Advice Re: Eating Exercise Calories

figbash
figbash Posts: 6
edited September 18 in Food and Nutrition
I'm having some trouble reconciling the oft-repeated advice "eat all your exercise calories" with healthy nutrition. I've read every advice page on this forum. Every day, I swim for 90 mins and I walk to work, so I exercise away about 1000 calories/day. If I ate all of those, I would be on a 2600 calorie/day diet. I'm 40 lbs overweight (so this man is no stranger to eating!) but I still can't bring myself to eat all that every day.

Last night, I forced myself to eat a cup of yogurt before bed and I was still 600 under. Today I'm completely full and I would feel unhealthy eating 900 more calories. This is nuts.

This advice also seems to defeat the incentive to do exercise. I like thinking that by working harder I'm losing body fat. This philosophy means that by the end of the day, exercise should burn a net of zero calories. If I'm going to have to decide between eating when I'm full or "starvation" I'm just going to work out less. That makes no sense.

Does this mean that I'm going to have trouble losing weight?

What do you think? Does this advice apply to me? I'm not starving or even hungry. I do NOT need advice on more calorie-rich foods to eat. I'm getting all my vitamins and nutrients from eating a healthy ~1300-1700/day diet. Do I really have to DOUBLE my calorie intake to lose weight???

Replies

  • figbash
    figbash Posts: 6
    I'm having some trouble reconciling the oft-repeated advice "eat all your exercise calories" with healthy nutrition. I've read every advice page on this forum. Every day, I swim for 90 mins and I walk to work, so I exercise away about 1000 calories/day. If I ate all of those, I would be on a 2600 calorie/day diet. I'm 40 lbs overweight (so this man is no stranger to eating!) but I still can't bring myself to eat all that every day.

    Last night, I forced myself to eat a cup of yogurt before bed and I was still 600 under. Today I'm completely full and I would feel unhealthy eating 900 more calories. This is nuts.

    This advice also seems to defeat the incentive to do exercise. I like thinking that by working harder I'm losing body fat. This philosophy means that by the end of the day, exercise should burn a net of zero calories. If I'm going to have to decide between eating when I'm full or "starvation" I'm just going to work out less. That makes no sense.

    Does this mean that I'm going to have trouble losing weight?

    What do you think? Does this advice apply to me? I'm not starving or even hungry. I do NOT need advice on more calorie-rich foods to eat. I'm getting all my vitamins and nutrients from eating a healthy ~1300-1700/day diet. Do I really have to DOUBLE my calorie intake to lose weight???
  • allie5199
    allie5199 Posts: 240
    I have a similar problem...Ive concluded that I just wont eat all my exercise calories. I make sure I get all 1200 calories, and if I know Im going to go over then Ill make sure to get a good work out in. So far Ive lost 7lbs so it must be working! Sorry Im not more helpful...
  • figbash
    figbash Posts: 6
    It's good to hear that I'm not alone... I guess we'll see what happens!
  • spaul82478
    spaul82478 Posts: 709 Member
    If you walk to work everyday thats not considered WORKING OUT..I dont think...but the swimming is... FOR example... i am a waitress.. I WALK ALOT at work...but i dont count that as my workout time... its my daily routine and my body is used to it... not sure how you would add that in to your everyday planning but there is a way... not sure how accuratre I am... so I guess we will find out when someone post... :bigsmile:
  • magdalune
    magdalune Posts: 80 Member
    The way that MFP works is that it calculates how many calories (sans exercise) you need to eat in order to lose however many pounds you want to lose in a week (within reason). So when you exercise, you can eat all those exercise calories and still lose weight at the same rate. Also, you need to replenish energy stores after exercising anyway.

    However, if you're full, don't eat all the exercise calories. There are some people who just can't eat them all, and there's no reason to force yourself to. If you were worried, though, about all the calories you were eating, that's the rationale behind it.

    ETA: If walking to work is a change in order to get more exercise, then it can be counted as exercise because it's done with fitness in mind.
  • TNTPete
    TNTPete Posts: 701 Member
    I have the same issue - I just eat what feels right for the day besides some days you are probably burning the high end and some days the lower end. So, it should balance.

    My personal trainer advised me to eat no more than 1400-1500 on workout days and less on non-workout while doing 45-60 min of cardio and circuit strength training for about 30-45; 5-6 days a week cardio, 3-4 days a week strength training. So -- hopefully that helps you.

    :smile:
  • mililani
    mililani Posts: 17
    The way I understand it there are two reasons to eat the exercise calories:

    (1) You want to prevent your body from entering "starvation mode", in which it tries to save calories left and right because it thinks you are about to suffer from a food shortage. When that happened to me, I would simply lose energy (which my friends detected, not I) and would not lose weight (or even gain weight) even on a low-calorie diet
    (2) You want to prevent entering a yo-yo mode where you don't eat enough on one day, so you binge on the next day. It's MUCH easier to overeat than to undereat, and to make up for one binge day you may have to cut your calories for a whole week!

    I think if you see no signs of either happening, more power to you!!!
  • TNTPete
    TNTPete Posts: 701 Member
    mililani
    Good point, sometimes I do feel my energy levels just aren't there - that's when I make sure I squeeze in a few more calories in the following days. Thanks for that memory jogger.
  • stschulz
    stschulz Posts: 340
    If I go for a looooong ride on my bike (which I do every week) I earn more tha 2000 extra calories. No way I can eat all that. I stopped to worry about it.

    What I do is: I eat some of these calories before I exercise. Like a peanutbutter sandwich or something like that. Sometimes I buy food I l;ike but could never eat without all that. Like Pizza. even then, I usually have plenty of calories left.

    I'd go with what was said before: if you feel full, don't eat any more.

    What happens sometimes is that after a few hours I get reaaaaaaaly hungry. Then I still have enough calories to eat.

    Never used all these calories so far.
  • Nich0le
    Nich0le Posts: 2,906 Member
    MFP base calories are based off of your profile, when you entered your starting weight, your goals and how active you were it calculates an amount of calories you need to eat to loose weight without changing your lifestyle.

    Enter exercise into the program and you add calories to your allowance........because the exercise is not part of your normal routine in most cases.

    It is a hard concept to wrap your head around because we all feel like we need to eat as little as possible to loose weight, well that is only true if you plan to lose weight with diet alone. Try eating more calorie dense foods, nuts, light cheese, peanut butter etc and not just rabbit food. You don't have to eat a lot to get what you need, an apple and peanut butter pack a punch and keep you full for awhile.
  • astridfeline
    astridfeline Posts: 1,200 Member
    Another thing to keep in mind is your BMR. Bigger bodies require more calories; one can still have a 2lb loss per week while eating 2000+ calories (with exercise), depending on your starting weight. It's not good to eat less calories than your BMR indicates.
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