Replacing Calories Burned During Exercise

klichte2
klichte2 Posts: 3
edited September 22 in Health and Weight Loss
So I know that I should not eat fewer than 1200 calories in a day to maintain a healthy and steady weight loss, but I am confused about whether or not I need to replace any of the calories that I burn during exercise.

Usually I choose not to eat the calories that I burn during exercise, but that leaves me with a very low net calorie intake. Sometimes my net calories are around 300 a day. Does this have any kind of negative implications in regard to the speed of my metabolism? How many calories, if any, should I replace after exercise?

Thanks for your help!

Replies

  • djnelson1024
    djnelson1024 Posts: 138
    Well the minimum calories you need is indeed 1200. As far as if you dont get those calories, that is not a necessarily a good thing. Your body may end up going into starvation mode and not allow you to burn anything, therefore lowering metabolism and lessening the affects of your body wanting to lose weight. So you may not lose any weight for a very long time I dont tend to eat my exercise calories but my body is different than yours so I can not say for sure if you should or should not eat those extra calories. but if you are trying to lose weight, you should save those calories and let them be burned off so the weight slightly decreases at a slower pace. Hope that helps a bit good luck have a great night.
  • jhobson2005
    jhobson2005 Posts: 6
    I second this question.
  • CDeguc
    CDeguc Posts: 37 Member
    Let your energy levels guide you through. If you bonk and run out of energy, eat some of your exercise calories, if not don't stress about it. Like stated before everyone's body is different, and if you are lifting heavy weights for example, your body will definitely need more calories and definitely protein. I use my energy levels as my "fuel" gauge. Hope this helps :)
  • lotusfromthemud
    lotusfromthemud Posts: 5,335 Member
    Short answer: you need to eat most or even all of them.

    Long answer at this post:

    http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/10589-for-those-confused-or-questioning-eating-your-exercise-calo
  • clawsok
    clawsok Posts: 1 Member
    This is a great question. I've been struggling with this same question. I've been trying to loose a few pounds (about 15) and I do endurance cycling for the majority of my calorie burn. On weekend rides I can easily burn and extra 3000-4000 calories each weekend day. Needless to say I don't feel much like throwing back a pizza or two to make up the extra calorie burn. During the week I try to consume about 30-40% of the excess calories I burn from a workout. So I'm at about 1500 a day for my intake target and if I burn 700 in a short cycling session I'll end up consuming 1700-1750 or so that day. With the weekend rides where I burn an extra 4000 calories for the day I may bump the days intake up to 1850-2000 but I don't go for the full amount.

    So far this seems to be working for me without any adverse effects of starving or stalling in the weight loss progress. I seem to loose about a 1.5 pound a week consistently. I'd love to here the consensus or official answer on this. I've always wondered.
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