I'm curious about calories

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I'm new here and have a question. I'm trying to loose weight, and based on the info I entered it's telliong me to eat 1400 calories a day to loose and reach my goal. Today I had an insaine workout, and in 2 hours burned 1250 calories. I've eaten 1700 so far...but the calculations on my page say I still need ANOTHER 800 calories today. It says I earned 1250 from my workout, and therefore I need 2500 calories today. Now, I get that I burned a lot......but I have to eat more because of it? Please help..any input would be great! Thanks, Shanen

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  • Mindful_Trent
    Mindful_Trent Posts: 3,954 Member
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    Generally you should eat some of your exercise calories to keep your deficit at a healthy level. I aim for 50-75% of mine... but I don't normally burn THAT much!! I'd say you shouldn't be afraid to have an extra big dinner or a bedtime snack (of course something healthy!) but I wouldn't force yourself to eat all 800 more if you're stuffed.
  • mem50
    mem50 Posts: 1,384 Member
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    Weird, isn't it? From what I am understanding from others.....you can or not "eat" your exercise calories. The ones you gain from working out is so you can lose weight at a certain rate. I generally eat about half of mine. It confused the heck out of me at first too. So I guess what I am saying is if you plan on losing say 1 lb a week eat the recommended amount they give you. If you want to bump it up a bit more eat less but stay at your base amount you start with every day. Not sure if this helps any.
  • tjradd73
    tjradd73 Posts: 3,495 Member
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    the more you burn the more you lose...you def need to replenish some of the calories since that was an INCREDIBLE workout!!!! but i would not eat the amount they are telling you! 3500 calories is a lb so if you keep your deficit higher you will lose more for the week!! i def think it is more important to replenish your protien and your water vs your calories!!
    I'm new here and have a question. I'm trying to loose weight, and based on the info I entered it's telliong me to eat 1400 calories a day to loose and reach my goal. Today I had an insaine workout, and in 2 hours burned 1250 calories. I've eaten 1700 so far...but the calculations on my page say I still need ANOTHER 800 calories today. It says I earned 1250 from my workout, and therefore I need 2500 calories today. Now, I get that I burned a lot......but I have to eat more because of it? Please help..any input would be great! Thanks, Shanen
  • suzikelley
    suzikelley Posts: 210 Member
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    I agree - eat some of them... but not all of them. I usually don't eat a whole lot of my exercise calories, but then I usually only burn between 200-400 calories per workout. You really kicked butt today!! Great job!
  • willimh
    willimh Posts: 227 Member
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    If you burned 1250 during your workout, you need to eat atleast 1/2 of that so you fuel the body to burn. Case and point, I walked a lot everyday last week and did not eat my calories earned or atleast 1/2 of them and when I got on the scale on Sunday I didn't lose not one pound.
  • dcorrea78
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    The caloric goal that FitnessPal gives you is already 500 calories less than your BMR necessity. So if you exercised and the tracker is telling you that you have another 800 calories to go, then you are in a 1300 calorie deficit. When you shock your system with such a big calorie deficit, it can be self defeating because your body may respond by slowing your metabolism and burning calories slower since it thinks that you are starving yourself.

    So long story short, for a healthy weight loss you should consume some of those extra calories.