Do you HAVE to eat your exercise burned calories???

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LadyKT
LadyKT Posts: 287 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
Ok so i'm in a pickle, well not literally, but i digress. I started religously tracking only recently and fudged around with some of the things in the tracker - i.e. it recommended 1200 calories a day (sans exercise), but I bumped it up to 1350 because that seemed more reasonable; I also changed the protein/carb/fat ratio to be 40/30/30 (i think that's the zone diet?) Anywho, I finally figured out a combination of healthy foods to eat that nets me just about 1350 calories (1335 - 15 calories under?!?! What's that, a stick of gum? *Do you also need to exactly meet those calories too?*) but this is ALL BEFORE EXERCISE.:noway: It's a TON of food - I can't hardly imagine eating any more than I already am. So my question is this, If you exercise and burn say 180 calories but are not hungry, do you HAVE to eat those 180 calories?? Can you "bank" them per se and save them for later in the week? I know the number to NEVER go under is 1200, so as long as I'm averaging that, i think i'm ok, right?

Thanks all so much for any input! :flowerforyou:

Replies

  • sarasotatim
    sarasotatim Posts: 179
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    Hi :)

    From what I've seen other more experienced members say about this....you should try to eat at least 1/2 of your excercise calories...the reason behind this is that due to the built-in deficit in your calorie counter here, it already takes everything into account, you'll be under budget on calories even without the excercise calories...and not eating some of those back (over time) can put your body into starvation mode, lowering your metabolism...and ultimately slowing your weight loss.

    On the flip side of this, I've heard that you shouldn't FORCE yourself to use those calories, if you're full, no reason to eat through them.
  • mckval
    mckval Posts: 64 Member
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    In my (not so extensive) experience, you don't have to eat your exercise calories so long as your net calories is not under 1200. That must remain your minimum. If you can sustain yourself, and you don't fell sluggish or aren't starving, go ahead and bank those as you say. That's the deficit that may end up causing weight loss.

    But try mixing it up too. I've done well throwing a couple days when I go over even my exercise calories. It mixes up your metabolism a bit.

    Good luck to you! You seem to be taking great care...it should pay off!
  • lutzsher
    lutzsher Posts: 1,153 Member
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    Calories are per day, you cannot bank them for use another day.

    Add a few more calorific items to your plan, avacado, nuts, and natural peanut butter on days you exercise. You don't have to eat all of them, and if you are getting in 1350 you should be fine. I rarely eat my exercise calories myself as that seems to work better for me.
  • kao708
    kao708 Posts: 813 Member
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    There are a gazillion different posts about this very topic and opinions vary widely. You can search the boards if you want to see other comments about this...they can get pretty heated. :tongue:

    I think you need to play around with the program and find what works best for you. Everyone is different so you need to work the program however it works best for you. Don't let any tell you that you have to do it one way or the other...every body is different!
  • edorice
    edorice Posts: 4,519 Member
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    I eat some of my exercise calories, but that's just my preference.

    http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/10589-for-those-confused-or-questioning-eating-your-exercise-calo

    http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/69708-calorie-deficit-for-dummies-a-little-long
    http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/155953-should-i-eat-my-exercise-calories?hl=exercise+calories
    http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/138631-stupid-exercise-calories-yeah-i-said-it?hl=exercise+calories#posts-1888371
  • cerysrhi
    cerysrhi Posts: 262
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    I have responded to this question many times before here are a few things I picked up you are supposed to eat a minimum of 1200 if you exercise then you should eat those too however many people have said that they rather take their cals so they average out over a week in effect saving them for the weekend or a day off this doesn't work for me find what works for you, you should know what your body needs and if you eat when not hungry then chances are you will make yourself sick just remember the number you should NEVER go under as you say is net if you eat 1200 cals and burn say 300 then you only have 900cals not enough for you body to do its job properly x
  • kimmerroze
    kimmerroze Posts: 1,330 Member
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    Banking calories, is like banking sleep. You can over sleep, and over eat your calories, but you cant eat less calories and save the rest for later. Just like you cant sleep for 24 hours and then not have to sleep for a couple days. It doesn't work that way, you start new every day,

    You will notice on this program, that if you DONT work out and eat under 1200 calories, it will give you the "starvation mode" prompt when you complete your calorie journal for that day,.

    If you work out, and for instance burn 200 calories, but still only eat 1200 calories instead of 1400 calories, when you hit complete the "starvation mode" prompt doesn't come up.

    You aren't putting yourself into starvation mode by not eating those calories. you will be fine. Eat them if you are hungry, don't eat them if you aren't hungry.

    By forcing food into your stomach when you arent hungry you will streach it out. And then you will find that you stomach will tell you that it is hungry more often because there is more room in it.

    Dont know about you, but hunger pains is the last thing I want. :noway:
  • cerysrhi
    cerysrhi Posts: 262
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    another point worth mentioning is you said you couldn't possibly eat any more if that is the case try swapping some stuff around have a glass of fruit juice instead of a glass of water, or have semi skimmed/whole milk instead of skim or a regular yoghurt instead of low fat all little changes which will add to your cals without you having to eat more x
  • LuckyLeprechaun
    LuckyLeprechaun Posts: 6,296 Member
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    That's the deficit that may end up causing weight loss.


    sorry but this is not true. The deficit is already figured into the numbers you're eating. If you never do any exercise at all, you are still operating at a deficit, that's the way the system was designed. You'll lose weight whether you exercise or not. You may be flabby when you finish losing, but you do not have to exercise for there to be a calorie deficit on MFP.
  • chuckanderson
    chuckanderson Posts: 97
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    Just so you know- Banking calories is just fine. Not sure where that girl is getting her numbers.

    There is a caveat- Don't go into starvation mode ever.

    However, if you only wanted to lose 1 lb per week, you could eat 1000 calories under your daily usage throughout the weak then eat 3000 calories over on saturday if you wanted to be an absolute hog. Your body doesn't know the difference- and some bodybuilders do this to a lesser extent as a 'refeed'.

    Calories in - calories out. Anybody giving you different numbers is living off of scientific proof from the 90's. (only difference being that the calorimetry devices we chemists' use to measure the calories in a food do not take into effect the thermogenic effect of a biological breakdown - so some food is SLIGHTLY lower calories than indicated)
  • chuckanderson
    chuckanderson Posts: 97
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    I will also add to the OP - buy a scale if you haven't already.... they are $15 at target and you may be suprised what a 'serving' is
  • cmriverside
    cmriverside Posts: 34,121 Member
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    However, if you only wanted to lose 1 lb per week, you could eat 1000 calories under your daily usage throughout the weak then eat 3000 calories over on saturday if you wanted to be an absolute hog. Your body doesn't know the difference- and some bodybuilders do this to a lesser extent as a 'refeed'.

    :noway:


    ______________
  • kimmerroze
    kimmerroze Posts: 1,330 Member
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    However, if you only wanted to lose 1 lb per week, you could eat 1000 calories under your daily usage throughout the weak then eat 3000 calories over on saturday if you wanted to be an absolute hog. Your body doesn't know the difference- and some bodybuilders do this to a lesser extent as a 'refeed'.



    If you did this you would throw your metabolism out of whack. Not to mention that your body would indeed go into starvation mode, and for many people the moment they eat after starving themselves, their bodies will store the calories as fat to prevent itself from starving.

    I'll bet you that if you eat 1200 calories a day and save your calories that you burned during the week for weekend binges, that you will not see the results that you want.
  • 1FITmamaofTWINS
    1FITmamaofTWINS Posts: 185
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    TAKE A LOOK AT MY BLOG, I PUT UP A POST ABOUT THIS JUST A COUPLE MINS AGO... VERY USEFUL INFORMATION
  • chuckanderson
    chuckanderson Posts: 97
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    Again, this is old information. Your metabolism does not 'go out of wack' unless you eat drastically less calories to go into starvation mode. In fact, bodybuilders do not do the refeed for metabolism purposes rather to have a day where they can carb-load for glycogen stores in the muscles. But since neither of us are posting any kind of scientific evidence I'll just leave it an opinion from someone who regularly reads journal articles as a peer reviewer.

    The main issue here is how much you plan on losing per week.... if it's 1 lb, you have plenty you can skimp on 300-400 calories a day easy and still be in the safe zone that will lead to a decent cheat day late in the week (or a beer night). If you are doing 2lb/week there is almost no room for this and is why that level of loss as to be much cleaner and planned. But hey, what would I know?

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