To eat or not to eat xercise calories...

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workoutqueen628
workoutqueen628 Posts: 220
in Fitness and Exercise
I know there has been several posts about this, and it seems there is a general agreement that you SHOULD eat your exercise calories...but for me, I burn a heck of a lot of calories and if I were to eat all of them, I would be stuffing myself. That being said, whenever I have dieted in the past, I have always NEVER eaten back my exercise calories, and this is how I have lost weight. Thoughts? Anyone else not eat exercise calories?

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  • darman
    darman Posts: 269
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    can/t wait to see what comes back for this - most of everything on mfp says to eat your exercise cal's but I am like you - never heard of that before - I am trying to find some kind of balance with this..........hope we can both get some good asnwers - thanks for the post
  • stormieweather
    stormieweather Posts: 2,549 Member
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    MFP already sets a deficit for you, based on the information you entered into goals and settings. The idea of eating your exercise calories is a) to maintain (rather than increase) that deficit and b) to fuel your body adequately to ensure you stay healthy.

    Losing weight too fast may hinder your ability to keep it off. Most other diet plans don't have you count calories per se and have a deficit already set for you, instead, you create the deficit needed by exercising. That's why people used to dieting under other plans are confused when they start logging on MFP.

    Eat! Make this a lifestyle change, instead of a temporary "diet", and chances are much better that you'll be able to maintain it permanently.

    And good luck!:flowerforyou:
  • AmyLynn4321
    AmyLynn4321 Posts: 30 Member
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    I never eat them. But I really tend to only do 3 workouts a week so I'm not doing a ton of working out. I just make sure and stay over 1200.
  • kerrilucko
    kerrilucko Posts: 3,852 Member
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    if you are burning too much to eat back you should double check your burns by using a heart rate monitor. Lots of people think they're burning excessive calories, but really they are only burning a moderate amount. If you've done this and your numbers are correct, I'd seriously consider scaling back on your workouts. If you can't eat enough to sustain them, they may be doing more harm than good.

    It also depends on your set caloric intake, your current weight and your goal weight. If you are near your goal weight, eat more, your body has fewer fat (energy) reserves to draw from. If you have a long way to go (I'm talking say.... you're over 50 lbs overweight) you're probably ok not eating all of those calories everyday. If your caloric intake is set at 1200, eat the extra calories, it's important. If you're set higher (most men and women with only a moderate amount of weight to lose should be), then you can be a little more picky about what you do or don't eat back.

    Just remember- food=energy. Hefty workouts are great, but they'll simply wear you out if your body isn't adequately fueled for them.

    Will you lose weight without eating them back? Of course you will, that, ladies and gentlemen, is called crash dieting. It can get dangerously close to starvation so up the calories, and keep up the good work in the gym.
  • luv2run4fun
    luv2run4fun Posts: 92
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    MFP already sets a deficit for you, based on the information you entered into goals and settings. The idea of eating your exercise calories is a) to maintain (rather than increase) that deficit and b) to fuel your body adequately to ensure you stay healthy.

    Losing weight too fast may hinder your ability to keep it off. Most other diet plans don't have you count calories per se, you create the deficit needed by exercising. That's why people used to dieting under other plans are confused when they start logging on MFP.

    Eat! Make this a lifestyle change, instead of a temporary "diet", and chances are much better that you'll be able to maintain it permanently.

    ABSOLUTELY! It is a lifestyle change and not a "diet". Your body needs to refuel from its workout to repair and replenish. I always eat close to my daily 1200 plus my exercise cals. Often times, I am just around 50-100 under. Sometimes a little over. I have had good success with this program!
  • aisha11188
    aisha11188 Posts: 43
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    Thats somehing I am in a dilemna about too. Itry to eat around 1,200 calorie but no less than that.
  • modubb
    modubb Posts: 22
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    Bump!
  • kicklikeaGIRL
    kicklikeaGIRL Posts: 867 Member
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    This topic is asked every single day... and actually, if you go to the "Search" and type it in, you'll probably get thousands of resopnses. To save you time, here is good info. Read it, everyone that has questions on eating your exercise calories....read all the links. Also, go under "General Weightloss Help" and you'll see "bookmarked" threads. Read those- they are bookmarked for a reason.

    http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/10665-newbies-please-read-me-2nd-edition
  • cherith1912
    cherith1912 Posts: 1
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    I have at lest 1000 exercise calories 4 times a week i never eat them. That is why i have lost 3stone 1n 4 months.:laugh:
  • superstarcassie
    superstarcassie Posts: 296 Member
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    To be honest- I cannot eat them all back. I have at least one hundred more pounds to ultimately loose. Since starting MFP in Feb, I have lost around 30 lbs. I am eating healthy, no fried food, less processed foods, and drinking a lot of water. I try to workout between 5 to 7 days a week. I am always eating over 1200 even with exercise. Usually between 1500 net or more. I figure, it is my body, if I don't feel hungry, I am not going to eat. According to MFP, my calories are 2170. If I workout and burn 400 cals, that is a total of 2570. I feel that I would be stuffed and uncomfortable if I honestly tried to eat that much (especially since healthy foods are worth so many less calories that what I used to eat)! I think part of the lifestyle change for me has been the types of food I have been eating, and the portions. I am being healthy, and I know its not right for me to eat back everything. I think you need to see how your body feels, and it is ultimately up to you to decide what you eat.
  • LittleSpy
    LittleSpy Posts: 6,754 Member
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    I have learned my lesson the hard way.

    I thought I was safe to not eat my exercise calories because I was so overweight. I did great & lost 53 pounds in 4.5 months! Then I hit a BIG FAT BRICK WALL. I have worked for 2 months now, losing weight at a snail's pace (especially compared to what I was losing before) to increase my calorie intake. I think I may finally be eating close to enough because I think I'm seeing my weight drop a little more quickly.

    At the end of January, I wasn't losing any weight at 1200 calories. Throughout the entire increasing my calories process I have not gained any weight at all. I have continued to lose weight very slowly, so I KNOW that my not eating enough is the problem. If it wasnt, I would've stopped losing and started gaining by now since I'm consuming like 3000 calories more than before each week because I was at a dead stand still for 3 weeks on 1200 calories. I burn a lot of calories with exercise, too, because I love it. So, now I'm eating 1350 base calories and I try to eat as close to 50% of my exercise calories as possible (or more). Yesterday, that would've been 1850 calories and I made it up to 1721. Sometimes it's hard to eat that many calories and keep it healthy but now I know I don't really have a choice if I want my body to let go of more fat faster than it is now.

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