eating your excerce calories. (take 3,462,896!) (joke)

DeeDeeLHF

I am the plateau queen! My body loves them. So I did a little experiment.

Constants: For 18 days I excercised an average of 60+ minutes doing various cardio and weight training. I use a HRM to track my calories but I do subtract from the totals the number of calories I would burn normally.

Variables: For 9 days: I ate only a few of my excercise calories with an average defecit of 180. I had my baseline set at 1250.

Then for the next 9 days I ate most of them with some days over and some days under with an average defecit of only 8 calories, so really close! Plus, I increased my baseline to 1300. So really I was eating and additional 50 calories more per day than the previous 9.

Results: Days 1-9 I gained. 0.2 pounds

Days 10-18 I lost 1.3


I realize that this might not work for everyone but I needed to see for myself what works and what doesn't. Lot's of people have various opinions about eating them or not eating them. But here are some emperical facts to back up the idea that we need a certain amount of nutrition to fuel your bodies so that they can work properly.

thanks for listening!

D

skygoddess86

Ugh really? I am not really losing now and I am exercising so much but that adds up to so many calories. Do I just need to eat more unhealthy food so can get all those calories in?

robin52077

I recently came to the same conclusion, started eating more, and it broke my plateau!
It really does work!
:flowerforyou:

robin52077

Ugh really? I am not really losing now and I am exercising so much but that adds up to so many calories. Do I just need to eat more unhealthy food so can get all those calories in?

NO! Eat more HEALTHY food!

You'd be surprised how a spoonful of peanut butter, a few almonds, and a cup of milk can round out your calories for the day, when you "thought" you were "too full " to eat any more that day...

Packing in the salads is not giving you enough calories, sometimes you need to indulge in those HEALTHY, but higher calorie treats, like nuts and peanut butter!
:flowerforyou:

tcac

I keep wondering the same thing. My daughter says you need to keep going high and low every couple of days to keep met. running. But I am afraid to eat more because it is soooo easy to gain and so hard to lose.

DeeDeeLHF

Within the confines of a busy and active "on the road" a lot family...I try to eat very healthy. I try to minimize my processed foods.

I do indulge...but for the day to day I choose items that are processed three steps or less. I do eat nuts and whole grains but my ratio for carbs and proteins is 50/50. So I have a higher protein count than MFP default.

Do NOT start eating fake foods...no that is not the answer. Robin is absolutely right! I do not eat fake sugars nor do I genreally eat a lot of sucrose or HFCS. (My two grand exceptions to this is my Lindt 90% cocoa chocolate and about 2 or 3 times per month I eat Cheerios) My only sweets are from Stevia, and on occasion honey and real maple syrup. For fats, I stick with EVOO and that which comes naturally from meats.

DeeDeeLHF

I keep wondering the same thing. My daughter says you need to keep going high and low every couple of days to keep met. running. But I am afraid to eat more because it is soooo easy to gain and so hard to lose.

that is what I was afraid of too but finally decided to give it a try and it worked for me.

Junisahn

Very interesting! Thanks for using yourself as a test case, and for posting the results!

DeeDeeLHF

Thanks! It was kind of scary but I am so very happy with the results. The way I was going I had visions of needing to be on a restricted calorie diet for the rest of my life! This give me hope that my maintenance calories will be more normal.

D

lisa811

Ugh really? I am not really losing now and I am exercising so much but that adds up to so many calories. Do I just need to eat more unhealthy food so can get all those calories in?

There a lots of ways to increase your calories in a healthy way:

* 1% or 2% milk instead of skim
* Whole eggs instead of egg whites
* Nuts
* Avocado (yum!!!)
* Organic/natural peanut butter
* Cheese
* Whole wheat pasta

lisa811

Good job, Deedee! I suggest anyone who still doubts this to follow her lead...try it for yourself. What's the worst that can happen? You gain a couple of pounds? Most likely it won't happen, but if it does you can cut down again. There are SO MANY people here who have made these same claims: eating your exercise calories is a GOOD thing. If you're stalled, why not give it a try?

aippolito1

Increasing my calories and eating MORE, if not ALL of my exercise calories has really helped me as well!!! I'm only on my 2nd or 3rd week and haven't actually lost "weight" that I haven't before but I'm working my way down. Can't wait to break out of the 160s!!

LittleSpy

Eating 100% of my exercise calories (making my NET calories consumed around 1290) is working for me now. I have been at this since September 8th and I have gone from ending most days at 0-500 net cals for a few months at first to now 1290 net cals. For a while in the middle there, my metabolism was so effed up I was 220 pounds eating 1200 cals a day, burning off 600-1000 cals through exercise most days and not losing an ounce for a month. Been steadily increasing my net calories ever since until now I'm consistently losing 1.5 pounds/week (which is what I expect) for the last 4 weeks in a row. So, needless to say I'm a believer in eating my exercise calories and keeping my net calories over 1200. As I lose weight more weight, I expect to increase my net cals closer to my BMR.


Anyway, all that having been said 9 days isn't a long enough time to decide whether something works or not. I'd say even a month isn't long enough, honestly. I mention this just because I don't want someone to read this and think they're going to try increasing their calories for 9 days to see if it works. A lot of people are going to stay the same or even gain weight increasing their calories for the first 9 days. It took me 3 weeks after increasing my calories (which I've done 3 times to date) to see the weight loss start up again. Everyone is different that way.

DeeDeeLHF

Littlespy...too true that 9 days isn't long enough to truly see. The 9 days pervious were really like a month and prior to that 6 months of not losing. I posted after 9 days because I was just so happy to see the scales moving and hoping that it is because I am eating those extra 300 calories each day. Logic tells us that eating 300 extra calories a day would not result in weight loss but for ME (underlined and emphasised, ME) it did! YAY!!! This website if filled with the pros and cons of eating and not eating those calories...I was just putting in my experience. Everyone needs to figure out what works best for them.

I tried to make my statements very "me" oriented...sorry if it leads someone else astray.

Best of luck to all!

D

LittleSpy

Littlespy...too true that 9 days isn't long enough to truly see. The 9 days pervious were really like a month and prior to that 6 months of not losing. I posted after 9 days because I was just so happy to see the scales moving and hoping that it is because I am eating those extra 300 calories each day. Logic tells us that eating 300 extra calories a day would not result in weight loss but for ME (underlined and emphasised, ME) it did! YAY!!! This website if filled with the pros and cons of eating and not eating those calories...I was just putting in my experience. Everyone needs to figure out what works best for them.

I tried to make my statements very "me" oriented...sorry if it leads someone else astray.

Best of luck to all!

D

Oh I know! I wasn't suggesting you were at fault in any way. It's just... Well, you know how people are. :laugh:

Nich0le

Ugh really? I am not really losing now and I am exercising so much but that adds up to so many calories. Do I just need to eat more unhealthy food so can get all those calories in?

You should eat calorie or nutrient dense foods, like almonds and other nuts, nut butters, avocados, dairy, beans, oats, rice, pasta (yep I said pasta), LF cheeses, fish (especially salmon if you can stomach it), chicken and red meat about once a week, and salad with olive oil based dressings!

KeriD

OK Dee Dee and Little Spy.......I am so ready to give this a try! I seem to lose a little and get stuck for weeks, I work out really hard pretty much 7 days a week, you would think I be dropping the pounds but NO!!! I also eat healthy foods, raw nuts, avocados, lean meats, natural nut butters, veggies and fruits and about 2 starchy carbs a day and yes I have little sweet tooth slip ups from time to time, overall though pretty good with the food. I also have changed things up with my work out like lifting even heavier weights which helped temporarily and now I am stuck again. Very frustrating! I always eat my calories plus about half of my exercise cals. So now after reading this, I am going to eat all my calories plus all my exercise calories and maybe even add an extra 100 calories to see what happens! Thanks for your post!

imarlett

There is something to be said for a having a free day and not working out. I did this on Sunday and ate just a bit more than I normally would. This week I am back on to the exercise routine and watching what I eat again. I will be interested to see what my results are on Friday. Thanks for sharing this!

DeeDeeLHF

Keri, I really hope it works for you. One other time I had plateaued and I did the same thing...increased my calories and it worked. Then slowly but surely I started decreasing them again thinking I might lose it faster but then...you guessed it...PLATEAU!

Littlespy...I do know what you mean...everyone is looking for the quick fix and there is nothing quick about weightloss!

D

needamulligan

I've only been at this since the end of January but I'm starting to see a weird trend. It seems that I need to have an occasional "bad" day to shake things up. By "bad" I just mean that I"ve gone over my calorie count by a couple hundred. It seems that sometimes going a bit over gets me better results than staying under my calorie limits! Go figure! There is more to it than simply expending more calories than you eat. I'm a believer. I haven't been stuck for more than a week at a time, yet. I've got a long way to go, though. I'm glad that all of you have shared your wisdom!