Eating Bavk Excercise Calories

tknight1984
tknight1984 Posts: 19
in Health and Weight Loss
Hello,

I know this has been covered before, but i keep seeing conflicting advice. I am 28, 5'10 and 180lbs (ish). I am eating 1650 a day and losing between 1 and 1.5 lbs a week. I am looking at going back to running now it is lighter in the evenings, but am not sure how much of these cals to eat back and when to eat them. Say i burn 600 cal running for 45 minutes, if i dont eat these back will my metabolism slow and my body go into starvation mode?

I have worked out 1650 is my optimum number for sustained weight loss, i was previously eating 1250 and not losing and feeling horrible. I dont want to start exercising and end up ruining my weight loss.

Replies

  • JessHealthKick
    JessHealthKick Posts: 800 Member
    well you have already answered your own question - your body needs more fuel than normal, so if you're goin gto be using more fuel, you need to top that up!
  • nornyb
    nornyb Posts: 224 Member
    I struggle with this as well.....somedays I burn 1000 plus calories with exercise, am I really supposed to eat that much back?
  • carolyn000000
    carolyn000000 Posts: 179 Member
    Try only eating back 2/3's or so. I find that if I don't eat back at least some I stop losing.
  • nornyb
    nornyb Posts: 224 Member
    Try only eating back 2/3's or so. I find that if I don't eat back at least some I stop losing.
    I am worried about that....so I have been trying to increase my calories a little every meal in a healthy way.
  • tknight1984
    tknight1984 Posts: 19
    I know that my body is going to require additionaI fuel for the exercise, but not sure if this needs to be eaten back or whether the body will target fat for this, as there is a lot of talk of being in the "fat burning" zone, this implies the body is using fat for fuel, so surely not all the calories need to be eaten back as some have already been replaced from fat?

    I want to know if there is an approximation of how much of the energy expenditure has been taken from fat, and how much of it has to be replaced.
  • ApexLeader
    ApexLeader Posts: 580 Member
    your body will use fat stores that you already have in order to fuel your body for your runs (once you partially deplete muscle and liver glycogen). this happens to everyone that has fat stores in their body. i wouldn't worry about metabolism until you have a low body fat percentage and small fat stores.

    that is the entire reason our bodies have fat stores, is to fuel our bodies during periods of calorie restriction. it is a survival mechanism because our ancestors didn't have a consistent food source like we do.
  • EmmaKarney
    EmmaKarney Posts: 690 Member
    I struggle with this as well.....somedays I burn 1000 plus calories with exercise, am I really supposed to eat that much back?

    Your calorie goal is your NET goal. So yes, eat your exercise calories back and make sure your net total is not below your BMR.
  • tknight1984
    tknight1984 Posts: 19
    But it i am depleting fat stores, surely i dont want to eat these calories back.

    Say i go for a run, burn 600 calories, 200 are from fat burnt and 400 from what i have eaten that day, surely i want to only eat back the 400?
  • GetSetGo73
    GetSetGo73 Posts: 23 Member
    Bump :-)
  • CoraGregoryCPA
    CoraGregoryCPA Posts: 1,087 Member
    See how your body feels. If you are sluggish or "don't want to run today", if you're not "excited to run" then you are probably not eating enough. It's amazing what you can learn by listening to your own body.. to a point.

    Maybe eat half? and see what happens. Keep a journal of your changes. I do in my profile, just to keep track of what works and what doesn't.

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