Exercise calories controversy ???

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I want to add something about doctor's advice for dieting. Doctors receive less than 4 hours of training on nutrition. Now if you had under 4 hours to learn all about vitamins, minerals, protein metabolism, weight gain and weight loss, do you think you would be able to give good advice about it to your friends? NO! If you don't believe that is how much they get, ask. It's true.


Now, I can't see any nutritionist saying it is ok to take in 1200 calories and then burn 500 exercising, as one person posted. Nutritionists should know what it takes to fuel the system is not measured in just calories. If you are breaking down fat to fuel your activity, that's great, but you also need additional nutrients in order to feed the millions of processes going on in the cells, as well as rebuild muscle tissue destroyed during exercise. If those raw materials aren't available, muscle tissue will be further catabolized so the basic functions of life can go on. So yes, you will lose weight, but you are losing muscle, bone and organ tissue in order to fuel the basic processes needed in your body. It is basic bio-chemistry. If you need a certain molecule to make, say hormones, you need to get it anywhere you can, so the body will get it from another body part. You need raw materials, period. There shouldn't even be an argument.

If you must, stop thinking about it as eating back the calories and think of it as eating back the nutrients to rebuild. Would you want to rebuild a building destroyed by a tornado using only the scrap from the storm, or would you ship in new materials to build a strong and lasting structure?

I have been stuck at the same weight (-.5, +.3, -1, etc). I was doing 1650 calories a day (see earlier post) & was getting changes in my body shape, but not showing on the scale. My average calorie burn was at least 700/ day. Saw a dietician, and she had me increase to 1800 calories/ day. That was on a Friday, and weighed in the following Tuesday and was done 2.6 pds! This week it looks like I'll be done another 1+ pounds.

She had figured my basal metabolic rate at 1704 or something like that and said i needed to eat above that (1800) due to my calorie burn. My body was stuck in starvation mode. Also, she told me I needed more sleep to help my body as well-- got a guided imagery cd and I'm averaging 2.5 hours more a night!