DON'T Eat Exercise Calories!!

I think the bottom line is that everyone is different, it can take a lot of trial and error to know what works for us. If we have the basics in tack (healthy food, exercise, etc) then the rest is up to us to see what works based on our weight loss, muscle gain, energy levels, etc. Only we can see, feel and then truly decide what works for us.

I'm on 1200 cals a day but I've always been under by anywhere from 50-300 cals and I feel great. I don't usually eat all my exercise calories either, as long as I know I got all my four food groups and enough of them to sustain my energy levels for the day. I'm happy, weight is coming off and this works for me. Maybe it doesn't work for someone else and they need to eat those exercise cals, then I say go for it

Someone following a vegetarian diet isn't necessarily starving at 1000 calories.

For the record, there's a big difference between feeling hungry and starving.

true, but to eat 1000 vegetarian calories can really be a lot of fiber... there have been many days (not recently) where i had only 950-1000 calories, and was not hungry a bit. maybe those were days were i had a lot of carrots or something. i've had amazing vegetarian meals (hefty, too) for well under 400 cals. so it's not impossible, it just depends on what you eat...

So i have to conclude you all have your base activity set at sedentary and that you frown on those who put it at anything else.

I have to conclude you are a big fan of the strawman argument.

Nope, it is exactly the same thing. In both cases, you are burning more calories. Therefore, if people think that when exercising you are not allowed to eat more calories, then they must also think that if you are more active during the day, you are not allowed to eat any more calories.

If not, they are hypocrites.

True. If you put your activity level as anything other than sedentary than you CAN NOT add any exercise manually. Seriously, that's cheating (especially if you are one to put in more exercise just because you happened to be a little more active that day). To me, that seems like just trying to reward yourself just for not sitting on your *kitten*. Come on, now. You should reward yourself for exercise and such, yes. But if your lifestyle has reached a point where you can count simply standing on your feet as exercise I think the key thing would be to find a way to lead a more active lifestyle (i.e. "exercise") rather than nickel and dime-ing your calorie count to death.

Unless you're being A LOT more active than usual, like moving boulders or something (which is exercise, so you'd put that in) you're not really burning that many extra calories. Maybe like 100 to 500 more, depending on what you consider "active (and if you're not breaking a sweat it's probably not even close to 500- That's what I burn walking 3.5 miles per hour for an hour as a 250 pound man) and you really have no way or being sure how many, and as I've said before MFP exercise database is already pretty inaccurate (at best, an educated guess). My thinking is that you should just feel accomplished for having an active day. What do you need to see the numbers for? It's not enough to put you in starvation mode.

While it's true that different things work for different people, I really do feel like the OP was telling us ALL not to eat the calories we earn from exercise (look at the subject of the post), and that just won't work for everyone, and might be harmful to some people.

FWIW, I'm also a vegetarian, and I don't know about other veggies, but I don't just eat fruits and vegetables. I also eat tofu and meat substitutes, which are great sources of protein. On the days when I just bring a salad for lunch, I am completely ready to eat by dinner. It doesn't keep me full as long as other vegetarian protein sources.

I also don't have much weight to lose: only about 10 lbs. I mainly want to eat healthier and get leaner/fitter. But, MFP has my daily calories set at 1200 because I have a sedentary job and don't do much activity outside of planned exercise. When I work out, I jog 3-4 miles or walk on the treadmill with an incline, so I burn 300-400 calories. That would leave me living on 800 calories per day on the days when I work out, which is I don't think is healthy for anyone. If you work out more and burn more calories, you could be expecting your body to function on even less, depending on what your BMR is set to. A few days of that, and you'll be feeling like you've got a bad case of the flu.

For myself, if I didn't have a snack after a workout (and I usually don't eat all 3-400 calories, usually about half of those), I'd be in front of the fridge stuffing my face at 4 AM because my body would be DEMANDING fuel.

You also need to consider the fact that MFP is trying to teach us a new way to eat FOR LIFE and not just to lose weight. I personally love food to much to ONLY eat 1000 calories a day for the rest of my life. And if I only eat 1000 a day for now then what happens when I lose all the weight then want to go back to a more normal amount of calories? My body wont be able to handle it and I will gain the weight back.

this is the best advice on here i think


Created by MyFitnessPal.com - Free Calorie Counter

Ugh, here we go.

My thoughts exactly! :grumble:

Can you hear how loud I'm sighing? I guess the consensus is that we all have to do what is best for our individual body, I like the idea of not eating exercise cals as I have hit a plateau....I'm going to try it. Why keep doing the same thing to get lacklustre results?

Really want to know what you burn per day if you have an average BMR?

http://prevention.sph.sc.edu/tools/docs/documents_compendium.pdf

http://www.wv-hsta.org/cdc_chc/walking_mets_table.htm

http://prevention.sph.sc.edu/tools/compendium.htm


To calculate it, take your weight and divide by 2.2 to get your weight in kilos. Take the MET value of each exercise and multiply by the result of your weight in kilos and multiply again by the time you spent at it (in hours).

Ie: 170 pounds / 2.2 = 77.27 kilos.

I spend 6 hours sleeping. Sleeping is a MET value of .9. I multiply 77.27 (kilos) X .9 (MET) x 6 (hours) = 417 calories I burn while sleeping (note: this is all inclusive).

Check it out.

The weight I’ve lost done by eating my exercise calories on a regular basis. Not always all the calories. As was mentioned previously is that you must change your routine as not to plateau.

It's interesting to see such a mix of...tactics people employ to lose weight!

I do agree that the title and first post could have been worded a bit better as it does seem as though everyone is being told they should not eat exercise calories or eat over 1000 cals a day. Obviously that can't apply to anyone and the topic started has now said this was supposed to be a temporary measure for her.


For me, I need to eat more, I'm another one who couldn't function on 1000 a day, literally, I can't think straight, I get the shakes, I get dizzy, I feel sick, I feel like my stomach is trying to digest itself. I certainly couldn't exercise on that. I need to eat around half of the calories I think I'll burn before exercising to be able to get through a workout. I'm also very precious about my muscle so want to make sure I lose as little as possible.


I did lose some weight eating 1100 cals per day, I was losing about 2lb per week of fat and muscle, doing no exercise and feeling miserable and obsessed with food. I maybe kept it up for bout a month, then gained back the loss plus a little more - bizarrely I repeated this many times with various fad diets.

It's only when I started eating 1500-1700 per day, PLUS exercise that I saw any real loss and was 25lbs lighter in about 7 months - sometimes I lost nothing in a week, sometimes I lost up to 2.5lbs but an average of just over 1lb per week. But I also go by my photos, measurements and how clothes fit, it's a better guide for me than scales.
Definitely for me I need to eat more.

When I eat my exercise calories I don't use them to eat junk or "treats" I just eat more of the same kinds of foods I normally do. I have a "treat" when I want one really (thought try to get it to one day a week only)

I also like the idea of calorie cycling and eating at my target some days, 100 cals more or 100 cals less on other days but I've not been very good at doing this on purpose! Same with having low carb and high carb days, it just takes more planning than I'm prepared to do and fear it would make me a bit obsessive over the numbers.

Honestly, I think people are afraid to not eat them because they feel like they have earned them. They are afraid to be told not to eat them because that means they have to eat less. So if everyone convinces themselves that eating them all is a good thing, then this lifestyle change isn't really that difficult because you can still have about 2000 cals a day if you're exercising. Which really, 2000 cals, is not going hungry by any means. Well, maybe for some it is, but for those that have less than 30 pounds to lose, 2000 cals isn't that big of a change thus making this easier, we all want easier right? It's controversial to talk about not eating them because people feel entitled to, the culture around here is all about avoiding starvation mode. Chances are we will not go into starvation mode and do "damage" (see this word thrown all over the place yet still do not know what that means) from missing a meal or two....okay, should I duck and cover now?

Sweeping and inaccurate generalisation there!!!


I, and many others, eat exercise calories because to us this is a plan that is supposed to work for life, not a quick fix or a kickstart, it's got to be sustainable! There's also a lot of people, like me, who don't want to lose weight, we want to lose fat and preserve as much muscle as possible. In order to do that I have to lift some heavy weights and get in a few high intensity interval cardio sessions each week, fuel my body for the type of exercise I do, eat to help muscle recovery/repair. That's not possible on 1000 calories a day.

My body response well to eating higher than 1000 calories and eating my exercise calories, I lose more when I eat more so long as I stay below maintenance calories.

It's got nothing to do with convincing myself of anything or making things easier and everything to do with having taken the time to educate myself in nutrition and learn what my own body responds to and eat in a way that gets the best results for me.

Sweeping and inaccurate generalisation there!!!


I, and many others, eat exercise calories because to us this is a plan that is supposed to work for life, not a quick fix or a kickstart, it's got to be sustainable! There's also a lot of people, like me, who don't want to lose weight, we want to lose fat and preserve as much muscle as possible. In order to do that I have to lift some heavy weights and get in a few high intensity interval cardio sessions each week, fuel my body for the type of exercise I do, eat to help muscle recovery/repair. That's not possible on 1000 calories a day.

My body response well to eating higher than 1000 calories and eating my exercise calories, I lose more when I eat more so long as I stay below maintenance calories.

It's got nothing to do with convincing myself of anything or making things easier and everything to do with having taken the time to educate myself in nutrition and learn what my own body responds to and eat in a way that gets the best results for me.

Agreed.

My doctor charges extra to talk about weight loss and nutrition :grumble:

seriously? that stinks!

People who add calories for cleaning their house, walking their dog, well, that's normal activity and might find that eating those "earned" calories might be causing their weight loss to be frustrating. Maybe it's just me, but throughout this process of getting healthy, being honest with myself has been, well, challenging.

I never thought that someone would call cleaning the house "exercise".. Wait! I burn about a 100 Kcal an hour just by sitting on the couch! Should I add that as exercise?!

It's pretty easy to see how adding arbitrary activities as "exercise" to get a treat would affect weight loss but I think that if that's the case, the issue is not about whether a person should eat their exercise calories or not. It is about cheating oneself! That is the true problem that should be addressed.
As you said, honesty might not be too easy. Especially if the motivation for exercise comes from craving for a treat or something like that. Fortunately, my own experience is that it gets easier as you adjust. All you need is being honest and persistent and it works like a charm!

Right?!?! I thought I was just sharing info....didn't mean to create such a controversy. I am not "advising" anyone because we each live, eat, and lose weight differently so we have to do what works for us. Now I know to keep things to myself....:sad:

Well.. The topic title was a bit suggestive..

DON'T Eat Exercise Calories!!