 cals and my trainer increased me to 1270 and thats it....he told me NOT to touch them, that they were bullsh*t and that the amount that it says you should eat is ridiculous and only body builders need to eat that many. my trainers a pretty big (muscle-y) guy and he told me that even HE doesn't eat as many calories as what it told me. i ate SOME of them once and i GAINED weight. never again.

suziblues2000

I guess everybody is different because I eat mine and I'm loosing weight steadily. (1 or 2 lbs per week)

suziblues2000

I guess everybody is different because I eat mine and I'm loosing weight steadily. (1 or 2 lbs per week)

kwardklinck

I don't always eat all of mine but I try to eat 1200 plus exercise calories. That works best for me. Now I don't count all of my activities as exercise. I have a pretty active job so my goals are set on lightly active lifestyle. The only things I count are the workouts I plan for myself in the evening.

Sunshinechic

Everyone is different. I ate my exercise calories for an entire month, and never lost a pound.

sonjavon

No I 1200 + 1017= 2217. I ate 1550, so I have alot left over. I don't eat all my extras.

How do you figure? 1200 is what you ARE eating, 1017 is what you're burning off and (admittedly) not eating all back... then you have 1200-1017 + whatever you DO eat back.

MacMadame

nope...i dont touch them. i was at 1200 cals and my trainer increased me to 1270 and thats it....he told me NOT to touch them, that they were bullsh*t and that the amount that it says you should eat is ridiculous and only body builders need to eat that many. my trainers a pretty big (muscle-y) guy and he told me that even HE doesn't eat as many calories as what it told me. i ate SOME of them once and i GAINED weight. never again.

That's because all these numbers are just estimates. Even getting your calories burned from an HRM or a BodyBugg is an estimate, though a more accurate one in most cases than the online formulas.

When I first started losing, I found that The Daily Plate (where I started) would estimate that I needed many more calories than I needed just to live. According to their estimates, I should have been losing 2 pounds a week when I was only losing 1 lb. That's because my metabolism was slower than their formulas calculated. MFP did better but was still predicting faster weight loss than I was experiencing.

But at some point that changed. Now, to get MFP to give me the number of calories I burn a day *before* exercise, I have to lie and say I'm extremely active. (The non-exercise part of my life is actually sedentary -- I have an office job -- or maybe lightly active since I do move around more than I used to outside of exercise.) Then I have to add on my exercise calories on top of that. Because now my metabolism is faster than average.

The other thing I found is that the formulas on MFP that calculate my exercise calories were over-estimating what I burned in exercise for 75% of what I did, but underestimating it for the other 25%. If I had put in those calories, I would have ended up over-eating because it would have had me higher overall than I actually burned.

If I'd eaten the number of calories MFP said to eat before exercise and then ate the number it said I burned in exercise, I would have really been in trouble because both numbers were too high. OTOH, for someone else, they may be off in the other direction. This is why I say reality has to trump online numbers. :laugh:

I've had my BMR/RMR tested recently and I can see what calorie level has me maintaining and what level would have me gaining and what level would have me losing and I just force MFP to use those numbers either by changing the intensity (say I'll put in that I swam at a moderate pace when I was swimming vigorously) or by changing the time (less or more than I did to get the calories to match my HRM).

When I do this, everything works out and I maintain and have good workouts.

LittleSpy

I'm going to share my personal experience.

I started here at 270 pounds. Very obese. I ate 1200-1300 calories a day & exercised a good bit & did not eat my exercise calories. I was under the impression that because I was so overweight, I could get away with this. And I did -- for 4.5 months.

Then I SLAMMED into a brick wall. Still 1200-1300 calories, exercising my butt off (I had started running quite a bit at this point so my intensity was increased) and I was getting nowhere fast. That scale didn't budge for 2 weeks. I knew what I had to do at that point -- eat more. So, I started eating around 1400 calories a day. 3 weeks later my weight started dropping again. I lost 7 pounds over the next 3 weeks and SLAM -- I hit another brick wall. Thanks to MFP, I knew I needed to increase how much I was eating again. Now I'm eating 1350 base calories and 50% of my exercise calories which puts me eating about 1500-1800 calories most days. Two weeks after I started doing this and I've lost 4 pounds in the last 6 days.

Double coincidence? No way.

So, if you choose to chug along not eating your exercise calories for now (if it's working for you), that may be okay. But if (when) you slam into a plateau and the scale refuses to budge for weeks, you should definitely consider increasing your calorie intake.

The thing is that MFP builds your calorie deficit into your base calories. So when you eat your exercise calories, you're still set at whatever calorie deficit you chose (depending on whether you wanted to lose .5, 1, 1.5, or 2 pounds per week. As a side note -- only VERY overweight people should strive to lose 2 pounds a week. ). And the disclaimer here is that this is assuming you're very honest with yourself & log all of your food (and weigh your food to determine actual portion sizes) and don't overestimate the intensity of your workouts. I'm careful to log every morsel and gram of food I eat and I tend to underestimate my exercise calories even when I wear my HRM.

bobbyboy16

Hi guys,

I am new member and just set my target at 1200 cals a day. I plan to bank my exercise cals of 100 a day via exercise so consuming 1000 cals. So far so good, but whats this new theory on consuming most at breakfast with light lunch and evening meal. Its about motab preparation apparantly and i should excercise at evening before lite bite

I want to lose a stone in 5-6 weeks, mostly around the middle so any advice appreciated

Pardon the phases I am english and based in Oxford

Tamishumate

Almost never do I eat them all back. I stay around 1400-1500 a day. Sometimes I eat them all back other times I don't.

sheri3762

I just changed my calories up. I no longer pay attention to how many excercise calories its says I'm suppose to eat. I eat 1300-1600 a day, pending how busy I am that day and what my meal plans are. I work out for 1 hour 5 times a week, but I also am not absolutely sure of what those nights are. I went to a few sites and calculated what I burn in calories a day resting and what it would be as active (which is where I am). they were all within a couple hundred calories of each other. I burn (active) around 2500 calories a day right now. When I lose more, I'll have to recalculate it. So, If I eat 1500-1600 a day with the five days excercise, I'm ending up with about a 5000-7000 burn per week. thats 1-2 pounds per week. So far its working for me.

for me, its not that I am againest eating all the calories back, its about over and underestimating what I'm eating and what I'm burning. I also came across some discrepencies in the excercise database that I had to search to find out if they were accurate, and for me they were not. I was logging a set amount of burned calories through excercise, and found that the amount I was logging should have been about half, so I was overeating.

also, like a bunch of you said, we are all different. Waht works for one, may not work for another. Bottom line, we are all here to get healthy and figure out what each of our bodies needs to do this. I think asking questions, even tho many of us see the same questions being asked over and over , is perfectly fine. I was at that place once myself so I'm happy to give my opinion and share my experiences with any newbees that really need input The motivation and support I've come across on this site has truly been one of my greatest learning experiences!

kendrafallon

Some very interesting points in all the posts so far and the noob post on Eating Your Exercise Cals (http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/10589-for-those-confused-or-questioning-eating-your-exercise-calo)

For me personally, I have a calorie limit here on MFP and a calorie range set by the Rosemary Conley classes that I go to. I try to stick to the limits i've been given and if i'm hungry during the day that I've exercised, I might go into the excercise calories, but it's always on a day-by-day basis. I think at the end of the day you do what feels best & right for you.

Sunshinechic

I don't anymore. For a month I ate all of my exercise calories, and never lost a pound. I just started eating my alloted amount. So time will tell.

kwardklinck

The deficit is built in before you add your exercise. So you should lose weight while eating them. However, it's your choice to eat or not to eat them. People do what they want to anyway. I try to eat most of mine most days. Every now and then I don't. Usually when I work out pretty hard I need them. Slow weight loss is the best. IF you're losing more than 2 pounds a week, you should probably eat more.

kwardklinck

I'm not saying this applies to you but I didn't really lose for the whole first month of diet and exercise. This had more to do with the exercise than the calories I was eating. If you're new to exercise, you won't start losing until your body gets used to it. Your muscles hold water for protection purposes. I just thought I'd mention that fact in case it applies to you.

thumper44

I'll give my experience.

I set myself up at 1300 calories and then I would sometimes eat my exercise calories(300-600). Sometimes I thought I'll eat half of my calories.
That should be a daily intake of 1600-1900 calories, but when I ate 1/2 my exercise calories.
Now I had an calorie intake of 1300-1600.
Which made my calorie net intake of 700-1000 calories(1300-600 - 1600-600). Yes I lost weight, until I hit a wall.

For 3 weeks to 1 month I had not lost any weight, and I gained back 1lb +. So I started to re-think what I was eating, maybe too much of this or that. I've read all the messages about eating exercise calories, but like most people, we think we are losing so why should we eat more.
Last week I tried to eat 2000-2100 calories every day.
I broke my plateau, I lost 3 lbs from my previous weeks weigh ins, and I'm possibly down another 1.5lbs as of today.

I am now a believer and eat all my exercise calories.

kendrafallon

Ok, here's a question for you all - given I've already said that sometines I'll eat some of the exercise calories and sometimes I don't, can you 'bank' those extra calories for say a special occastion later in the week?

LittleSpy

Sure you *can*, just expect your weight to react accordingly. For example, you may lose 1.5 pounds in 6 days, but then you eat your "banked" calories and the next day you've gained 1/2 a pound making your loss for the week 1 pound.
1 pound in a week is GREAT, but, like I said, just expect to see those daily fluctuations (and they're fine, but it seems like some people really get discouraged by them).

kendrafallon

Sure you *can*, just expect your weight to react accordingly. For example, you may lose 1.5 pounds in 6 days, but then you eat your "banked" calories and the next day you've gained 1/2 a pound making your loss for the week 1 pound.
1 pound in a week is GREAT, but, like I said, just expect to see those daily fluctuations (and they're fine, but it seems like some people really get discouraged by them).

cheers m'dear!!

MacMadame

Ok, here's a question for you all - given I've already said that sometines I'll eat some of the exercise calories and sometimes I don't, can you 'bank' those extra calories for say a special occastion later in the week?

Yes you can up to a point. Your body doesn't turn on a dime. It takes 48-72 hours for something you eat to travel from your mouth through your small intestine and out the other side. So it's not like if you eat 500 over your maintenance calories one day, the next day you see a gain. It might take several days. And, if you then eat less the next couple of day, you may never see it.

Look at this way: it takes 3500 calories to gain or lose a pound. If you eat 200 calories less than your allotment on Tues. and 200 more on Wed. that's noise. The 200 over on Tues. represents 0.06 of a pound! No bathroom scale is accurate enough to register that kind of loss or gain and water weight and when you last ate or went to the bathroom before you weighed are going to have a greater impact than those 200 calories only looking at one day.

The differences that matter are long-term ones. If you are consistently operating at a calorie deficit over the course of a week, you will lose even if you are over on any particular day.

I keep my calories to my maintenance level over a 3-4 day period and that works. I know WW lets you bank for an entire week but I think that's too long (based on the 48-72 hours thing) and it didn't work well for me the times I did WW.