Exercise calories to spare

robertenglishquagmire
robertenglishquagmire Posts: 2 Member
edited December 2024 in Health and Weight Loss
Hi

I've embarked on te Mfp thing, my calorie target is 1490 and I'm generally there or thereabouts having amended my habits and dropping my key vices. However I also do a lot of exercise, either gym or running. A run will be routinely 800 cals, a gym session is typically 600 or above and I do that 4-5 times per week

I can't really eat these exercise cals, with what I'm eating I am not hungry and I have the energy to do the exercise ..... So are there any problems with this or am I just a lucky one and just take advantage of it???

Replies

  • professorRAT
    professorRAT Posts: 690 Member
    The problem is that you could be (probably would be) losing muscle, and that won't help in the long run. Here is a decent article on the issue: http://www.metaboliceffect.com/topic/38-nutrition-lifestyle.aspx.
  • robertenglishquagmire
    robertenglishquagmire Posts: 2 Member
    As with many things in this topic area; seems you can't do right for doing wrong. I do resistence and some weight work in my gym sessions but my focus is/ always has been on cardio fitness; and a byproduct of that is a high calorie burn. I can't/ don't want to just eat more or different for the sake of it
  • professorRAT
    professorRAT Posts: 690 Member
    I can't/ don't want to just eat more or different for the sake of it

    It isn't really just "for the sake of it"; eat more (and strength train) to maintain muscle. This will help maintain fat loss in the long run.
  • SJCon
    SJCon Posts: 224
    There is a lot of discussion on this topic in the forums and you would benifit from reading a few of them. Search on BMR as a lot of it focuses there. The real answer would depend on your starting weight and how close you are to a "Normal" weight. Easy answer if you are obese than don't eat em if you are not hungry. Use caution on how you are determining your calorie burn as well very easy to overestimate that so even more reason NOT to eat your exercise..
  • purpleipod
    purpleipod Posts: 1,147 Member
    If you're exercising that heavily that often you need to eat those calories back. Do you think athletes starve themselves? No.
  • SheilaN1976
    SheilaN1976 Posts: 266 Member
    if you are exercising that extensively then yes you need to eat those calories back to give your body the fuel it needs to maintain that kind of workout. if you aren't able to then i would suggest cutting down your workouts to something doable.
  • SJCon
    SJCon Posts: 224
    If the OP is really burning that many calories is one question but regardless, if they are not hungry and feel like exercising than they must be meeting their caloric needs. Why do you assume they are an athlete? They may be, or they may not be, so perhaps you should know more before you give absolutes!
  • Aviva92
    Aviva92 Posts: 2,333 Member
    If the OP is really burning that many calories is one question but regardless, if they are not hungry and feel like exercising than they must be meeting their caloric needs. Why do you assume they are an athlete? They may be, or they may not be, so perhaps you should know more before you give absolutes!

    agree

    I'm not all that knowledgable about this topic, but to me it seems counter intuative to eat back the calories if you're just not hungry. myfitnesspal set my calorie goal at 1200. I have not been eating back my calories gained from working out many days because I'm just not hungry. I think forcing myself to do so, seems silly. I also question the accuracy of the cardio machine that tells me that I've burned a certain number of calories in the first place.
  • Aviva92
    Aviva92 Posts: 2,333 Member
    If you're exercising that heavily that often you need to eat those calories back. Do you think athletes starve themselves? No.

    but he claims to not be hungry. how would that lead to thinking that he's starving himself?
  • rockerbabyy
    rockerbabyy Posts: 2,258 Member
    If you're exercising that heavily that often you need to eat those calories back. Do you think athletes starve themselves? No.

    but he claims to not be hungry. how would that lead to thinking that he's starving himself?
    you can be starving yourself and not feel hungry - when you eat low calorie for a while your body gets used to it and it wont take as much food for you to feel full. that doesnt mean your body is getting everything it needs
  • SJCon
    SJCon Posts: 224
    If you're exercising that heavily that often you need to eat those calories back. Do you think athletes starve themselves? No.

    but he claims to not be hungry. how would that lead to thinking that he's starving himself?
    you can be starving yourself and not feel hungry - when you eat low calorie for a while your body gets used to it and it wont take as much food for you to feel full. that doesnt mean your body is getting everything it needs

    ROFLMAO - to get to that point you have to go through excruciating hunger pains and they would surely have known them if they had experianced them. Why do people keep perpetuating this myth? Read any research and know that you don't unknowingly slip into "starvation" mode and it doesn't happen in a day or to.
  • Willbenchforcupcakes
    Willbenchforcupcakes Posts: 4,955 Member
    I think it depends on your goals. My goals are to get stronger, faster and leaner. My body has reached a point where if I don't fuel it, I can't do any of those things. I ran an experiment on my body. When I keep my deficit small, I can easily add weight to all my major lifts every week (and by small I mean now more than about 400 calorie deficit a day). When my deficit is larger than that, I can't even come close to my max. My runs slow down. If I waited until I was hungry to eat, I'd be finishing most days with a huge deficit, way more than I could expect my body to handle, so I eat pretty much on a schedule, hungry or not.
  • Aviva92
    Aviva92 Posts: 2,333 Member
    If you're exercising that heavily that often you need to eat those calories back. Do you think athletes starve themselves? No.

    but he claims to not be hungry. how would that lead to thinking that he's starving himself?
    you can be starving yourself and not feel hungry - when you eat low calorie for a while your body gets used to it and it wont take as much food for you to feel full. that doesnt mean your body is getting everything it needs

    ROFLMAO - to get to that point you have to go through excruciating hunger pains and they would surely have known them if they had experianced them. Why do people keep perpetuating this myth? Read any research and know that you don't unknowingly slip into "starvation" mode and it doesn't happen in a day or to.

    good to know. It just didn't sound logical to me that people could go into starvation mode and not even know it. I just found that by changing my diet to eat healthier, I don't feel the need to eat more than 1200 calories on most days.
  • SJCon
    SJCon Posts: 224
    Reply to Wobbs,

    I am sure that is true, but look at where you are in the journey. The OP has not indicated if they are near their ideal weight or morbidly obese yet everyone answers in absolutes.
  • rockerbabyy
    rockerbabyy Posts: 2,258 Member
    If you're exercising that heavily that often you need to eat those calories back. Do you think athletes starve themselves? No.

    but he claims to not be hungry. how would that lead to thinking that he's starving himself?
    you can be starving yourself and not feel hungry - when you eat low calorie for a while your body gets used to it and it wont take as much food for you to feel full. that doesnt mean your body is getting everything it needs

    ROFLMAO - to get to that point you have to go through excruciating hunger pains and they would surely have known them if they had experianced them. Why do people keep perpetuating this myth? Read any research and know that you don't unknowingly slip into "starvation" mode and it doesn't happen in a day or to.
    i didnt actually go through hunger pains at all... in high school i would skip breakfast and lunch and have a small dinner. i wasnt losing any weight and i never felt hungry.
    and no where did i say starvation mode happens in a day or two.
  • SJCon
    SJCon Posts: 224
    If you're exercising that heavily that often you need to eat those calories back. Do you think athletes starve themselves? No.

    but he claims to not be hungry. how would that lead to thinking that he's starving himself?
    you can be starving yourself and not feel hungry - when you eat low calorie for a while your body gets used to it and it wont take as much food for you to feel full. that doesnt mean your body is getting everything it needs

    ROFLMAO - to get to that point you have to go through excruciating hunger pains and they would surely have known them if they had experianced them. Why do people keep perpetuating this myth? Read any research and know that you don't unknowingly slip into "starvation" mode and it doesn't happen in a day or to.
    i didnt actually go through hunger pains at all... in high school i would skip breakfast and lunch and have a small dinner. i wasnt losing any weight and i never felt hungry.
    and no where did i say starvation mode happens in a day or two.

    Not losing weight is not the same as "Starving" yourself.
  • rockerbabyy
    rockerbabyy Posts: 2,258 Member
    If you're exercising that heavily that often you need to eat those calories back. Do you think athletes starve themselves? No.

    but he claims to not be hungry. how would that lead to thinking that he's starving himself?
    you can be starving yourself and not feel hungry - when you eat low calorie for a while your body gets used to it and it wont take as much food for you to feel full. that doesnt mean your body is getting everything it needs

    ROFLMAO - to get to that point you have to go through excruciating hunger pains and they would surely have known them if they had experianced them. Why do people keep perpetuating this myth? Read any research and know that you don't unknowingly slip into "starvation" mode and it doesn't happen in a day or to.
    i didnt actually go through hunger pains at all... in high school i would skip breakfast and lunch and have a small dinner. i wasnt losing any weight and i never felt hungry.
    and no where did i say starvation mode happens in a day or two.

    Not losing weight is not the same as "Starving" yourself.
    so my body was getting everything it needed on one small meal a day? i was healthy and everything inside was running at its best?
  • calitravelingal
    calitravelingal Posts: 53
    I'm not sure what the right answer is. I have struggled with a similar issue. Since I took up running my calorie burns on my running days are high. I have trouble trying to eat back calories. I'm set up to eat 1580 a day (before excersise) but always try and net a min of 1200. This is what I think is right for me. If you would like to eat more calories on high burn days but are having trouble eating a larger quantity of food may I suggest changing some of the things you eat. So if say you eat low fat salad dressing, maybe switch back to regular. You won't consume more volume, but you will comsume more calories per serving. This works well with things like cheese, milk, coffee creamer and ground beef products.
  • SJCon
    SJCon Posts: 224
    [/quote]
    so my body was getting everything it needed on one small meal a day? i was healthy and everything inside was running at its best?
    [/quote]

    Didn't say or imply that what you were doing was healthy but you were not "starving" yourself. You body would not have been sacrificing protein to survive you were more than likely just yo yo'ing your fat stores. Size of a meal does not directly determine the calories in it or the calories ingested other than meals. If your weight was not changing than you were in caloric balance. Your metabolism was adjusted to your eating pattern.
    The OP is "recording" extensive calories for workouts and in resistance workouts there is always muscle break down that is why you need protein for the rebuild. This is not so much the case in cardio ones. The type of work out was not specified, so what was the basis for the advice? The same old knee jerk, "MFP says you must eat back your calories"this is definitely not ALWAYS true and I have yet to find where MFP themselves have EVER said it but it is alluded to them very often. Sorry to rant but just tired of people giving advice as if it is true for all.
This discussion has been closed.

Categories