Caloric Shock?

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poisonapple
poisonapple Posts: 30 Member
in Fitness and Exercise
I am confused on this subject. I am very active spending 3-5 hours daily at the gym usually burning anywhere from 1,000 to 2,500 calories daily (usually 6 days per week). I try my best to eat the number of calories MFP tells me to but after a hard days workout I still come out 1000+ calories short most days (yesterday I ate 2800 and burned about 2000 cals but was still short 1500 cals according to MFP). My regular suggested caloric intake is just over 1300 but with all my exercise I usually end up eating 2000-3000.
My question is, my body is used to eating all these calories and working out so when I take a day off from the gym what happens?? Am I supposed to take a MAJOR calorie drop for 1 day and starve all day to stay at my 1300 or do I eat like normal and just try like hell to work out twice as hard the next day to burn the extra calories I ate? Is my body going into some kind of caloric shock either way? Am I worried for no reason?
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Replies

  • Azdak
    Azdak Posts: 8,281 Member
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    I suspect you are overestimating your exercise calories by a significant amount.
  • ryoung25
    ryoung25 Posts: 5
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    How much food you eat really depends on how much weight you want to lose. If you watch biggest loser, they work out 5-7 hours a day and only eat about 1500 calories. And they lose about 2-3% of their body weight each week. Using a 300lb man as an example, if he works out 6 hours a days assuming 600 calories per hour, that equals 3600 calories burned through exercise. The same man burns about 3000 calories a day with a moderately active lifestyle. That means he is burning about 6600 calories a day. If he were to eat 2500 calories a day, he would still lose about 1lb of weight a day. However, these people are medically supervised and have the best doctors to watch over them.

    The typical person should plan to lose no more that 2-3 lbs a week. Anything higher is really not healthy unless you are morbidly obese. So lets says you want to lose 2lbs a week. MFP will figure this amount in and tell you how much you need to eat to achieve this goal (about a 1000 calories deficit per day). Many people suggest that you eat your excercise calories so that your body can recover better from all the working out you do. If you agree with this, then you should eat the addtional calories each day that you burn from excercise. So if you burn 1500 calories a day through excercise, then plan that many addtional calroies in your diet. If you do not work out on a particular day, then you should not eat the additional calories. Stay within the normal 1000 calorie deficit each day (2lbs lost per week).

    Your body adjusts very well to caloric intake. If your main reason for working out so much is to lose alot of weight quickly (like the biggest loser), then don't eat the extra calories. However, if you give your body this much of a calorie deficit, you will probably be really tired and be sluggish. Your body can only burn so much body fat a day.

    Another question is how have you been doign with the plan? Are you very hungry? Do you feel tired or sluggish? Did you work out this hard before you started dieting?
  • antiadipose
    antiadipose Posts: 447
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    I suspect you are overestimating your exercise calories by a significant amount.

    +1


    how are u burning so many cals?!
  • cfischer81
    cfischer81 Posts: 111 Member
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    I suspect you are overestimating your exercise calories by a significant amount.

    +1


    how are u burning so many cals?!

    She did say she spends 3-5 hours (omg!) in the gym a day! I can burn about 600 in an hour...that could be right.
  • naturebaby
    naturebaby Posts: 161
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    I suspect you are overestimating your exercise calories by a significant amount.
    ditto...
  • questionablemethods
    questionablemethods Posts: 2,174 Member
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    Ah, never mind. :smile:
  • poisonapple
    poisonapple Posts: 30 Member
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    I am actually an ex-vegan! I was raw-vegan for 3 months then deciding raw was too time consuming I went vegan for 2 years. during that time I was working out close to what I am now but not quite as intense. I had back surgery #2 for a herniated disc (L5,S1) and moved in with my boyfriend in January. He is very much a carnivore and since I am no longer working he buys the groceries so I couldn't get any of my Vego food anymore. I started eating a little dairy and made the switch to vegetarian for about 6 months. As soon as I got clearance from the doc for as much exercise as I want I jumped right back to my intense workout (after about 6 mos off for surgery). Now I am still in considerable pain but it is chronic and isn't going away any time soon. The only time I have any relief is when I am working out. that is my motivation for being at the gym so much. After a couple weeks of the intense schedule my veggie diet could clearly not keep up so I started my 12-step program for meat slowly adding it back in and joined MFP not so much as a diet more to make sure I'm not starving myself. I am surely taking advantage of the weight loss as it comes but pain relief is my #1 goal here. I just want to be sure to eat enough and definitely not sabotage any weight loss that may result.
    This is week# 3 on MFP but so far I feel great. I am never hungry, in fact I can't eat enough food to fulfill my daily MFP recommendation. The only time I ever get hungry is when I take a day off. Since I am at home all day I eat small things all day long. My body is used to this style of eating so when I take a day off and MFP says to eat 1300 cals it kills me (considering on a normal day double that amout is still considerably less than recommended). Should I really starve myself that one day and keep it to 1300 or should I eat the same as I eat every other day??
  • jasonweinberg
    jasonweinberg Posts: 270
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    i'm no expert but i would say stay a bit under your goal on your workout days and go over your goal on your non-workout days.
  • poisonapple
    poisonapple Posts: 30 Member
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    On a typical day I do an hour of spinning 2 hours of Yoga and either a kickboxing or other aerobics class and/or an hour on the elliptical. I also ride my bike to and from the gym (6 miles) and try to get a swim in as well. I have a HRM on the way but in the mean time I am tracking calories through this website and what the machines say and using the lower number of the two. Most of things I do average around 600cals per hour so after 4 hours of spinning, ellipticals, aerobics, bicycling, ect I don't think 1500 cals burned is unrealistic. Am I crazy??
  • atcgrrb8
    atcgrrb8 Posts: 11
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    You don't HAVE to limit yourself to losing 2 lbs / week especially if you're exercising that much. (And I have no idea why people are doubting that you can burn that many calories in 3-5 hours of working out. Seems very reasonable.) If you work out and you feel good eating what you are eating then you are probably fine. 3-5 hours of working out is a LOT. Wish I had that much time.
  • Naokoheart
    Naokoheart Posts: 161
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    WOW thats amazing! I feel so frail after reading your busy schedule,
    I tried working out for 2 hours a day,and that got me exchausted, there was always so much tension in my head,
    I was getting serious migraines and such,but if it works for you then thats good!
    I wish I had the drive you had! 8D
  • Azdak
    Azdak Posts: 8,281 Member
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    Maybe I was focusing more on the 2500 number. In any case, it's a moot point. If you are doing the exercises you are doing, at the intensities at which you say you are doing them, then one day off is not going to make any appreciable difference.

    At some point, everything we track--BMR, casual activity, exercise calories, calories taken in --is an estimate anyway and, at best, we are probably on average no more accurate than within 20% of the actual numbers. So, again, if you are consistently working out at those levels, and eating a sufficient amount (not the same thing as eating back your exercise calories) to fuel those workouts, it's nothing to be concerned about.

    If you are trying to lose weight and you continue to lose weight, then your program is working for you. If you stop losing weight (and still want to lose weight), then it doesn't and you will have to adjust.
  • valeriebpdx
    valeriebpdx Posts: 499 Member
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    On a typical day I do an hour of spinning 2 hours of Yoga and either a kickboxing or other aerobics class and/or an hour on the elliptical. I also ride my bike to and from the gym (6 miles) and try to get a swim in as well. I have a HRM on the way but in the mean time I am tracking calories through this website and what the machines say and using the lower number of the two. Most of things I do average around 600cals per hour so after 4 hours of spinning, ellipticals, aerobics, bicycling, ect I don't think 1500 cals burned is unrealistic. Am I crazy??

    Nope, I'd say you're right on if this is your usual workout schedule. On a big day at the gym (about 2.5 hours for me), I burn 1000 calories. I agree with Jason's advice to eat less than it says you should--by a comfortable margin, so don't stuff yourself if you're satisfied and don't go hungry--on exercise days and more than it says on your day off. Also agree that this is all based on estimates (metabolic and exercise calories), so you will know it's working for you if you keep feeling good and losing weight at a good but sustainable pace. The one person I don't agree with is the one who said you could keep exercising like that and stick to 1200 calories if you wanted to lose weight at Biggest Loser pace. That is insanity--you need to fuel that much exercise.
  • jacolyncoker
    jacolyncoker Posts: 86 Member
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    What are you doing to burn that many calories in a day???
  • poisonapple
    poisonapple Posts: 30 Member
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    Biking, elliptical, spinning, aerobics, kickboxing, yoga and swimming and of course strength training in there too. Most days I do at least 4 or 5 of them along with a short weight training session. I go to the gym multiple times a day so it doesn't feel like so much! I find if I come home when I'm tired and I shower and eat something nutrition packed I feel like a brand new girl and I'm ready for round 2 :happy:
    Also riding my bicycle to the gym added a significant amount of calorie burn on top of everything else. I won't pretend the ride home is easy but it's much more motivating knowing by the time I get get home I will have an additional 300 odd calories burned. It's all mental I guess but if it gets the calories burned I guess it doesn't much matter how!
  • dawnna76
    dawnna76 Posts: 987 Member
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    If only I had so much time.

    Want to babysit for oh say a couple months?

    LOL
  • tavander
    tavander Posts: 79 Member
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    Poisonapple - I too am spending more time in the gym as i have the free time right now. I am in the gym from 2-4 hours depending on the day. I do proper stretching in between and use supplements to help with muscle recovery. I am neither sluggish or tired because I make sure I eat when my body tells me too but making sure to not go over my calorie allowance. I wear my heart rate monitor for all of it too so I know when I need to push myself or when I should scale back. I have also consulted with trainers (whom I've worked with long term), done lots of research on my own and also done triathlons and endurance cycling events. So what I'm doing works for me and I can still function normally in the rest of my life. Just be educated about what you are signing yourself up for and make the best decision for your body. Naturally, there are always arguments on either side of the fence on any topic. i hope this helps.
  • LotusF1ower
    LotusF1ower Posts: 1,259 Member
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    I suspect you are overestimating your exercise calories by a significant amount.

    I disagree. Anybody that is working out at the gym between 3 and 5 hours per DAY will indeed be burning those calories. I remember running on the treadmill for 70 mins several months ago, I burnt 1000 in just that time. All depends on what the exercise at the gym entails though - if somebody is walking 2mph on the treadmill, for an hour, they won't lose much at all!.

    To the original poster, if you decided not to exercise for one day, you would need to go down to 1300 calories, else you will have excess. Hence why, if people who do a lot of exercise get injured, for instance - they will pile on the weight because they still eat the same calories and are now, not burning them off.

    I have yet to find a diet that does not entail going hungry at times - however, I often visualise the pounds falling off when I get hunger pangs and after all, it really is only until the next meal and I am damn sure my will is stronger than a few measly pangs :wink:
  • scotty_81
    scotty_81 Posts: 59
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    I would say if you are not eating your calories on the day you burn them then it would be fine to eat them the next day. I find that if I've been out for a long run I often feel more hungry the next day. I limit myself to carrying over those calories during the same week so that I don't go over for the week and I have been steadily losing a pound a week.

    Good luck with your pain control.
  • PurplePumpkin
    PurplePumpkin Posts: 10
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    So correct me if I'm wrong, but your using MFP to make sure your eating the right amount rather than wanting to loose weight?

    If this is the case you need to do some calculations.
    Staying at the same weight means calories burnt and calories consumered are equal.
    If you burning 2500 calories at the gym, even if it is an estiamte, you need to consume this amoutn.
    But you also need to consume the calories to live, an average 9st, 170cm woman should be consuming around 1800 calories a day, but as you are going to the gym 6 days a week, and burning a considerable amount of calories a day I would say you have a large amount of mussle, and mussle burns more calories in a day then fat does, and these figures (1800 cal and MFP figures, 1200) are based on a normal person (which I believe is about 20-25% body fat) and are by no means what you need.

    I believe we can assume your not over weight and quite a fit person so if you calculate you BMI is it still with in the normal range? 18-25?
    If it's above 23 then I would assume you are carrying a lot of mussle weight and that you most definately need more than 1200 calories a day when you not exercising otherwise you are starving your body.

    I would say the best thing is to speak to a doctor or dietitian as they can more or less give you exactly what you should be consuming a day as the minimum number of clalories needed is differnt for every person.
    And as mentioned the MFP calories target could be out by 20%!!!

    For someone who's body is still recovering from surgry and in a lot of pain it is very important for you to not under eat!!

    Are you still loosing weight or are you maintaining?

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