The more I exercise the more I gain

Stick to your base calories and don't eat the "bonus" calories.

It's not pointless to eat your exercise calories. If you are set at 1200 calories and you burn 400 that leaves you with 800 for the day. That kind of deficiency with lots of exercise will hurt you.

http://www.hussmanfitness.org/html/TPAdaptation.html

The law of unintended consequences

Your body is an amazing feedback system aimed at balance and survival. Humans are at the top of the food chain because they are able to adapt to their environment. Every action produces a reaction. Every change in its environment triggers a survival response. It's important to keep that in mind when you plan your fitness program. If you treat your body as an enemy to be conquered, you'll produce unintended results.

For example, if you severely cut off the supply of food to your body, it will defend itself by slowing down its metabolism to survive starvation. The body will shed muscle mass the same way that you would throw cargo from a plane that was low on fuel, and it will reduce its thyroid activity to conserve energy. The body will also actually defend its fat stores. In anorexia, muscle loss can be so profound that fat as a percentage of body weight actually rises. Extreme carbohydrate restriction also causes muscle loss, dehydration, and slower metabolism, which is why even successful Atkins dieters can have a significant rebound in weight after they stop the diet (don't worry – the advice on this site will prevent that from happening).

As another example, if you put your body under stress through overexertion and lack of sleep, it will respond by slowing down, reducing muscle growth, and increasing your appetite for junk food, carbohydrates and fat. If you feed your body excessive amounts of sugar and quickly digested carbohydrates, and it will shut off its ability to burn fat until those sugars are taken out of the bloodstream.

This website will show you how to work with your body to quickly produce the changes you want. In order to do that, you need to take actions that push your body to adapt – to build strength, burn fat, and increase fitness. You need a training program, not an exercise routine. You need a nutrition plan, not a diet. You need a challenge, not a few good habits you usually try to follow except when you don't.
Setting the right goal

John Dewey once said that a problem well-stated is half-solved. If you want to reach your goal, you have to define it correctly. See, a lot of people say “I want to lose weight.” Well, if losing weight is your goal, go on a no-carb diet. You'll lose a lot of weight – some of it will be fat, a lot of it will be water, and a dangerous amount will be muscle tissue. You'll lose weight quickly, but you'll slow your metabolism and gain fat more quickly once you go off the diet. Trust me on this. I've been there, done that.

The problem is that you've set the wrong goal. If you want to look better, have more energy and enjoy better health, the goal is not simply to “lose weight.” The goal is to improve your fitness level and body composition. That means losing fat, improving your aerobic capacity, training your strength and defending your muscle tissue. You can't do that with a no-carb diet. You will do it using the approach you'll learn on this website. Trust me on this one too. I know what it's like to feel fat, tired and helplessly out of shape. The whole point of this site is to help others avoid that, by sharing lessons that I had to learn the hard way.

Our body fights to protect our fat stores. Severe calorie restriction combined with too much exercise (especially cardio) will cause you to lose muscle mass not fat mass. When you lose muscle mass your metabolism slows and your thyroid slows and your body goes into survival response.

There is a lot more information on this link I gave you. Also check in my signature Links in MFP you want to read again and again. There is a load of information as to why your NET calories should stay above 1200.

This will happen as you replace fat in your body with muscle. It stops happening when you stop adding new muscle, and are basically maintaining what you have. I hear you Carrie, it seems like being punished for doing the right thing, but it definitely pays off as you amp up your metabolism.

It's important to eat something after you exercise, just make sure it's the *right* thing. Don't eat all the calories you burned but reward yourself by eating some of them. Here's what I do.

I will take a one hour "fast walk" on hilly terrain, which at my age will burn about 700 calories. I will reward myself with a glass of ovaltine, using 1% milk. I'm getting good nourishment and getting back about half the calories I burned. Plus, it gives me something yummy to look forward to on the long steep hills; it's how I pat myself on the back.

Hang in there Carrie, keep the workouts up. It'll pay off bigtime in the long run

If she is only netting 800 calories a day then there is no way she is building muscle. She is losing muscle.

And remember that dieting and exercise is stress to the body and it treats all stress the same (it tries to protect the body from it).

You should eat your calories from exersise back! on days i know i'm going to the gym, i log my exersie in the morning , then have bigger meals those days!


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

http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/61706-guide-to-calorie-deficit


This is just a part of it! please read the link above


Generally someone with a BMI over 32 can do a 1000 calorie a day (2 lbs a week) deficit
With a BMI of 30 to 32 a deficit of 750 calories is generally correct (about 1.5 lbs a week)
With a BMI of 28 to 30 a deficit of 500 calories is about right (about 1 lb a week)
With a BMI of 26 to 28 a deficit of about 300 calories is perfect (about 1/2 lb a week)
and below 26... well this is where we get fuzzy. See now you're no longer talking about being overweight, so while it's still ok to have a small deficit, you really should shift your focus more towards muscle tone, and reducing fat. This means is EXTRA important to eat your exercise calories as your body needs to KNOW it's ok to burn fat stores, and the only way it will know is if you keep giving it the calories it needs to not enter the famine response (starvation mode)



Good luck on your journey

Yes!! Yes!! Yes!!
When I was on calorie restriction and cardio all the time I lost weight, some muscle, some fat. My belly stayed the same. Since I have switched over to maintenance calories and am lifting and doing strength training with a little cardio her and there I am losing my belly.

Everybody tells me not to eat the extra calories but I still do and at first I lost 15lbs in about 2 months but now I have not lost any in 3 weeks so I think i'm going to try and stick to my base calories and see if that works also:)Stick with it you will start losing it just takes time good luck!!!

As you lose weight your calorie goal changes (and you get smaller but more fit) and it gets harder to continue losing. Re-calculate your goals. If you are at 2lb per week switch to 1lb. If 1lb switch to .5lb. This will up your calorie goal and you will start losing again.


I will say that how much of your exercise calories you eat depends on how much weight you have to lose. It's not as important at higher weights BUT it won't hurt you at all if you eat them. It will be healthier for you in the long run.

I agree with what hpsnickers1 has said. The weight you are it is even more important you are slow and steady. Trying to lose to quickly by a larger deficit is just going to harm your muscle mass.

Eating exercise calories back is a very sticky subject........

I know my calorie burn is around a quarter what MFP gives me. A HRM is a good investment but even that isnt fool proof. I use a site that calculates my burn by entering my HRM average beats per minute and by entering my V02 max...its pretty scary to think i could be eating back 500 calories that MFP estimates, 350 calories that HRM estimates but my combined BPM and V02 max estimates closer to 130.

Experiment with how many you eat back

On average I'm burning 500-700 calories a day exercising, per my heart rate monitor. I'm doing that 5 days a week. 500-700 calories is A LOT to eat back. Am I doing too much exercise?

It could be just too much cardio. You are very close to your goal weight and when we are at or close to a healthy weight calorie restrictions and cardio can have a detrimental effect. I'm 5'2" and about 123 right now so I am at a healthy weight. Look into "Relatively Light and Trying to get leaner" (in my signature). The OP of this thread is very knowledgeable. He explains how he helps his weight loss clients. You can PM him with your stats and your goals and he will respond. That's what he does here on MFP.
I told him I was tired of calorie counting and wanted to shed some body fat. I wanted to strength/resistance train. (Weights).

He told me 1g of protein per pound of lean body mass or goal body weight.
1-3 svgs of fruit
3-6 svgs of fibrous veggies
25% fat
anything I want to eat within calorie goal
strength 2-3x per week
cardio 2-6x per week as needed (I do only a couple of days combined with ab work).

I then worked my nutrient percentages to match as close as I could and I have my calorie goal at maintenance but sometimes eat more. I have BodyMedia Fit and learned I burn a lot more the the Maintenance calories MFP gave me.

On average I'm burning 500-700 calories a day exercising, per my heart rate monitor. I'm doing that 5 days a week. 500-700 calories is A LOT to eat back. Am I doing too much exercise?

I would say no. There are days I lose up to 1,000 calories and my weight loss hasn't been stalled. I would just make sure that you're doing a combination of strength training and cardio. It's hard to comment without knowing how much calorie deficit you've already built in to your goals.

I guess I should also mention that I eat back all of my exercise calories (unless I am cycling). I know it's hard to eat all of those calories, but you shouldn't just eat "normally" all day and then realize you have to eat a 1,400 calorie dinner. If you know you are going to have one of those days, you need to have a plan from the beginning to get all the nutrition you need to keep up with your exercise regimen. Personally, if I know things are going to get pretty high in calories, I make sure to eat snacks. My secret weapon is a trail mix I made for myself which is full of raw almonds, flaxseed, pumpkin seeds, dried cranberries, dried raisins, and some other stuff. One cup of it is 700 calories and it's full of fiber, protein, and good fats.

Sorry, I'm all over this post. I agree with this. I have to do this. My exercise is in the evening so I have to make sure I eat plenty that day. And I tell you what. It makes sure I will exercise after work - I could have a thousand calories before 4:30pm. I don't always want to.

carrie,

I'm guessing that 100-300 calorie deficit is on top of a 1 pound per week weight loss goal, so it's really 600 to 800 calorie deficit below your maintainance calories?