Burning off everything you eat?

GatorGurl95
GatorGurl95 Posts: 1
in Fitness and Exercise
So this year, I've gained the freshman 10 (well more like 20.) I've always been pretty active, but have been eating a lot more crap than I usually do. So I have a question. If someone was to burn as much calories as the consume would that be like not eating at all? No and I don't plan on starving myself either! Like if I consumed 1200 calories a day and burned off that much. My friend told me I need to eat what I burn off because then it's like I am not eating anything, so is that true? She said if I do that then my net calories are zero or something.

Replies

  • diannethegeek
    diannethegeek Posts: 14,776 Member
    Eating less than your body uses in a day is the way diets work, though they all find different formulas to make it happen. But that doesn't mean that you need to burn it all off in the gym. When people talk about burning more than they eat, you have to include the calories your body burns just keeping you alive (your BMR).

    Find your TDEE at a site like iifym.com and eat less than that. You don't need to kill yourself at the gym trying to burn off everything you eat.
  • DamianaKitten
    DamianaKitten Posts: 479 Member
    FYI~ If you burn off everything you consume, you ARE starving yourself. I'm not quite sure how you could not understand that. :huh:
  • AmyRhubarb
    AmyRhubarb Posts: 6,890 Member
    Too often when people hear the phrase "eat less than you burn", they take it mean eat less than you burn through exercise rather than less than you burn all day long in a 24 hour period - walking, folding laundry, brushing your teeth, sleeping, and exercise.

    You do not want to exercise off every calorie than you eat in a day - that basically leaves you out of fuel.

    Use MFP the way it's intended - enter your info accurately and your weight loss goals realistically - meaning if you only have 10-20 lbs to lose, DO NOT choose a goal of losing 2lbs a week - that's too aggressive. Choose a half pound or one pound at the most as your weekly goal.

    The daily calorie goal that MFP will give you has a daily deficit built in - meaning eat all those calories every single day, do zero exercise, and you'll lose weight. When you exercise and burn off more calories, you're leaving a much larger deficit - too large, and this can cause you all sorts of problems in the long run. The exercise cals will be added back into your daily goal, and you should eat at least a good portion of them back. Your daily NET calories should be at or near your daily goal.

    Eat your calories, drink water, exercise, take rest days, get good sleep, have patience. The system works and it works well, just be smart about it. :smile: No drastic cuts or going gonzo with the workouts - treat your body right and it will happily drop the fat.
  • cwolfman13
    cwolfman13 Posts: 41,865 Member
    Ummmm....you "burn" a **** ton of calorie just being alive. My BMR is around 1750 or so...those are the calories my body burns if I were to do nothing but sleep all day and all night and never even twitch...those are the calories I "burn" just to stay alive. On top of that I burn calories getting out of bed, taking a shower, shaving, cooking and cleaning, driving to work, typing on the MFP forum, thinking, eating and digesting food, etc...after that, I have my exercise burn which is pretty insignificant compared to all of that other stuff...

    You don't have to exercise off every calorie you consume...you would frackin' die.
  • MinnieInMaine
    MinnieInMaine Posts: 6,400 Member
    FYI~ If you burn off everything you consume, you ARE starving yourself. I'm not quite sure how you could not understand that. :huh:

    OP, I hope you ignore this totally rude reply and just read what everyone else has posted. As long as you eat somewhere between BMR and TDEE, you'll be fine.
  • osuzorba
    osuzorba Posts: 35 Member
    I think people on MFP get a little over the top about eating back all of your exercise calories. An interesting comparison is what Weight Watcher's does with exercise. You basically take the number of calories (points in WW's case) that you burned during the exercise and divide by 2. They then give you the option how many of the remaining exercise points you want to eat, the less of them you eat the quicker you loss weight, but you could also run into a loss of energy/fatigue situation.

    The reason you divide by 2, is 1) calories from working out is almost always overestimated 2) most people who want to lose weight want exercising to help speed the process along.

    But if you routinely exercise away more calories than you consume, you will probably be in pretty bad shape pretty quick. Once in a great while isn't a big deal, i.e. when I do long/hard hikes I generally burn off more calories just from the hike than what I eat that day, but I eat extra the day(s) before and after.
  • DamianaKitten
    DamianaKitten Posts: 479 Member
    FYI~ If you burn off everything you consume, you ARE starving yourself. I'm not quite sure how you could not understand that. :huh:

    OP, I hope you ignore this totally rude reply and just read what everyone else has posted. As long as you eat somewhere between BMR and TDEE, you'll be fine.

    "I'm not going to starve myself" followed by "I'm gonna burn off all I eat!" is a very dangerous idea to try and accomplish. You NEED calories to LIVE. What I said is NOT a lie. It is the truth.

    So, yes, if you burn all that you consume, you are starving yourself, and that is bad idea.

    She intends to eat 1200, and burn 1200 (which is under the BMR or most people, so already a deficit) she will kill herself.

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