EXERCISE CALORIES

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!!

Be careful with this McMadame, it doesn't take all food 48 to 72 hours, it can take UP TO 72 hours to process certain types of food, such as red meats.

some foods are processed within 1 hour or less. And even food that takes much longer, that means that the food is completely processed by then, some starts to be digested immediately upon entry, and as it travels through the stomach and intestines the bacteria in there slowly eat it away and transport it's component parts thorugh the blood. think of it like an alka seltzer pill, it STARTS fizzing immediately, but it takes almost a minute to finish.

For example, if you were to eat a big hunk of wonder bread (the plain old white version) that would be completely digested within about an hour or so for most people. Why? Because white bread is very close to the state at which your body processes things anyway, all it needs is a little bit more breaking up and it's ready to be used (as sugar mainly, it's composed mostly of simple carbs).

Yes you can up to a point. Your body doesn't turn on a dime. It takes 48-72 hours for something you eat to travel from your mouth through your small intestine and out the other side. So it's not like if you eat 500 over your maintenance calories one day, the next day you see a gain. It might take several days. And, if you then eat less the next couple of day, you may never see it.

Sorry-I gotta post this...:laugh:

Ever eat corn? Think of it as "tracer fire"

24 hours. Tops. Usually less.

Sorry if this is too gross!

I eat about half of my excercise calories, sometimes more. It all depends on the time that I excercise. For example, I went to the gym today at 12 noon, ate lunch after and had two snacks and dinner plus desert. I have therefore eaten 3/4 of them. When I am at work, training after, I tend to struggle, if I burn 700 calories, I will be lucky if I eat 100 of that 700.

Now I know, someone will say you have to plan your calorie intake from morning, but what happens if I plan to go to the gym, eat almost all of them through the day and then I don't go because of work, I will end up overeating!

I have had an almost steady weight loss, some plateaus and then I loose 3lbs. I think you have to do what works for you, but at the same time don't starve yourself. If you have lots of calories left, like 600, have a handful of nuts, it doesn't stuff you, but gives you those calories.

Listen to your body, but also listen to others out there, we are all going through this hence we are on this site!

Be careful with this McMadame, it doesn't take all food 48 to 72 hours, it can take UP TO 72 hours to process certain types of food, such as red meats.

Well shoot... that's what my biology textbook said! I guess that's part of the sad decline of US education. :laugh:

I'm not sure what I'm supposed to be careful of though. My philosophy is that none of this stuff is that exact. Even with food logging and wearing a HRM for exercise and getting my RMR and body fat tested and the like, it's still all estimates.

Therefore, if I log my food and exercise and it says I burned 100 more calories than I took in one day, I know I'm not going to necessarily lose weight. Maybe I really did go under by 100 but maybe I didn't go under at all but just miscalculated something. Heck, it's quite possible I went OVER by a few.

So I just to make sure it balances out over the course of a few days and I update my spreadsheets every week and look for trouble spots. Some days I'm over and some days I'm under but, if my averages are were they need to be, my weight stays in its 3 pound corridor.

I do not eat my exercise calories, for the most part.

However, on days that I exercise ... If I'm hungry, I'll eat something. I won't worry about going over my BMR calories, or what MFP allows me. I'll just eat something healthy and call it good. I try to listen to what my body is telling me and act accordingly. It's working out so far.