EXERCISE CALORIES

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.

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.

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!!!

b.u.m.p.

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.

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.

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

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

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.

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

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!

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.

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.

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?

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!!